| 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 Bukharin that given the catastrophic failures of all Communist Revolution s in Europe from 1917-1921 except Their Own , rather than relying on the idea that an underdeveloped and agrarian country like Russia would be able to build socialism with help from successful revolutionary governments in the more Industrialized parts of Europe , the Soviet Union should begin to strengthen itself internally. BACKGROUND Stalin's position gained an apparent confirmation from failed attempts of Proletarian Revolution s in countries like Germany and Hungary , and might also have justified changing the focus of Stalin's external policy from the Third International to tradeoffs 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. CRITICISM AND REACTION The theory of Socialism in One Country was vigorously criticized by was 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, Stalin's opposition was temporarily thrown into disarray. Stalin 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 Communist s who oppose Trotskyism today. Stalin established several " Communist State s" in Eastern Europe after World War II , though some argue that this action was motivated more by the desire to create Russian " Satellite State s" 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 . EXTERNAL LINKS
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