Joseph Stalin came to power in 1924 after the death of Lenin even though Lenin himself had discouraged him as his successor. Stalin’s regime was latent with economic stagnation, political repression, human rights violations, and competing nationalities. Regardless of these various problems Stalin was able to sustain the Soviet Union and develop it into a dominant world power. His ability to maintain power and stability was a result of the promotion of social, economic, cultural, and political systems that increase Russian patriotism and unified the various nationalities.
Lenin’s death in 1924 left uncertainty about who should become the next leader. Lenin had discussed within his inner circle and mentioned Stalin and Trotsky as possible candidates but stated that Stalin should not succeed him because he was rude. Only Lenin’s inner circle knew about these sentiments. From the beginning Stalin was placed in opposition to Trotsky. After Stalin came to power in 1924 an opposition mounted involving Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev, this united opposition called for local control and autonomy as well as opening up debate within the party.The opposition had a centrist position in politics that aligned itself with the previous position of Lenin. Bukharin was another of Stalin’s opposition he represented the right and called for a continuation of NEP policy.Stalin opposed his stance by calling for rapid industrialization. In 1926, Zinoviev, Trotsky, and Kamenev were removed from the Politburo because Stalin saw them as a threat. On July 11th, 1928 there was an exchange between Kamenev and Bukharin in this communication they express a need for Stalin to be overthrown because he is manipulating ideology to support his positions.(Suny 2003)...
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...ecting the homeland. Throughout Stalin’s regime was able to maintain power because of social realism, this made it acceptable to be living in dire economic conditions for many years because it was part of a path to a better life and a better Soviet Union.
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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.
Moss, W., 2014. A History of Russia Volume 2: Since 1855. 1st ed. London, England: Anthem Press London, pp.112-113.
Stalin’s hunger for power and paranoia impacted the Soviet society severely, having devastating effects on the Communist Party, leaving it weak and shattering the framework of the party, the people of Russia, by stunting the growth of technology and progress through the purges of many educated civilians, as well as affecting The Red Army, a powerful military depleted of it’s force. The impact of the purges, ‘show trials’ and the Terror on Soviet society were rigorously negative. By purging all his challengers and opponents, Stalin created a blanket of fear over the whole society, and therefore, was able to stay in power, creating an empire that he could find more dependable.
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...
A power struggle for control of the Bolshevik party began after Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924. Among the several contenders, two of the most important names in this struggle were Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. Ultimately, Stalin was able to secure power and vote out Trotsky. In the following essay I will discuss the reasons why Stalin rather than Trotsky emerged as the leader of the USSR in 1929.
Trotsky was out-manoeuvred by Stalin, and Trotsky criticised the leadership of the Comintern, writing ‘Under the treacherous blows of the Stalinist bureaucracy’. The two presented themselves as mortal enemies , and their fight over power made this very clear. Lenin expressed in his testament that ‘Stalin is too rude, and this fault is intolerable… appointing another man who is more patient, more loyal, more polite and is considerate to his comrades’ . There was a general distaste and lack of trust towards Stalin before he even came to power, making the political party an uncomfortable place to be during his rise to power. An alliance was formed between Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin to try and stop Trotsky coming to power, however neither Zinoviev nor Kamenev were very impressed with Stalin as a leader either. Kamenev described Stalin as ‘a small town politician- a good administrator with no ideas or ambitions of his own’ . This suggests that Stalin never had any real support from other politicians, and the only real support came from the public, mostly due to the fact that many people in Russia at the time were very poorly educated and because of this, Trotsky was a very intimidating figure to them . However after Trotsky was defeated and had his position of leader of the Red Army taken from him, Stalin had no need for his alliance with Zinoviev and
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 saw a need to sure up the allegiance to him by all who were under him. Therefore, he needed to fight out against those who opposed him. So for the rest of 1924, the Politburo continued to argue about the future of the Soviet economy. The fiercest argument was between Stalin and Trotsky over Trotsky's theory of permanent Revolution.
Wood, A. (1986). The Russian Revolution. Seminar Studies in History. (2) Longman, p 1-98. ISBSN 0582355591, 9780582355590
By 1928, Stalin had ousted Trotsky and the rest of the Left opposition. In four years, Stalin had single handedly taken major steps away from Lenin’s collective leadership and free inter party debate and replaced them with his autocratic dictatorship. Stalin began to secure predominant power over the communist party and the state by destroying passive opposition from the peasantry and former Lenin supporters. He won growing support from the working class who were impressed with the initial five-year plan. As it promised increased industrialization, which would lead to socialism in one country within their lifetime.
"From Autocracy to Oligarchy." The Structure of Soviet History: Essays and Documents. Ed. Ronald Grigor. Suny. New York: Oxford UP, 2003. 340-50. Print.
8Sites Richard, ‘The Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, 1900-1945’, in Michael Howard and William Roger Louis, The Oxford history of the twentieth century, New York, 1998, p. 117-27.
Stalin was determined to go ahead with this radicalism through economic and social change. His totalitarian leadership however was far from perfect, it was in fact a political system that was defectively flawed. The main issue was the lack of control the administration and party h...
Riasanovsky, Nicholas V., and Mark D. Steinberg. A History of Russia. 7th ed. Oxford: Oxford, 2005. Print.