Socialism in One Country

From Wikinfo

The Socialism in one country theory is the foundation of Stalinist socialism. The theory is in opposition to Lenin's beliefs that while a revolution may happen in one country, the final success of socialism in one country, especially in such a backward one as Russia is impossible without proletarian revolutions in other, advanced countries of Western Europe. Mensheviks and Trotsky also came to the same conclusion, basing on Trotsky's theory of Permanent Revolution, disputed by Lenin.

After Lenin's death, Stalin put forward the theory that the Soviet Union could survive without other socialist countries, against the so-called Left Opposition within the party. His position gained an apparent confirmation from failed attempts of proletarian revolutions in other countries and possibly changed the focus of Stalin's external policy from the Third International to tradeoffs with capitalist states.

While the Communist system eventually collapsed, there have been no communist revolutions in any of the advanced countires in Western Europe or America in the interim. Where communism still survives, at least in name, it has done so by wholesale adoption of capitalism as in China or Vietnam or by repressing its citizens along the lines used by Stalin in North Korea. In the long term it seems neither Lenin nor Stalin was correct.

See:

• Communism
• Marxism
• Leninism
• Trotskyism

External Links

• Marxist.com on 'Socialism in one country'

Additional work on this article is appreciated.

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Socialism_in_One_Country" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_in_One_Country, used under the GNU Free Documentation License