HOW IMPORTANT WAS STALIN’S USE OF THE LENIN LEGACY IN EXPLANING HIS VICTORY IN THE POWER STRUGGLE IN THE YEARS 1924 – 1929? After Lenin died in 1924, a power struggle arose when he hadn’t elected a member of the party to continue in his footsteps as leader of Russia, this caused the heated climb that Stalin, Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bukharin had to face to have power. It was Stalin who won, much to everyone’s surprise, and there are many factors as to why he won. One of them was the Lenin Legacy, which he manipulated to his advantage. Stalin was able to see that he could gain credibility by using Lenin’s Legacy, since Lenin was the leader of the Communist Party and was the reason to all the great ideas and change that was brought to Russia.
The blame for the Cold War cannot be placed on one person -- it developed as a series of chain reactions as a struggle for power. It can be argued that the Cold War was inevitable, and therefore no one's fault, due to the differences in the capitalist and communist ideologies. It was only the need for protection that had caused the two countries to sink their differences temporarily during the Second World War. Yet many of the tensions that existed in the Cold War can be attributed to Stalin's policy of Soviet expansion. Stalin's foreign policies contributed an enormous amount to the tensions of the Cold War.
Why, despite the disasters of 1941, was Soviet Russia able to defeat Nazi Germany by 1945? Despite many of the problems Soviet Russia initially faced when joining World War Two in 1939- such as a lack of high quality weaponry and equipment, poor economy and lack of knowledgeable officers due to the extensive purges under The Great Terror- they were able to quickly overcome them and emerge victorious against Nazi Germany in 1945. The reason behind their changing fete came as a result of a culmination of key factors including: Stalin’s leadership; the sheer patriotism and strength of the Russian people; the alliances they, begrudgingly, made; as well as fatal German mistakes. One of the factors behind this victory, which can be deemed as the least influential, was the German mistakes. Despite Hitler’s wealth of well put together weaponry, well trained and seemingly invincible army and a seemingly tactical mind-set (which made him at first so fearful and successful) he eventually made some vital errors which led to the Nazi demise.
Why did the Bolsheviks win the Civil War? It was ‘not a matter of who was the stronger but, rather, who was less weak’[1]. These were the words of Victor Shklovskii in his book Sentimental Journey. This simplistic view fails to incorporate the many factors which contributed to the ‘Reds’ victory over the ‘Whites’ but it establishes the essence of the argument. Both the Bolsheviks and the opposition White forces were ravaged by internal weaknesses and hugely influenced by external conflict and conditions.
Analyze the circumstances and active policies that made Stalin gain and retain power In this assignment, I will be analyzing the circumstances and active policies that made Stalin gain and retain power. The way Stain was able to gain power can be interpreted in different ways. Many historians argue that his rise to power was either due to his own actions and abilities, or the situation at the time and the failure of his opponents. But it appears that Stalin was successful in gaining and retaining power due to his own strengths and actions in the political arena and weaknesses displayed by his opponents, in relation to the prevailing circumstances of the time. Stalin was, by opportunism able to gain control of the party machine and use it to his own advantage, and use his own political skills to out maneuver his opponents, while they often displayed lackluster tactics in a vain attempt to win support of a party loyal to Stalin.
From 1939-1941, the Axis powers were at its peak. Led by the ruthless blitzkrieg war tactics of Hitler, Germany and the Axis powers were able to undergo a string of victories. However, the ironic successes of the Axis powers led to greater actions by the Allies, which ultimately resulted in failure for the Axis powers. Had Hitler and the Axis powers were not so quick as to act upon impulse, and actually work as an alliance, it is more likely that the results of the war would have been in their favor. The success of Hitler and the Axis powers during the first two years of the war, 1939-1941, was impaired due to poor, irrational planning, postponements, overconfidence, and the growing forces of the Allied powers, as exemplified in the Battle of Britain, the Invasion of the Soviet Union, and the attack on Pearl Harbor.
How significant was Stalin’s position as General Secretary of the Communist Party in accounting for his rise to power? There are several key factors that contributed to Stalin’s rise to power. Although his role of General Secretary was a major element in his success, it was accompanied by his ruthless exploitation of his opponent’s weaknesses and by the manipulation of Lenin’s death. Stalin’s role as General Secretary aided him greatly in his rise to power, it gave him the foundations to excel and secretly control the party. Despite being seen as a mundane, dull bureaucratic post by the higher members of the party, Stalin’s role as General Secretary was quite the opposite, he had access to over 26,000 personal files (hence why he was dubbed, “Comrade Card Index”) and had the power to fire and promote party members, this authority gained Stalin great patronage throughout the party as those who rose within the party would have Stalin to be thankful for.
One of the main reasons why Stalin emerged as sole leader was because of how he used pragmatism to manipulate Lenin’s opinion of him to suggest that he was the most favorable leader to carry on Marxism throughout Russia. This key event that secured Stalin’s public support was around the time of Lenin’s funeral. His role as general secretary gave him the ‘grey blur’ title because of his reputation of being invisible, focusing his time on important paperwork. When Lenin released his testament, Stalin used his reputation to change it, which had previously had influential and opinionated views on Stalin, and if seen by the public, would inevitably have changed the success of Stalin’s emergence to a failure at becoming leader. Lenin’s real opinion of Stalin was highly negative.
In many respects, there is no doubt that Alexander III was the most effective Tsar in such the short reign that he had. He was referred to as a reactionary, unlike his father Alexander II who was known as a reformer. He managed to please the people with his Russian figure and attitude, he changed their attitude and he made tsarism look all the better, all in a short period of time. Despite their different policies, they had the same ambitions inside their head in the long run, and that was to strengthen autocracy in the Russian empire but Alexander III did this by reversing what his father had done as he felt he knew better ways of dealing with the situation and strengthening the Tsarist position. The first thing that Alexander III did when he came into power to contradict his fathers’ reforms was to recall the decision of creating the constitution.
There were four main reasons as to why Russia was able to win the Second World War: economic might, the bravery and hard work of its people, Stalin’s pragmatic domestic policies and the support of the Western Allies. It can be argued that although economic might was a significant factor to the victory, the support from the Allies meant that the German armed forces had to fight on two fronts, thus restricting Russia’s military role. They also provided economic help in the form of a Lend-Lease scheme, which was a necessity when it came to Soviet supplies. Economic might was an important factor in helping Russia win the Second World War. The Second Five-Year Plan had enabled military preparation, and by 1942, 50% of national income was being spent on the war (military production almost doubled between 1941-44).