stalin's rise to power
TRANSCRIPT
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
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?
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?