Socialism in One Country
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Socialism in One Country was a thesis developed by Nikolai Bukharin in 1925 and adopted as state policy by Joseph Stalin. 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.
This theory revised Lenin's belief that, while a revolution may happen in one country, the final success of socialism in one country, especially in such as Russia, is impossible without proletarian revolutions in other, advanced countries of Western Europe (see "World revolution").
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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.
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: the "proletariat can and must build the socialist society in one country". In April 1925 Nikolai 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 adopted as the state policy after Stalin's January 1926 article On the Issues of Leninism (К вопросам ленинизма).
1925-6 signaled a shift from the immediate activity of the Comintern, the Communist International, from world revolution towards a defense of the Soviet state. This period, up to 1928, was known as the "Second Period", mirroring the shift in the USSR from war communism to the New Economic Policy.[1]
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 alone. After expropriating the capitalists and organising their own socialist production, the victorious proletariat of that country will arise against the rest of the world ...". After Lenin's death, Stalin used this quote and others to argue that Lenin shared his view of Socialism in One Country.
[edit] Criticism and reaction
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 [2] 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. 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.
[edit] Relation to Leninism
Stalin claimed that his theory of "Socialism in one country" is a further development of Leninism. In his February 14, 1938 Response to Comrade Ivanov ("Ответ товарищу Иванову, Ивану Филиповичу"), formulated as an answer to a question of a "comrade Ivanov" mailed to Pravda newspaper, Stalin splits the question in two parts.
The first side of the question is in terms of the internal relations within the Soviet Union: whether it is possible to construct the Socialist Society by defeating the local bourgeoisie and fostering the union of workers and peasants. Stalin quotes Lenin that "we have everything necessary to construct the complete socialism" and claims that despite the claims of Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev ("who later became spies and fascist agents", in Stalin's words), the socialist society has for the most part been indeed constructed.
The second side of the question is in terms of external relations: whether the victory of the socialism is final, i.e., whether capitalism cannot possibly be restored. Here Stalin cites Lenin that the final victory is possible only on the international scale and only with the help of the workers of other countries.
In other words, Stalin draws a line between the "victory of socialism or the victory of socialist construction in one country" and the "ultimate victory of socialism" stating that the latter problem cannot be solved only by internal efforts.
[edit] Communist Revolution in One Country
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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
- "Will it be possible for this revolution to take place in one country alone?
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Duncan Hallas The Comintern, chapter 5
- ^ 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
- 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
