In the years after Lenin's death, there was a great rift among
the Bolsheviks/Communists whether it would be best to have
worldwide socialism/communism or whether it should be established
in one country first. Stalin wanted socialism in one country as
opposed to standard doctrines of Marx, Lenin and Trotsky who
believed that there had to be worldwide socialism and communism in
order for a socialist country to survive when surrounded by
capitalist countries. Stalin realized that other industrialized
capitalist countries such as Germany and England were not going to
experience the proletarian revolutions that Marx had predicted;
therefore he tightened the government's grip on the Soviet Union's
economy and forced it to bow to socialism. His theory was that once
socialism had a strong foothold in one country, it could be spread
to other countries. If socialism did not have such a foothold, it
might be overthrown.
