With the power that Stalin had now acquired he could appoint new members for the party and demote members of the party. This meant that he also had access to all information on the party members; through this he could effectively build himself a power base. However compared to the other positions in the party the General Secretary was positioned lower and did not have a large input into the politics of the party, it was required to keep track of the members of the politburo. This meant that Stalin did not hold a powerful position and was positioned below his rivals. The position although considered a minor position, placed Stalin in a decent position.
This gave Stalin a most important comeback and it was only the beginning of Stalin’s quest for the power of Russia. Lenin’s testament was send to the CC in May 1924 but it was not released to the party. If it had been it would have ended Stalin’s career. Zinoviev and Kamenev convinced the CC not to release it, because of the following causes it could have; the testament was not very positive about the party, Zinoviev and Kamenev thought that Stalin was no real threat to them and they wanted his help to get rid of Trotsky, and that the testament would help Trotsky. Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin were now ahead in the struggle to conquer the power.
Of course Stalin just said he’d made a mistake and because Trotsky didn’t see him as a threat he just moved on. But because he was there Stalin could make himself out to be Lenin’s disciple and that he alone could carry on spreading Lenin’s message and bring about global Communism. Of course this also impacted Trotsky’s chance at leadership as this made him out as not being close to Lenin. And so because of Trotsky’s foolhardy assumption that Stalin was no threat Stalin was able to make valuable inroads into Trotsky support. The second time he was underestimated was in May of the same year.
In this sense, his moves were not aggressive at all -- they were truly defensive moves to protect the Soviet system. His suspicions of Western opposition were not unfounded: the British and U.S. intervention in the Russian Civil War were still fresh in Stalin's memory when he took power. Furthermore, Stalin was bitter because he was not informed of U.S. nuclear capabilities until shortly before the
During the 1920s, Stalin appointed key people to Communist Party posts. He was incapable of being satisfied for administrative works, thus his colleagues were content to let him handle the vast Communist Party paperwork, unaware that he was using this opportunity to cultivate loyal followers and place them in key position. After Lenin’s death, two conflicting political parties thoughts about the future of the Soviet Union arose in party debates. Left – wing communists believed that world revolution was essential to the survival of socialism in
The Soviet Union was structured to the tastes of the leader at the helm, and so served his interests. The policies in place served not to improve the economic, social or economic fortunes of the entire nation but to concur with the ideological leanings of the leader in office. So was the case with communism. Despite this production model failing utterly to satisfy the basic demands of the ordinary Soviet citizen, it remained in place. They thought a departure from this model would signify a Soviet surrender to the Capitalist West in the ideological war.
He turned his opponents against each other while keeping his eye on the prize and being sure to never do anything that would endanger his chances of becoming the leader of the Soviet union. Although he was clever he seemed not to show this - he is described as awkward and even boring. He is generally shown as having no character. He became the leader of the Soviet Union at age 51. Adolf Hitler’s rise to power was very different to the way Stalin’s.
Also the Tsar still had the support of the Russian army and the navy which stopped any serious uprising. Some historians believe the October manifesto was important in the survival of the Tsar because of the affect it had on the liberal opposition and the peasantry. However i believe it was not so important because it did not entirely solve the problem it only weekend the threat posed. For example the October manifesto did not entirely appease the liberals, although it promised a Duma/parliament there was still a split in the party. And it was clear one group was not satisfied with what the manifesto promised.
His opponents, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin, had fatal weakness that led to their demise. Stalin’s slyness allowed him to be overlooked by his fellow party members; they underestimated him and disregarded Lenin’s caution and contempt shown towards him in his testament, which they did not publish. Trotsky’s downfall was that he was extremely Left
How far do you agree that Trotsky’s personality and mistakes led to Stalin becoming leader of the Bolsheviks? Leon Trotsky was indeed crucial to Stalin’s rise to power for two main reasons. Trotsky was without a doubt one of the most publicly supported and intellectual of the Bolsheviks, this meant that upon Comrade Lenin’s death the majority of people foresaw a new Russia under the rule of the strategic Trotsky. Trotsky did however have flaws which were central for Stalin’s taking of the Bolsheviks. Although somewhat popular among the average population, Trotsky wasn’t all too well-liked among his fellow party members due to his temperament and odd qualities.