Stalin- Letter to Comrade Ermakovsky

Works, J.V. Stalin,  Volume 7, pp. 237-9- 1954, (Russian)

Comrade Ermakovsky!

I'm very sorry for the late reply. I was on vacation for two months, returned to Moscow yesterday and only today had the opportunity to get acquainted with your note. However, better late than never.

Engels’ negative answer to the question: “Can this revolution take place in any one country?” fully reflects the era of pre-monopoly capitalism, the pre-imperialist era, when there were still no conditions for uneven, spasmodic development of the capitalist countries, when there were, therefore, no given for the victory of the proletarian revolution in one country (the possibility of the victory of such a revolution in one country follows, as is well known, from the law on the uneven development of capitalist countries under imperialism). The law on the uneven development of the capitalist countries and the provision connected with it on the possibility of the victory of the proletarian revolution in one country were put forward and could be put forward by Lenin only in the period of imperialism. 

This explains, among other things, that Leninism is the Marxism of the era of imperialism, that it represents the further development of Marxism, which took shape in the pre-imperialist era. 

Engels, with all his genius, could not notice what had not yet been in the period of pre-monopoly capitalism, in the forties of the last century, when he wrote his "Principles of Communism", and what appeared only later, in the period of monopoly capitalism. On the other hand, Lenin, as a brilliant Marxist, could not fail to notice what had already been born after the death of Engels, in the period of imperialism. The difference between Lenin and Engels is the difference between the two historical periods that separate them from each other. 

There can be no question that "Trotsky's theory is identical with the teachings of Engels." Engels had reason to give a negative answer to the 19th question (see his “Principles of Communism”) during the period of pre-monopoly capitalism, in the forties of the last century, when there could be no question of the law of uneven development of capitalist countries. Trotsky, on the other hand, has no reason to repeat in the 20th century Engels's old answer, taken from an epoch that has already passed, and mechanically apply it to the new, imperialist epoch, when the law of uneven development has become a well-known fact. Engels bases his answer on an analysis of contemporary pre-monopoly capitalism. 

Trotsky does not analyze, but ignores the modern era, forgets that he does not live in the forties of the last century, but in the twentieth century, in the era of imperialism, and cunningly puts the nose of Ivan Ivanovich of the forties of the XIX century to the chin of Ivan Nikiforovich of the beginning of the XX century, apparently believing that it is possible in this way outsmart history. 

I do not think that these two diametrically opposed methods could give grounds for talking about "the identity of Trotsky's theory with the teachings of Engels."

With communist greetings,

J. Stalin

15.IX.25