Extra detail: Ideological debates and issues in the leadership struggle 1924-29 Flashcards
What did Stalin insist on at Lenin’s funeral?
That his body be embalmed and placed on public view
Why did Trotsky lose so much power?
He wasn’t a natural conspirator like Stalin and lacked an instinct for bureaucratic infighting and the patience needed to mobilise his supporters
When was the debate over ‘permanent revolution’ particularly intense?
1924, after the 13th Party Congress
How did attitudes in the Triumvirate change after the 13th Party Congress?
Kamenev and Zinoviev became frustrated by their failure to control Stalin
When was Trotsky forced out of his position as People’s Commissar for War?
At the Central Committee in January 1925
How were Kamenev and Zinoviev portrayed after they attacked Stalin?
As factionalists endangering the security of the USSR at a precarious time
What was the ‘Literary Discussion’?
The main contenders in the power struggle released masses of books and pamphlets on political theory in the hopes of gaining support
Who ‘won’ the ‘Literary Dsicussion’?
Stalin: his line appealed to a majority of party members
When did Stalin offer to resign as General Secretary and why?
December 1926
He was frustrated at the constant critcism
What was Stalin blamed for in 1927?
The crushing of the Chinese Communists in Canton and Shanghai
Did Stalin discuss the stern measures used against peasants to get grain with Bukharin?
No
What are 3 examples which show Stalin reverting from the ‘golden middle’ to radical revolutionary policies?
- War in the countryside against the ‘kulaks’
- Sudden and rapid industrialisation
- A new emphasis on interventionist foreign policies and aggressive support for the Comintern
When did Bukharin lose editorship of Pravda?
April 1929
How did Stalin erase the memory of his rivals’ contributions to the revolution?
By falsifying documents and photos to remove them
