Socialism in One Country
Encyclopedia
Socialism in One Country was a theory put forth by Joseph Stalin
in 1924, elaborated by Nikolai Bukharin
in 1925 and finally adopted as state policy by Stalin. The thesis held that given the defeat of all communist revolution
s in Europe from 1917–1921 except in Russia
, the Soviet Union
should begin to strengthen itself internally.
Though promoted at the time as an ideology of necessity, not core belief, the theory came to define the course of political construction within the Soviet Union throughout its history. Today the expression is largely used as one of approbation since its thesis is held to be antithetical to Marxist Socialism
by Trotskyists and others.
s in countries like Germany
and Hungary
ended Bolshevik
hopes for an imminent world revolution
and began promotion of "Socialism in One Country" by Stalin. 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
.
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 ...".
Again, in 1918, he wrote, “I know that there are, of course, sages who think they are very clever and even call themselves Socialists, who assert that power should not have been seized until the revolution had broken out in all countries. They do not suspect that by speaking in this way they are deserting the revolution and going over to the side of the bourgeoisie. To wait until the toiling classes bring about a revolution on an international scale means that everybody should stand stock-still in expectation. That is nonsense.” (Speech delivered at a joint meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Moscow Soviet, 14 May 1918, Collected Works, Vol. 23, p. 9.).
After Lenin's death, Stalin used these quotes and others to argue that Lenin shared his view of Socialism in One Country.
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 that the final success of socialism in one country depends upon the revolution's degree of success in proletarian revolutions in the more advanced countries of Western Europe
.
Anti-revisionists, as they refer to themselves, still insist they want world revolution, but they are willing to see revolution begin in socially and economically "backward" areas first and to have those areas stabilize themselves and grow, rather than to, as they see it, willingly deny the concept of unevenness in development by expecting rapid world spreading of the revolution or expecting it would happen in the most advanced and industrialized countries first.
Trotskyists would call this a complete distortion, pointing out that until 1917, Trotsky was the only major Marxist in the entire world who argued that a socialist revolution could happen in Russia before the West. Until February 1917, even Lenin believed that this was impossible. His April Theses of that year signal his acceptance of the Trotskyist position. Tellingly, Lenin's change of course was opposed by Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin, who all clung to the old idea of the 'democratic dictatorship' as opposed to socialist revolution.
The convergence of Lenin's with Trotsky's position is further demonstrated by his enthusiastic approval of Trotsky joining the Bolshevik party later that year and by the October Revolution itself, a socialist revolution in a backward country, organized by Trotsky. Trotskyists argue that this Stalinist argument mixes up the socialist revolution, which Trotskyists always agreed could happen in backward countries first, with socialist construction, which no Marxist had ever claimed could work in an isolated backward country, before Stalin's change of mind in 1924.
Adding confusion to the debate, support for the Trotskyist position can also be found in words of Lenin as in 1918: "The absolute truth is that without a revolution in Germany we shall perish."
Followers of Trotsky often contend that indeed the workers state built by the Bolsheviks did perish and that the bureaucratic degeneration and ultimate collapse of projects attempting or claiming to build socialism in the USSR, Eastern Europe, China and elsewhere had failures built in from the time of "Socialism in One Country." -
Moreover, Trotskyists also hold that the ideological stance of "Socialism in One Country" led to the muzzling of class struggle by Communist parties in countries outside the USSR in the interests of not antagonizing "democratic" allies of the Soviet Union during the Popular Front era, thus hampering the possibilities of revolution in the industrialized west.
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.
On the question of socialist construction in a single country, Engels wrote:
To this day, the debate over "Socialism in One Country" vs "Permanent Revolution" rages within the Communist movement.
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
in 1924, elaborated by Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin , was a Russian Marxist, Bolshevik revolutionary, and Soviet politician. He was a member of the Politburo and Central Committee , chairman of the Communist International , and the editor in chief of Pravda , the journal Bolshevik , Izvestia , and the Great Soviet...
in 1925 and finally adopted as state policy by Stalin. The thesis held that given the defeat of all communist revolution
Communist revolution
A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, typically with socialism as an intermediate stage...
s in Europe from 1917–1921 except in Russia
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
should begin to strengthen itself internally.
Though promoted at the time as an ideology of necessity, not core belief, the theory came to define the course of political construction within the Soviet Union throughout its history. Today the expression is largely used as one of approbation since its thesis is held to be antithetical to Marxist Socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
by Trotskyists and others.
Background
The defeat of several proletarian revolutionProletarian revolution
A proletarian revolution is a social and/or political revolution in which the working class attempts to overthrow the bourgeoisie. Proletarian revolutions are generally advocated by socialists, communists, and most anarchists....
s in countries like Germany
German Revolution
The German Revolution was the politically-driven civil conflict in Germany at the end of World War I, which resulted in the replacement of Germany's imperial government with a republic...
and Hungary
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....
ended Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
hopes for an imminent world revolution
World revolution
World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class...
and began promotion of "Socialism in One Country" by Stalin. 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
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
can and must build the socialist society in one country". In April 1925 Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin , was a Russian Marxist, Bolshevik revolutionary, and Soviet politician. He was a member of the Politburo and Central Committee , chairman of the Communist International , and the editor in chief of Pravda , the journal Bolshevik , Izvestia , and the Great Soviet...
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
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
, 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
War communism
War communism or military communism was the economic and political system that existed in Soviet Russia during the Russian Civil War, from 1918 to 1921...
to the New Economic Policy
New Economic Policy
The New Economic Policy was an economic policy proposed by Vladimir Lenin, who called it state capitalism. Allowing some private ventures, the NEP allowed small animal businesses or smoke shops, for instance, to reopen for private profit while the state continued to control banks, foreign trade,...
.
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 ...".
Again, in 1918, he wrote, “I know that there are, of course, sages who think they are very clever and even call themselves Socialists, who assert that power should not have been seized until the revolution had broken out in all countries. They do not suspect that by speaking in this way they are deserting the revolution and going over to the side of the bourgeoisie. To wait until the toiling classes bring about a revolution on an international scale means that everybody should stand stock-still in expectation. That is nonsense.” (Speech delivered at a joint meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Moscow Soviet, 14 May 1918, Collected Works, Vol. 23, p. 9.).
After Lenin's death, Stalin used these quotes and others to argue that Lenin shared his view of Socialism in One Country.
The theory of Socialism in One Country was vigorously criticized by Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...
and Trotsky. In particular, Trotskyists often claimed, and still claim, that Socialism in One Country opposes both the basic tenets of Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
and Lenin's particular beliefs that the final success of socialism in one country depends upon the revolution's degree of success in proletarian revolutions in the more advanced countries of Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
.
Interpretations and positions
Those who consider Stalin as the proper ideological descendants of Marx, Engels and Lenin, often countered Trotsky's arguments then, and continue to do so today, by saying that the Trotskyist view is basically the same as asking the world's working class to "wait" while socialism is constructed in the most powerful and industrialized nations first, before even attempting socialist revolution in non-industrialized areas, even if class tensions are at a good point for revolution in the latter.Anti-revisionists, as they refer to themselves, still insist they want world revolution, but they are willing to see revolution begin in socially and economically "backward" areas first and to have those areas stabilize themselves and grow, rather than to, as they see it, willingly deny the concept of unevenness in development by expecting rapid world spreading of the revolution or expecting it would happen in the most advanced and industrialized countries first.
Trotskyists would call this a complete distortion, pointing out that until 1917, Trotsky was the only major Marxist in the entire world who argued that a socialist revolution could happen in Russia before the West. Until February 1917, even Lenin believed that this was impossible. His April Theses of that year signal his acceptance of the Trotskyist position. Tellingly, Lenin's change of course was opposed by Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin, who all clung to the old idea of the 'democratic dictatorship' as opposed to socialist revolution.
The convergence of Lenin's with Trotsky's position is further demonstrated by his enthusiastic approval of Trotsky joining the Bolshevik party later that year and by the October Revolution itself, a socialist revolution in a backward country, organized by Trotsky. Trotskyists argue that this Stalinist argument mixes up the socialist revolution, which Trotskyists always agreed could happen in backward countries first, with socialist construction, which no Marxist had ever claimed could work in an isolated backward country, before Stalin's change of mind in 1924.
Adding confusion to the debate, support for the Trotskyist position can also be found in words of Lenin as in 1918: "The absolute truth is that without a revolution in Germany we shall perish."
Followers of Trotsky often contend that indeed the workers state built by the Bolsheviks did perish and that the bureaucratic degeneration and ultimate collapse of projects attempting or claiming to build socialism in the USSR, Eastern Europe, China and elsewhere had failures built in from the time of "Socialism in One Country." -
Moreover, Trotskyists also hold that the ideological stance of "Socialism in One Country" led to the muzzling of class struggle by Communist parties in countries outside the USSR in the interests of not antagonizing "democratic" allies of the Soviet Union during the Popular Front era, thus hampering the possibilities of revolution in the industrialized west.
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 PravdaPravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
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.
On the question of socialist construction in a single country, Engels wrote:
- "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 EngelsFriedrich EngelsFriedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
, The Principles of Communism, 1847
To this day, the debate over "Socialism in One Country" vs "Permanent Revolution" rages within the Communist movement.
External links
- The Draft Program of the Communist International: A Criticism of Fundamentals, Trotsky, Leon, 1928 (also known as "The Third International After Lenin")
- Marxist.com on 'Socialism in one country'
- On Social Relations in Russia Engels, Frederick 1874