Sentence:  [T]he <WSD>tankies</WSD>, those members of the British Communist Party who unquestioningly followed Moscow's line, up to and beyond supporting Soviet tanks rumbling through the streets of Budapest and Prague, ... 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A member of the (Communist Party of Great Britain) who supported the Soviet Union's policy of crushing revolts in Hungary in the 1950s and Czechoslovakia in the 1960s by sending army tanks into these countries.