Socialism in One Country

Socialism in One Country was a theory put forth by Joseph Stalin in 1924, elaborated by Nikolai Bukharin in 1925 and finally adopted by Stalin as state policy. The theory held that given the defeat of all the communist revolutions in Europe in 1917–1921 except Russia's, the Soviet Union should begin to strengthen itself internally. That was a shift from the previously held Marxist position that socialism must be established globally, and was in opposition to Leon Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution.

Though promoted at the time as an ideology of necessity, not core belief, the theory came to define the course of political construction within the Soviet Union throughout its history. The theory holds that socialism can exist within a single country despite a capitalist global market operating under the law of value.

Today the expression is largely used pejoratively since its thesis is held to be antithetical to socialism by Classical Marxism, Orthodox Marxists, Left communists and Trotskyism.