The fact that Stalin was a hard worker, especially in those jobs often viewed as boring by others, allowed him not only the chance to fill the party with his supporters, but also to gain an extremely good knowledge of the workings of the communist party and its politics, from even the most basic levels.
However, it was not only the role of general secretary which allowed Stalin to succeed in his struggle for power. His positions in the Orgburo and Politburo also allowed him the power and respect he needed to aid him.
There was also a major mistake made by all of Stalin's opponents. Lenin's testament was damning of Stalin, describing him as “too rude” and urging other communists to see he never came to power. This testament would have ended Stalin's political career due to Lenin's deified status in the USSR. However, there was a great error made by Stalin's political enemies. Firstly, Kamenev and Zinoviev persuaded the general council to bury the testament, as it mentioned their involvement in speaking against “the October incident.” The burying of the testament preserved Stalin's career and power in the Communist party, and the next major mistake was to be made by Trotsky. The testament did call Trotsky arrogant, but it spoke less ill of him than the other candidates, however, due to his dislike of political infighting, he chose not to argue against the burial, proving to be a fatal mistake.
Another reason Stalin came to power was his political prowess, if not genius. His strategy was executed with perfection. Firstly, he allowed the left wing, consisting of Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev to destroy themselves while he stayed in the background, appearing to be the peacemaker of the party. Then upon his attack on the right wing of Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky, he changed his policies to those of the recently annihilated left. This gave him a significant advantage over the right wing. Now, not only did he have the backing of his personal supporters, but also the backing of all the supporters of rapid industrialisation. This huge following allowed him to destroy the right with relative ease, leaving himself leader of the USSR.
One other major political reason for Stalin's triumph, was his support for “socialism in one country” which appealed to the nationalism and patriotism, allowing Stalin to gain more following due to his passionate drive for the policy.
The role Stalin's political genius played in his ascent to the top of the communist party cannot be underestimated.
Another main reason Stalin came to power was not due to mistakes by his opponents, but was simply luck. Stalin was extremely lucky in his pursuit for power. Firstly, Lenin died before he could plant the “political bomb” he had planned for Stalin. Secondly, Sverdlov, an enemy of Stalin passed away, not only relieving Stalin of an enemy, but allowing him to take over the deceased's position as general secretary, a position which arguably led him to power.
Stalin's cunning was another important reason for his succession. He tricked Trotsky into not attending Lenin's funeral, and used the situation to his advantage. Stalin was a pallbearer and gave the speech during the funeral. This appeared to set him up as the natural successor.
However, it could be argued that Trotsky's trust in Stalin not to trick him, was a mistake which was a major contribution to his downfall, as it appeared he could not be bothered to attend the funeral.
Without doubt, Stalin was aided by the view that Trotsky would be likely to cause splits in the party and become a dictator. However, what is debatable is whether this could be viewed as a “mistake” on the part of Trotsky. It was mainly Trotsky's personality which caused this distrust; the fact that he was arrogant and did not inspire loyalty, this therefore, cannot be viewed as a mistake, along with the fact that his position as head of the Red Army appeared to give him “too much power.”
Stalin on the other hand, was generally seen as being unlikely to cause splits in the party, due to his hard working, proletariat background, and past loyalty to the party.
One of Trotsky's mistakes however, was his original unwillingness to join the Bolshevik party, instead choosing to sit somewhere between them and the Mensheviks. This apparent lack of loyalty was a mistake on Trotsky's behalf which would work against him during the power struggle.
To conclude, I feel that mistakes made by Stalin's opposition, such as their underestimation of him, their failure to see him as a threat, Trotsky's foolishness and apparent lack of loyalty and most significantly their burial of the testament, were of major help to Stalin in his struggle for power, however, I feel they weren't the most important,
I feel the most important factors were those of Stalin's personality, cunning, luck, previous offices and enormous political skill; without these, he would have been far from able to seize control of the USSR.
I believe that although the mistakes of other party members aided Stalin, he was a strong enough candidate to take power without all but the burial of the testament, which I feel can also be attributed to luck, as he was fortunate that Lenin had criticised Zinoviev and Kamenev as well as himself.
To attribute many of Trotsky's disadvantages to mistakes would be extremely harsh, as many of his failings were down to his personality, or the office he had been assigned, something out of his power completely.
