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I'm not defending either group, but liberalism necessitates the belief in tenets such as prioritizing the right of the individual above the needs of the community, private ownership, and the free market. Liberalism would tend to view a minimum wage increase as an adequate way to address inequity, whereas a communist would view the whole system as fundamentally inequitable. (I'm simplifying here, but you get the picture.)
If the state doesn't represent the will of the people, then there's no difference between a state and a corporation. Therefore, the USSR had private property. Tankies support private ownership. If they weren't liberals, they'd support the right of the community to take back the means of production from the owning class (AKA the oligarchy)
They at least ostensibly opposed private ownership, whereas for liberals it is a fundamental value and viewed as something desirable. I think it's very dangerous to mix up these terms like this because it might prevent us from seeing the very real threats liberalism presents -- such as its role in enabling fascism.
Tankies also enable fascism. They're the same dangers.
On May 3, 1939, Litvinov was dismissed and Vyacheslav Molotov, who had strained relations with Litvinov, was not of Jewish origin (unlike Litvinov), and had always been in favour of neutrality towards Germany, was put in charge of foreign affairs.
Then, on August 3, German Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbentrop outlined a plan in which Germany and the Soviet Union would agree to nonintervention in each other's affairs and would renounce measures aimed at the other's vital interests[99] and that "there was no problem between the Baltic and the Black Sea that could not be solved between the two of us."[100][101][102] The Germans stated that "there is one common element in the ideology of Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union: opposition to the capitalist democracies of the West",[101][103] and explained that their prior hostility toward Soviet Bolshevism had subsided with the changes in the Comintern and with the Soviet renunciation of a world revolution.[104]
On August 19, the German–Soviet Commercial Agreement (1939) was reached. The agreement covered "current" business, which entailed a Soviet obligation to deliver 180 million ℛ︁ℳ︁ in raw materials in response to German orders, while Germany would allow the Soviets to order 120 million ℛ︁ℳ︁ for German industrial goods.[108][109][110] Under the agreement, Germany also granted the Soviet Union a merchandise credit of 200 million ℛ︁ℳ︁ over 7 years to buy German manufactured goods[111] at an extremely favorable interest rate.[109]
This is still quite distinct from liberalism