The two-stage theory is often attributed to
Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels, but critics such as
David McLellan and others dispute that they envisaged the strict application of this theory outside of the actually existing Western development of capitalism. Although all agree that Marx and Engels argue that Western capitalism provides the technological advances necessary for socialism and the "grave diggers" of the
capitalist class in the form of the
working class, critics of the two-stage theory, including most trends of
Trotskyism, counter that Marx and Engels denied that they had laid down a formula to be applied to all countries in all circumstances. McLellan and others cite Marx's "Reply to
Mikhailovsky": In the preface to the Russian edition of
The Communist Manifesto of 1882, Marx and Engels specifically outline an alternative path to
socialism for Russia. In Russia, the
Mensheviks believed the two-stage theory applied to
Tsarist Russia. They were criticized by
Leon Trotsky in what became the theory of
permanent revolution in 1905. Later when the two-stage theory re-appeared in the
Soviet Union after the death of
Vladimir Lenin, the theory of permanent revolution was supported by the
Left Opposition. The permanent revolution theory argues that the tasks allotted in the two-stage theory to the capitalist class can only be carried out by the working class with the support of the poor
peasantry and that the working class will then pass on to the socialist tasks and expropriate the capitalist class. However, the revolution cannot pause here and must remain permanent in the sense that it must seek worldwide revolution to avoid isolation and move towards international socialism. == See also ==