“Socialism cannot sustain itself without democracy”
In October 1927 Trotsky was exiled from Russia to Turkey, where he then moved on to Mexico. Stalin had him chased for years and eventually in 1940 he was successfully assassinated by NKVD agent Ramón Mercader. Trotsky was a crucial target for Stalin to take out, it was near impossible for Stalin to gain power while Trotsky was in the way as he was so well supported and powerful.
Stalins next main targets were Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev and Nikolai Bukharin, all very strong candidates to seize power. Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin formed a “troika” to attempt to take down Trotsky and autumn 1923 managed to secure the vast majority of seats for the upcoming part conference. The conference then denounced Trotsky and Trotskyism in January 1924, demoting many of Trotsky’s followers. In 1925 the “troika” began to deteriorate, Stalin allied with Bukharin and Rykov (Soviet Prime Minister), where as Zinoviev and Kamenev allied with Lenin's widow, Nadezhda Krupskaya, and Grigory Sokolnikov who was a non voting politburo member. The September 1925 meeting was a crushing blow from Stalin against Zinoviev, with only the Leningrad delegation behind them and the majority with Stalin and his allies. Although Zinoviev was elected into the politburo, Kamenev was demoted to a non-voting member where as Sokolnikov, another ally was dropped totally out of the picture. The next move for Zinoviev and Kamenev was an alliance with Trotsky, this was the beginning of the end for the pair. They formed the United Opposition which consisted of their followers and a few other minor groups amongst the part. Stalin wrote a letter to Molotov asking all of his allies to target Zinoviev. Zinoviev was dismissed from the Politburo after a Central Committee meeting in July 1926. Then the office of the Comintern Chairman was abolished and Zinoviev lost his last important post. He stood firm in opposing Stalin and was soon enough abolished from the Central Committee, soon after Kamenev and the leading members of the United Offensive were also removed from the committee. During 1928 and 1934 Zinoviev and Kamenev wrote letters saying how they were wrong about Stalin and accepted the 6 month cooling off period. They never regained their seats but kept a mid level position. After the murder of Sergei Kirov, one of the early communist leaders, Zinoviev, Kamenev and their supporters were expelled from the party and later arrested. They were put on trial and eventually were sentenced with various jail sentences. 1 year and 7 months later they were put on trial again, this time for organising a terrorist organisation that killed Kirov and planned to kill Stalin with other high members in the party. All were found guilty and executed. Kamenev and Zinoviev were targeted by Stalin for 2 reasons:-
1) They posed a threat for taking control of Russia
2) They went against Stalin and his beliefs
They were targeted mainly for practical reasons such as they went against him but also because they began to believe in Trotskyism, the opposite to Stalins Stalinism which involves him being the glorious leader.
Bukharin’s downfall was due to his ideology, he believed that the peasants would be resentful if they were controlled by the government. So he said they should offer them prosperity, thus increasing the sales of grain abroad. He allied with Zinoviev and Kamenev who at the time held their mid level positions, Stalin shot his views down immediately though and accused him of factionalism. He accused them of being capitalist and said that the revolution would be at risk without the rapid industrialisation. Bukharin was swiftly removed from his posts in the committee so were those that followed his views, in on March 15, 1938 was executed by the secret police, the NKVD for supposedly conspiring to overthrow the soviet state.
Stalin estimated that they were 50 years behind all the other countries, technologically and culturally. To gain years back he planned to rapidly industrialise, hoping to gain back these lost years. Stalin changed the country from agricultural to industry by moving a lot of the farmers over into the factories.
Although Stalin saw himself as a Marxist, he broke some of the fundamental rules and started and adaptation of the theory. Lenin had already made an adaptation of Marxism by skipping the stage feudalism and forced a revolution rather than waiting for it to happen. When Lenin was in rule he ran the country under a Marxist-Leninism ideology. Being seen as one of the founders of true communism Stalin decided to keep Lenin’s ideas but only Stalin’s interpretations on them. Stalin went against Trotskyism mainly because of Trotsky’s view on the peasants, Trotsky wanted urban insurrection and not peasant-based guerrilla warfare.
Stalin’s ideology was not Marxist, it was a mere adaptation of what Marxism was and it was known as Stalinism. When leading up to power he removed most of his key opponents for practical rather than ideological reasons. Although Trotsky was removed for being the biggest threat and for going against Stalins and the general parties idea. Stalin all the way through his rise to power allies with the strong and see’s how things play out, this was crucial to him gaining power as he eventually gained power through waiting until he picked his spot. He allied with the right people and fought off anyone who attempted to oppose him at the end of his campaign to rise to power.
