(…)Comrade Stalin, having become Secretary-General, has unlimited authority concentrated in his hands; and I am not sure whether he will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution. (…)Stalin is too rude and this defect, although quite tolerable in our midst and in dealings among us Communists, becomes intolerable in a Secretary-General. That is why I suggest that the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post and appointing another man in his stead who in all other respects differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite and more considerate to the comrades, less capricious(…)
Few years later it turned out that Lenin did not make a mistake in evaluation of Stalin’s psyche... Stalin of course renounced contents of will and refuted each argument briefly and succinctly. It is supposed that Lenin was poisoned by Stalin. How far it is true, we would probably never find out about. One thing is for certain- death of a person who raised Stalin on political heights provided him with lots of advantages, first and foremost possibility of autocracy.
Stalin was disposing of everybody who was suspected of hindering his success at least to a minimal extent. One of the first people to eliminate was Sergey Kirov- Russian who demonstrated his competences as perfect politician and became the most gifted orator of Bolshevik Party. It is indispensable to mention that he was a-many-year-long friend of Stalin, which emphasize the cruel character of a crime. In accordance with Lenin’s will, obligatory secret ballot concerning further lots of Stalin as a General Secretary was conducted. It was commonly known that this vote was only a formality because of Stalin’s significant influences in party which would enabled him to rig the outcomes. When it turned out that almost ¼ of delegates was for dismissing Stalin from a post, illegal mechanisms were activated and almost every opposed to Stalin vote was burnt. In the process of XVII Reunion of a Party, Smirnov, Tołmatchov and Ejsmont was talking Kirov into taking over General Secretary. He disagreed but it did not help him to stay alive. Along with this proposition, he was doomed to be killed… He managed to shun death in odd accidents for several times. Finally, he was gun down by Leonid Nikolajev, who probably receive command from Stalin. Fear and envy were two main motives of this crime. Envy of popularity in party and fear of fact, that there is someone who may overthrow the power of Stalin and be a hindrance to his climbing in USRR. On the XVII Reunion Stalin finally understood that revolutionaries had been fighting for so long not to defer now to one person. And the only way of coping with those who were impossible to subjugate, was to eliminate them forever.
The most serious Stalin’s opponent was Leon Trotsky. They were competing for almost everything, especially for Lenin’s favour, whose support was tantamount to triumph. For long time Trotsky was one of the Mensheviks- option opposite to Bolsheviks. However, in 1917 he joined in Bolsheviks and explained his decision by similarity between his and Lenin’s views on many issues, like the case of bourgeoisie, Provisional Government, international revolution and war. Lenin admitted him to a Party because of his military and oratory abilities and to prove Russian nation that Bolsheviks are not kind of closed sect but they are eager to admit people who are characterized by features essential for their vision of revolution. What is more Trotsky had significant authority which was asset necessary for Bolsheviks. Stalin was faithful to Lenin from the beginning (which was his very strong argument in later quarrels with Trotsky) and in contrast to Trotsky he was unknown to the masses for the very long time. During the Civil War in 1918 Stalin was responsible for organization of army's rear areas and puryfing supporters of fronts while Trotsky was given numerous military tasks. Stalin accused Trotsky of obeying orders incompetently, Trotsky claimed that Stalin abuse his competence and interfere in his tasks, causing anarchy. Dispute began in Carycyn, where Stalin was accused of disregard of orders while Trotsky was accused of nomination of military without consultation with local government. Lenin spoke in favour of Trotsky who temporarily have an advantage over Stalin. Trotsky was mixed up in publication of Lenin’s will that cast aspersions on Stalin. Washing dirty linen in public did not take fancy of rest members of Party who backed up Stalin. In 25.10 1926 Trotsky publicly attacked Stalin, accusing him of willingness to causing fratricidal fight in a Party
and consequently anhilation of it and extermination of revolution. Stalin took revenge on him after few days, when he delivered a speech accusing Trotsky of inciting Party to peasants. Other Party members considered Trotsky as half-mienshevik that was incorporated to the Party for show and they supported Stalin. Trotsky did not stop attacking Stalin. He became a leader of Left Opposition against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and the increasing bureaucratization of the Soviet Union . As a result he was expelled from the Communist Party. In 1928 he was exiled to Alma Ata and in 1929 he was expelled from a country. Trotsky criticize dictatorship of Stalin which he considered as betrayal of revolution ideals and degeneration of essence of soviet country. In 20.08. 1940 he died in Mexico. He was killed by Stalin’s agent who smashed his skull with alpenstock. Ipso facto Stalin got rid of the most serious rival for power. Trotsky considered himself as the only worthy heir of Lenin. That is why he finished poorly…
On the other hand view that Stalin owes his success ONLY to his brutal methods is wrong. His personality and such features as patience, grit and extensive reading enabled him to raise power. During the exile he devoured book after book and he acquired knowledge essential to become the most important person in USRR. When his colleagues pride themselves on their popularity, he was patiently carrying out all entrusted him tasks. And these task were usually very ardous and required a lot of time and attention-Lenin was giving him orders intended for someone who modestly keep busy with them. Many people would give up in this situation, but not Stalin who was dealing with hopeless tasks waiting for the way out from the shadow. He preferred doing that talking and his words were never empty and hollow. Without these features and without luck it would be very hard for Stalin to became a despot. However it is irrefutable that the main factor that enabled it for him was his brutality towards to other members of Communist Party.
Nowadays none of descendtants of Stalin uses his surname. What is more, it is hardly possible to find a person who misses him or is sorry for his lot. Modern society is conscious of his repressions and crimes because of numerous investigations in his case that demonstrated how brutal Stalin was. Number of victims does not lie- it is estimated that Stalin was behind death of dozens of millions of people. Stalin deprive USRR of leadership, leaving only handful of faithfully serving him people. In 40ties of XX centaury, he slew whole Central Committee existing since Lenin chose such makeup ( besides Kirov and Trotsky, Stalin dispose also of such outstanding individuals like Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bucharin). He removed all inconvenient opponents and restored system called ‘Stalinism’ in which everybody and everything was under total control, economy was based on exact planning of goods and there was used brutal crushing of all workers' action and the use of slander and historical distortion against other left groups. He liquidated those who was able to think on their own and had heads full of new ideas. Along with their death, numerous reforms and conveniences passed away…
An excerpt from the poem „Stalin Epigram” written by Osip Mandelstam
They did not agree in minor affairs as agrarian issue- Lenin wanted nationalization of lands after revolution, while Stalin was for splitting it for peasants.
The true surname of Stalin
They were thrown out from a party by Stalin a year before XVII Reunion, so this was probably kind of revenge.
