There are many different reasons why Stalin and not Trotsky became Lenins successor. When Lenin died he left no clear successor to lead the Communist Party, so it was assumed that Trotsky was going to be Lenins successor,

There are many different reasons why Stalin and not Trotsky became Lenin’s successor. When Lenin died he left no clear successor to lead the Communist Party, so it was assumed that Trotsky was going to be Lenin’s successor, because Trotsky was very close to him. Also he was in charge of the red army on the evening of 24th October 1917, that’s when they took over most of Petrograd, which is the Bolsheviks headquarters, and he was the one who also signed and had negotiated the Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918.

Stalin was a normal person like most of the Russians in Russia, he had a poor upbringing, and he was the only Bolshevik who had upbringing like that, so some of the poorer Bolshevik supporters saw him as a man of the people. On the other hand Trotsky was highly educated and he was a thinker, this raised jealousy and suspicious among the communist party. Trotsky was so arrogant, people were afraid of Trotsky by most of the seniors in the Bolshevik party, because Trotsky offended most of them. Trotsky failed to realise that he needed them to support him when they voted for one of them for a new successor.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Stalin also had a premium responsibility in the Bolsheviks party. In the role of being the party’s general secretary, so he was one responsible for giving people high-ranking jobs in the party. So if some one was going to vote for him to be the next successor, he would have probably would have given them a high job, so that he could persuade other party people to vote for him. Stalin had also put around a few photographs of himself in the company of Lenin, however many of these photographs were said to be fakes. So that Stalin could pretend to be in companionship with Lenin to fool people, so he could be voted to be Lenin’s successor. Lenin’s Testament was published and read out, it said that Stalin was not fit to be his successor, however Zinoview saved him by saying that Lenin was very ill when he wrote his Testament. Zinoview said this because he did not like Trotsky. If Zinoview did not help Stalin then Lenin’s Testament could have damaged Stalin’s reputation.

Also Trotsky was absent at Lenin’s funeral saying that Stalin had told him the wrong date, Stalin told him it was on the 26th when really it was on the 27th January 1924, because Trotsky was in the south of Russia he could not get to the funeral on the 26th, but could get there for the 27th. So Trotsky did not attend the funeral. Stalin did this, because he wanted to fool Trotsky, and to fool other people, into showing that Trotsky did not care about Lenin that is why Stalin did it. Another point was Trotsky was the man who most feared by the other senior members of the USSR and in the Bolshevik party. People were afraid that Trotsky would involve the USSR into new conflicts, and because he thought that the future of the USSR lay in trying to spread permanent revolution across Europe and the world until the whole was communist.

In the end Stalin emerged as Lenin’s successor, Stalin was look upon as Lenin’s disciple. Stalin one by one eliminated his opponents, and Trotsky was too careless and arrogant, and had under estimated Stalin.

There are many different reasons why Stalin and not Trotsky became Lenins successor. When Lenin died he left no clear successor to lead the Communist Party, so it was assumed that Trotsky was going to be Lenins successor,

This is a preview of the whole essay

Document Details

Related Essays

Explain why Stalin, not Trotsky, emerged as Lenins successor

Why did Stalin, not Trotsky, emerge as Lenins successor?

Explain why Stalin, and not Trotsky, emerged as Lenins successor.

Explain why Stalin and not Trotsky emerged as Lenin's successor