Author:  Richard Pipes American historian who specializes in Russian history, particularly with respect to the history of the Soviet Union. During the Cold War era he headed Team B, a team of analysts which analyzed the strategic capacities and goals of the Soviet military and political leadership.

According to the Marxist doctrine, which underpins Communism, Russia should not have been an early convert to Communism because Communism should have originated in capitalist countries with advanced industrial economies.

Russia, by contrast, in the early years of the twentieth Century was an agricultural Society with some 80 percent of its population living on and off the land. Her industries could not stand comparison with those of England, Germany or the United States.

If, nevertheless, Russia turned out to be the world's first country to undergo a Communist revolution and establish a Communist regime, the reason must be sought in politics rather than economies...