i think they reveal what they mean pretty clearly through their analogy, “Stalinism” is a religious belief, an unquestioned veneration of Stalin that totally existed in the Soviet Union

what they found in Cuba was not that. “Stalinism” was therefore dead, nonexistent in Cuba. but ‘Stalinism’ was never that, it’s not even a proper thing just an appellation applied from the outside to variant beliefs about a guy. like sure there are a handful of ‘Stalin did absolutely nothing wrong’ people out there, but to characterise everyone that doesn’t 100% condemn the guy that way is a great misunderstanding—yet that’s 99% of the use of the word