The terrible legacy of Stalinism still exists. Be that in the right wing attacks on communism as merely the imposition of totalitarianism, or in so much of the left embracing Stalinist dictatorships as a vision of socialism worth striving for - the muck of Stalinist politics needs to be defeated. Destroying the myths of Stalinism is integral to building a serious revolutionary left. This session will outline the true history of why Stalin came into power - not as a continuation of Bolshevism and the revolutionary tradition, but rather as a counter-revolutionary departure from the tradition established by the likes of Marx, Engels and Lenin.