Factors that Helped Stalin in his Rise to Power
Following the death of Lenin in 1922, it was simply a matter of time
before one member of the Politburo, who announced they would be acting
as a collective leadership, gained individual power. The successful
individual was Stalin, who hailing from humble beginnings, rose up
through the ranks to become the brutal and ruthless dictator of the
Soviet State. Stalin managed to do this not simply because of his
personal strengths or brilliances, neither was it purely down to luck.
It was due to a combination of factors, some concerning Stalin's
actions and his opportunist ways, some to do with his opponents such
as Trotsky and their fundamental weaknesses, and other factors which
were simply out of Stalin's control.
Stalin's background and personality played a large role in Stalin's
rise to power. He was from the tough, fierce region of Georgia, which
made him a strong character, but also gained him the post of Commissar
for Nationalities, which was the first step in his rise to power
within the party. He trained as a priest at a seminary which showed
another side to Stalin's character as he was not a religious man, so
this fine-tuned his ability to lie convincingly. He was later expelled
from there seminary for his involvement in revolutionary activities
and was arrested on many occasions.
Stalin's personality was clearly not complex and flamboyant like the
intellectual Trotsky. Instead he was more of a mediocrity, described
as a 'grey blur' which deceived people into trusting him. However
Stalin was a very cunning man. He made up for all of his weaknesses
with his ruthless and cunnin...
... middle of paper ...
...er at the right time, his rise may still have been
possible, but would have been made a lot more difficult. What is
important is that Stain was a very lucky man. He was an opportunist
who did things at the right time, but this alone could not have been
enough to secure Stalin's position as leader of the party. I think the
most important factor in Stalin's rise to power was Trotsky's
weaknesses and mistakes, which played right into Stalin's hands.
Trotsky missed the chance to remove Stalin from power completely by
failing to speak up against the suppression of Lenin's testament.
Because of Trotsky's reluctance to stand up to him, after this event,
Stalin's rise to power as the dictator of the USSR was firmly in
place. Now all that was needed was a bit of manipulation here and
there to gain complete and absolute control.
According to Medvedev, Joseph Stalin’s leadership style was one that was molded from his need to control the situation and paranoia. Stalin did rely on his close network of political allies to effectively rule, but decisions that could affect the U.S.S.R must be authorized by him and no other person. (Medvedev 115) This made party members very nervous and also very repla...
For most people that know who Joseph Stalin was, they can agree on one thing: Stalin was one of the most brutal and ruthless leaders that mankind has ever seen. He is known as the instigator and leader of the Reign of Terror, which incorporated extremely horrifying purges. These purges have been estimated to have killed five times as many people as the Holocaust. The purges also helped him establish his power base, which allowed him to build one of the most powerful countries in its day and age. But he was not born evil, in fact, when he was a child, family and friends said he was shy. This does not mean he didn’t have a bad childhood, which happened quite often in rural Georgia. The pain of his childhood built as the years went by. Growing up admiring people like Karl Marx, Machiavelli, and Ivan the Terrible only stoked the fire even more. I believe that Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror can be traced directly back to his brutal childhood and complete belief in Marxist principles.
was able to hold on to leadership of the Soviet Union. He was able to
Son of a poverty-stricken shoemaker, raised in a backward province, Joseph Stalin had only a minimum of education. However, he had a burning faith in the destiny of social revolution and an iron determination to play a prominent role in it. His rise to power was bloody and bold, yet under his leadership, in an unexplainable twenty-nine years, Russia because a highly industrialized nation. Stalin was a despotic ruler who more than any other individual molded the features that characterized the Soviet regime and shaped the direction of Europe after World War II ended in 1945. From a young revolutionist to an absolute master of Soviet Russia, Joseph Stalin cast his shadow over the entire globe through his provocative affair in Domestic and Foreign policy.
Stalin continued even once he was successful in accomplishing those goals, as he did not stop hurting people, but if anything it gave him more power to hurt people even more. But, at the end of the day, although Lenin ruled for only a very short time, he did raise the standard of living, though there maintained a large amount of hardship. Stalin, however, transformed the USSR from a peasantry to an industrialized nation in less than a decade, he did it on the backs of his millions of victims, who died because of his harsh policies and many purges. Lenin made a series of policies throughout the beginning of the Revolution and through his short time in public office that came to be collectively known as ‘Leninism’. There were many things that influenced Leninism, such as Karl Marx.
In the beginning Josef Stalin was a worshiper of his beloved Vladimir Lenin. He followed his every move and did as he said to help establish and lead the Bolshevik party. Much of the early part of his political career was lost due to his exile to Siberia for most of World War I. It wasn’t until 1928, when he assumed complete control of the country were he made most of his success. After Lenin’s death in January 1924, Stalin promoted his own cult followings along with the cult followings of the deceased leader. He took over the majority of the Socialists now, and immediately began to change agriculture and industry. He believed that the Soviet Union was one hundred years behind the West and had to catch up as quickly as possible. First though he had to seal up complete alliance to himself and his cause.
The accumulation of these factors centred on Lenin's leadership helped stamp Bolshevik power across the Soviet Union. Lenin’s pragmatic leadership was the most considerable factor in helping to fortify Bolshevik power. His willingness to take power in October/November 1917 and the successes of the move, through his right-hand man, Trotsky, was critical as it helped give him unquestioned authority within the party despite members of the Central Committee i.e. Zinoviev and Kamenev suggested industrialisation needed to occur first. This highlighted Lenin’s communist ideology, which was essential to the Bolsheviks maintaining power. Following the failure of the Provisional Government, Lenin recognised that it was the Bolshevik’s priority to legitimise their government.
...at lacked experience and depth. As a result, the once successful Communist army was being slowly depleted and therefore damaged the spirits of the former Bolsheviks and the Communist Party.
His reign was during the peak of the Soviet Union 's power. Stalin was a cruel and harsh leader who was fascinated by power. He had incredible power and great influential skills. Many of Joseph 's associates and comrades said that he was magnificent because of his crazed way of leading, and even they tended to fear him. He was always determined to stay in control, and he came up with schemes and plans to eliminate anything he disliked.
Joseph Stalin became leader of the USSR after Lenin’s death in 1924. Lenin had a government of abstemious communist government. When Stalin came into government he moved to a radical communist society. He moved away from the somewhat capitalist/communist economy of Lenin time to “modernize” the USSR. He wanted to industrialize and modernize USSR. He had overworked his workers, his people were dying, and most of them in slave labor camps. In fact by doing this Stalin had hindered the USSR and put them even farther back in time.
Stalins rise as a dictator over the USSR in 1929, was a struggle for power. It was set by Lenin, in his testament, that Stalin was not to takeover control as the party leader, and to be removed from his position as General Secretary, as Stalin in Lenins eyes had lack of loyalty, tolerance, and politeness. However, different factors, such as Lenins funeral, Stalins position as General Secretary and the rise of bureaucracy, and Stalins relationship to Kamenev and Zinoviev, made it possible for Stalin to become the undisputed leader over the USSR in 1929. This essay will discuss the methods and the conditions, which helped Joseph Stalin rise to power.
...change of industrial leadership crippled Russia's mechanization efforts and it is still argued today if the effects are still felt. By removing these people from the Soviet society both the biologist theories of Nature verses Nurture were challenged at best and destroyed at worst. For the argument of nature being the greatest influence on learning ability most of the intellectuals and brightest leaders were removed from the gene pool. In contrast to Nurture these people could not influence society any longer. Through these changes in society Stalin has forever made his mark. His pollicies effected every area in Russian culture.
leader. The shaman of the shaman. A good leader would have been able to achieve the things that he wanted, without having to kill or imprison anyone who made him feel threatened. Stalin was in a horrible state of depression, and the whole country of Russia was affected by his anxiety. He may have put the USSR at the top of the industrial world at the time, but the
Lenin’s appointment of him as the General Secretary of the Central Committee had benefitted him greatly in terms of support that he had gathered when he would succeed Lenin as the leader. Lenin’s death gave Stalin the opportunity to further improve his image by publicly showing his respect for Lenin and therefore garnering the approval of the grieving public. Another factor is Stalin’s superiority in terms of ideals and reputation which had assisted him in defeating the only threat to his rise to power, Trotsky. These conditions and the dire need of a new leader after Lenin’s death aided Stalin in his pursuit of power in the USSR by letting him replace the deceased Lenin as the leader of the Communist Party and the
First of all, Stalin was lucky. Trotsky remained ill for most of the power struggle and Lenin died at an opportune time. Indeed, had Lenin lived, Stalin would probably have been sent to the provinces to work for the party. Dzerzhinsky, the head of the Cheka and political adversary to Stalin, also died fortuitously in 1926. His death facilitated the infiltration of Stalin?s supporters into the political police which Stalin eventually used against his opponents. It was also fortunate for Stalin that Lenin?s testament was not publicized. If Lenin?s negative views on Stalin succeeding him had been aired, there would have been no possibility for Stalin?s victory.