Through his policies, Stalin was able to help in his rise to power. He adapted his policies regularly to make sure that people would agree with him around that time. He also made sure that the majority of the party agreed with the policies he adopted. This helped him because it reduced the amount of opposition that he had as he agreed with most peoples thoughts most of the time. There is a good example of how Stalin changed his policies in his position on the NEP during the 1920s. At the end of the 1920s he decided to go for rapid industrialisation and the majority of party members supported this. They supported Stalin in this because his policies matched what they had wanted throughout the debate. They felt that they could relate to him. Stalin also put forward the policy of Socialism in One Country. The Russian people like this policy as it was Nationalistic. It would give Russia a role in history as the Russian’s thought that they would be forever remembered as the beginnings of socialism. They believed that the rest of the world would follow in their leadership.
The Russian people were much more interested in Stalin’s policy of Socialism in One Country, than Trotsky’s policy of Permanent Revolution. This would mean putting money and a lot of work into helping the working classes of other countries to stage revolutions. Peasants would also be forced to work in compulsory labour units in order to get rid of old attitudes. Stalin’s policies were therefore far more appealing to the Russian people and other party members.
Stalin’s personal characteristics and political skills were a very important reason why he emerged as the leader of the USSR and not Trotsky. Stalin was a more down to earth and practical person than most other leading party members. This meant that he was able to relate to the people of Russia as well as the many working class members who joined the party during the Lenin Enrolment. His personality also meant that nobody saw him as a threat, they were much more concerned with Trotsky. They also had this idea from Stalin’s leadership positions in the party compared to Trotsky’s leadership of the red army. Stalin was vastly underestimated, he had been called a ‘grey blur’ as he was thought of as being so insignificant.
Stalin was also able to use Lenin’s death very much to his advantage, it can be said that Stalin, was in a way, lucky at the time of Lenin’s death as Trotsky had been ill and had been sent out to the south of Russia. Stalin then told Trotsky that he would not make it back for the funeral. The Russian people did not know that Trotsky had been ill and it was seen as though he could not be bothered. Also at Lenin’s funeral, Stalin made sure that he acted as a pallbearer as well as making a speech. Stalin used the Lenin legacy, through his funeral, he tries to associate himself with Lenin any time he can. Stalin also does this through having photos changed so that he appears alongside Lenin, even when he couldn’t possibly be present in the situation. Although Stalin did experience luck with the time of Lenin’s death, his personal characteristics and political skill ensured that he used this situation to his advantage. This greatly improved his reputation, especially in comparison with Trotsky’s. Stalin was quite cunning and deceitful and was able to plan such things as this in order to help him to gain control, he was seen by other party members as being very loyal.
Trotsky showed a major weakness that helped Stalin immensely in the struggle for power, his vanity. Trotsky was so vain that he did not get involved when Zinoviev and Kamenev stopped Lenin’s testament from being published. He was worried that it may harm his reputation slightly, but failed to see that if it was published it would ruin Stalin. Trotsky was also arrogant and dismissive of other party member, there were not a lot of people who were had a personal loyalty to him because of this. People were afraid that Trotsky may cause a split in the party, in contrast to this, other party members thought that Stalin was highly unlikely to cause a split in the party. Many Bolsheviks also doubted Trotsky’s loyalty to the party as he only joined in August 1917. They did not trust him and feared he may begin a dictatorship. A further weakness of Trotsky was that he did not like the hard work in politics. He was not able to make alliances and trade-offs, and was no good at political intrigue.
In conclusion, there was not one main reason why Stalin emerged as the leader of the USSR, all of the reasons mentioned are linked and share some of the responsibility for Stalin’s rise to power. Without Stalin’s personal characteristics and political skills, he would not have used the policies that he used, and he would not have had such control over party organisations. Also, if Trotsky was not a weak opponent, Stalin would never have been able to build such a strong position within the party, but this was also contributed to by his political skills. Also, the weaknesses of Kamenev and Zinoviev helped Stalin as when they formed the triumvirate to work with Stalin, they were easy to get rid of once they had been used as they were needed. They were too weak to stop Stalin from bringing in supporters who he wanted in the party and they did not join with Trotsky until it was too late. Another main point is that Stalin tricked Trotsky into not going to Lenin’s funeral, this made his reputation greatly improved and ensured that he was ahead in the struggle from day one. Stalin was able to do this, partly through luck at Lenin’s death, but also through his personal characteristics. This also helped Stalin to use the Lenin legacy and meant that the public would automatically think that Stalin would be a leader like Lenin. Stalin used many situations to his advantage and was able to sit back while other party members destroyed their own reputation, and helped his. He used his political skills to manipulate situations that had been brought about though luck, he changed his policies to fit in with the ideas of the times and used his opponents weaknesses to his advantage.