Socialists exercised authority in one country from 1917 until 1943.
Thereafter the land area devoted to building socialism steadily
increased. By the time China threw off imperialist leading strings and
opted for socialist construction in 1949, a third of mankind was living
on territory under nominally socialist control. Most of this territory
was Asian. An important part lay in eastern Europe. Until 1917,
effective control of the planet was held by a half-dozen empires headed
by the British, who exercised authority over a quarter of the human race
living on a quarter of the earth's land area. After 1917 socialism
mushroomed as a potential competing social system, challenging monopoly
capitalism in Europe, replacing it in large sections of Asia and even
threatening to destroy the foundations of western civilization.
"Action and reaction are equal and opposite" is an axiom of physical
science which is also applicable in the social field. The sweep of world
revolution and the growth of socialism-communism after 1945 called into
being an opposing force of counter-revolution. The greater the successes
of socialism, the more ardent and assiduous was the counter drive, aimed
to modify, negate and, if possible, to destroy the revolution and
restore the social system of imperialism-colonialism built by monopoly
capitalism to its prerevolutionary status of planet-wide ascendancy.
Winston Churchill personified this counter revolutionary drive.
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