Joseph Stalin's Rise

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Stalin’s Rise

What effective tactics did Joseph Stalin use to rise to power?

Emily Goetz
3-10-2014
Word Count
4th hour
Question:

What effective tactics did Joseph Stalin use to rise to power?

Thesis:

Over the course of several years, Stalin consolidated his power through the use of political scheming, maintaining a respectable image, and by out-maneuvering his opposition in the Communist Party.

A. Plan of Investigation:

Over the course of several years, Stalin established his power through the use of political scheming, maintaining a respectable image, and by out-maneuvering his opposition in the Communist Party. Stalin’s rise shows the importance of how political figures maneuver their way to the top and how a dictator achieves legitimacy. In the future, when leaders are rising, they can be compared to Stalin’s and stopped if there are close similarities in ruthlessness. This paper is narrowed to Stalin’s rise to better elaborate on several of the tactics Stalin used to obtain power. I need to find videos from history to show what Stalin was like physically around others. I need to locate speeches, and perhaps recording by other party members about Stalin to show Stalin’s ruthlessness.

B. Summary of Evidence:

Stalin was drawn into the city’s revolutionary circles after “discovering the works of Karl Marx” (McKinney). In 1903, the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party split into two, known as the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. Stalin joined the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin. Between “1902 and 1913 Stalin was arrested and sent into Siberia seven times” (Haugen). Between exiles Stalin continued work for the Bolsheviks and met Lenin for the first tim...

... middle of paper ...

...de sure to give only those who agreed with him any power, and eventually Congress was filled with a majority of Stalin supporters. When Stalin’s opponents took the left side, Stalin took the right and vice versa. As a result, Stalin maneuvered his way into the Party so much that he practically guaranteed his own success as Lenin’s successor. By the time the Party's core realized what had happened, it was too late, and the only person with the authority to challenge him, was on his deathbed and incapable of speech after a series of strokes. Stalin took down Leon Trotsky and in 1925, and forced Trotsky to resign from the party. Stalin exiled Trotsky from the Soviet Union in 1929, and had him assassinated in Mexico in 1940 (Stalin). Stalin knew how to use his position as an advantage, even to the point of abusing his powers, so they he could defeat his opponents.

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