Stalin had a good run of luck following Lenin’s death, as firstly Lenin’s testament was published, which stated he was rude, and needed to be removed. It wasn’t published because it criticised other leading party members. Also Trotsky couldn’t attend Lenin’s funeral, which gave Stalin the chance to name himself “Lenin’s disciple” this was a big misfortune on Trotsky’s part.
There was also the power struggle. In this there were 4 main factors that Stalin manipulated. These Were:
- Factionalism
- The N.E.P.
- Socialism In One Country/ permanent Revolution
- His Power Base
Factionalism was the Idea that if a member of the party discusses ideas which did not have the majority vote by the party.
There were 2 main Ideas about the N.E.P. , these were the left wing and the right wing. The left wing said it should go and the right wing said it should stay as it would aid Industrialisation, as it allowed free trade to sell goods on the open market which would give money into the open market.
Stalin’s powerbase was due to him being the general secretary, who was in charge of recruiting people, so when the Lenin enrolment scheme was introduced, Stalin recruited “malleable recruits who wouldn’t be impressed by Trotsky’s intellect. This was skill on Stalin’s part, but also a mistake on Trotsky’s behalf, as he had paid no attention previously to Stalin, calling him a “grey blur”
Permanent Revolution was the idea that Russia would change, but at the same time help other countries to change and receive their help. Stalin had an opposing idea to this, which was socialism in one country, which was basically that Russia revolutionise on it’s own with no input from other countries.
1924 was the first stage of the power struggle When Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin sided against Trotsky, as Zinoviev and Kamenev saw Trotsky as a bigger threat than Stalin. Trotsky makes a mistake here, he criticises Zinoviev and Kamenev for not having a very large role in the revolution at the first party congress after Lenin’s death, unfortunately for him, there is not enough support for this idea and he loses his job as war commissar.
After this, Stalin turned on Zinoviev and Kamenev and sided with Bukharin. Here, Stalin unveils his idea of Socialism in one country, this idea gains much support, mainly from all of the recruits that Stalin chose during Lenin enrolment, and here he has turned on his previous allies about the N.E.P.
And then Zinoviev and Kamenev teamed up with Trotsky and together they published Lenin’s last testament to try and discredit Stalin, however they were expelled from the party for factionalism.
And after his three main rivals for power had been expelled, he turned on Bukharin.
We notice that all the way through the struggle for power, he has relied on his power base for support. The success of Stalin was due to the fact that he had an incredible amount of luck, and also that all of his opponents seemed to underestimate him.
