Stalin was able to outmanouvere his opponents by playing them off one another. This was a grat attribute which stalin had. For example in 1924, Zinoviev and Kamenev mounted a viscous campaign against Trotsky, questioning his loyalty and raisng his opposition to Lenin before 1917. Stalin was happy to stay in the background bwatching the left wing tearing itself apart and continued to build his power base. He emerged as the peacemaker, (which also added support for him) anxious to maintain party unity.
However it was not only Stalin's political skills that helped him gain power, but his personal characteristics and qualities. For example, unlike Trotsky he was a very loyal member and had proletariat roots, and he was perceived by many to have no real reason to cause splits with in the party.
Stalin was also perceived as dull and mediocre the 'grey blur' and so no one saw him as a real threat. This was important and enabled him to rise to power without anyone really noticing. He was tough and ambitious and determined to protect his power base and make sure that it was him who emerged as leader. Stalin's control of appointment membership made him a useful ally. As this made other contenders want him to be on their side because he could deliver votes in the congress. However it was not only due to Stalin's politics and character that he emerged as leader, but to a man named Leon Trotsky he failed on many occasions to step up to the challenge as leader.
At first Trotsky was the most prominent character of the seven members of the Politburo. Initially he seemed as the most able of the two to become the new leader of the USSR, but what happened? I believe that there are many factors which imply that Trotsky himself was reliable for his own downfall. The first and most fundamental point I believe was the fact that Trotsky didn’t like getting involved in the 'drudgery of politics'. This meant he was not as good as Stalin when it came to making allies and getting people on his side. The fact that Trotsky was not keen on placing the people that supported him in important positions, meant that there was no real opposition against Stalin that was united enough to cause a real threat.
Another problem with Trotsky was that he was not seen by many of the Bolsheviks as a loyal member as he was an ex- Menshevik who joined the Bolsheviks (in August 1917) only when it was clear that this would be the winning side. Most of the Bolsheviks did not trust him and thought that he might try to emerge as dictator. The fact that he was not a 'real' Bolshevik angered Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev and they all formed a triumvirate, where they all joined together to keep Trotsky from gaining power. Trotsky's only hope by this time was to release Lenin's testament, which condemned all three of the triumvirate and dismissed Stalin to such an extent that Stalin's chance of succession would have been ruined. However luckily to Stalin's advantage this wasn't ever published. The testament was slightly critical of Trotsky but it showed that he was Lenin's choice of successor. It also showed Trotsky's fundamental flaws, his naivety and ruthlessness, but if he had tried to publish the testament, tried to gain more support, or condemned Stalin of his management over the Georgian affair then he would have almost certainly weakened Stalin's position.
One of Trotsky's main weaknesses was that he did not go out of his way to build up his power base in the party and he allowed Stalin to erode the one he already had. Trotsky at first did not see Stain as a threat and he underestimated Stalin, and in the end he was outmaneuvered by him. Trotsky did not want to take any action which he thought would damage the party and so was not willing to form an opposition to Stalin or use the Red Army to seize control. This meant that he would never be able to change his position to one of power.
I believe that Luck also favoured Stalin rather Trotsky. For example Lenin and Svedlov died at the right time for Stalin. A time were he was increseing in power and his potential/amition growing.Also on the day of Lenin's death Stalin found the perfect opportunity to be appointed as leader and rule out Trotsky. He planned that he would not invite but send him else where instead of Lenin's funeral. As luck would have had it Trotsky was too ill to attend the funeral anyways. People started talking about Trotsky's rude behavior and this produced to be a very negative point in Trotsky's favour.
It was also lucky for stalin that Lenin;s testament was not published. In his testament Lenin warned the communist party against Stalin dieing. He described him as being RUDE and as not being able to use the power given to him with "Sufficient Caution". However w they decided that Lenin's testament would not be made public. This was a huge point in Stalin's favour. The factor of luck I believe also aided Stalin in gaining votes at the time of the elections.
In conclusion I believe that there were a number of reasons as to why Stalin was successful rather than Trotsky, even though he had planned the November revolution and led the Bolsheviks through the civil war. Trotsky was the only person who could speak and think of ideas on carrying out revolutions, like Lenin where as Stalin was nothing like him infact he was a very boring spokes person. He was seen as a dull and a mediocre person. However Trotsky was regarded as an arrogant person and he did not spare time for the people who he considered stupid. This was one drawback that made other communists give a vote against Trotsky. Also I believe that one of the most important reasons to why Stalin emerged as leader was because of his position as General Secutary where he was able to appoint his own supporters to high positions un the party, and dismiss others, he fundemetally controlled membership. And so thi smeant that he was able to come to power. Another very important reason I believe is the fact that Stalin was able to exploit his oppsitions weaknesses (especially those of Trotsky). By doing this Stalin was able to remove any real opposition and in December 1929 Stalin celebrated his Fiftieth birthday as the new undispuited leader of the USSR.
