Chapter VII.
CAN WE BUILD UP SOCIALISM?
After this historical introduction, we may now take up the question in the special circumstances which arose in connection with the controversy with the opposition. We now take up the question of "the construction of Socialism in a single country." It will be more expedient to start with the formula advanced by comrade Zinoviev, for that formula may be regarded as the official formula of the opposition.
Comrade Zinoviev presents the question in the following manner. He says that a distinction must be made betwen two things, namely: (1) the guaranteed possibility of constructing Socialism—the possibility of constructing Socialism can (!) be conceived (!!) in a single country: (2) the final construction and consolidation of Socialism.[1]
That is how the question is presented. Comrade Zinoviev hastened to refer to comrade Lenin. For example he mentions that at the Tenth Party Congress, Lenin said that we can speak of the ultimate success of the Socialist revolution in Russia "only on two conditions": (1) on the condition that we obtain aid from revolutions in the advanced countries, and (2) on the condition that we come to an agreement with the majority of the peasantry.
Comrade Zinoviev quotes several other extracts from Lenin in which Lenin asserts that "the ultimate victory of Socialism in a single country is impossible."
- ↑ G. Zinoviev: "Leninism," State Publishing Dept., Leningrad, 1926, p. 265.
