Stalin's Last Thesis

Abstract

EAK, ruined, exhausted Russia, this backward country, has won out against all nations, against an alliance of the rich and powerful states that dominate the entire world." So said Lenin in his report on the international situation on July 19, 1920, addressing the delegates to the Second World Congress of the Communist International. The usually sober man was in a confident mood. All major countries were represented at the Congress, many of them with handsome delegations representing "real" movements; the civil war in Russia was won; the Red Army was on the road to War saw, carrying the revolution west at bayonet point. And beyond Poland lay Germany, industrially the most advanced country on the European continent, the country of the strongest party within the International apart from his own. "We," he added, speaking German, "were not in a position to oppose them with forces equal to theirs, and we have won out nevertheless. Why? Because between them there was not even a semblance of unity." This was the point he endeavored to hammer into the con sciousness of his audience, explaining, in great detail, why there could be no unity among capitalist states, why they were bound to fight each other for markets, spheres of influence and im perialist super-profits, and why only a world revolution could "save the world." In other words, what he expounded on that occasion was his theory of imperialism, a theory to which he at tached the greatest importance. To make it stick in the minds of his followers, German and French translations of his book, "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism," had been published in time for the Congress, with a special preface written by the author on July 6,1920. This pref ace makes clear beyond any doubt what the theory is designed to accomplish. Its two concluding paragraphs read: