Similarities Between Trotsky And Stalin

The two main rivals were Trotsky and Stalin, both members of the Politburo, the top section within the party. However, looking back from today we can see that Trotsky never really opposed a real threat to Stalin who would become the new leader of Russia officially in 1929. Stalin became the new communist leader after he successfully had won over both Trotsky, the right group of the party and the left group. In 1922 Stalin had been given the position as General Secretary of the Bolshevik party. Silently but effectively Stalin began to organise his network his supporters were given key positions within the party, while people who opposed Stalin or Stalin opposed/disliked were positioned in distant areas of Russia. The fact that Stalin did this
We should also remember that many members were there due to Stalin as he had appointed them. Stalin seized the opportunity and held a speech at the ceremony. His speech was the beginning of the Cult of Lenin. Stalin cultivated the myth of Lenin as the Father of the revolution. This way Stalin himself was put in the positive light. Not only did he contradict Lenin’s suggestion that he only wanted power for the sake of power, he emphasised his standpoint as a communist and seemed to believe in the revolution which strengthened his position as the next leader of Russia. However, it wasn’t only because of himself that he mostly received the majority of votes (within the party). The fact that he hadn’t joined the party until after the 1917 rebellions irritated many of the Old-Bolsheviks that had been members since the creation of the party. Trotskys competence mounted the dislike for him and lead to men within the party working together and doing anything to prevent him from gaining power, such as voting for Stalin instead. He used his position as General Secretary to dismiss them from the party or to reposition them. Workers within the party had to have Party