Socialism in a Single Country .
This week Pravda has published a letter of considerable importance from M. Stalin. He affirms not only that the &Int victory of Socialism must be on a world scale, but that even the victory of Socialism in a single country (i.e., the U.S.S.R.) depends on the efforts and activities of the inter- national proletariat. The statement is surprising only because, after ten years of polemic against Trotsky, during which men and women have been executed and persecuted for holding Trotskyist views, M. Stalin appears to have ended by adopting, in a modified form, the heresies of his routed and exiled opponent. But M. Stalin's conversion would be even more surprising if he had not shown his aptitude for it on previous occasions. Its immediate effect is likely to be great. It will help to end those dissensions which have weakened and divided the Communist and working-class movements outside the U.S.S.R.; and in so doing will increase their power to give the U.S.S.R. the kind of assistance for which M. Stalin hopes. It is unlikely that M Stalin's change of mind implies a revival of attempts to bring about the world revolution or of the activity of the Comintern ; but it means that he recognises the dependence of the Soviet Union on the political pressure which "the international proletariat" may bring to bear on capitalist governments to adopt foreign policies which imply a collective defence of the Soviet Union against aggression. In this sense •M. Stalin's statement is• his answer to the Anti- Comintern Pact.
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