– reasons for the emergence of Stalin as leader of the USSR by the late 1920s

Question 1

Stalins success

Answer 1

• leveraged the dislike of Trotsky, easy target to his advantage
• failure of political rivals
• Trotsky inability to campaign
• Bukharin failure to build his own power base
• exploited party legislation to eliminate opposition estimated by other party members
• zionoviev decision to ‘save’ stalin from resignation
• flexible ideologies, responsive to favourable circumstances
• stayed with majority
• seen as the “the grey blur”
• manipulation of party ideologies
• ban on factionalism
• second revolution
• starting the cult of lenin
• stalin dominating his position in party apparatus
• maximise his power base and ensure his support
• general secretary
  increasing patronage
  increased power + influence in the party

Question 2

Commissar of nationalities

Answer 2

in this post, stalin was in charge of officials in different regions of the USSR. This gave him a link to non russian parties.

Impact

He was able to build contact in the border areas and the far flung party organisations. He would be able to count on these people for votes and future party conflicts

Question 3

General secretariat

Answer 3

Most important job. The purpose of this role was to coordinate the overlapping of branches of the party and transmit party policy. This allowed him to build up on personal files on the members of the party. stalin had information on everything important happening

Impact

Stalin was also responsible for the promotions, demotions, and appointments in the party. By the mid 1920s, all levels of the party owed their position to Stalin

Question 4

Liasion between orgburo and politburo

Answer 4

Stalins role was to take care of day to day management of the party. In Deutschers words, “he was the only permanent liaison officer between the politburo and the orgburo” which was the organisation

Impact: Stalin was able to oversea and monitor party policy and the parties personal who carried out these policies

Question 5

commissar of the workers and peasants inspectorate

Answer 5

This office has the noble purpose of removing corrupt and inefficiency from the party. The inspectorate had the job of checking on every branch of government and and of traning the civil service to run the country

Impact
Above all it was stalin, who came to supervise the personnel and workings of the entire government