When Lenin died, Stalin played a cruel trick on Trotsky who at the time had fallen ill with a malaria like infection. Stalin told Trotsky that Lenin’s funeral was a day earlier than it actually was, allowing Stalin to appear alone at Lenin’s funeral as his chief mourner and closest friend. Stalin was constantly trying to portrait himself to the public as a man who was like Lenin, who was very popular. By doing this he could make the public associate him with Lenin who was a great leader and admired.
Not only did Trotsky’s naivety as to Stalin’s cunning count against him, but his appearance and background surprisingly also did. Trotsky was Jew and looked like one, with anti Semitism still very much alive in Russia this counted against Trotsky greatly. Not only was he a Jew though, he was also an ex member of the Mensheviks the rival social democratic party of the Bolsheviks. Many Bolsheviks felt that since Trotsky had only recently made the transition between the two parties that he could perhaps not be trusted, he had deserted the Mensheviks after all. Would he go back to the Mensheviks or try to reunite the two parties and ask the Bolsheviks to conform to Menshevik ways and beliefs. Members of the Bolsheviks did not want this to happen and were often hostile to Trotsky who they did not want as their leader.
Trotsky in fact was a strong believer in the revolution that the Bolsheviks were striving for. Trotsky wanted a permanent revolution and desperately wanted communism to spread across Europe. Trotsky hoped that if the Russians could pull off the revolution then the rest of Europe would see what a good idea communism is and start revolutions too, this would have also helped the Bolsheviks fight the Whites who were getting help from countries such as Britain and France, Trotsky hoped communism would end this. Trotsky believed that if other countries did revolutionise then Russia would be able to learn on them for economical and financial support.
Not unlike Al Queda today, Trotsky believed that communism was the way forward, so tried to spread the idea to others.
Stalin however had other ideas he did not approve of the proposal of a permanent revolution. Stalin didn’t want Russia to have to lean on other stronger countries for support. He unlike Trotsky saw the potential danger of becoming dependant on other countries. Should war break out it would be very dangerous for Russia if she was not able to hold her own, be independent and fight back. Stalin wanted to build up Russia’s economy so she didn’t need to rely on others. The Russians people agreed with him, they did not want to have to rely on other countries but stand proud and be independent, plus many realised that if Stalin did make an effort to build up Russia’s economy that would mean more work and better pay for many, this is yet another reason why people backed Stalin, they realised there would be jobs for them if he came to power.
A lot of the Bolshevik leaders didn’t like Trotsky, feeling that he had too much power, they thought it would be safer to appoint Stalin as leader as he appeared to be a “push-over”. They thought that under Stalin they would be able to convince him to do as they wanted. They were very wrong.
Stalin and his policies appealed more to Russia than Trotsky who had no real chance when put against Stalin and his extreme cunning and foresight. Trotsky was more a man of actions rather than words and knew little about politics in comparison to Stalin. Stalin tricked Trotsky and manipulated everyone he could; those he couldn’t get to support him mysteriously disappeared. Although Trotsky worked hardest for the success of the Bolsheviks it was Stalin in the end who reeled in the benefits. Trotsky wanted what was best for Russia and its people but was unable to outwit and outshine Stalin who emerged in the end as Lenin’s successor.
