I stand firmly by "indescribably loathsome" for my description of MacColl's politics. I fully understand, and totally support, the obvious decision to stand together with Russia in the 1939-1945 period to defeat the terror that fascism was unleashing on the world.
MacColl's slobbering adulation of Stalin's atrocities went way beyond that. He gave no support whatever (that I am aware of) to the pathetic working class victims of Stalin's terror. I am no historian no, I just rely on what I've read and experienced. If anybody can produce any contrary evidence, please do so. I would honestly love to change my mind, I deeply admire MacColl's work. He in many ways the greatest product of the folk revivals, his songs are fantastic, his Radio Ballad awesome. But as far as I know he admired a monster, and kept admiring him. He could make no "I didn't know" defence. He knew what was going on, he kept admiring. He was no repenting teenager, he just loved that "smack of firm government" stuff: I loathe it. A matter of personal taste: I never shared his. But of course, I keep singing "Dirty Old Town": a masterpiece.