ABSTRACT
Stalin's political victory over the opposition was secure by about 1930, despite the existence of scattered groups of opposition members still at large, some of whom, among the Trotsky-ites at least, managed to maintain contact with their leader in exile. The dictatorship of the proletariat was represented as a temporary measure necessary to crush the resistance of the bourgeoisie that would - and did - continue after the workers' revolution. In contrast with Western ideas, which begin with the individual and extend to the group or to society as an instrument serving the needs of the individual, the Soviet concept of freedom stresses the role of society and the group. Political ideologies usually formulate an idealized conception of the relationship between the political leaders of the state and the masses of the population. Under the Stalinist regime the tendency toward organized inequality, which became evident soon after the November Revolution, has continued.
