How far do Trotsky(TM)s own misjudgments account for his failure in the power struggle which followed Lenin(TM)s death?

"How far do Trotsky's own misjudgments account for his failure in the power struggle which followed Lenin's death?" Following Lenin's death in 1924, a power vacuum appeared for the leadership of the Communist Party in Russia. A collective leadership was proclaimed, however competition for individual authority between Trotsky, Stalin, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky led to a fierce struggle for power, ending in Stalin's triumph and the beginning of his tenure as the leader of the Communist Party. The strongest contenders in the power struggle were Stalin and Trotsky, however a number of unfortunate decisions and lack of support on Trotsky's part, coupled with Stalin's tactics and power base, led to Trotsky's defeat and exile. It was the latter of the two factors that contributed more to Trotsky's ultimate failure, due to the fact that Stalin's initial position was stronger, and his opportunism allowed him to take advantage of Trotsky's misjudgments, thereby allowing him to take power. However, it is worth noting that the term 'misjudgments' is relative to the historian, since a number of Trotsky's unsuccessful decisions were deliberately made to avoid certain outcomes, therefore cannot accurately be termed 'misjudgments'. Trotsky, although he had a limited power base made up of mostly radicals and students, was in a position of adequate leverage immediately

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  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: History
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Compare and Contrast the Policies of Alexander II and Alexander III

Abhishek Puri History- HL 20/08/2009 Compare and Contrast the policies of Alexander II and Alexander III Tsar's Alexander II and his son, Alexander III had different an entirely different ideology when it came to the question of reform. On one hand, Alexander II was a liberalist, this reflects in his reforms which include the Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861- where twenty to thirty million serfs were emancipated on private estates and also domestic households and also the abolishment of capital punishment. Other reforms of Alexander II included the founding of the Zemstva- a system of local self-government. On the other hand, successor Alexander III had a conservative ideology. He believed in the doctrines of Nationalism, Eastern Orthodoxy and autocracy. Alexander III often questioned his father's reforms, which he thought were too liberal and diminish the power of autocratic leadership of the country. After his accession of the throne, Alexander III started a wave of "anti-reforms", as he reversed his father's liberal reforms. Tsars Alexander II and Alexander III differed on the level of Foreign policy, Judicial and Educational Reforms but they shared a sense of Russian Nationalism. Both Tsars Alexander II and Alexander III had different view points on Foreign Policy. Alexander II pushed for military conquests and urged annexation of the nearest countries to augment

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  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: History
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To what extent was the alliance system responsible for the outbreak of World War One in 1914?

To what extent was the alliance system responsible for the outbreak of World War One in 1914? In the events after the end of WW1 much of the blame for the outbreak of the war fell on Germany and their aggression. However with hindsight we see that things were a lot more complex. The idea that many historians except nowadays that the alliance systems caused WW1, but none of them can agree to what extent they caused the war. Before the war began countries started to make bonds and promises between each other, this triggered a lot of factors that sparked the war. In 1914, when the First World War broke out, Europe was divided into two military alliance systems: the Triple Alliance including Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, and the Triple Entente that included Britain, France and Russia. The intent of the alliance system was primarily to provide mutual defence in order to maintain the power balance in Europe, but the nations eventually came to rely on it for aggressive purposes. Frictions between the groups had brought Europe to the verge of war several times after 1900, and were indirectly influential in generating a world war out of the Balkan conflict between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. Although the alliance systems were intended to provide mutual defence, they encouraged war equally well by providing military support. In my opinion the most important alliance in the lead

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  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: History
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