Despite this testament, Stalin was able to keep his post and even be open to higher opportunities. One of the reasons for this was many of the party members were criticised and those who were wanted to rule out the testament and by the end was never even published.
By 1924, the Politburo was divided into three sections, The Rightists, the leftists and the Central Moderates. The main cause of this was many disagreements including the development of the USSR.
Nikolai Bukharin led the rightists; he was mainly in charge of press and propaganda. He believed that the government must continue with Lenin’s New Economic Policy. Bukharin hoped that this would encourage the peasants to grow more food crops and make their profits by selling them to the towns. This would then eventually result in the prosperous of the peasants and townspeople.
Trotsky, Zioneviev and Kamenev led the leftists. They all thought that the NEP was a very bad thing to do for the USSR. They strongly believed that the USSR was ready for an industrialisation. SOMETHING MUST GO HERE. Trotsky thought that if they continued to run on a NEP basis then the West Country, who hated communism, would invade the USSR and discontinue it. Trotsky mainly thought the government should seriously consider its farming land and Collective farms. This would then encourage them to sell their food and grain on cheaper rates and in larger numbers so that Russia need never go hungry. (NEED ‘STALINS RISE TO POWER’ IN ORDER TO FILL THIS BIT IN)
These differences of opinions left the two sides to fight in a bitter dispute into who was right and who was wrong. This led not only to the future of the economy but also to the future of their likes and dislikes towards one another. Zinoviev and Kamenev were all for Trotsky’s views on the economy but hated Trotsky as a person. They found him too clever, energetic and original and although popular amongst the ordinary party members and the army. But he was also a vain and arrogant person. When in meetings for the Politburo he treated his associates with disrespect, sometimes he would turn his back on them, read a book or something to distract him while others were reading their speeches and even storming of in an outrageous temper. Therefore he was unpopular among the Politburo group. When Lenin’s death had arrived, three members of the Politburo joined together to avoid Trotsky from succeeding Lenin.
Comrade Stalin Belonged to neither party he thought it would be a good idea if he was kept out of all the arguments and kept quiet. This may have been part of the plan to make the Politburo hate Trotsky so much that they would decide that he was a better candidate for the party.