Stalinism is a term people use to mean something else
Marxism-Leninism is a name that explains what it is quite nicely. You can have disagreements with other Marxist-Leninists (e.g. USSR and China) about what works, whereas Stalinism implies you specifically want what Stalin did (but that should really only apply to a specific time and place, namely Stalin’s governance of the USSR)
Stalin did as much as he could to distance himself from Lenin and to minimalize him. He was just a jackboot dictator. Calling anything stalinism would just be a reference to being a mass murderer probably. Dude had zero principals. Marx was a philosopher (economics didn't used to really be separate from philosophy), Lenin based much of his beliefs on Marxist theory, but was a revolutionary and then political leader.
Stalin was just a vicious power hungry idiot who siezed power after Lenins death. Lenin would of never chose him. He should never be mentioned in the same breath as Marx. He was involved in Lenins government so, some association can be made there.
People really need to read some Marx. Especially his earlier works which are mostly (still very valid and relevant) critiques of the capitalist system. There's too much stigma because of all the red scare bullshit and he just gets tied to every communist dictator ever because he is like the godfather of communist ideas.
~Sincerely,
Some weird guy who reads too many books on econ theory
Lenin was a Marxist when it was convenient, but not when it didn't gain him power. Certainly after joining with Trotsky it gets very difficult to call him Marxist. Obviously the Mensheviks never considered him a Marxist, with mixed feelings from the SRs. I think following the machine gunners of kronstadt is the easiest way to tell when he's being a Marxist vs something else. They were pretty reliablely Marxist the entire revolution.
Fasco-capitalst is an exaggeration, but there's no way a country intentionally keeping the standard of living of the working class that low, just to remain as the world's sweatshop is Marxist-Leninist nation.
Man you made the tankies upset. Anyone who doesn't live in China who thinks China is Communist and supports them for being Communist is a freaking clown. I wish the tankies would actually read some philosophy or economic theory books that actually explain the ideas they claim to be about. China is a joke.
No nation has actually managed to transform into a communist state in the fashion Marx imagined. There's effectively never been a real communist state. Supporting any "communist" state just because they call themselves such is so silly. They're all just thinly veiled dictatorships dangling a communist carrot in front of the populace.