Joseph Stalin began to rise through the ranks in Russia during the early 1900s. In 1917 the February Revolution took place. This proved to be the first stage of the Russian Revolution. This revolution resulted in the immediate expulsion of Tsar Nicholas II. During this time, Stalin supported Alexander Kerensky and the provisional government that replaced Nicholas II. Also in 1917 he was elected to the Bolshevik Central Committee. He emerged as the leader of this committee and his popularity began to escalate.
Throughout the Russian Civil War, Stalin was the Political Commissar in the Red Army at various fronts. Stalin acquired his first government position in late 1917 when he was elected at the People’s Commissar of Nationalist Affairs. Stalin slowly gained power in the new government while Lenin was in power. In 1922, Stalin was appointed by Lenin to be the General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party, also known as the Bolsheviks. Lenin viewed Stalin as very intelligent. Lenin believed that Stalin had the ability to continue to carry out his socialist and Marxist views, but only to a certain extent. Stalin then strived ahead and made the Bolshevik Party the most powerful in the entire country.
In 1923, the Soviet Union suffered a great tragedy when its leader, Vladimir Lenin, suffered a series of strokes and died within the next year. Upon Lenin’s death, it was clear that the new leader of Russia was going to be Stalin or Leon Trotsky. Trotsky was very close to Lenin and took leadership of the Bolsheviks and the Communists during the Russian Civil War while Lenin was in exile.
Primary thought in the Soviet Union was that Trotsky would be the new leader without any problems. However, after Lenin’s death, Trotsky and Stalin together governed the Bolshevik Party, as they were both members of the Politburo with Lenin. Therefore, no clear perception could me made on who truly had more power within the government. Stalin, seeing that immediate action needed to be made to achieve power in the Soviet Union, changed the public view on Lenin from a human being to an institution. Stalin advocated the publication of books and ideological thought strictly pertaining to Lenin and his designs. Stalin also began to attack Trotsky. Stalin began to break away from traditional Bolshevik thought and began to lean towards revolution in favor of building socialism in one country. This view was the complete opposite of Trotsky’s. (Alex De Jonge, Stalin and the Shaping of the Soviet Union p 180 -184)
It was obvious that Trotsky’s greatest strength was his control of the military after the civil war. A Trotskyite wrote later stating: “Trotsky could have won in 1923 if he held his base in the army and personally appealed to the Party workers in the great towns.”(Robert Conquest, The Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Thirties p 9.) However, after Lenin died, Trotsky began to be outmaneuvered by Stalin. It was obvious to Stalin that whoever gained control of the Communist Party would emerge as the new leader in the Soviet Union.
Stalin was not as impressive as Trotsky, but he knew how to climb the ladder to success. Upon gaining some control in the government, he learned to place his supporters in key positions and make a series of political alliances in order to gain even more control. Stalin also made an effort to continue to attack Trotsky as much as possible. He illustrated that Trotsky joined the Bolshevik Party just before the revolution, and he had many disagreements with Lenin. After showing how truly loyal he was to Lenin, Stalin grew even more support from the common people. The major flaw that Trotsky never could shake was that Stalin’s public and social skills were far superior. In nearly every standoff that took place between the two men, Trotsky did not know how to react, and Stalin used that to his advantage time and time again. A witness recounted Trotsky’s weaknesses:
“…The great intellectual, the great administrator, the great orator lacked one quality essential – at any rate in the conditions of the Russian Revolution – to the great political leader. Trotsky could fire masses of men to acclaim and follow him. But he had no talent for leadership among equals. He could not establish his authority among colleagues by the modest arts of persuasion or by sympathetic attention to the views of men of lesser intellectual caliber than himself. He did not suffer fools, and he was accused of being unable to brook rivals.” (E.H. Carr, Socialism in One Country, Vol. I p 151)
Stalin now realized he could now put Trotsky completely out of the picture by isolating him in the political realm. In late 1925, Stalin instituted the Troika. This was on the leftist side of the Communist party and consisted of Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev. These three men all were common enemies of Trotsky and they believed that forming this political alliance would pull even more support away from Trotsky.
Stalin, on the other hand, simply desired this alliance to finally defeat Trotsky so he could gain even greater political power. After this was completed and successful, Stalin understood that he still did not have enough power to have complete control of the Soviet Union and its government. So he then moved on the political scale once again and allied himself with Bukharin, on the moderate right, this lasted for over three years. Now Kamenev and Zinoviev were isolated and lost any control they had within the government.
Stalin employed his intellect by gaining support of the common people. Therefore, when Stalin moved on the political scale, people remained loyal to him, and the individuals he isolated then became the enemies and lost all power. This was the first indication to proving that Stalin could not trust anyone and his great desire to gain complete control of the Soviet Union. (Walter Laqueur, Stalin p 19-22)
By 1927, Stalin had supporters in key positions in nearly every aspect of the government. He also promoted “Socialism in one country.” This was they theory that in order for the Soviet Union to survive and flourish, domestic problems had to be repaired before any thought of foreign policy. At the close of 1927, the 15th Party Congress exiled Trotsky. Also, Kamenev and Zinoviev lost their seats in government. Stalin now nearly had all the pieces to become a totalitarian leader.
Stalin and Bukharin slowly began to disagree on certain actions made within the government. With Stalin clearly having more power, he instituted collectivization. This ended land owning and peasant control, and now put land, and the peasants, under government control. Shortly after collectivization, in 1928, he introduced the Five Year Plan. This was a series of industrial goals that were to be accomplished within five years and would help industry production. A few members of the government had some disagreements with the reforms that were taking place, including Bukharin. Stalin recognized that most of the individuals who opposed him were those who were older. He then decided to exterminate the Bolshevik old guard, and once he did this it was only a matter of time before Bukharin would lose any power that he gained while being allied with Stalin. (Walter Laqueur, Stalin p 22-24)
Stalin defeated Bukharin, and the right, by advocating industrialization and collectivization. He also gained support from Vyacheslav Molotov. Although the first Five Year Plan that Stalin created saw fair to moderate success, it missed direct control of the peasants.
Although the production rate increased, the quality of the goods being produced was not as high. In 1932, at the end of the Five Year Plan, Stalin began to aim terror at engineers and technician experts in the factories because industrialization was not flourishing like Stalin envisioned. Stalin recognized the use of terror was a very powerful tool that could be used to achieve totalitarian rule. A British report isolates the unique aspect of Stalin’s style:
“Stalin is said to be a man of extraordinary force of character and ability…Lenin it is generally believed disliked and distrusted the young Gregorian…Stalin deliberately makes himself a figure of mystery, rarely issuing from the Kremlin…His public utterances are few…By surrounding himself with mediocrities and by the employment of an iron discipline, aided partly by luck and the natural apathy of the Russian people, he has reached a position of absolute despotism…His chief asset seems to be a faculty of divining the policy of possible opponents, condemning it as “deviation from the Party line” and then adopting the policy.” (Alex De Jonge, Stalin and the Shaping of the Soviet Union p 269)
As collectivization failed in many ways, some officials became critical of Stalin and his action while in power. Stalin avoided any possible anger from the people by blaming the failure of collectivization on the kulaks. The kulaks were peasants that had some wealth and resisted collectivization. The Great Famine also occurred due to Stalin collection of grain and using it for exports. However, he once again escaped any blame by temporarily pausing this and claiming that local officials were being too harsh.
Sergei Kirov was one such individual who questioned Stalin on many issues. In late 1934 Kirov mysteriously died of an unknown cause. During this time Stalin was already implicating “The Purges,” in which he was systematically getting rid of all other communist leadership around him. Stalin was again using terror to crusade and exonerate all of his political enemies.
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Read my next article “Stalin: A Despotic Ruler – Part 2” for the rest of the story and a full bibliography.
