Question by : Can someone explain to me briefly Trotsky’s permanent revolution versus Stalin’s revolution?
I’m having trouble identifying all the differences between Trotsky’s permanent revolution and Stalin’s Soviet revolution. Can someone give me something here? Thanks!
Answers and Views:
Answer by Spellbound
There were two distinct parts to the theory of Permanent Revolution:
1) The bureaucracy would be replaced by proletarians every so often – Trotsky never specified the period. This was to prevent a ruling bureaucratic class from forming, and to ensure that the Bolshevik Revolution remained true to its proletarian ideals.
2) The Revolution MUST be exported. This was because Marx stated that the Proletariat of all countries share a common culture and identity, and that nation-states were a bourgeois construct designed to alienate the proletariat from their brothers in different countries. He also stated that the revolution MUST happen in the industrialised, urban and developed countries of Europe, claiming that if it happened in a peasant based country then it was bound to fail.
Stalin realised that exporting the revolution and the wait for Germany to revolt so that it could take the lead in the new proletarian future could lead to Russia and, later, the Soviet Union, falling to counter revolution. His policy was very radical for the Bolsheviks, Socialism in One Country was designed to consolidate the revolution, so that the Bolsheviks would not waste energy trying to ferment revolts in places that were not ready for them. He sold the idea based on the notion of the Soviet Union being a beacon of hope for the proletariat in other countries, until they had their own revolutions.
Read all the answers in the comments.
Add your own answer!
Leave a Reply