tankie

A member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) who supported the Soviet Union's policy of crushing revolts in Hungary in the 1950s and Czechoslovakia in the 1960s by sending tanks into those countries.

[W]e also desired to shock the staid older party members and the tankies. The tankies and softliners differed as to what sort of magazine Challenge should be.

Stephen Well, read the Morning Star and keep up with the tankies. / Max The tankies[…] How the years roll by. Dubcek is back. Russia agrees to withdraw its garrisons. Czechoslovakia takes her knickers off to welcome capitalism. And all that remains of August '68 is a derisive nickname for the only real Communists left in the Communist Party. I'm exactly as old as the October Revolution[…]

A supporter of policies and actions by the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, or other authoritarian socialist governments.

Near-synonym: authcom

As far as the Sparklies were concerned the new comics were scruffy herberts who shouted ‘Fuck Thatcher’ over and over, while raving Tankie Stalinists hooted indiscriminately in the front row.

A soldier from a tank regiment.

Obviously a thrust by the tankies over the ridge and through the minefield was just not on, there and then in broad daylight, a fact they appeared to recognise. At that stage the Germans were well positioned to give them a warm reception with their powerful 88s and other artillery.

Breakfast was taken alongside a curious tank without a turret. When I asked about it a tankie sergeant said, 'It's a Kangaroo: that's a Sherman without a turret. The Canadians make them.[…]'

A tank engine.

The "tankies", as they were known, shunted empty carriages from Copley Hill sidings onto the buffers at Leeds […]

Supporting the policies of the Soviet Union or other Marxist-Leninist governments.