Ramon Diez-Canedo
20th Century History
February 26, 2003
The Power Struggle in Russia during the Interwar period
Essay Questions
1. Who would be the next Lenin?
After Lenin’s death in 1924, the Russian population was left without a specific figurehead, but more importantly, the Bolsheviks were left without direct leadership. Lenin began to foresee his death several years before it happened, and so he published a document known as the ‘Testament’. In this document, Lenin praised several of the then current Bolshevik leaders, especially Trotsky. However, Lenin also criticized Stalin, to a pretty high degree. This document never really triggered the effects it was meant to (get rid of Stalin), and so the Bolshevik throne was left wide open for the taking. However, the road to this throne was nothing less than a series of fierce and ruthless political battles, known as the Power Struggle.
The Power Struggle consisted of four distinct phases. Phase one saw Stalin, Kamanev and Zinoviev join forces to become the ‘Triumvirate’. It is important to realize that at this stage, Stalin was definitely not considered to be the dominant contender for the Communist Party (Bolshevik) throne; he was still relatively not as respected as his allies. The Triumvirate opposed Trotsky, who was favored by Lenin to be the next leader. Trotsky made mistakes, such as publishing the Lessons of October (which made him extremely unpopular), and Stalin took advantage of them. Stalin’s strategy of always appearing to be extremely pro-Lenin made him popular with the people, and eventually the Triumvirate managed to seriously reduce Trotsky’s credibility in Russian politics. The second phase of the Revolution saw Stalin, ‘allied’ with Bukharin and Rykov and Tomsky, face off against Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamanev, the latter two being his former ‘allies’. This stage shows the beginnings of Stalin’s sneaky, treacherous tactics. Stalin never supported Zinoviev and Kamanev’s points of views; he was just intent on removing contenders, one or two at a time. During this phase, Trotsky was finally taken care of for good, and sent packing to Mexico via a short stay in Siberia. Kamanev and Zinoviev were also booted out of the Politburo, and their supporters were purges, as Grenwell, a respected Russian historiographer writes. The third phase of the Power Struggle sees Stalin defeat all his remaining contenders and becoming the only possible second Lenin left. Stalin pulls another one of his tricky little tricks and turns against his former allies, Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky. Stalin succeeded in defeating these three characters, and thus became the only possible leader in the Communist Party. During the fourth phase, Stalin finally takes power, and becomes the fear-inducing, worshipped, terrible, ruthless Stalin every relatively objective historian portrays him as being.
