By 1929, Joseph Stalin who was one of the members of the ‘collective leadership’, defeated the rest and became the dominant force of the USSR. His success was part of a power struggle which began even before Lenin’s death. Stalin’s victory was not inevitable, nor was it a result of his political skills alone. There was a whole list of factors which combined to assist his victory. When Lenin was alive he made several criticisms about Stalin which were not made public.
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.
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. This allowed Stalin to be free of a major competitor during the funeral while also ruining Trotsky’s reputation by making it seem like he couldn’t be bothered to attend the funeral of Lenin. With Trotsky temporarily out of the picture Stalin set himself up as Lenin’s disciple, in the eyes of the people
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
After Lenin’s death, there was a dispute over the succession between Bukharin, Trotsky, Kamenev and Stalin. Trotsky could end the dispute and took power as the head of the Bolsheviks with Lenin's Testament, which criticized the oppositions Trotsky. However, he did not do it, and Stalin, using his position in the Bolshevik Party was able to get his men in high positions and policies through a swing, a union with his opposition to displace others, was able to take power in 1923 and the elimination of his violent Trotsky opposition, using a "ban on faction’’. In some cases, single-party leaders use a combination of legal and illegal methods to come to power. For Stalin, what he did was entirely legal.
Firstly, Stalin had told Trotsky (who was a major rival to Stalin at this time) the wrong date for Lenin’s funeral. This meant that Stalin was able to praise the work and criticise one of his biggest rivals, Trotsky. Stalin was also able to make a speech at Lenin’s funeral and this gave Stalin the perfect opportunity to get his point across to the public an make his beliefs known. This made Stalin seem like the leading man and Lenin’s preferred successor. By doing this, Stalin increased his popularity and gained support from the whole public, as the whole nation was mourning the death of Lenin, who was a man loved by many in the USSR.
Unit 1 Stalin – Assignment ‘To what extent was Stalin’s victory over his opponents in the power struggle a result of his opponents mistakes?’ In 1929, four years after the death of Lenin, the power struggle between Stalin, Trotsky, Bukharin, Kamenev and Zinoviev was over. Stalin was the undisputed leader of the USSR. Many people would said that Stalin’s victory was due to the mistakes made by his opposition, yet it could also be argued that there were other reasons behind his rise to power. One of Stalin’s biggest opponents during the power struggle was that of Trotsky (left wing), who some considered to be the favourite to succeed Lenin at the time of his death in 1924. Despite his Menshevik past, Trotsky was close to Lenin and had played a key role in the communist party.
Many historians have said Alexander II was considering the formation of a parliament in Russia. Furthermore, the assassination caused Alexander III to rule in reactionary nature in which many counter-reforms were created to limit the impact of the Great Reforms done by his father. This supports the view that the People’s Will were highly unsuccessful, even in the taking out of Alexander II. It can be said that the only example in this period of effective political opposition was the October 1917 revolution, where, unquestionably, the Bolsheviks took power and let their political vision be known. They were extremely successful in both the short term and the long term.
There was a time where he opposed the interests of the Communist Party these interests were projects started by Bolsheviks and Stalin so he was greatly outnumbered in making any decision. He argued that if large projects were going to be undertaken they had to be safe, and have considerable conditions for the workers, but the Communist party was willing to sacrifice those regulations to output the projects more quickly. Palchinsky continued to disagree and criticize the projects so he was eventually arrested on April 1928, and then executed from his political position. There was a project in particular that Palchinsky warned the USSR about, and that was the
It is estimated that between 50,000 and 140,000 people were killed in this campaign during the Russian Civil War. The Cheka was created by Vladimir Lenin to deal with threats to his new regime. It was led by Felix Dzerzhinsky and used to inflict the Red Terror, operating outside of the law and answering to no one. The Cheka was extremely important in allowing the Bolsheviks to establish their power and influence people’s view of their new government. It is speculated that the Bolsheviks would not have retained power for very long if it had not been for the workings of the Cheka during that time period as they