From Lenin to Stalin

How did it happen?

Lenins death, Jan

1924

RECALL..
1922: Russian Civil War ended.
1924: The Soviet Union was established.
The Bolsheviks becomes the Communist
Party.

Communist
hard-liners

Moderates

Radicals

Jan 1924 the inevitable

happened.

For FIVE years after Lenins death, a

power struggle took place within the
Politburo of the Communist Party.
#Politburo the
committee that
decides the countrys
policies

Lenins Potential Successors

1)Leon Trotsky
2)Lev Kamenev
3)Grigory Zinoviev
4)Josef Stalin
5)Nikolai Bukharin
Who do you think
deserves to be
Lenins successor?

RANKING FORM
Get into groups of 5.
Rank your choices and explain why.

GUESS WHAT?
DESPITE ALL OF STALINS FLAWS, HE
MANAGED TO BECOME THE SUPREME
LEADER OF THE SOVIET UNION!

JOSEPH STALIN
One of the most
powerful and
murderous
dictators in history
Tens of millions
died during his
reign.

JOSEPH STALIN
One death is
a tragedy;
one million is
a statistic.

From Lenin to Stalin

How did it happen?

Lenins death, Jan

1924

How did Stalin become the Supreme

Leader of the Soviet Union?
THE RISE OF STALIN

STALINS
MANIPULATIONS
Pretended to be
Control over Party
Exploitation of
close to Lenin

organisation

ideological divisions

Gave Party members

impression that Lenin
favoured and trusted
him.
Organised Lenins
funeral and
established himself
as the chief mourner.
Prevented Trotsky
from attending
Lenins funeral by
giving him the wrong
date.
Hence, Stalin
portrayed himself as
the natural successor
to Lenin.

Stalin: SecretaryGeneral of
Communist Party
Had the authority to
appoint and re-assign
Party members
Used his position to
replace allies of his
opponents
Controlled the Cheka
renamed it Peoples
Commissariat for
Internal Affairs
(NKVD)
Hence, Trotsky
support base shrank.
Stalin had Trotsky
expelled from the
Party in 1927.

Communist Party
split into two main
groups
Stalin took
advantage of these
ideological divisions
to eliminate his
competitors.
He allied himself with
both sides at
different times.
With his political
opponents and
competitors
discredited or
executed, Stalin
emerged the
supreme leader of
2: STALINS SOVIET UNION
theCHAPTER
Soviet
Union in

Stalins Appointment as SecretaryGeneral

Stalins appointment as secretary general
contributed to his rise to power.
Stalins
appointment
as
secretary
general meant that he had strong
control over Party organization as he
could appoint and re-assign Party
members.
He was able to admit his own supporters
and appoint them to influential positions
within the party, while expelling or
sidelining his opponents, especially
those were Trotskys supporters.

Source A Attributed
to
Stalin
by
his
former
secretary
Bazhanov in 1923
The people who cast
the votes decide
nothing. The people
who count the votes
decide everything.

 As secretary-general, Stalin would also

have the influence over the officials
appointed to manage and count the
votes.
As a result, he would thus be able to
manipulate the outcome of the votes
in his favour, even if it did not accurately
represent the actual will of the other Party
members.

PRETENDED TO HAVE BEEN

CLOSE TO LENIN

Stalins pretense to have been close to Lenin also enabled Stalin to

rise to power.
Stalin visited Lenin often when he was ill, and he cleverly made it
seem like he had been very close to Lenin.
When Lenin died in 1924, Stalin organized Lenins funeral
and made it a grand affair by ordering Lenins body to be
embalmed and displaying it in a mausoleum in the Red
Square in Moscow.
He gave the funeral speech and established himself as the
chief mourner, showing himself deeply sorrowful over the
loss of Lenin.
He also arranged for the city of Petrograd to be renamed
Leningrad in Lenins honour. Stalin also kept Trotsky from
attending Lenins funeral by giving him the wrong date. The
Party members viewed his absence as a lack of respect for Lenin.

Stalin visiting Lenin at

his home.

Spot
Stalin!

 Such calculated moves gave his fellow Party members

as well as the general public, the impression that Lenin
had favoured and trusted Stalin when he was not.

As a result, this made Stalin seem like the next

obvious choice to succeed Lenin and it also made
him more favorable to the Party members, helping
him get their support and backing to support his
rise to power.

EXPLOITATION OF IDEOLOGICAL
DIVISIONS
Another factor that contributed to Stalins rise to power was
his ability to exploit ideological divisions within the Party.
Ideological divisions existed within the Communist Party,
which was divided between the moderates and the radicals.
Stalin was not only willing to get involved in party politics,
but also effectively exploited the ideological divisions within
the Party to eliminate his competitors.
First he formed a troika alliance with Kamenev and
Zinoviev to get rid of Trotsky; then he allied himself with the
moderates to isolate both of them; next, he switched over
to the radicals to undermine Rykov and Bukharin.

Communist
hard-liners

Moderates

Radicals

 By
exploiting
the
ideological
divisions within the Party, Stalin
was able to set his rivals against
one another and to stop them
from combining against him. It
also allowed him to get rid of his
rivals in an efficient and
systematic manner. This made
him
all
supreme
and
unthreatened by the presence of
any political rivals, thereby leading
to his rise to power.

Favourable circumstances
Favourable
circumstances
contributed
to
Stalins rise to power.
Stalin was able to exploit the autocratic features
of Lenins government to build his power base.
For example:
Lenin banned opposition parties and arrested members of
opposition parties. This allowed Stalin to focus on party
politics to build his power base instead of having to
spend time dealing with other rival parties.
Lenin controlled media through state-run newspapers such as
Pravda. This gave Stalin the opportunity to use the press to
promote his own status among the Russians and attacks his
enemies. It also gave Stalin the opportunity to prevent criticism
or opposition to him from circulating across the country.

TB page 38
Comrade Stalin, having become
Secretary-General, has unlimited
authority concentrated in his hands, and
I am not sure whether he will always be
capable of using that authority with
sufficient caution. Comrade Trotsky, on
the other hand, is distinguished not only
by outstanding ability. He is perhaps the
most capable man in the present C.C
(Central Executive Committee), but he
has displayed excessive self-assurance
Stalin is too rude and this defect
becomes intolerable in a SecretaryGeneral. That is why I suggest that the
comrades think about a way of removing
Stalin from that post and appointing
another man in his stead

Non-disclosure of Lenins
Testament

Lenins Testament.
In it, he voiced criticisms on his leading successors but
was especially clear in advising that Stalin be removed
from his position as Secretary-General of the Communist
Party.
The Testament was read out at a meeting after Lenins
death.
However, the Party agreed that:
Testament was not to be made public.
No notes were to be made when it was read out.
There would be no mention of the Testament in future meetings.

NON-DISCLOSURE OF
LENINS TESTAMENT
Lenins testament was read out at a meeting of the
Central Executive Committee, where Lenins
potential successors were present.
However, the Party agreed that the Testament was
not to be made public, as Lenin had criticised all of
them.
They decided to ignore Lenins warning.
Thus, Stalin retained his position as SecretaryGeneral.

Read Lenins testament.

From his Testament, write down in

your own words what Lenin
thought of Stalin and Trotsky
CHAPTER 2: STALINS SOVIET UNION

 In addition, the obscuring of Lenins Testament

ensured that Stalin kept his Secretary-General
position, which he used effectively to build up
his power base and isolate Trotsky.
Lenins illness and death gave Stalin the
opportunity to create an impression that he was
favoured and trusted by Lenin when he was not.
Such favourable circumstances contributed
to Stalins rise to power as it gave Stalin
opportunities to exploit the weaknesses of
his competitors and make use of his power
and position even more effectively. This
enabled him to rise to power.

TROTSKYS WEAKNESSES
Trotskys weaknesses also contributed to his rise to
power.
He was very outspoken in his criticisms of Lenin and
the Party. He had argued with Lenin and the Party
on several topics, such as Lenins New Economic
Policy and the increasing control of the Party by the
Politburo and Central Executive Committee.
These criticisms openly challenged the organisation
and policies of the Party. Trotsky was viewed as
being disloyal to Lenin and the Partys decisions.

Trotskys Weaknesses
Trotsky also held on very strongly to his idea of
permanent revolution, which sought to
promote and incite revolutions all over the
world. On the other hand, Stalins socialism in
one country, called for the strengthening of the
Soviet Union first before spreading revolution to
other countries.
Stalin made sure that he had the support of his
other Party members on this, and cleverly made
it seem like Trotsky was moving away from the
Partys decisions and ideas. This further
affected Trotskys credibility within the Party.

 Trotsky also chose to remain silent on Lenins

criticisms of Stalin, reflected in Lenins
Testament.
Unlike Stalin, Trotsky was unable to organise his
supporters as he fell very weak around Lenins
death.
As a result, Stalin was able to exploit Trotskys
weaknesses to weaken his position, eventually
causing him to be expelled from the Party,
leading to his rise to power.