Stalin reduced the ambition to just “socialism in a single country”
Stalin himself did not do this, materialism made the CPSU realize this after Lenin’s death. When Lenin died, there was big debate in the party about whether socialism in one country should be pursued first, and the party as a whole, seeing how they had been invaded by over 10 nations during the civil war for the unforgivable sin of being communists, realized that they needed to first focus on industrializing the country in order to resist further onslaughts by capitalist forces in the future.
Trotsky was opposed to this and represented the opposition to Stalin’s socialism in one country, but ultimately the party as a whole opted for socialism in one country, not because Stalin somehow lied to everyone and took dictator powers, but because it was the most logical thing. The USSR proceeded with the plans for rapid industrialization after 1929 (when the economy had fully recovered from the civil war destruction), grew industrial production and GDP at 15% per year, and ultimately laid the foundations for the industrial might that was able to save Europe from Nazism, at the terrible cost of 25 million Soviet lives.
Ok, I concede that I’m not an expert on this, but I’m most familiar with the concept of “socialism in one country” from Stalin’s work. I think he was at least one of the main proponents of it in the party.
He was one of the main proponents, yes, but this was a party discussion reaching a conclusion, not a plot by a very smart evil man from Georgia, that was my point.
If you’re interested, this is discussed extensively in ProlesPod’s episodes called “The Stalin Eras”, very good series of episodes
Stalin himself did not do this, materialism made the CPSU realize this after Lenin’s death. When Lenin died, there was big debate in the party about whether socialism in one country should be pursued first, and the party as a whole, seeing how they had been invaded by over 10 nations during the civil war for the unforgivable sin of being communists, realized that they needed to first focus on industrializing the country in order to resist further onslaughts by capitalist forces in the future.
Trotsky was opposed to this and represented the opposition to Stalin’s socialism in one country, but ultimately the party as a whole opted for socialism in one country, not because Stalin somehow lied to everyone and took dictator powers, but because it was the most logical thing. The USSR proceeded with the plans for rapid industrialization after 1929 (when the economy had fully recovered from the civil war destruction), grew industrial production and GDP at 15% per year, and ultimately laid the foundations for the industrial might that was able to save Europe from Nazism, at the terrible cost of 25 million Soviet lives.
Ok, I concede that I’m not an expert on this, but I’m most familiar with the concept of “socialism in one country” from Stalin’s work. I think he was at least one of the main proponents of it in the party.
He was one of the main proponents, yes, but this was a party discussion reaching a conclusion, not a plot by a very smart evil man from Georgia, that was my point.
If you’re interested, this is discussed extensively in ProlesPod’s episodes called “The Stalin Eras”, very good series of episodes