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.
The key defendants that were removed were Trotsky, Kamenev, Buhkarin, Yagoda and Zinoviev. This was significant in allowing Stalin to establish his personal dictatorship as they removed all of Stalin’s rivals from the 1920’s thus creating fear among the USSR showing that if you did anything that Stalin disliked, your life would be in danger, particularly because these people had been in positions of power therefore people obeyed all of Stalin’s orders. This lead to the wider terror among ordinary people. They were denounces, arrested and sent to Gulags by the NKVD. It is estimated that between 1934-8, 20 million Russians were sent to these gulags.
He then further proceeded to give the nobility a hard time by creating a Table of Ranks. This table made ones social standing a matter of how much you give back to the central state as opposed to simply coming from a well-to-do family. Next Peter proceeded to suppress the unruly guard, known as the streltsy, in a much less diplomatic fashion. After their rebellion was brutally suppressed, over a thousand of them were made an example to the people through public executions and by leaving their bodies on display to those who might also think to rebel. Finally he confronted the extremely traditional Russian Orthodox Church by kicking out the patriarch and instating a secular procurator general to rule the church in accordance with secular requirements.
When his rivals were expelled from the Politburo, they were removed because the majority of the members voted for this. Therefore, Stalin’s action in order to gain power were quiet legal. After he was invited into the main committee of the Bolsheviks, he then gained other beneficial minority posts such as being an executive of the committee and becoming head of their party newspaper “Pravda”. Stalin, did not take part in any major roles during the October rising. During the civil war, he was consistent in disobeying orders made from Lenin and Trotsky, as they were the main organisers.
This event led to labor unrest, peasant insurrections, student demonstrations, as well as army and navy mutinies. Although the shooting was not Nicholas II’s fault, he was given the nickname, “ The Bloody Murderer” and stated that he was not going to make any changes for the people. This was the last major event before the Revolution of 1905 officially broke out. New councils created by urban workers in order to better organize strikes were created called Soviets. During this time, Russian cities were dying because all the workers and peasants were focused on rebelling against the government and seizing the land of their landlords, instead of working in the factories and living the life of a peasant or urban worker.
At Lenin’s funeral Stalin spoke about losing a great leader. And after the funeral instead of Lenin being buried as per his widow had wished, Stalin overruled and had him embalmed and placed on public display. “Stalin decided that Lenin’s corpse must be immortalized by keeping the deceased leader on permanent display...as the focal point of a new “religion” Leninism” (Rappaport 168). This aided in his popularity making the public believe he was the one who must replace Lenin. In reality, “under the banner of
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.
There were many short and long term effects of the Russian revolution. Firstly the short term effects following the Russian revolution were that Lenin hoped the constituent assembly (parliament) would show the rest of Russia how good the Bolsheviks could be for the Russian nation and how popular their leadership was. However they only gained 161 seats, compared to the social revolutionaries who won 267 seats. Obviously the Bolsheviks had become popular in Petrograd, but beyond the capital the population hadn’t been more in favour of the social revolutionaries and hadn’t been convinced by Lenin’s promise yet. In reaction to this, he shut down the assembly in order to keep power for himself.
The Czar was not present, so the neutralist protestants were shot down by the panicking soldiers. It was enough to evoke a wave of strikes, social dissatisfaction and political rearrangement. In any other epoch, they would have been frightened, and just relinquish it; however, they already had ideals in their minds, enough to commence the Russian Revolution. The October Manifesto was a document published by Czar Nicholas II, that was a precursor to the Fundamental Laws of 1906. Imperiled by the protests and violent marches, he announced that civil independence would be acknowledged to population and the creation of the Duma Parliament.
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