How important was Stalin’s use of the Lenin legacy in gaining power? Stalin’s use of the Lenin Legacy helped him gain support during the years 1924-1929, eventually resulting in him winning the power struggle and gaining power in Russia. Even though in Lenin’s final testament he made it clear that Stalin was trouble and he should be got rid of, Stalin’s political cunning and his use of the Lenin legacy meant that he was able to gain people’s support and become leader of the Communist party. One of the most noticeable was at Lenin’s funeral. Firstly, Stalin had told Trotsky (who was a major rival to Stalin at this time) the wrong date for Lenin’s funeral.
This is because through the key events, his devious and scheming personality shone through, eventually gaining him the top position of authority. This is shown as soon as Lenin dies as it is said Stalin tells Trotsky the wrong date of Lenin’s funeral (his greatest opposition at the time.) Trotsky doesn’t show up, leaving Stalin to step up and show his loyalty whilst at the same time showing the people of Russia that he is a strong, caring contender, able to take Lenin’s position of leader of Russia. Moreover, Stalin’s position of a moderate ‘peace maker’ as the left side of the party tore themselves apart showed a personality of calm moderation which appealed to others within the party as the fight for leadership became bitter and often ruthless. This made Stalin’s personality shine through amongst the bitter personalities of others such as Trotsky, Zinoviev and
Mao criticised Khrushchev for his policies such as de-Stalinisation and his secret speech. He was also very critical of the policy of Peaceful Coexistence as he believed it was a way of being friendly with the United States (the enemy) and also Mao saw it abandoning millions of comrades struggling to free themselves of capitalist and imperialist oppression. This, therefore, made the USSR an ‘enemy’. How could two countries work together if they had such differing beliefs about how to run their countries? This problem had a big contribution to the split as they couldn’t agree on anything, and if they did, it was because their national interests were at risk.
Another ideological method that was central to his success of emerging as the leader of the Soviet Union by 1929 was accusations of Trotskyism . This was due to Stalin defending himself by accusing Bukharin of Trotskyism because Trotsky had been the first to make the claim about bureaucracy . This can be viewed as a weakness of Trotsky because this accusation of Trotskyism attempts to show that Trotsky’s ideology was far from Leninist . This greatly caused decline in Trotsky’s support because many wanted a leader who was close to Lenin and followed Lenin . Therefore , this is one of Stalin’s strengths because he was
Ideology was crucial to the alliances that formed following Lenin’s death. Stalin on the other hand didn’t take any extreme position which made him more flexible and his ideas were welcomed on both sides. As Trotsky was the most likely to take power after Lenin, Stalin formed an alliance with Kameniv and Zenovev against Trotsky. Stalin made sure Trotsky missed Lenin’s funeral and most of the important meetings and thereby he had a little say of what was going on in the party. They also criticized Trotsky’s book and questioned his respect and love to Lenin.
As said above, luck was definitely a vital part in Stalin’s victory. Had Lenin not died when he did it is extremely likely that Lenin would’ve said what was written in his testament to the party, rather than leaving it to be read later by select members of the party who decided not to make its content public. The major lucky break Stalin had was Trotsky’s position when Lenin died. Trotsky had been ill and was on vacation to recover when it happened and so was far away from Moscow where the funeral was being held. Stalin, seizing this opportunity, convinced Trotsky that he would not be able to make it back in time for the funeral and the stress of trying would just worsen his condition.
Another reason to why America is to blame is after the success of the atomic bomb the members of the Grand Alliance began to see changes in Truman’s behaviour as he started to control the meetings they had and Stalin refused to be bossed around so arguments between Stalin and Truman started, they started. The USSR is to blame for the breakdown of the Grand Alliance for many reasons. One reason is that the USSR wanted to impose big respirations on Germany but America and Great Britain refused as they knew how it would affect Germany and could cause another war. A second reason is that Stalin wanted most of Europe to become communist, Roosevelt and Churchill didn’t agree. After Truman became Americas new President there was a lot of tension at the Potsdam Conference.
The President went forward to accuse the Democrats for conspiring to remove him from office because he had refused to boost their high support prices. Consequently, he admitted for not supervising his campaign staff adequately thereby leading to the Watergate scandal. During the televised speech, the President was noted to be nervous and was even misspelling some of his words but he still managed to control himself and plead his
Trotsky underestimated Stalin and what he was capable of (creating a triumvirate with Zinoviev and Kamenev, using this alliance to defeat him). He lost respect by not turning up to Lenin’s funeral, allowing Stalin to act as though he was closest to Lenin. Yet, the biggest mistake which Trotsky made was when he agreed not to publish Lenin’s
When Lenin was alive he made several criticisms about Stalin which were not made public. If they were made public then it would have hindered Stalin’s victory. Lenin had said that Stalin was too rude and that he did not think through his decisions properly. Stalin’s victory was not expected by most people as they all underestimated his abilities. However Stalin did have his strengths which assisted in his victory.