Stalin's Rise to Power

Question 1

What was Stalin’s main role under Lenin?

Answer 1

Commissar for Nationalities

Question 2

What did Lenin’s testament claim about Stalin?

Answer 2

• urged members to think about how to remove Stalin from the position of General Secretary
• commented on his rudeness

Question 3

Why did Lenin and Stalin fallout?

Answer 3

Due to Stalin’s comments to Lenin’s wife

Question 4

What were Stalin’s previous appointments in the party and government?

Answer 4

• People’s Commissar for Nationalities (1917)
• Liaison Officer between Politburo and Orgburo (1919)
• Head of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate (1919)
• General Secretary of the Communist Party (1922)

Question 5

How did Stalin place his own supporters in key positions?

Answer 5

Had the power of patronage = could appoint inmdidivudal to official posts in the party and government

Question 6

How did the Lenin enrolment benefit Stalin?

Answer 6

Added to his growing power of patronage

- provided him with a reliable body of votes in the various party committees at local and central level

Question 7

Why did Kamenev, Zinoviev and Stalin form an unofficial triumvirate?

Answer 7

Their aim was to isolate Trotsky by exploiting his unpopularity with large sections of the party

Question 8

What did Trotsky define the NEP as?

Answer 8

The first sign of the degeneration of Bolshevism

Question 9

Who are the left and right communists?

Answer 9

Left = wanted to abandon NEP
Right = wanted to continue NEP

Question 10

What was Gosplan?

Answer 10

The government body responsible for national economic planning

Question 11

How did Stalin undermine Lenin?

Answer 11

Tried to show that he never truly supported Lenin:

• his attitude to the NEP
• not attending his funeral
• criticism of Gosplan

Question 12

What was seen as the only solution to begin the process of modernisation?

Answer 12

To persuade/force the peasants to producing a food surplus which could then be sold abroad to raise capital for industrial investment

Question 13

What was Trotsky’s belief in ‘Permanent Revolution’?

Answer 13

• Revolution was a permanent process in which rising took place from country to country
• worldwide revolution
  = thought the USSR could not survive against ‘conservative Europe’

Question 14

What was Stalin’s belief in ‘Socialism in One Country’?

Answer 14

• nations first task was to consolidate Lenin’s revolution
• overcome the agricultural and industrial problems in Russia
• build a modern state

Question 15

What happened at the vote against Trotsky in 1925?

Answer 15

Lost his seat as Commissar for War

Question 16

Who did Stalin turn against once Trotsky had been weakened?

Answer 16

Zinoviev and Kamenev

Question 17

Who was the United Opposition?

Answer 17

The group led by Kamenev and Zinoviev who called for an end to NEP and the adoption of a rapid industrialisation programme

Question 18

Why did Stalin win against Trotsky?

Answer 18

Due to his grip on the party machine

Question 19

Why did Stalin move against the Right (Rykov, Tomsk an Bukharin)?

Answer 19

They stood in the way of the industrial and agricultural scheme that he began to implement in 1928

Question 20

What were the weaknesses of the ideas of the Right?

Answer 20

• ideas appeared timid and unrealistic
• plea for a soft line with the peasants did not accord with the parties needs
• Stalin was able to suggest the Right were guilty of underestimating the crisis facing the party and USSR

Question 21

What were the weaknesses of the organisation of the Right?

Answer 21

• couldn’t advance their views due to Stalin’s control of the party
• Were loyal = fearful of creating ‘factionalism’ - didn’t want to create deep divisions

Question 22

Why were the main members of the Right (R, T and B) allowed to remain in the party?

Answer 22

Only after they had admitted therefor of their ways