Trotsky himself also made other mistakes which helped Stalin to rise to power. When Lenin died, the Russian population went in to mourning and wanted to honour him as much as possible. His funeral therefore became an important political event for the Party members to gain the people’s support. Trotsky, who had been Lenin’s right hand man throughout his career, failed to show up at the funeral (MacDonald 66). This put Stalin forward as Lenin’s biggest supporter and the people respected him for this. It allowed him to create a “cult of personality” around Lenin with him at the centre of attention (Simpson). In this way, he created a very positive and widely supported public image of himself which greatly helped him greatly in his rise to power. The Party decided to let Stalin keep his position in the Party instead of following Lenin’s advice and replace him (MacDonald 66). Their mistakes and failures were ultimately very consequential in Stalin’s rise however they were not the sole cause of it.
The second reason as to why Stalin rose to power is based on his own political skills. One of his most important attributes was his ability to collect positions in the Party which were seemingly unimportant but which in fact gave him a lot of influence and power. His first major post was that of the People’s Commissar for Nationalities which he obtained in 1917 (Lee 1). By the time of Lenin’s death he was also liaison official between the Politburo, main Party organ, and the Orgburo and General Secretary, which was ultimately his most important post (Lee 1). The rest of the Party didn’t deem these positions as important but as General Secretary he controlled a lot of the Party’s organisation and had the power to promote its members (Lee 4). He was therefore able to place his supporters in higher positions and hereby consolidate his power within the party (Lee 4). As Trotsky said, “he is organising around himself the sneaks of the party” (MacDonald 65). Trotsky, his most threatening rival for power, did not have this support within the Party as his power lay more within the military. Stalin had therefore managed to outmanoeuvre his opponents within the Party (Lee 4).
But not only did he place his supporters strategically within the Party, he also gained a lot of public support. He did this mainly through the previously discussed “cult of personality” he created around Lenin. This was probably how he gained most of hispublic support. He also used the Russian Secret Police very tactically. In October 1927, the United Opposition, consisting of Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev, organised a rally to gather support against Stalin. However, the rally tragically failed because Stalin managed to flood it with police, ruining any attempts made to oppose him (Simpson). According to historian Martin McCauley he was “a skilful politician who had a superb grasp of tactics” (Lee 4). His personal skills were therefore also important in helping him rise to power however there is one final contributing factor.
The third reason for his becoming leader was due solely to luck and fortunate circumstances. He managed to take advantage of these circumstances and used them in such a way that benefited his rise to power. His first strike of luck was Trotsky’s weak health causing him to be sick at inopportune moments (Simpson). Trotsky had been the favourite for succeeding Lenin however his weak health along with his failed policies made him unsuitable as a leader. As a result of illness, he managed to miss Lenin’s funeral which turned out to be a very important moment in Stalin’s political career in terms of gaining public support (Simpson). If Trotsky had been there, the Russian population would have looked at him as Lenin’s right hand man instead of Stalin. The weather circumstances of 1927 and ’28 also benefited him positively. The bad weather had led to poor harvests and a general scarcity of food in Russia (Simpson). This allowed Stalin to criticize the insecure Bolshevik policies such as the New Economic Policy (NEP) and promote his own ideas (Lee 5). The NEP had created a new class of richer peasants known as Kulaks who refused to sell their goods unless the price was high enough. The State refused to pay the high prices leading to food shortages in the cities (Simpson). Stalin took this moment to attack the policy and propose the idea of getting rid of NEP and instead collectivise the land, which would allow the country to industrialise and strengthen (Simpson). His luck however was not limited to internal Russian affairs.
Another chance for him to promote his policies came as a result of events occurring abroad. Trotsky’s principal ideology was “World Revolution”, which entailed the spread of communism in Europe and subsequently the rest of the World (Lee 5). However, this ideology was severely damaged during the 1920’s because of the current foreign affairs. Russia’s international relations had only just started to improve after World War I when, in 1926, British police discovered evidence that the USSR was planning a revolution in Britain (Simpson). As a result, the British government broke off all ties with Russia leaving them worse than before. At the same time, the Chinese Communist Party was desperately defeated in China. The Spartacists, a Communist revolt at the end of WWI, failed to seize power in Germany and the Bela Kun regime, another Communist government, was overthrown in Hungary after merely 100 days (Lee 5). All these events helped to undermine Trotsky’s ideology and promote Stalin’s idea of “Socialism in One Country”, which aimed to focus only on Russia and strengthening it (Simpson). The majority of the Party agreed that their policies needed a radical rethink and again Stalin had managed to use the convenient circumstances to his advantage (Lee 5). Luck and convenient circumstances were therefore the final contribution to his rise to power.
In 1928, as a result of the above discussed factors, Stalin finally emerged as single leader of the USSR. He remained in power until his death in 1953, therefore having been in control for 25 years. Which factor played the most important role in his rise to power is debatable. It is obvious that a combination of all three was needed in order to actually allow him to rise to power as they complement and feed off each other. His political skills allowed him to profit from his opponents weaknesses while the convenient circumstances provided him with the perfect opportunity to promote his ideas. It seems however that the biggest role was played by his opponents, or rather their mistakes. The one thing that could really have eliminated any chances of him rising to power would have been the publication of Lenin’s testament. This would have been the end of all Stalin’s possibilities. However, the Party failed to do this and from there Stalin managed to rise to the position of leader of the USSR.
WORKS CITED
Lee, Stephen J. Stalin and the Soviet Union. Routledge Publishers: New York, 1999
MacDonald, Hamish. Russia and the USSR: Empire of Revolution. Longman Publishing group: Essex, 1994
Simpson, Karen. “Class notes, History SL”. October – November 2008. International School of Florence
