ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Stalin's contribution to and impact on Russian and world events in the first half of the twentieth century. Stalin, who had always been uneasy about New Economic Policy (NEP), started to criticize Bukharin more and more. The defeat of the Left Opposition in late 1927 had apparently resulted in Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky and other defenders of NEP riding high and unchallenged in the party. They were also on apparently excellent terms with Stalin. Stalin's conceptualization of the process was vastly different from the theoretical precision of the economists. It was more akin to a military campaign. Stalin described it as 'the organization of the offensive of socialism along the whole front – that is the task that arose before developing the work of reconstructing the entire national economy'. Unsurprisingly, Stalin quoted the slogan that there was no fortress the Bolsheviks could not storm. Storming was the essence of the Stalinist approach.
