The Power Struggle (1924-9)

Question 1

What jobs did Stalin have in the party?

Answer 1

• 1917: Commissar for Nationalities (unimportant)
• 1922: General Secretary of the Communist Party (promotes and demotes people in the Party)

Question 2

List 4 of Stalin’s strengths.

Answer 2

• Using his position, he built up a power base by 1924
• He exploited debates over NEP rather than showing his own stance
• He utilised Lenin’s funeral to present himself as Lenin’s natural successor and tricked Trotsky into not coming
• He believed in ‘Socialism in One Country’; consolidating socialism in Russia rather than spreading it elsewhere

Question 3

List 3 of Stalin’s weaknesses.

Answer 3

• He had been unimportant in the October Revolution
• His aggressiveness upset Lenin
• He was also intellectually second-rate and impulsive

Question 4

List Trotsky’s jobs (including the period before the October Revolution).

Answer 4

• 1917: Head of Petrograd Soviet, head of the MRC, MENSHEVIK
• 1917: Commissar for Foreign Affairs
• 1918: Commissar for War

Question 5

List 3 of Trotsky’s strengths.

Answer 5

• He was the mastermind behind the October Revolution and the Civil War
• He was Lenin’s obvious successor
• He was against the idea of a centralised government

Question 6

List 5 of Trotsky’s weaknesses.

Answer 6

• He believed in ‘Permanent Revolution’; spreading communism across Europe so Russia was unthreatened- Bolsheviks also saw him as too Western-thinking
• Against Lenin’s NEP
• He was a Menshevik until 1917
• He had the power to set up a military dictatorship; other Bolsheviks were jealous and suspicious
• He lacked political skill and therefore had no power base while the Troika/ Triumvirate was formed against him in 1922

Question 7

List 3 of Kamenev’s strengths.

Answer 7

• Was part of the Troika alongside Stalin and Zinoviev
• Acted as Lenin’s deputy in meetings (he was the Deputy Chair in the Sovnarkom) and spent 14 years in exile with him
• He wanted a more inclusive style of government

Question 8

List 4 of Kamenev’s weaknesses.

Answer 8

• He voted against the October Revolution (10:2)
• Was against NEP
• He had openly criticised the April Theses
• He had thought the Bolsheviks should work with the PG more and that the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks may reunite

Question 9

List 3 of Zinoviev’s strengths.

Answer 9

• Was part of the Troika
• Spent 14 years in exile with Lenin
• Had played a large part in the October Revolution

Question 10

List 2 of Zinoviev’s weaknesses.

Answer 10

• He voted against the October Revolution (10:2)
• Was against NEP

Question 11

List 2 of Bukharin’s strengths.

Answer 11

• He supported NEP and was close to Lenin
• Helped out the October Revolution from Moscow

Question 12

List 3 of Bukharin’s weaknesses.

Answer 12

• He was the youngest in the Politburo and was inexperienced
• He was against the treaty of Brest-Litovsk as he thought war was needed for communism to spread
• Lenin wondered if he was even a Marxist

Question 13

List the 6 moves Stalin took to consolidate his power.

Answer 13

1. Lenin’s funeral: Stalin organises the funeral and is chief mourner while making it look like Trotsky did not care.
2. Lenin’s will: Stalin and other top Communists agree not to publish it as it contained criticisms about them.
3. The First Party Congress: in 1925, the Troika make Trotsky lose his position as Commissar for War.
4. Ending the Troika: in 1926, Stalin joins Bukharin on the right-wing of the Party and Kamenev and Zinoviev lose their jobs
5. 1927 Expulsions from the Party: Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev.
6. The Right-Wing: in 1928 Stalin attacks NEP and causes Bukharin and other right-wing members to lose their jobs.
   - By 1929 Stalin was the undisputed ruler