You’re correct about the USSR not being socialist, but there are some inaccuracies in your comment. Lenin did not “create an economic model called the Dictatorship of the Proletariat”. The DotP is not an economic model, it’s the process by which the proletariat suppresses the bourgeoisie. Russia’s economy was capitalist, but controlled by the proletarian state (under a DotP). Lenin says this in his writings and speeches.
Russia was too economically backward to sustain a socialist revolution without the success of the revolutions in Europe, as socialism is an international process by which fully developed capitalist relations are converted into socialist ones. Lenin was banking on those succeeding because Russia was not a fully developed capitalist country. By the time Lenin died, it wasn’t yet apparent that wasn’t going to happen.
By the time Stalin took over, the revolution was already failed, as the possibility of those revolutions in Europe succeeding was nil. That’s why Stalin is called “the gravedigger of the revolution” in some communist circles that survived his purges.
Then there’s “Marxism-Leninism”, an abomination born from that failure.
That’s why the USSR never moved past state-capitalism. It was not due to the wickedness of individuals, but by concrete material conditions.
You’re correct about the USSR not being socialist, but there are some inaccuracies in your comment. Lenin did not “create an economic model called the Dictatorship of the Proletariat”. The DotP is not an economic model, it’s the process by which the proletariat suppresses the bourgeoisie. Russia’s economy was capitalist, but controlled by the proletarian state (under a DotP). Lenin says this in his writings and speeches.
Russia was too economically backward to sustain a socialist revolution without the success of the revolutions in Europe, as socialism is an international process by which fully developed capitalist relations are converted into socialist ones. Lenin was banking on those succeeding because Russia was not a fully developed capitalist country. By the time Lenin died, it wasn’t yet apparent that wasn’t going to happen.
By the time Stalin took over, the revolution was already failed, as the possibility of those revolutions in Europe succeeding was nil. That’s why Stalin is called “the gravedigger of the revolution” in some communist circles that survived his purges.
Then there’s “Marxism-Leninism”, an abomination born from that failure.
That’s why the USSR never moved past state-capitalism. It was not due to the wickedness of individuals, but by concrete material conditions.