p Lenin showed that with the rise and development of socialism in other, more advanced countries it was possible for economically undeveloped countries to start building socialism without passing through the capitalist stage of development. His words were: ”. .. With the aid of the proletariat of the advanced countries, backward countries can go over to the Soviet system and, through certain stages of development, to communism, without having to pass through the capitalist stage.”  [129•* 

p He thereby applied the Marxist theory of the socialist revolution to countries which had not reached the capitalist level of development, giving expression to the specific conditions and forms of the transition of these countries to socialism.

p This proposition has now been carried into effect. Of the 65 million-strong non-Russian population of Russia in 1917, 25 million inhabited the former Central Asian colonial outskirts and were at pre-capitalist stages of development, preserving not only feudal and semi-patriarchal modes of production but also the clan way of life. In the course of only half a century these regions, aided by fraternal nations, primarily by the Russian people, have become flourishing socialist republics with a high level of industrial, agricultural and cultural development. They have built metallurgical, automobile, electrical engineering and other modern industries. Their agriculture has also changed, consisting of highly mechanised collective farms. They have overcome their cultural backwardness and trained skilled national cadres, attaining a higher cultural level than any Eastern capitalist country and even some of the leading capitalist countries of the West. Mongolia, which was a semi-colonial country, has travelled 130 the entire road from feudal backwardness to socialism. Today, relying on aid from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries she is planning to become a developed industrial-agrarian state in the immediate future.

The experience of the Soviet Central Asian republics and Mongolia demonstrates what can be attained with the assistance of fraternal nations by peoples who liberate themselves from colonialism and exploitation. This experience is now showing the liberated peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America how to by-pass capitalist development, proving to them that the non-capitalist road allows them to achieve genuine independence and progress.