Communist USSR: RISE OF STALIN Flashcards
Non-disclosure of Lenin’s Testament
One reason why Stalin rose to power was because the Communist Party did not reveal Lenin’s testament on his successors. For example, Lenin’s statement was not made public as it had unflattering comments about Stalin and other party leaders. Lenin described Stalin as rude and power-hungry. Lenin suggested that Stalin should be removed from his position as Secretary-General and was suspicious of his character and ambition. Moreover, the Party members chose to ignore Lenin’s warning and believed that Trotsky was a greater threat than Stalin. Therefore, as Lenin’s testament was not made public, Stalin was able to keep his position as Secretary-General of the Communist Party without the public understanding Lenin’s true wishes. This then strengthened Stalin’s legitimacy and claim as the successor of Stalin as Trotsky was seen as a threat to the Communist Party.
Trotsky’s unpopularity in the Politburo
One reason for the rise of Stalin is Trotsky’s unpopularity in the Politburo. For example, Trotsky was envied by his opponents as he impressed Lenin’s capabilities when he led the Red Army to victory in 1922. However, Trotsky had an outspoken personality which offered many party members which resulted in enemies who thought Lenin was arrogant and even criticised Lenin’s new Economic Policy. Trotsky also believed in ‘Permanent Revolution’ while other party members believed in ‘Socialism in one Country’. Thus, Trotsky was undermined in his position in the Communist Party as there was disagreement between Trotsky’s personality and political beliefs with other party members and was seen a challenge. Many did not support him and conspired to attack him. Therefore, with Trotsky’s unpopularity in the Politburo, Stalin took this opportunity to build up his support base with people who directly opposed Trotsky. Stalin established Troika with Kamenev and Zinoviev to remove Trotsky, building up members unhappiness with Trotsky. Thus Stalin was able to get rid of his strongest competitor and rose to power.
Pretended to be close to Stalin
Stalin rose to power due to his manipulation where Stalin pretended to be close to Lenin. For example, Stalin published numerous photos of himself with Lenin in newspapers. Stalin also organised Lenin’s funeral and established himself as the chief mourner and gave the funeral speech at Lenin’s funeral. He even changed the name of Petrograd to Leningrad as a sign of respect to Lenin. Moreover, Stalin tricked Trotsky into missing the funeral by giving him to wrong date. Therefore, the Soviet public had the impression that Lenin favoured and trusted Stalin. Therefore, Stalin’s dedication and involvement portrayed to the public of Soviet Union they perceived that the relationship between Stalin and Lenin and were able to agree on many issues. Soviets believed that Stalin was the natural successor to Lenin and supported him which resulted in him rising to power.
Control of party organisation through his position as Secretary-General
Stalin was able to rise to power by taking advantage of his position as Secretary-General in the party. For example, Stalin had full control over Party organisation and established a dictatorship by appointing and re-assigning party members and replacing his opponent’s allies with his own allies. Stalin appointed more than 15,000 party members at the district and provincial levels. Thus, he appointed his supporters to key posts and made use of his power to eliminate opponents and build up his power, shrinking Trotsky’s support base. His supporters became loyal to him and grew Stalin’s influence. Therefore, Stalin gained control of the party and the government meanwhile Trotsky’s support base decreased. This made Stalin become even more powerful and paved the way for him to eliminate all of his political opponents thus leading to the rise of Stalin/
Exploited the ideological division with in the Communist Party to form alliances to eliminate his competitors
One reason why Stalin rose to power was because of exploiting ideological division in the party by forming alliances to eliminate his competitors. For example, he formed an alliance Kamanev and Zinoviev, moderates who wanted to remove Trotsky who was radical in his beliefs. Stalin then used new allies like Rykov, Tromsky, and Bukharin to get rid of Kamanev and Zinoviev once he no longer had use for them. This meant that Stalin did not reveal his political inclination and allied himself with both sides, moderates and radicals, at different times. Therefore, Stalin was perceptive and made use of every opportunity to capitalise on his opponents’ mistakes to remove them from the Party. Thus this resulted in the rise of Stalin.
