I don’t have the exact quote, if I did I would just search it and find it myself, but it essentially states that the communist revolution (or “revolution” in general, but it was related to socialism) would happen in industrialized countries first and then spread to non-industrialized ones. It was something like revolution starting in rich countries first and then in “poor” ones. Or I could be misremembering the quote entirely and it was the exact opposite point being made: revolution would begin in the non-industrialized countries and then spread to the industrialized.
Does that makes sense? I hope I’m making sense. I remember hearing this in class but I forgot who was named as the owner. Was it Marx? Lenin? Engels? Someone else? I keep forgetting to ask my professor so I’m asking here. I need it to make a point in my paper.
The quote is often attributed to Vladimir Lenin, who wrote in his book "Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism" (1916):
"The chain of events in international politics is now dragging the capitalist world towards an imperialist war. The struggle for markets, the struggle for raw materials, and the struggle for spheres of influence—all these are now leading to military conflicts. The bourgeoisie of the advanced countries is driving the masses into war, while the working class is striving to resist this drive. But the working class cannot achieve victory unless it rises to the level of a conscious understanding of its own interests and its own tasks. The slogan 'Peaceful coexistence' between nations is a deception, a fraud, a lie. The only peace that the bourgeoisie can offer us is a peace of exploitation, a peace of oppression, a peace of hunger and want. The proletariat must wage a revolutionary struggle against the bourgeoisie for the overthrow of the rule of capital."
In this passage, Lenin argues that the capitalist system leads to imperialism and conflict between nations, and that the working class must rise up and overthrow the bourgeoisie in order to establish a more just society. He does not explicitly state that revolution will start in industrialized countries and then spread to non-industrialized ones, but he suggests that the struggle for power and resources between nations will lead to global conflict and ultimately to the downfall of capitalism.
It's worth noting that Karl Marx also wrote extensively about the potential for revolution and the role of the working class in bringing about change, but he did not make the specific argument you mentioned.
Credit goes to the huggingchat (meta-llama/Llama-2-70b-chat-hf)