Stagism?

[TheGodlessUtopian]

What is this exactly? I have heard it a few times but don't really know a whole lot about it.

[Caj]

Are you referring to this?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-stage_theory

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Are you referring to this?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-stage_theory

Yup! There we go.

[daft punk]

Yes. The wiki article omits that the Bolsheviks were also stagist up to 1917. Lenin converted to a position the same as Totsky's, and then had to twist the arms of the Bolshevik CC, most of whom had been giving critical support to the Provisional Government.

There is another Marx quote (apart from the one in the wiki article), preface to the Russian edition of Communist Manifesto:

"The only answer to that possible today is this: If the Russian Revolution becomes the signal for a proletarian revolution in the West, so that both complement each other, the present Russian common ownership of land may serve as the starting point for a communist development. "
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/preface.htm#preface-1882

This seems to have been overlooked by the Bolsheviks, though I believe Lenin was not stagist at one point before 1917 but went back to it for most of the time up to 1917.

However Trotsky was dead against it from 1906.

It is closely coupled with the idea of socialism being impossible in one country, especially a backward one.

Lenin:

"But we have not finished building even the foundations of socialist economy and the hostile power of moribund capitalism can still deprive us of that. We must clearly appreciate this and frankly admit it; for there is nothing more dangerous than illusions (and vertigo, particularly at high altitudes). And there is absolutely nothing terrible, nothing that should give legitimate grounds for the slightest despondency, in admitting this bitter truth; we have always urged and reiterated the elementary truth of Marxism - that the joint efforts of the workers of several advanced countries are needed for the victory of socialism."
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/feb/x01.htm