Born into a world of change due Russian Industrial revolution, Trotsky was shaped by his historical context and early life. The Revolution took place in the late 19th century. Industrialization was occurring at a fast rate with export of grains and coal increasing, however the working class was still repressed. Trotsky was introduced to a place where change was prevalent, yet nothing had been done for the proletariat. This impacted on his views that became apparent in later life. Trotsky was introduced to Communism in 1897. Being an inexperienced political activist, he was caught and exiled to Siberia. Trotsky was aware of leading Marxist Russians residing in London, including Martov and Lenin, and he escaped to join them. Arriving in 1902, Trotsky established a strong relationship with Lenin, who appreciated his literary abilities. Lenin checked Trotsky’s writing, especially articles for the Communist newspaper ‘Iskra’. However, in the Party Congress of 1903, the Social democratic party split into the Lenin led Bolsheviks and Martov headed Mensheviks. Trotsky stood against Lenin, stating that his theories went against Marxist notion of freeing the working classes. Through the context of his times, and early life experiences, it can be discerned that events…
In 1922, when Vladimir Lenin died, someone needed to step up and the Soviet Union. As he was slowly dying, a power struggle emerged between Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin. Even though Trotsky “had been widely viewed as the heir of Lenin, it was relatively easy for Stalin to combine with the other Bolshevik leaders in order to head off this threat” (Paley 10). In Lenin’s “Final Testament”, Lenin could already see that Stalin was quickly and surreptitiously gaining power. Stalin’s position of General Secretary gave him the ability to appoint people to important positions. Lenin was also reluctant to see Stalin as his successor because he thought that Trotsky could do a much better job. Lenin believed that Trotsky was the best man in the central…
Talk about how after Stalin’s death he set about on de-Stalinisation and reform the Stalinist system that had previously consisted of terror and repression…
He fuelled a period of massive industrialisation which ultimately lead to the emergence of a new social group; the urban proletariat. This group, who had little status in Russian society in the period 1854-1894, now played a major role in Russia, meaning a change in an average workers status. By 1914, there were 2.9 million workers employed in Russia working in 24,900 factories. However, this period comes with a degree of continuity in the level of status of workers; in 1910 only half of Russia’s national productivity was industrial. This points in the general direction that, as with the reigns of Alexander the II and III, the peasants were the social class with more power. The provisional government of February 1917 marked a change for the status of workers in Russia. It was formed with the Petrograd soviet, a council of workers and soldiers. They controlled the railway, postal and telegraph services; a level of status in which workers had previously never held. During Lenin’s rule, there were varying degrees of workers status: ‘While the peasantry suffered between 1918 and 1921, the urban workers became better off…The NEP clearly benefited the peasantry at the expense of urban workers’1. This quote from Lee can be challenged, as during war communism 1918 the populations of Moscow dropped by half. This shows that workers…
The concept of Stalinism, being the ideologies and policies adopted by Stalin, including centralization, totalitarianism and communism, impacted, to an extent, on the soviet state until 1941. After competing with prominent Bolshevik party members Stalin emerged as the sole leader of the party in 1929. From this moment, Stalinism pervaded every level of society. Despite the hindrance caused by the bureaucracy, the impact of Stalinism was achieved through the implementation of collectivization and the 5-year plans, Stalin’s Political domination and Cultural influence, including the ‘Cult of the Personality’. This therefore depicts the influence of Stalinism over the Soviet State in the period up to 1941.…
Russia was torn between the world war and the population was threatened as levels of starvation rose whilst industry fell. The provisional government could not do much to stop Russia plummeting as they did not have much power and the people of Russia failed to support them (1). The citizens of Russia were desperately looking for help and the Bolshevik party, created with the help of Lenin and Trotsky in the year 1917, had the answer. Slowly, they had managed to become one of the most powerful parties ever created, but many factors were to cause the consolidation of power. In this essay I will be comparing the significance of Vladimir Lenin in the Bolshevik consolidation of power with another important factor; Leon Trotsky.…
[9] DeJonge Alex. Stalin and the shaping of the Soviet Union. (Glasgow: William Collins Sons and Co. Ltd., 1984). Pp 333.…
Stalin was paranoid about people trying to not conform and try to rebel against him. 93 out of 139 Central Committee members were killed and 81 of 103 generals and admirals were executed. The secret police in Russia were strong believers of Stalinism and encouraged people to inform on one another. Around 750,000 people were killed as a result of Stalin’s paranoia. In fact, a lot of the deaths during his rule were because he had a political competitor killed or citizens were killed due to harsh laws.…
How far was Stalin’s victory in the power struggle between 1924 and 1929 the result of the popularity of his policies?…
Khrushchev’s vilification of Stalin in his address to the Twentieth Party Congress was meticulous in detailing precise failures of his predecessor’s rule. Above all, Khrushchev strongly elaborated on Stalin’s extremities, especially the cult of personality that he had built up over the years. The speech also in turn attacked ‘Stalinist repressions, arrests, terror and murders…[and] for bungling foreign affairs and mishandling the war’. Despite this, Khrushchev was cautious in limiting his other criticisms of Stalin, and it was this focus on him as an individual rather than of the overall Soviet system that defined the boundaries of acceptable criticism. As such, the speech sought to condemn Stalin without endangering the party’s validity or the system that had indeed allowed Khrushchev to rise to power.…
Through the show trials and ‘The Terror’, Stalin shaped the Communist Party and Soviet society to a significant extent from 1934 to 1941 through the use of fear and control to assume total power with no opposition. The Great Terror aimed to target individuals who undermined Stalin’s regime, and was catalysed by the assassination of Sergei Kirov, a Bolshevik revolutionary working below Stalin who would often challenge him. Through the use of political purges, Stalin shaped the Communist party to a significant extent, eliminating and denouncing any possible rivals while also creating fear within his government. Similarly, through the show trials and the purges, Stalin significantly restructured society, creating a need for obedience through the use of terror within soviet society. However, Stalin…
At the time, Stalin seemed like he was the greatest person on Earth. He made himself seem as if he was above everybody, both physically and mentally. After all of the revolts that were occurring in Russia, he just took over. He went into power right after Lenin had died and took his place, over Trotsky who also wanted to rule over Russia. Well he didn’t and we can’t change that. All we can do is remember Stalin and remember all of the things he did to make people support him and his cause to industrialize Russia.…
As he went up in ranks in his Democratic party, he soon became the “secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, a role that embedded him to appoint his allies to government jobs and grow a base of political support”(C). When Lenin, the first leader, died, Stalin was placed into power, where he then became the absolute ruler of Russia. As a leader, he was fierce, a go getter. No matter what the cost, he did whatever he needed to do for the revolution and went to jail more than 18 times. However, he adapted a personality that was rude, sullen, and many other characteristics that cause people to push him away and or shun him, “He became more dedicated because of this isolation”(C).…
Joseph Stalin is one of the most well known dictators. He is known to be the savior of Russia. He was also known to be a cruel leader that didn’t let anyone get in his way. This lead Stalin to be feared by many people in Russia. Stalin was the dictator that ruled over communist Russia in 1928. In his time of leading this totalitarian country, he accomplished many good and terrible things.…
Joseph Stalin was one of key figures in 20th century history. He transformed Russia during his time in power. In this essay, I will be discussing the violence Joseph Stalin had imposed against the Soviet Union and the world. Stalin had a long life and a long political career too. Stalin started off studying the marxist revolution and later spent his time and attention towards the revolutionary movement against the Russian monarchy (Gellately, 2013). Stalin later became an activist for fifteen years. Finally, he was a dictator of Soviet Russia from 1929 right up until his death in 1953 (Gellately, 2013). He transformed Russia from a minor rural country into a great and powerful industrial nation. Stalin was the most vicious politician…