The day after the October Revolution of 1917, Lenin declared: "Now we can move forward to build the socialist society." Humanity was at a turning point in world history.
But neither Lenin nor the Bolshevik Party harbored illusions about the difficult path ahead of them. Just four months later, Lenin stated at the Soviet Congress: "The final victory of socialism is, of course, impossible in one country... It is an indisputable truth that without a revolution in Germany, we are doomed."
This book is the third volume of Lenin's political biography by Tony Cliff. It covers the period of the struggle of Russian workers to build a workers' state in a country ravaged by foreign interventions and civil war, while Lenin, Trotsky, and the Bolsheviks fought to spread the revolution beyond the borders of Russia.
The Bolsheviks never doubted the crucial role of the working class in the revolution and in the construction of socialism. But the end of the war found the working class dissolved and the revolution isolated.
The resulting vacuum led to the rise and consolidation of bureaucracy. Against this tragic development, Lenin fought until his last breath.