STALIN’S RISE TO POWER

Factors

External Factors (Out of Stalin’s control) Lenin’s Testament Trotsky’s Unpopularity

Stalin’s manipulations (within Stalin’s control) Pretended to be close to Lenin Used his role as General Secretary Took advantage of divisions within Party

Background

Lenin: Played a significant role in establishing the USSR Was well-respected among the Communist Party

members After Lenin’s death in 1924, a five-year-long

power struggle broke out among several key Party members over who would succeed Lenin as the Supreme Leader of the USSR.

Lenin’s Testament was Unpublicised In Lenin’s Testament:

All the main Party leaders were criticised However, Lenin was especially clear in advising that

Stalin be removed from his position of Secretary-General of the Communist Party

Anyone but this guy...

Lenin’s Testament was Unpublicised

The Party leaders agreed not to make the Testament public, since Lenin had criticised all of them in it.

No notes were to be made of it, and it was not to be mentioned in future meetings.

Lenin’s Testament was Unpublicised

Furthermore, as some Party members felt that ______ was a bigger threat than Stalin, they decided to ignore Lenin’s warning about Stalin.

Trotsky

Lenin’s Testament was Unpublicised

Stalin remained as Secretary-General of the Party, and also established an alliance with two other Party leaders (Kamenev and Zinoviev) against Trotsky.

Kamenev

Zinoviev

Stalin

Trotsky’s Unpopularity

Head of Red Army Had a great deal of

power Seen as Lenin’s right-

hand man Main threat to others

in succeeding Lenin Alliance between

Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev aimed at removing Trotsky from power

What do you see in this picture?

Trotsky’s Unpopularity

Outspoken and clashed with Lenin and other Party members

Made him very unpopular and his criticisms were seen as being disloyal to Lenin and the Party

What do you see in this picture?

Trotsky’s Unpopularity

Trotsky ‘Permanent

Revolution’ – to promote and incite revolutions all over the world

Stalin ‘Socialism in

One Country’ – to make the Soviet Union strong first before spreading revolution to other countries

Whose IDEA do you think was more popular?

Stalin’s!

vs

Why?

Stalin’s Manipulations

Pretended to be close to Lenin

Used his Position as Secretary-General

Exploited divisions within the Party

Why did Stalin kiss Lenin?

Made frequent visits to Lenin when he was ill. Gave people the impression that the two were very close,

and that Lenin had favoured and trusted Stalin to be his successor Was this true?

Pretended to be close to Lenin

I don’t trustthis guy...

We must look likethe best of friends

in this picture..

Stalin’s actions: Put himself in charge of

organising Lenin’s funeral, with he himself as the chief mourner. Gave the impression that he

was very sad over Lenin’s death Kept Trotsky from attending

Lenin’s funeral by giving him the wrong date. People were angry that Trotsky

seemed to have disrespected Lenin

Pretended to be close to Lenin

All these made Stalin look more like Lenin’s natural _________ in the eyes of the public.

Haha!No Trotskyin sight!

successor

Used his Position

Used his position as Secretary-General of the Communist Party in 1922

Position allowed him to appoint and re-assign Party members Replaced Trotsky’s allies with his own

Trotsky’s support base shrank!

Trotsky’s reputation was now destroyed and his ideas discredited, while he had little support within the Party

So what happened to Trotsky?

1925: Forced to resign as head of the Red Army

1927: _______ from the Communist

Party (as voted by Stalin and his supporters), and left the USSR

Expelled

What happened to Trotsky?

Assassination (1940)

Exploited Party Divisions

At first, he allied himself with MODERATES Those who closely followed Lenin’s

leadership and way of thinking After removing Trotsky, he broke from

Zinoviev and Kamenev, accusing them to cooperating with Trotsky

Allied himself with radicals Those who formed new ideas and

wanted changes to the way things were Used group to remove other competitorsThe Result?

STALIN EMERGES ASSUPREME LEADER OF THE SOVIET UNION !!!