Stalin’s main opponent was Leon Trotsky and when Lenin died in April 1924, Trostky was his most likely successor. Trotsky had a number of strengths which Stalin lacked. He was liked by the people of Russia and was the genious behind the Red Army in the Civil War. Trotsky was an extremely clever man and a great writer. He wrote himself “A great writer has the potential to inspire thousands of orators.” However Trotsky also had a number of enemies among the party. He was a man of strong opinions and since the revolution, he had upset most of the leading Bolsheviks by disagreeing with their polices. Many of the senior members also resented his late entry into the Bolshevik ranks.
He made a number of grave mistakes which ultimately led to Stalin’s rise to power. Prior to his death, Lenin had grown increasingly worried about the power that Stalin was gaining and wrote in his testament about him “not being able to use power with sufficient caution.” Lenin wrote extremely well of Trotsky describing him as “the most able man in the present Central Committee”. After his death, there was a debate among the Communist Party as to whether or not Lenin’s testament should have been published. The testament was also Lenin’s will and should’ve therefore been pressed by Trostsky. It wasn’t however and the testament was shelved.
Another mistake made by Trotsky was not turning up to Lenin’s funeral. The funeral was a huge event in Leningrad where millions showed to mourn the death of their previous leader. By not showing, Trotsky allowed himself to be open to criticism, especially by Stalin. Attacks from Stalin not only caused the people of Russia to turn against him, but also members of the Communist Party.
Trotsky also criticised party members at times when he really should’ve been making stronger alliances with them. When Trotsky published the “Lessons of October”, he attacked Zinoviev and Kameniev, two strong members of the Communist Party. This, once again, allowed Stalin to attack Trotsky making claims of Trotsky being a factionalist and breaking up the party. Such traits were loathed by Party members due to the 1921 ban and by Lenin which made Trotsky out to be opposing the ways of the previous, successive leader. The publication of a letter Trotsky wrote to his friend in 1913 was also a major set back. The letter spoke badly of Lenin as at the time the letter was written, Trotsky and Lenin were in opposing parties. The publication of the letter was published straight after Lenin’s death and therefore led readers of the “Pravda” to believe that Trotsky was attacking Lenin when the country were mourning their beloved leader. Trotsky considered Stalin to be a man of only “moderate talents” and it was because of this that he didn’t take Stalin’s attempts to obtain power seriously. If Trotsky had taken his knowledge of Lenin’s views on Stalin to the Central Committee, Stalin would’ve probably been removed from power. However Trotsky didn’t just remain silent on the matter, he also persuaded his supporters to keep Stalin as General Secretary.
It was not just Trotsky of the Communist Party that made fatal errors. Kameniev and Zinoviev, two key members were also blind to the forthcoming attack of Stalin. Along with Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kameniev failed to fight for the publication of Lenin’s testament: a vital factor in showing the weaknesses of Stalin as a leader. Tomsky, leader of the Trade Unions failed to use his power against Stalin, just as Trotsky failed to use the Red Army to stop him. Overall, it was a number of key Communist figures’ mistakes that led to Stalin’s rise to leadership.
Another key factor in Stalin’s rise to power was his ability to use familiar factors to manipulate the people of Russia. He set up “the cult of Lenin”, placing Lenin’s body in mausoleum and renaming Petrograd “Leningrad”. He knew how much the Russian people loved and admired Lenin and therefore used the making of “the cult of Lenin” to pass himself of as Lenin’s disciple. This increased his own power immensely. However, he didn’t actually stay loyal to Lenin’s polices and often changed them in order to attack his oppostition and win over the public. For example, he introduced the idea of “Socialism in one country.” This idea was extremely appealing to the public as it meant that they didn’t have to rely on other countries becoming socialist for the idea to succeed. It also completely contradicted Lenin and Trotsky’s idea of “Permanent Revolution”.
Not only did Stalin use his skills to manipulate the public, he also used them to manipulate other members of the Communist Party by making alliances with them, then changing to attack them and therefore weaken them. He firstly made an alliance with Zinoviev and Kameniev to attack Trotsky on his factionalism. Once Trotsky was weakened, he sided with Bukharin to deteriorate the power of Zinoview and Kameniev. By 1928, Stalin’s three key rivals expelled from the party, he then launched a deadly attack on Bukharin. By adopting Bukharin’s economic polices, Bukharin had been elevated to a position of considerable power. In the Spring of 1928, Stalin began dismissing local officials who were known supporters of Bukharin. Stalin attacked kulaks for not supplying enough food, whilst Bukharin continued to support them. In July 1928, Bukharin went to see Kamenev to share his realisation that Stalin had infact played one group against the other to gain complete power. He described Stalin as “the master of dosage” as he had the ability to leak his poison whenever he felt necessary. Bukharin also said to Kamenev “Our disagreements with Stalin are far, far more serious than those we have with you.” He said this in an attempt to join forces and defeat Stalin.
It was too late. By the time of Bukharin’s realisation, Stalin had placed his supporters in the most important political positions in the country. Not even the joint effort of all the leading Bolsheviks alive since the Revolution could stop Stalin. Four years on from the death of Lenin and the power struggle was at an end. Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the largest country in the world.
In my opinion, Stalin’s success in becoming Lenin’s successor was due to a number of factors, however I believe some proved more important than others. I believe that the centralised nature of the Communist party that begun under Lenin made it much more easy to control. The combination of new Communist members being poorly educated and easy to control and Stalin’s skills of manipulation meant his support base was ever growing, unlike his rivals’.
I also think that Stalin’s political skills aided his arise but by no means secured his position as leader. In my opinion, it was Trotsky’s downfalls that secured Stalin’s position of power. Too many fatal mistakes were made by his rivals which seemed to happen at perfect timing. Trotsky was constantly undermining Stalin’s attempts to obtain power and never took him seriously. Because of this, he didn’t appear to work hard enough in blocking Stalin’s attempts or building a loyal support base. Lenin described him as being over confidant, similarly to a number of historians who pointed out that Trotsky simply assumed he would automatically be Lenin’s successor. One claimed “Trotsky considered it beneath his dignity to engage actively in a struggle to power.” It appears that Trotsky’s self assured nature had blinded him to Stalin’s consistent plans. This is why I believe that if Trotsky and Stalin’s other main rivals had been a little more aware, Stalin would’ve by no means been able to take position as dictator of Russia.
