Stalin was more popular because of Trotsky’s “political paralysis” he couldn’t be a good public speaker. This links to my next point because they both result in Stalin’s getting more power. Stalin made an alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev to form the triumvirate. The triumvirate’s main aim was to defeat Trotsky. Trotsky advocated a permanent revolution with Stalin didn’t want.
One of the main reasons the Tsarist rule continued during the tome 1881 until 1905 was due to the splits in the political groups. The were 3 main groups, the Social Revolutionaries, the Liberal and the Social Democrats. Each group had a different aims, strategies and target group. The SR's targeted the peasants and lower class, while the liberals were only interested in the educated middle class. Each groups strategy was very different, the liberals went on strike, while the SR's took a more violent approach.
One of the reasons why this didn’t work was the downfall of communication, and disagreements within the group due to the extent of different opinions was so great causing splits and creating smaller less powerful sub divisions. The liberals wanted to keep the tsar but reduce his power and used calm no violent tactics such a discussions and meetings, but this group split; the octobrists and the kadets. The octobrists set up the duma (government) and the kadets wanted full equality and were a first major opposition voice in the duma, both groups came into being at the time of the October manifesto 1905. The social democrats wanted an empire with no rich or poor people, they wanted communism and also like the liberals didn’t use violent tactics. The Bolshevik and Menshevik split and both parties were very distinct opposing Marxist parties.
However after Karakazov attempts to assassinate the Tsar in 1866, he becomes much more autocratic, revealing that he had no intention of significantly developing politics, his use of the Zemstvas were in fact to help sustain autocracy, through making local administration more efficient. It can be suggested from this that Alexander II had put the Zemstva Act in place to appease the nobles angered by the Emancipation Act. Alexander III was much more of a successful autocrat. His reactionary attitude led to the reversal of many of his father’s liberal reforms, and was in some cases angered by them. Alexander III re-implements Tsarist form, through the use of repression and terror.
When soldiers opened fire on demonstrators outside the Winter Palace on January 22, 1905, it was not in hopes of setting off a chain of events that would later be known as a revolution. Yet when hundreds of working class Russians were murdered that evening, Russia had changed. The protestors’ purpose was to beg the Tsar to exercise his authority on behalf of their miserable working conditions, though they were taken down by the onslaught of ammunition. It was enough to fuse off a chain of events that, if not for disorganization, a lack of coordination and military forces still loyal to the Tsar, might well have caused a revolution that changed Russia forever. One thing that changed very little in February of 1917 is the presence—or, more specifically, lack of presence—of actual revolutionary leaders.
According to Lenin’s will, Trotsky appeared to the natural successor while Stalin was described as power hungry and should not be put into power. Yet Stalin was the General Secretary of the Bolshevik Part y which allowed him to undermine Trotsky’s support and gain more support for himself. He expelled the younger, wilder and more radical elements more likely to support Trotsky while he placed his supporter of powerful position which would allow him to win more votes in the Congress. Trotsky, on the other hand, was the leader of the Red Army and therefore had their support and of the younger party members, but the older communists did not support him and were worried about him becoming the leader as they were concerned that he would become a dictator especially with the support of the Red Army. They doubted his loyalty to the party as he did not join until November 1917.
Even though this solved all the immediate needs of the communist state, the majority of the peasants were unhappy about the new policies and rebelled against the Bolsheviks. This, in turn, forced Lenin to change policies and introduce the New Economic Policy. The NEP was seen, in the Bolsheviks’ eyes, as a return to capitalism as it allowed small businesses to open and people to sell goods in the market, even though major industries, such as steel and iron were still under government control. Lenin had a huge impact on Russia. He made Russia a strong state and consolidated her
Having this powerful position in the party made people scared of him and that he sack them so they stayed very loyal to him. On the other hand his rivals, Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev and Kamenev had little power in the Party. Trotsky did have a lot of power in the Red Army but none within the Party. This shows how important Stalin’s Party position was in him emerging as leader of Soviet Russia in 1929. Another very important reason in why Stalin emerged as leader was Tactical maneuvering of Stalin and his making and breaking of alliances.
This led to an increase in strikes. Secondly, the peasants lacking of land; rapidly developing a new a class of hostile landless labourers, also discontent existed in middle classes due to the growth in professional middle class, who wanted a greater role in national government. Therefore looking at these scenarios it seems the depth of frustration of the people about their situation and their disaffection with Russian society and monarchy was another cause of the 1917 revolution. The Tsar’s reaction to social discontent prior to the revolution was indecisive and his relenting attitude towards his autocracy further alienated the growing opposition groups. In 1915 when the moderates in the Duma joined together to form ‘The progressive Bloc’, compromising over two-third of the Duma member.
•How significant were the personalities of the contenders to succeed Lenin in accounting for Stalin’s defeat of his opponents 1924-29? After Lenin’s death, a leadership struggle for leadership took place in which the main contenders (Stalin, Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev and Kamenev) each fought to take control of the communist government. Ultimately Joseph Stalin managed to defeat his opponents and take control. I believe that the personalities of opponents were a reason for the defeat of opponents such as Trotsky seen as being very arrogant and Bukharin being untrusting. However I think more important factors such as luck for Stalin like how Lenin’s death came at the right time, Stalin’s ideologies and how he support the right policies at the right time and in my judgement the most important factor was Stalin’s devious malicious and devious tactics against his opponents such as fooling Trotsky when Lenin’s funeral was and making him look aloof and his constant side swapping to suit his popularity.