ABSTRACT
After the victory of the socialist revolution occurred first in Russia on November 7, 1917, the Soviet regime or proletarian dictatorship was established, while the rest of the world remained capitalist or pre-capitalist. Within the Soviet leadership, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, and others insisted on Lenin’s thought that a country could not accomplish socialism. This chapter is going to delve into the issue in order to clear up misunderstandings in the academia and to assert the essence of Lenin’s thoughts. The evolution of Lenin’s thoughts about this issue can be divided into four periods: after the 1905 Revolution and before the October Revolution; during the early triumph of the October Revolution; from spring/summer 1918 to late 1920; and from late 1920 to his death. Concerning the Soviet Union’s debate on whether one country can build socialism, China’s academia holds different views.
