Theory of Building Socialism in One Country

The thought of proletarian revolution and socialist construction in countries with relatively backward economy and culture.

Since the 1840s, Marx and Engels, based on the then capitalist social, political and economic situation, asserted that “the Communist revolution will not be the revolution of only one country, but will take place in all civilized countries, at least in Britain, the United States, France and Germany at the same time”. Before the October Revolution, Lenin put forward a new theory of proletarian revolution according to the new characteristics of the development and change of capitalism. In 1916, he pointed out in “The Military Program of the Proletarian Revolution”: “The development of capitalism in various countries is extremely unbalanced. And it can only be so in commodity production. From this we can draw an inevitable conclusion: socialism can’t win in all countries at the same time. It will win first in one or several countries, while the rest will remain bourgeois or pre bourgeois for a period of time.” Lenin argued that because of the special historical opportunities and conditions, Russia may seize power first, which will lead to the political premise of realizing socialism, and then develop economy and culture to reach the necessary economic level and civilization level to realize socialism.

After the October Revolution, Lenin earnestly pondered over the question of socialist construction in one country, Russia, formulated a grand programme of socialist construction, and led the people of Soviet Russia to actively carry out socialist construction. After summing up the lessons learnt from "War Communism", the government turned to the "New Economic Policy" to find out what kind of socialism was to be built and how to build a socialist economic foundation, and gradually developed the new thought of carrying out a socialist economic change and of building the foundation of a socialist society in one country, Russia. “The new economic policy fully guarantees, economically and politically, that it is possible for us to build a socialist economic foundation.” Lenin advocated peaceful diplomatic, economic and cultural exchanges with countries with different systems. Russia, which is economically and culturally backward, should make full use of the contradictions between imperialism, make use of the greedy nature of the bourgeoisie to pursue profits and strive to obtain rich Russian resources, implement the concession system and other forms of state capitalist policies, and introduce foreign funds and advanced science and technology, absorbing and utilizing bourgeois experts, speeding up the socialist construction of our country, strengthening the strength of socialist countries, so that the Soviet countries can survive and develop in the complex international environment. Lenin clearly pointed out in his “On Cooperation” that in the period of new economic policy, “the state dominates all major means of production, and the proletariat holds state power, this proletariat has formed an alliance with millions of small and very small farmers, and the leadership of the proletariat over the peasants has been guaranteed, and so on－is this not all we need, is it not through cooperatives, but only through cooperatives... To build a complete socialist society? This is not yet the building of a socialist society, but it is all that is necessary and sufficient to build a socialist society.”

Later, Stalin inherited Lenin’s thought and further put forward the two basic tasks of the proletarian revolution, namely, the national task (referring to gaining the victory of socialism within one country) and the international task (helping the proletariat of the whole world to fight capitalism). Stalin argued that the Soviet revolution was an integral part of the world revolution, the national and international tasks of the Soviet proletariat are integrated into a common task of proletarian liberation in various countries. The interests of the Soviet Union’s socialism and the interests of the revolutionary movements of other countries are integrated into a common interest of the victory of the world revolution. In the debate with Trotsky, Zinoviev and others, the thought of building socialism in a country was finally formed. He held, “what does it mean that socialism may win in a country? This is that the contradictions between the proletariat and the peasantry can be solved with our internal forces, that is, with the sympathy and support of the proletariat in other countries, but without the advance victory of the proletarian revolution in other countries, the proletariat may seize power and use this political power to build a complete socialist society in China”. Building socialism “means integrating agriculture and socialist industry into a whole economy, making agriculture subject to the leadership of socialist industry, and adjusting the relationship between urban and rural areas on the basis of the exchange of agricultural products and industrial products, blocking and eliminating classes is, first of all, all channels through which capital is generated, and finally the conditions of production and distribution for the direct elimination of classes”.