Why did Stalin, rather the Trotsky, emerge as leader of the USSR by 1929?

It can be said that luck was on Stalin’s side which led him to emerge as the leader of the USSR. Stalin was never in the lime light most his Lenin’s life, therefore, he was not considered as a candidate to succeed Lenin. He was a strong and brutal man, and it got too late to realize that he would do anything to get his power. Once he realized that Lenin was unable to remove him from his authority; since he was in charge Lenin’s security having the power to deny access to any one, he threatened Lenin’s wife in not reveling the letter in which Lenin denounced Stalin as his successor and said Trotsky would be a better leader. Another factor that helped Stalin get his power was the fact that Lenin and Sverdlov died at the right time. He headed Lenin’s funeral, and showed that he was the Lenin’s disciple and the right person to succeed Lenin as the leader of the USSR.

Stalin’s changed some of Lenin’s policies and made promises, which became popular with the people of Russia and the Communists regime. He attacked the NEP in 1928, and advocated rapid industrialization. ‘Socialism in One Country’ was what he used to call out peoples sense of patriotism. He new there was not going to be a world wide Proletariat revolution, thus this way the Russian people feel as they played an important role in history.

Stalin did not surface as a leader all due to his strengths, Trotsky’s weaknesses as a politician helped Stalin to win the fight for leadership. Trotsky was not a man that could relate to the people. He seemed arrogant and high-minded, thus never had strong loyal supporters or ‘puppets’. He also did not join with the Bolsheviks till August 1917, so he was not trusted as a loyal supporter of their party and was thought to become a dictator if ever given the power. Trotsky did not like political ‘games’, which is needed to make supporter and destroy the opposition. He could have appealed to his supporters, but was unwilling to cause splits in the party, thus did not fight back as hard. He did not realized that Stalin had built a strong base of power, and underestimated Stalin himself, and Stalin used his political skill and cunningness to out maneuver Trotsky.

Stalin emerged as the new leader of the USSR 5 years after Lenin’s death because of various reasons. But if explained simply, Stalin was a cunning and skillful politician; he got the right jobs which gave him power to build his own party of supporters. He was never seen as a threat to Trotsky, and always shown as a good man to the public, because of his peasant background; people felt that they he knew what they were going threw, and thus trust him. Trotsky’s was his own weakness, since he was not willing to fight back as a politician, he was unable to get the support inside the party that he needed. He was a good orator, but could not get the positions in the party with his own people to get the power over Stalin.