Joseph Stalin came to power in 1929 through many reasons, he was an extremely determined politician and had planned his bid for power in advance and extremely delicately.

26th January which he wouldn’t have time to be back in time for, but in fact it was on the 27th and he would have had time to be back in time. So the funeral was on the 27th and Trotsky did not appear and Stalin appeared as chief mourner and as Lenin’s closest friend.  He was clever in using his power he had already consolidated within the party. He would do uneventful and boring jobs for the party e.g. General Secretary and Commissar for Nationalities. He would frequently take advantage of these positions by posting his opposition to far away and remote places. He would be ruthless by picking off his opposition one by one through a series of manipulation and treachery. In 1924 working for the Triumvirate was Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev. Working together these cut off their opponents Trotsky and Bukharin because between them they control the important posts in the party. In 1925 Trotsky is sacked as War Commissar. Stalin then turns against Kamenev and Zinoviev and allies himself Bukharin who he had previously opposed. He took his side in the debate on the NEP in order to get rid of Trotsky. By 1927 Kamenev Zioviez and Trotsky are all expelled from the Communist Party. Trotsky is then exiled to Siberia and Stalin begins to attack his former ally Bukharin who is finally expelled from the party in 1929 and Stalin becomes head of state.         One of Trotsky’s major failings as a politician was the fact that he was over confidant, he would often offend other party officials and he also failed to take the opposition seriously, this gave Stalin the breathing space he needed. He was arrogant, he did build up support in the party and by the time he realised that Stalin poised a major threat towards his own position it was too late. He also frightened people because of his views of wanting to have a permanent revolution right across the globe which would involve future conflicts. All this was coming after nearly 10 years of conflict for the USSR which had left over 10 million casualties. He also had the ill fortune of falling ill with a malaria like infection when he needed to be the most active.                          Stalin’s policies were met with much higher favour with the people than Trotsky’s, Stalin proposed that in future the party should try to establish Socialism in One Country rather than try to spread revolution worldwide. To a Soviet people weary of years of war and revolution Stalin seemed to be the man who understood their feelings.