{"id":1302,"date":"2026-02-12T22:53:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/the-rise-of-stalinism\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T22:53:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:53:55","slug":"the-rise-of-stalinism","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/the-rise-of-stalinism\/","title":{"rendered":"The rise of Stalinism"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mep-course-container\"><div class=\"mep-course-sidebar\"><h3 class=\"mep-sidebar-title\">Course content<\/h3><nav class=\"mep-content-nav\"><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=1\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link active\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON ONE: The October Revolution of 1917<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=2\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON TWO: Counter-Revolution and Civil War<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=3\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON THREE: How the Civil War was Won<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=4\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON FOUR: Setbacks in the International Struggle<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=5\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON FIVE: The Workers\u2019 State<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=6\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON SIX: The Exhaustion of Soviet Democracy<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=7\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON SEVEN: Workers\u2019 Democracy during Civil War<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=8\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON EIGHT: The Struggle for Power in the Communist Party<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=9\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON NINE: The New Economic Policy (NEP)<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=10\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON TEN: Stalin\u2019s rise to power<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=11\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON ELEVEN: The Defeat of the German Revolution<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=12\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON TWELVE: The Invention of Trotskyism<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=13\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON THIRTEEN: Socialism in One Country<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=14\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON FOURTEEN: Tragedy in China<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=15\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON FIFTEEN: The Defeat of the Joint Opposition<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=16\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON SIXTEEN: The nature of the Stalinist state<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=17\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON SEVENTEEN: Collectivisation and Industrialisation<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=18\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON EIGHTEEN: Stalin\u2019s Foreign Policy Swings<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=19\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">LESSON NINETEEN: Stalin\u2019s One-Sided Civil War<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"mep-nav-section\"><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=20\" class=\"mep-content-nav-link\"><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">Lesson TWENTY: Capitalist restoration<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/nav><\/div><div class=\"mep-course-main-content\"><div class=\"mep-course-header\"><h1 class=\"mep-course-title\">The rise of Stalinism<\/h1><div class=\"mep-course-description\"><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-60\" src=\"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/stalinism-300x118.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"118\" srcset=\"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/stalinism-300x118.jpg 300w, https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/stalinism-768x302.jpg 768w, https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/stalinism-600x236.jpg 600w, https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/stalinism.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Find out how and why:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The dictatorial regimes of Stalinism grew out of the isolation of the 1917 Russian Revolution;<\/li>\n<li>Stalin, and the bureaucracy that he represented, purged all opposition to defend their privileges;<\/li>\n<li>Under their control, the Communist International abandoned revolutionary internationalism and contributed to the defeat of workers\u2019 struggles;<\/li>\n<li>Stalinism was not the continuation of Bolshevism but its negation;<\/li>\n<li>Trotsky and the Left Opposition fought to maintain the genuine ideas of Bolshevism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: This course is based on a pamphlet written in 1987 by George Collins, then a member of the South African section of the Committee for a Workers\u2019 International, \u201cHow the Bureaucracy Seized Power\u201c. Thes<i>e lessons are created by Martin Powell-Davies, Socialist Party (England &amp; Wales) member, teacher and\u00a0 former leading education trade unionist.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><div class=\"mep-course-contents\"><div id=\"content-1\" class=\"mep-content-item\"><h2 class=\"mep-content-title\">LESSON ONE: The October Revolution of 1917<\/h2><div class=\"mep-content-description\"><p>Before looking at how Stalinism arose, let\u2019s start with the October 1917 Russian Revolution and the decisions taken by genuine Bolshevism in order to, in Lenin\u2019s words, \u201cproceed to construct the socialist order\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"mep-content-body\"><p>Petrograd, capital of Russia, on the night of October 25, 1917 (November 7 in the modern calendar). With the First World War raging on the battlefields of Europe, the Russian revolution has reached its deciding moment. Armed detachments of workers and soldiers, organized by the Bolshevik Party, have taken control in the city. The pro-capitalist Provisional Government, discredited and isolated, has ceased to exist.<\/p>\n<p>In the Smolny Institute, formerly a girls\u2019 school, the Congress of Soviets [elected councils] of Workers\u2019 and Soldiers\u2019 Deputies is in session. The vast majority of delegates are representatives of the ordinary working people: \u201cgreat masses of shabby soldiers, grimy workmen, peasants \u2013 poor men, bent and scarred in the brute struggle for existence\u201d (John Reed, Ten Days That Shook the World, p.123) (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/ebooks\/reed\/ten-days-that-shook-the-world-reed.pdf\">MIA link to read the book<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Amidst tumultuous applause, the Bolsheviks announce the transfer of state power to the soviets of the working people. A \u201cProclamation to workers, soldiers and peasants\u201d, put forward by the Bolsheviks, is overwhelmingly adopted. It sums up the immediate tasks:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Soviet authority will at once propose an immediate democratic peace to all nations, and an immediate truce on all fronts. It will assure the free transfer of landlord, crown and monastery lands to the Land Committees [elected by the peasants as instruments for seizing the landlords\u2019 estates], defend the soldiers\u2019 rights, enforcing a complete democratisation of the Army, establish workers\u2019 control over production, \u2026 take means to supply bread to the cities and articles of first necessity to the villages, and secure to all nationalities living in Russia a real right to independent existence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Congress resolves: that all local power shall be transferred to the Soviets of Workers\u2019, Soldiers\u2019 and Peasants\u2019 Deputies, which must enforce revolutionary order.\u201d (Ten Days That Shook the World, p. 115)<\/p>\n<p>Lenin addressed the Congress of the following evening. When eventually he could make himself heard above the thunderous applause, his first words were to confirm the task which the democratic revolution had placed on the agenda: \u201cWe shall now proceed to construct the socialist order.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leon Trotsky, next to Lenin the most authoritative leader of the Russian revolution, spoke later that same night: \u201cWe rest all our hope on the possibility that our revolution will unleash the European revolution. If the insurrectionary peoples of Europe do not crush imperialism, then we will be crushed\u2026 Either the Russian revolution will raise the whirlwind of struggle in the west, or the capitalists of all countries will crush our revolution.\u201d (Trotsky, History of the Russian Revolution, Volume 3, Chapter X) (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/trotsky\/1930\/hrr\/\">MIA link to read the book<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>The delegates, wrote John Reed, greeted these words \u201cwith an immense crusading acclaim\u201d. Clearly, Lenin and Trotsky had expressed the thoughts and feelings of the vast majority of revolutionary fighters present that night.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, in its very first hours, the new workers\u2019 regime reasserted two fundamental propositions of Marxism \u2013 no longer as theoretical concepts but as the basis for state policy:<\/p>\n<p>(a) democracy and a solution to the land question, in an underdeveloped country like Russia, is possible only under working-class rule, bringing with it the overthrow of capitalism and the transition to socialism.<\/p>\n<p>(b) Socialist revolution cannot be confined within the borders of one country; it can only advance through the struggle to overthrow capitalism on a world scale.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"mep-content-footer\"><p><strong>READ and DISCUSS: Three Concepts of the Russian Revolution<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1242\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1242\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1242\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe social relations of Russia have ripened only for a bourgeois (capitalist) revolution \u2026 Objective historical conditions doom our working class to an inevitable collaboration with the capitalist class in the struggle against our common enemy.\u201d (Axelrod, for the \u2018Mensheviks\u2019, at the 1906 Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_1242\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1242\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1242 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/trotsky-300x226.jpg\" alt=\"Pic: May 5, 1920, at Sverdlov Square (now Theatre Square\/Teatralnaya Square) in Moscow\" width=\"300\" height=\"226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/trotsky-300x226.jpg 300w, https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/trotsky-600x453.jpg 600w, https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/trotsky-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/trotsky.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1242\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Pic: May 5, 1920, at Sverdlov Square (now Theatre Square\/Teatralnaya Square) in Moscow<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Russian revolution can achieve victory by its own efforts, but it cannot possibly hold and consolidate its gains by its own strength \u2026 unless there is a Socialist revolution in the West. Without this condition restoration is inevitable \u2026 for the small proprietor will inevitably turn against the proletariat.\u201d (Lenin, for the \u2018Bolsheviks\u2019 at the 1906 RSDLP Congress) (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/lenin\/works\/1906\/ucong\/index.htm\">The Unity Congress of the RSDLP Lenin<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLeft to its own resources, the working class of Russia will inevitably be crushed by the counter-revolution the moment the peasantry turns its back on it. It will have no alternative but to link the fate of its political rule, and, hence, the fate of the whole Russian revolution, with the fate of the socialist revolution in Europe\u201d. (Trotsky, \u2018Results and Prospects\u2019, 1906) (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/trotsky\/1931\/tpr\/rp-index.htm\">MIA link to read the book<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>a) Looking at these three quotes from 1906, and the section above:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>1. How did the Menshevik view differ from that of Lenin and Trotsky?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>2. What did Lenin and Trotsky fear would happen if the Russian revolution was left isolated?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>b) Looking at this article by Trotsky, published in 1942, two years after his murder by a Stalinist agent:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout the aid of the proletarian revolution in the West, Lenin repeated, restoration in Russia was inevitable. He was not mistaken: the Stalinist bureaucracy is nothing else than the first stage of bourgeois restoration\u201d (\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/history\/etol\/newspape\/fi\/vol03\/no11\/v03n11-w27-nov-1942.pdf\">Read the article here<\/a>\u00a0)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1252 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4th.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"264\" height=\"242\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>3. What does Trotsky say that Lenin warned would happen if the Russian Revolution wasn\u2019t followed by further socialist revolutions in the \u2018west\u2019 ?<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"mep-course-recommendations\"><h3 class=\"mep-recommendations-title\">Recommended books & references<\/h3><div class=\"mep-recommendations-content\"><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1288\" src=\"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/10days-218x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"218\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/10days-218x300.jpg 218w, https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/10days.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 218px) 100vw, 218px\" \/>\u00a0 <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1289\" src=\"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/permanent_revolution_2020-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/permanent_revolution_2020-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/permanent_revolution_2020-664x1024.jpg 664w, https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/permanent_revolution_2020-768x1185.jpg 768w, https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/permanent_revolution_2020-996x1536.jpg 996w, https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/permanent_revolution_2020-1328x2048.jpg 1328w, https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/permanent_revolution_2020-519x800.jpg 519w, https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/permanent_revolution_2020.jpg 1654w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><div class=\"mep-section-navigation\"><span class=\"mep-nav-prev mep-nav-disabled\"><\/span><a href=\"\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302?section=2\" class=\"mep-nav-next\"><span class=\"mep-nav-direction\">Next<\/span><span class=\"mep-nav-title\">Next section<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"mep-course-meta\"><h3 class=\"mep-meta-title\">About this course<\/h3><div class=\"mep-meta-info\"><div class=\"mep-meta-item\"><span class=\"mep-meta-label\">Title:<\/span> The rise of Stalinism<\/div><div class=\"mep-meta-item\"><span class=\"mep-meta-label\">Published:<\/span> February 10, 2026<\/div><div class=\"mep-meta-item\"><span class=\"mep-meta-label\">Updated:<\/span> February 12, 2026<\/div><div class=\"mep-meta-item\"><span class=\"mep-meta-label\">Course ID:<\/span> 10<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1302","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialistworld.net\/theory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}