Socialism in one country.

[Sidagma]

The Stalinist policy, I mean.

Why did Stalin implement this? What effects did it have on international revolutions? I'm especially interested in the example of Greece -- why did Stalin sell out Greece without even telling us? Would Lenin have handled that situation differently?

[Akshay!]

I think there was some kind of a deal between Stalin and Churchill.


A draft document of the agreement, which was yet to be made in 1944, appeared under strange circumstances when it was supposedly intercepted in 1943 and fell into the hands of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco's secret service. This was mentioned by General Jordana, in a famous speech he gave in April 1943 in Barcelona[2] On October 8, 1944 Churchill and Stalin met at the fourth Moscow Conference. Churchill's account of the incident is the following: Churchill suggested that the Soviet Union should have 90 percent influence in Romania and 75 percent in Bulgaria; the United Kingdom should have 90 percent in Greece; in Hungary and Yugoslavia, Churchill suggested that they should have 50 percent each. Churchill wrote it on a piece of paper which he pushed across to Stalin, who ticked it off and passed it back.
"Might it not be thought rather cynical if it seemed we had disposed of these issues so fateful to millions of people, in such an offhand manner? Let us burn the paper", said Churchill.
"No, you keep it", replied Stalin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Percentages_agreement2.jpg

[Old Bolshie]

The Stalinist policy, I mean.

Why did Stalin implement this?

Stalin was a statesman unlike Lenin who was much more a revolutionary than a statesman. He wanted the Western Powers to accept and recognize the USSR in order to integrate it in the international community alongside the other capitalist countries. To do so he needed to give up from the international struggle which he did.

SIOC represented abandoning the status of USSR as a revolutionary country to just another capitalist country.


What effects did it have on international revolutions?

It had disastrous effects. After the 1929 crisis there was an extraordinary revolutionary opportunity in Europe and specially in Germany which ended up being taken by the Nazis with Stalin's connivance. However, Spain is the most well known case of Stalin's sabotage of the international struggle.


I'm especially interested in the example of Greece -- why did Stalin sell out Greece without even telling us?

Because Greece was out of USSR's sphere of influence and within the western one. Greece is one of the most enlightening examples of how Stalin viewed USSR as an imperialistic power rival to the American imperialism.


Would Lenin have handled that situation differently?

Lenin remained committed to the international struggle until the end of his life so the answer has to be yes. The Comintern was one of the pillars of the Bolsheviks policy until the SIOC was introduced.

[Red Nightmare]

Stalin implemented socialism in one country out of his perceived necessity to do so due to the failure of the world revolution. Stalin may have perceived himself as a socialist and maybe even sincerely attempted to be one, but all he ended up being was another leader of an imperialist state capitalist power. I don't know if we can say that this is entirely Stalin's fault however. I believe that the material conditions made it impossible for the Soviet Union to do anything but to degenerate back into a capitalist country. Lenin would have faced the same dilemma Stalin did if he were to have lived longer so I don't think it would really have turned out much differently from a materialist standpoint. Stalin "sold out" Greece because Greece was just a pawn in an imperialist game to him.

[tuwix]

The Stalinist policy, I mean.

Why did Stalin implement this?

He, did not. He did try. And trying implementing something impossible must have tragic consequences. And it had. In Stalin's Russia and Pinochet's Chile when he tried to make a free market that is imposible too.