'How did Stalin become leader of the USSR?'

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‘How did Stalin become leader of the USSR?’

After Lenin’s death on January 21st, 1924, there was a struggle for power. There were two out-right candidates: Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. Trotsky was the more able of the two. He was popular with the army and party members. He led the Red Army giftedly during the Civil War (1918). However, some party members believed he was too arrogant and he lacked support in the Politburo. Trotsky also believed in permanent revolution: an idea based on the spreading of revolutionary ideas to other countries. Alternatively, Stalin was unlikely to acquire power and believed in isolating the Bolshevik ideology in the USSR, this was called Communism in one country, and most of the party believed in this. However, by 1930 Stalin celebrated his 50th birthday as leader of the USSR. In this essay, I intend to explore factors for Stalin and factors against Trotsky that contributed to the concluding outcome.

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The first, and most significant aspect was that Stalin did not seem a threat to other politicians. This was of immense help to him, as he could accumulate enough power without anybody becoming aware of his actions. The ability to appoint friends into key positions meant that Stalin’s rivals had no support in the party; this allowed him to suppress Lenin’s testament; which condemned Stalin and other leading communists. His ‘trickery’ also helped him a great deal as well. An evident indication of this is when he deceives Trotsky that Lenin’s funeral was on the 26th. However it was on ...

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