Leon Trotsky: Preface to the Bulgarian Edition of Socialism in One Country

May 6, 1933

[Writing of Leon Trotsky, Vol. 5, 1932-33, New York 1972, p. 229]

Dear Comrades,

Naturally I can only welcome your intention to publish in a separate pamphlet my work, "Socialism in One Country," produced as a supplement to the last volume of my History. This work does not really exhaust the problem theoretically. It has, however, been elucidated in sufficient detail by history. This has shown how Lenin's party really looked at the international character of the revolution and how the Stalinist bureaucracy imperceptibly changed its viewpoint into its opposite.

Today's crisis in the Soviet economy and in the Stalinist regime has arisen from the theory of socialism in one country. For this reason, this work is not concerned with an abstract and dogmatic discussion but with life-and-death questions for the Soviet regime and the world working class.

L. Trotsky