> "In any case, the principle of democracy is that the
> Russian government's
> legitimacy derives from the Russian people, not from
> leftists in the West"
And Andie replied, (unless I misunderstood what he was replying to):
"A pure Stalinist line. Literally."
Are you sure that is what you mean? You really mean that sovereign democracy is the essence of Stalinism? The very idea that governments are elected by the people is what you take to be the meaning of Stalinism?
This is the same Stalin that we are talking about, isn't it? The one who systematically frustrated the popular will of the people, who maintained the Party's monopoly over political power, and the bureaucracy's monopoly over the party? That's the Stalin that you think insists on the sovereignty of the people? And that thing, that he never did, that's what you would think *defines* Stalin?
You wouldn't think, perhaps, that popular sovereignty had some other author, like Rousseau, maybe, or Jefferson, or Lincoln, or Lumumba? You really think that sovereignty is the differentia specifica of Stalinism?