Socialism in One Country
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Socialism in One Country was a thesis put forward by Joseph Stalin in 1924 and further supported by Nikolai Bukharin. The thesis held that given the defeat of all communist revolutions in Europe from 1917-1921 except in Russia, the Soviet Union should begin to strengthen itself internally. The thesis of socialism in one country was a departure from the position that an underdeveloped and agrarian country like Russia would only be able to build socialism with help from successful revolutionary governments in the more industrialized parts of Europe, a position still upheld by Trotsky even as his position was gradually defeated.
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[edit] Background
According to Stalin and his supporters, the idea of socialism in one country was strengthened by the defeat of several proletarian revolutions in countries like Germany and Hungary, which ended Bolshevik hopes for an imminent world revolution. Following those defeats, the Soviet Union changed the focus of its external policy from the Third International to trade and peaceful relations with capitalist states.
In the first edition of the book Osnovy Leninizma (Foundations of Leninism, 1924), Stalin was still a follower of Lenin's idea that revolution in one country is insufficient. But by the end of that year, in the second edition of the book, his position started to turn around. "...proletariat can and must build the socialist society in one country". In April 1925 Bukharin elaborated the issue in his brochure Can We Build Socialism in One Country in the Absence of the Victory of the West-European Proletariat? The position was finalized as the state policy after Stalin's January 1926 article On the Issues of Leninism (К вопросам ленинизма).
In his 1915 article "On the Slogan for a United States of Europe", Lenin stated the following: "...Uneven economic and political development is an absolute law of capitalism. Hence, the victory of socialism is possible first in several or even in one capitalist country taken separately. ...". After Lenin's death, Stalin used this quote to argue that Lenin shared his view of Socialism in One Country, even though Lenin's statement here is rather vague. Despite Stalin's stance, the Soviet government under his leadership did provide aid to sympathising communists in other countries at various times.
[edit] Criticism and Reaction
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The theory of Socialism in One Country was vigorously criticized by Zinoviev and Trotsky. In particular, Trotskyists often claimed, and still claim, that Socialism in One Country opposes both the basic tenets of Marxism and Lenin's particular beliefs [1] that while a communist revolution may happen first in one country, the final success of socialism in one country depends upon the revolution's degree of success in internationalizing itself and would ultimately be impossible without successful proletarian revolutions in the more advanced countries of Western Europe. Trotskyists base their criticism of Socialism in One Country on Trotsky's theory of Permanent Revolution, which was meanwhile indeed disputed by Lenin as potentially reactionary during the time he was alive because it appeared to discourage building socialism in the USSR at all, given that the hoped-for communist revolutions in more advanced countries like Germany and France had not been carried through. Trotsky believed that the development of the international division of labor made autarky, or economic isolation from the world, economically reactionary in its own right. Yet, Trotsky acknowledged that dependence upon the international capitalist market leads to economic plans becoming subordinate to world capitalism. He elaborated on these theses in his works The Draft Program of the Communist International: A Criticism of Fundamentals and Permanent Revolution. Also, Trotskyists assert that Stalin's support for the pro-Soviet section of the anti-fascist resistance forces in the Spanish Civil War was actually hinged on suppression of any "truly revolutionary" activity that ran the risk of delegitimizing what they characterize as his one-man dictatorship.
This was why, when it proved possible to build certain aspects of socialism in the Soviet Union despite such objections, it temporarily threw Stalin's opposition into disarray. He later characterized Trotsky's position of Permanent Revolution as asking the world to "wait" for Western workers and "simultaneous" global revolution, a position still carried by anti-revisionists and other communists who oppose Trotskyism today.
Stalin established several "communist states" in Eastern Europe after World War II, though some argue that this action was motivated more by the desire to create Russian "satellite states" than to spread the workers' revolution. In any case, neither the supporters of Stalin nor those of Trotsky succeeded in starting a revolution in the West.
[edit] Quotes
"Will it be possible for this revolution to take place in one country alone?
No. By creating the world market, big industry has already brought all the peoples of the Earth, and especially the civilized peoples, into such close relation with one another that none is independent of what happens to the others. Further, it has co-ordinated the social development of the civilized countries to such an extent that, in all of them, bourgeoisie and proletariat have become the decisive classes, and the struggle between them the great struggle of the day. It follows that the communist revolution will not merely be a national phenomenon but must take place simultaneously in all civilized countries – that is to say, at least in England, America, France, and Germany. It will develop in each of the these countries more or less rapidly, according as one country or the other has a more developed industry, greater wealth, a more significant mass of productive forces. Hence, it will go slowest and will meet most obstacles in Germany, most rapidly and with the fewest difficulties in England. It will have a powerful impact on the other countries of the world, and will radically alter the course of development which they have followed up to now, while greatly stepping up its pace. It is a universal revolution and will, accordingly, have a universal range."
Friedrich Engels, The Principles of Communism, 1847
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government by V.I. Lenin (1918). Lenin' Collected Works 4th English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972 Volume 27, pages 235-77
[edit] External links
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This section should be balanced out by including analyses of this concept from a Stalinist and/or Maoist perspective. |
- The Draft Program of the Communist International: A Criticism of Fundamentals, Trotsky, Leon, 1928 (also know as "The Third International After Lenin")
- Marxist.com on 'Socialism in one country'
- On Social Relations in Russia Engels, Frederick 1874
