Power Struggle

Question 1

Key Changes

Answer 1

4 key changes to win leadership struggle:
Established an ideological orthodoxy.
Destroyed authority of other main contenders.
Changed nature of Party membership.
Created patronage system.

Question 2

Leadership in the Soviet Union

Answer 2

Politburo = most powerful part of government.
Majority Politburo vote = winner of Party Congress votes, which elected the Central Committee which elected the Politburo.
Leadership was a battle for support within Party, not USSR.

Question 3

Zinoviev

Answer 3

Initial front-runner. Leftist
Lenin’s closest friend & right hand man. Shared same handwriting.
1923-25, Triumvirate with Kamenev + Stalin - made up majority of Politburo.
Alliance kept Trotsky out of power.
Zinoviev and Kamenev persuaded Central Committee to ignore Lenin’s Testament, which had instruction to sack Stalin + favored Trotsky.

Question 4

Nikolai Bukharin

Answer 4

1925, alliance with Stalin - Duumvirate. Majority vote in Politburo
Joined Bolsheviks in 1906, trusted by Lenin with important jobs (editorship of Pravda).
Bukharin & Lenin disagreed over issues - ending of WW1 + NEP.
Too young and inexperienced to be leader.

Question 5

Trotsky

Answer 5

Revolutionary hero - led Red Army.
Lenin’s right man.
Opposed Lenin 1903-17, supposedly joining for power, not a true Leninist.
Disagreed with timing of October Revolution and NEP.
Was to succeed in Lenin’s testament.

Question 6

Stalin

Answer 6

Triumvirate & Duumvirate.
Joined Bolsheviks in 1903, loyal to Lenin, trusted with important administrative tasks (General Secretary, 1921).
Disloyal in 1922, when Lenin was too ill, to be fired in Lenin’s testament.

Question 7

Ideological Orthodoxy

Answer 7

1917-22, Communist Party/Gov pluralistic.
1922-28, CP/Gov focused on mixed econ.
Stalin discredited other ideas - Trotskyite.
Communist Party committed to Socialism in one country, and Collectivisation & Industrialisation.

Question 8

Socialism in One Country

Answer 8

Stalin + Bukharin advocated socialism without a revolution - correct “Leninist idea”.
Traditionally, Marxists assumed constructing socialism was a global project, not something done in one country.

Question 9

Collectivisation and Industrialisation:

Answer 9

1928, Stalin wanted to abandon NEP when economy stopped growing in late 1920s.
Argued that Lenin’s commitment to the NEP was pragmatic.
Wanted peasants to work on state-owned farms with the profit used to industrialise quicker.
Argued Bukharin wanted to continue NEP - no longer a true Leninist.
Lenin had tolerated differences of view at top of government, prepared to work with people he disagreed with.
Stalin argued Trotskyites and Bukharin’s followers posed a threat to the Party.
Zinoviev, Kamenev arrested and Trotsky expelled from Party and USSR.