In the lead up to Lenin’s death and the years that followed, it would seem Stalin was in a weaker position than several of his opponents, as many doubted his role in the Revolution and, therefore, his role as a leader of the Party. Several factors played a role in allowing Stalin to be victorious, however, comparatively they hold varying significance. Despite the odds appearing to be stacked against him, Stalin’s ruthless personality and devious strategies allowed him to tactfully defeat his opponents, by manipulating his position within the Party, without having any real party appeal or Government powerbase and he ultimately emerged as leader of the Party in 1929, ending the leadership struggle.…
Trotsky however was the complete opposite to Stalin. He was popular, an orator and a talented theorist who stirred loyalty in his troops. His radical ideas made him well-liked with the young and idealistic members of the communist party. Lenin in his testament identified Trotsky as a “the most able in the present communist committee” he also remarked on Trotsky’s “too far reaching self-confidence”…
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…
To what extent did Stalin’s rule mar the key turning point in Russia’s political development 1856-1953?…
Like Hitler, Stalin first became active in politics when he joined a militant political party. The party Stalin joined was known as the Russian Social Democratic Party. Stalin was arrested in 1902 and was deported to Siberia but escaped and was back in Georgia two year later. Stalin first met Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik faction of the Social Democratic Party, when he returned to Georgia. Lenin was a political mentor to Stalin and had great respect for him. In 1912, Lenin nominated Stalin to the Central Committee of the Bolshevik party. However, Stalin was arrested once again and exiled to Siberia in 1917 where he would remain until the Czar was overthrown. After the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, Lenin became the new ruler of Russia and named Stalin the Commissar of Nationalities. Over the years, however, Lenin’s health began to deteriorate. In 1924, Lenin died and the party now known as the All-Union Communist Party was headed collectively by several of Lenin’s cabinet members. Like Hitler, Stalin was a very clever manipulator and was able to turn the members against each other. After successfully obtaining more power, Stalin had the few political enemies he had left shot and he assumed power of the Soviet Union (“Joseph Stalin”,…
Another weakness of Stalin’s leadership, thus supporting the argument is that many of the most successful officers were purged under Stalin’s orders. This can mainly be attributed to Stalin’s paranoid personality; he was afraid of competition for leadership from the higher ranked officers and it was because of this he gave out the orders for them to be purged. This would support the argument that victory was in spite of Stalin as the Soviet government would have been much stronger had Stalin not ordered the officers to be purged. this is a particularly important factor contributing to the validity argument as it…
Stalin would be considered powerful leader in 19th century. After the death of Lenin in 1924, Stalin became the leader of the Soviet…
It was not just his popular policies that saw Stalin replace Lenin as the leader of the USSR. It was also partly due to the mistakes and weaknesses made by the other leading Bolsheviks such as Trotsky. Trotsky was seen as too powerful because he was the leader…
Shortly after Lenin’s rule there was a fight for power between Trotsky and Stalin. In the end, Stalin prevailed and earned leadership of the Soviet Union during the mid-1920s. However, once Stalin came to power, the lives of the society changed dramatically. Stalin’s wished to restore society which caused him to reverse Lenin’s previous work. Stalin revoked many laws concerning women’s emancipation because he wanted to strengthen tradition and build up the population.…
Stalin had a grip on Russia and had enough power to change the entire country. Lenin appointed Stalin for the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party.…
Stalin seemed to be on good terms with Lenin until Stalin had spoken to Lenin’s wife Nadezhda Krupskaya following Lenin’s appraisal of Trotsky which Krupskaya had cited, and Lenin certainly did not like the way Stalin had spoken to her. In short, he amended his last testament and was making it clear that Stalin had to go because he could not be trusted, was rude and was an arrogant. In the party, Stalin had always been perceived as a dull, mediocre and uninteresting person who was happy to get on with dull, mediocre and uninteresting jobs which mainly consisted of administration and he proved he was good at this which was why he was ultimately appointed as the General Secretary of the party among other positions prior to this one – a potentially dire move by Lenin following his death simply because it put Stalin in a position where could place his friends and allies in high positions in the pending power struggle. This then raises the question how exactly Stalin came to be the dominant leader, and I will address potential reasons which could be argued as to…
This sparked his first encounter with a position in government. In 1901 Stalin began writing for the Brdzola which published many of his revolutionary articles and ideas(Simkin, 1978). Towards the end of 1901, he was accepted into the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party but only six years later, in 1907 he was expelled (Biography 2011). Why you ask? In between that time frame Stalin was taken into custody multiple times for numerous crimes and even exiled out of the country! However, his luck changed in 1912 when Vladimir Lenin appointed Stalin to the Bolshevik Central Committee(Simkin, 1978). Under this condition he was appointed multiple jobs and had to oblige by various orders. Later, he was even appointed the advantage of people’s Commissar for Nationalities, and later the commissar of worker’s and peasant’s inspection(Simkin,1978). After years of hard work, in 1922, he finally received the position he most gravely wanted, General Secretary of the Communist Party. Stalin was on his way to absolute power and now able to control appointments, workers’ schedules, relocate officials and make his was up the ladder while increasing his superior power. After Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin finally had his big shot. Not many years later, in 1929 Joseph Stalin took Lenin’s reign and became absolute ruler of The Soviet…
He began to build a base to start on when he was taken as a rank of a party in the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917. He was made a general of a communist party and they allowed him to have power at this point. When the higher rank died, Stalin took his place, therefore becoming a political heir and soon he was gaining more power and eventually became a dictator in the late 1920’s. His rise to power basically consisted of taking away power and rising against his political and ideological opponents. He also started what was called “The Great Terror”, which referred to the purges he started to make against anyone who would oppose him.…
From the beginning of Joseph Stalin’s college career he was seen as a leader. He started a committee in his college because he did not like the school’s curriculum. He recruited members so that they could study the Russian Tsanst government as apposed to the Orthodox school’s curriculum. Joseph Stalin’s first role in the government came in 1898 when he united with a secret Marxist revolutionary committee. He then also worked for a writing company where he had articles published over time. After this in 1901 he was accepted into the Russian Social Democratic Labor party. Between the years of 1902 and 1913 Joseph Stalin was arrested numerous times for several different crimes. Luckily he was able to escape quite often and by the end of his sentence of being exiled in Siberia Joseph Stalin had been appointed by Lenin to the Bolshevik Central Committee. Joseph Stalin was able to take charge of the Bolsheviks when Lenin went into hiding, fearing arrest. When Lenin came back he had decided that he would have Stalin whom he trusted be one…
In order to consolidate his power, Stalin made sure the Politburo was filled with members who idealized him and removed any of the Old Bolshevik party. His view was very much that in order to strengthen his party he would have to remove “opportunist elements” [2]which later came to describe anyone who criticized Stalin’s policies.…