Let me put it this way. In a few hours after starting Trotsky's History, I thought Cairo is in a February Stall. And, after finishing the book I thought their direction is toward some imaginary October, or I sure hope for them, that's where they are headed. It won't be the same, maybe not even too close, but it could be something grand.
And let's say Egypt does re-invent October. Do we have any idea what that would do to the global elites?
CG
^^^^ CB; I'd say one lesson of the Russian Revolution ( and the Chinese) is that Marx and Engels basic proposition that the Communist revolution must take place in an advanced capitalist country to secure the world socialist revolution is not so easily bypassed. There is no road to socialism bypassing capitalism.
There is a fancy and a vulgar explanation of this. The fancy one is that Russia, for example, had too much feudal baggage and that resulted in the undemocratic aspects of Stalinism. As mentioned elsewhere on this thread, there was almost no experience in the population with mass democracy. There was also very little experience of the working class as wage-laborers. There was very little developed proletariat. Even less in China.
The vulgar explanation is that imperialism's much more greatly developed industrial base translated into industrial strength military might. So, Germany delivered a mortal blow when it killed 27 million people with attendant destruction of industry and infrastructure. I say mortal blow because, the Soviet Union died in 1989 in part still from the devastation and forced militarization of the Germany genocide on the SU. The after WWII, the US forced the SU into a nuclear arms race, forcing the SU to spend to much on the military and to militarize society, that is not institute more democracy. Socialism needs peace and democracy to fulfill its promise. The advanced capitalist countries were able to deny Soviet (and Chinese) socialism these necessities of peace and democracy. This is what caused the fall of socialism in the Soviet Union.