How did Stalin gain power and initially dispose of his opposition?

Ramez Younis

Grade 10

History

The Rise of The Beast

When Lenin died in 1924 there would be no leadership election. The communist party did not work that way; the leader would be the person to show most power. The two figures that struggled to power the most to succeed Lenin were Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky.

After the 1917 revolution, Stalin was already a member of the Central Soviet Committee since 1912. Stalin was an old Bolshevik. He came from a poor background but wasn’t an intellectual, full of fine phrases and good vocabulary that made him popular with some communists. Trotsky was very much different, he came from a middle class family and was intelligent and an excellent political thinker. He wanted to change the face of Russia, but the problem was that he only became a Bolshevik in 1917.

On Lenin’s death, Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev formed a triumvirate of successors, allied against Trotsky. They were old Bolsheviks who shared the same ideas as Trotsky but disliked as dictator of Russia. The Three of them persuaded the central committee to forget about Lenin’s advice to remove Stalin from office as the document said that Stalin was too rude and could not use power wisely. Trotsky didn’t use this document against Stalin as he himself was accused in it of being too authoritarian.

‘Stalin is too rude and this failing is intolerable in the office of General Secretary. Therefore I propose to the comrades to find a way to remove Stalin from the post.’- Lenin

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‘Stalin is too rude and this failing is intolerable in the office of General Secretary. Therefore I propose to the comrades to find a way to remove Stalin from the post.’- Lenin

In 1926, Stalin turned on Zinoviev and Kamenev. They also thought that Stalin was too dangerous and so, they sided with Trotsky, opposing Stalin’s plans, Policies…. Stalin joined Bukharin who was right wing of the party. Bukharin had one of the best brains of the party. Stalin put his ideas on socialism in one country forward and won many votes. Zinoviev and Kamenev lost their jobs as they were forced to resign. They were removed from the party and were both executed in the purges. Stalin subsequently broke with Bukharin and engineered his fall from power. It was a lot easier for Stalin to defeat the right communists. They didn’t have the same level of support and respect the left had. Stalin moved against Bukharin because he opposed Stalin’s industrial and agricultural policies. Bukharin was executed in the purges while other right wing communists committed suicide.

The right wing, led by Bukharin, favored continuing Lenin’s New Economic Policy (NEP). The NEP would allow certain level of private enterprise. It was also suppose to reduce the suffering of the peasants and stabilize the economy. Members of the right wing wanted to retain the NEP because they thought the economy was still too fragile. The left wing that included Trotsky, wanted the NEP scrapped because they believed it went against communist theories. Stalin’s position wavered depending on the political Situation. The NEP continued until 1928 with some clear success until Stalin reversed this policy and ordered for collectivization of agriculture and the five-year plan without looking at the farmers who had risen to prosperity under the NEP. He wanted to industrialize the country and the only industrial progress could come from agriculture. This would therefore allow the USSR to compete economically with the rest of the world.

Trotsky who was the front-runner to succeed Lenin had the support of the army. He had been triumphant in the Civil War. Stalin benefited more from Trotsky’s mistakes than any other initiative of his own. He constantly posed as a moderate calming influence against the wild excesses of Trotsky.

Many people were afraid that Trotsky would lead the USSR into more wars and conflicts. He would never rest until the entire globe was communist. He wanted to take over industrial countries so that Russia would therefore improve industrially too. Most soviet party members didn’t like these ideas because they were tired of wars and revolutions. He also became sick in the same time when Lenin was dying (1923). He should have been most active in that time. Trotsky also didn’t show up in Lenin’s funeral because of a trick that Stalin played on him which allowed Stalin to give a big speech praising Lenin and said he was Lenin’s disciple.

Trotsky, later in 1924, believed that the party was overstaffed by people in useless positions with no contact with the proletariat, which is what communism was supposed to be concerned with. These people support Stalin as the owed there jobs to him. Trotsky also wanted permanent revolution. He didn’t think that the revolution had been established properly in Russia.

Trotsky was defeated in all issues. He attacked Stalin’s policy in China where he found some support from Chinese communists. His lack of political power base, told against him. In 1926 he was removed from the politburo. In 1927, he was expelled from the party. In 1928 he was exiled to central Asia. Eventually he was exiled from the Soviet Union and in 1940 he was assassinated by one of Stalin’s agents.

What Stalin offered seemed more attractive. He wanted “socialism in one country”. He wanted to get rid of the wild excesses of Trotsky. Only then people started to notice the damage caused by the Civil War and how much was needed to be fixed. They should concentrate on building a socialist country. His plans in agricultural would loose the gains of the revolution.

Stalin was also clever and he planned for power very carefully. He got a good start at Lenin’s funeral. He took a lot of positions in the party to put his own supporters into good posts. He new with whom to side with. Most historians tend to agree that Stalin’s appointed of his supporters to key positions within the state was a major factor to his rise of complete power of Russia. The Bolshevik party was the second major factor to drive him to dictatorship. The party itself placed Stalin in a position where he could make his appointments. They also ignored Stalin’s growing to power leaving him to gain control of “al the levers of power”. As a result, he proved to be immoveable when the party eventually tried to remove him from office in the 1920’s.

Lenin and Stalin

Zinoviev