"The victory of socialism in one country, 
notwithstanding the fact that it seriously weakens 
world imperialism, does not and cannot create the 
conditions necessary for merging of the nations 
and the national languages of the world into one 
integral whole.

"The period of the victory of socialism on a world 
scale differs from the period of the victory of 
socialism in one country primarily in the fact 
that it will abolish imperialism <I>in all 
countries,</I> will abolish both the striving to 
subjugate other nations and the fear inspired by 
the menace of national enslavement, will radically 
undermine national distrust and national enmity, 
will unite the nations into one world socialist 
economic system, and will thus create the real 
conditions necessary for the gradual merging of 
all nations into one. . . .

"From these passages it is evident that Lenin does 
not assign the process of the dying away of 
national differences and the merging of nations to 
the period of the victory of socialism in one 
country, but exclusively to the period 
<I>after</I> the establishment of the dictatorship 
of the proletariat on a world scale, that is, to 
the period of the victory of socialism in all 
countries, when the foundations of a world 
socialist economy have already been laid.

"From these passages it is evident, further, that 
the attempt to assign the process of the dying 
away of national differences to the period of the 
victory of socialism in one country, in our 
country, is qualified by Lenin as a 'foolish 
dream.'"


J. Stalin, March 18, 1929, "The National Question 
and Leninism: Reply to Comrades Meshkov, 
Kovalchuk, and Others" <I>Works</I> Vol. 11
(Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954)