Lenin’s doctrine on the victory of socialism at first

in one country. In 1915, Lenin pointed out: “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.”

The doctrine that socialism can be victorious at first in one country successively proposed by Lenin in 1915 and 1916 had both domestic and international dimensions. “Organizing their own socialist production” at home refers to the construction of socialist economy by the power of the proletariat in one country. Internationally, the victorious countries should promote and assist the revolutionary struggle of other countries and prepare for the self-defense war to repel bourgeois attacks. “Only after we have overthrown, finally vanquished and expropriated the bourgeoisie of the whole world, and not merely in one country, will wars become impossible.”

The practice before and after the October Revolution has proved that socialism can not only seize power through revolution in relatively backward Russia, but also win in foreign armed interference and civil war, maintain and consolidate political power, and start socialist transformation and socialist construction. In 1918, Lenin put forward the idea of “tackling with own forces the task of building socialist society”. In his later years, he made a plan to establish socialism in the Soviet Union, and firmly argued that Russia with new economic policy would become a socialist Russia. In his “On Cooperation”, he pointed out: “The power of the state over all large-scale means of production, political power in the hands of the proletariat, the alliance of this proletariat with the many millions of small and very small peasants, the assured proletarian leadership of the peasantry, etc. — is this not all that is necessary to build a complete socialist society out of cooperatives, out of cooperatives alone, which we formerly ridiculed as huckstering and which from a certain aspect we have the right to treat as such now, under NEP? Is this not all that is necessary to build a complete socialist society? It is still not the building of socialist society, but it is all that is necessary and sufficient for it.” This is a clear and positive answer to the question of whether a country can build a complete socialist society from the perspective of domestic conditions. But the possibility of completion does not necessarily mean that it can be completed, and it is also subject to international conditions.

Internationally, Lenin argued that it was impossible to achieve the ultimate victory of socialism within one country. In order to achieve a solid, complete and thorough victory, it is necessary to transform a national revolution into a world revolution and win revolutionary victories in all or at least several of the largest advanced countries. If a country’s revolution remains helpless, there is no hope of final victory. He cared about and studied the situation of European Revolution and world revolution and expected to establish complete socialism from the revolutionary cooperation of proletarians in all countries. He argued that to build socialism, we must eliminate class divisions in society. Capital, meanwhile, is an international force that can only be completely eliminated by defeating it in all countries. Only the joint efforts of the workers of all countries can ultimately lead to victory.

Lenin’s theory of victory of one country and the thought of building and final victory in one country were distorted and opposed by opportunists at the beginning. After Lenin’s death in 1924, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and others argued that capitalism was temporarily stable, world revolution was delayed, and the Soviet Union, surrounded by capitalism, backward in economy and technology, with the majority of peasants and carrying out a new economic policy that temporarily allowed capitalism to develop in a certain way. Without the state aid of the victorious Western European proletariat and the support of the western socialist revolution, a complete socialist society could not be established on its own strength. Stalin insisted on Leninism and launched a fierce debate and struggle with them. At first, Stalin argued that a country could overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish the power of the proletariat. But “for the final victory of socialism, for the organization of socialist production” “the united strength of the proletarians in several of the most advanced countries is needed”. Then he divided the problem into two parts: one is the possibility of building a complete socialist society in one country; one is that for the complete victory of socialism and the complete guarantee of exemption from the restoration of the old system, the proletariat of several countries must make joint efforts. According to this new statement, in April 1925, the resolution of the Fourteenth Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) pointed out: “Generally, the victory of socialism in one country (not in the sense of final victory) is unquestionably possible.” “The Party of the proletariat must exert every effort to build a Socialist society, confident that this construction can and will certainly be successful, provided the country is safeguarded against any attempt at a restoration of capitalism.” However, even if a complete socialist society is established, there can be no guarantee that there will be no armed interference and no restoration activities. “Consequently, the only guarantee of the final victory of socialism, i.e., the guarantee against restoration, is a victorious socialist revolution in a number of countries.” Later, Stalin pointed out that “we have all the conditions to build a socialist economy in Russia” and “whether we can build a socialist economy” are two different issues. If armed intervention succeeds and we are defeated, we cannot build a socialist economy. In 1938, he said: the victory of socialism in a country contains two different problems: (1) The internal relations of our country, that is, the problem of defeating the domestic bourgeoisie and establishing complete socialism; (2) China’s external relations, that is, to ensure that our country is free from the danger of armed interference and restoration. We have solved the first problem because the bourgeoisie has been eliminated and socialism has been basically established. Only by combining the great efforts of the international proletariat with the greater efforts of all the people of the Soviet Union can we solve the second problem.

Stalin interpreted the building of socialism in one country as “overcoming our, Soviet, bourgeoisie by our own efforts”, and interpreted the final victory of socialism as “the guarantee against intervention and restoration of capitalism”, regarded the establishment of socialist system as the completion of socialism, and declared the transition to communism. After summing up the experience and lessons of the international communist movement, Mao Zedong stressed that it is not too early to build socialism, and said that socialist countries cannot enter the Communist society while imperialism still exists.