Expanding to the East

Within two years of the October Revolution the issue of its continuation on a global scale became acute for the Bolshevik leaders. Above all, the failure of the Spartacist rising in Germany (January 1919) and the brief soviet republic in Hungary (March–August 1919) showed that the revolutions in the West believed necessary to support Russia’s were not to be readily forthcoming. In April 1920, with the failure of direct imperialist armed intervention in the post-revolution civil war, Lenin nevertheless noted that it was easy for Russia, in the specific, historically very unique situation of 1917, to start the socialist revolution, but it will be more difficult for Russia than for the European countries to continue the revolution and bring it to its consummation. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.