Tankie is a pejorative label for leftists, particularly Stalinists, who support the authoritarian tendencies of Marxism–Leninism or, more generally, authoritarian states associated with Marxism–Leninism in history. The term was originally used by dissident Marxist–Leninists to describe members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) who followed the party line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Specifically, it was used to distinguish party members who spoke out in defense of the Soviet use of tanks to crush the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the 1968 Prague Spring uprising, or who more broadly adhered to pro-Soviet positions. The term is also used to describe people who endorse, defend, or deny the mistakes and crimes committed by Communist state leaders, such as Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, and Kim il-Sung. Anti-Stalinist members of the left use the word to describe those who are perceived to have a bias in favor of authoritarian socialist states, such as the People's Republic of China, the Syrian Arab Republic, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Definition After the Prague Spring, the term was used to describe Communist party members who had supported the crushing of it by force of arms. According to Christina Petterson, "Politically speaking, tankies regard past and current socialist systems as legitimate attempts at creating communism, and thus have not distanced themselves from Stalin, China, etc." It was also used in the 1980s to describe the uncritical support the Morning Star gave to the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. By 2017, tankie had re-emerged as internet slang for Stalinists, used by other Marxists, and it became particularly popular among young democratic socialists. Modern tankies generally do not get along with non-Marxist–Leninist segments of the left and many of those who oppose tankies also consider themselves leftists. Especially in context of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the term has also been used, such as by Sarah Jones of New York, for "elements within the self-identified [American] left that have soft-pedaled Russia's aggressive foreign policy and history of human rights abuses", with The Intercept journalist Roane Carey identifying the "key element in the tankie mindset [as] the simple-minded assumption that only the U.S. can be imperialist, and thus any country that opposes the U.S. must be supported." Usage Tankie has its origins in British political rhetoric. It has since become a popular pejorative in English-language social media. In 2017, left-wing