Stalin's Emergence as Leader

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Stalin's Emergence as Leader Jan 21, 1924 Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Lenin died at age 53 and a major struggle for power in the Soviet Union began. A triumvirate led by Joseph Stalin succeeded Lenin. By 1928, Stalin had assumed absolute power, ruling as an often brutal dictator until his death in 1953. But how is it that Stalin emerged as the new leader of the Soviet Union. In this essay I am going to explore the reasons to how and why this happened. Stalin held a very powerful and very important position, as the general secretary of the party. He was powerful enough to remove or appoint people to a post. He appointed people who supported him and removed people who were likely to support Trotsky. Older Bolsheviks were not concerned about his moves because they were all worried about Trotsky taking over as dictator. Another big difference between Trotsky and Stalin was their ideas of ruling the USSR, and their politics. Trotsky believed in "Permanent Revolution" where as Stalin believed in "socialism in one country". Trotsky wanted to help communists in other countries to revolution and push forward the revolution in the USSR. But Stalin's idea of helping Russia , was very popular amongst the people as they had just suffered a civil war and were interested in their welfare and economy. Trotsky also wanted to end the NEP and introduce more socialist ways of running the economy, Stalin however believed they could build a fully economic estate by the help of people within the USSR and not from outsiders. Stalin was adept at promoting policies, which he new would win him support, policies such as Stalin's stance on the N... ... middle of paper ... ...on. However Trotsky was regarded as an arrogant person and he did not spare time for the people who he considered stupid. This was one drawback that made other communists give a vote against Trotsky. Also I believe that one of the most important reasons to why Stalin emerged as leader was because of his position as General Secutary where he was able to appoint his own supporters to high positions un the party, and dismiss others, he fundemetally controlled membership. And so thi smeant that he was able to come to power. Another very important reason I believe is the fact that Stalin was able to exploit his oppsitions weaknesses (especially those of Trotsky). By doing this Stalin was able to remove any real opposition and in December 1929 Stalin celebrated his Fiftieth birthday as the new undispuited leader of the USSR.

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