Question by Mr X: How did Stalin become Supreme Leader of the Soviet Union and not Trotsky?
Stalin drank, he was a peasant, he had poor charisma, he suffered from extreme paranoia. Even Lenin himself before he died cautioned the Bolsheviks against Stalin.
Trotsky on the other hand was a military leader, he was educated, he had charm, he was confidant and knew how to give a speech, he was well accustomed with political affairs
How did Stalin get power over Trotsky?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Tony
Stalin attained a seat of power where he could appoint certain people to certain seats of the government, people who believed or agreed with Stalin’s view for Russia. This way, by the time that Lenin died, a lot of the government officials were in favor of Stalin.
Answer by Daniel
Because of vlad lenin
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Spellbound says
Once the bolsheviks had seized power Stalin was promoted to General Secretary of the Party. Lenin (the leader of the Bolsheviks) was very concerned that the brutal party bully who had been very useful to the party when they were an underground, illegal organisation, would prove to be a thuggish influence if given government office.
Stalin used the job of General Secretary to promote people loyal to him, to remove from the party people who were disloyal and to collect information on every party member. After Lenin’s death he waited, allowing other Politburo members to state their preferred policies – he then ganged up on groups of them, using his alliances and his party contacts to destroy the opposition. His did this twice in the 1920s, destroying Trotsky and his supporters and Zinoviev and Kamanev and their supporters. This left him as the undisputed ruler by about 1928.
Once he was the undisputed leader – the Vozhd (meaning Boss) he continued to use the position of General Secretary of the Communist Part to promote loyal supporters and demote, or expel from the party those who he could not be sure about. From the mid 1930s began to use show trials – public events where the accused had to follow a script, nearly always ending in a guilty verdict, and purges – expelling great numbers from the party and arresting people arbitrarily. Fear became one of the main weapons Stalin used against the Soviet people. No-one was safe – loyal Molotov was forced to divorce his wife when she was arrested, her crime? She was Jewish! Stalin also bugged the offices of the other members of the Politburo and collected information on them.
On his way to power he was cautious and did not cause the deaths of anyone – he waited until he could destroy people without any political opposition.
The Great Purge which happened after he gained total power consumed about 2.5 million people.
In the purge he had Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin, Radek, Rykov and Tomsky (all leading old Bolsheviks) all arrested, tried and executed. He had Trotsky assassinated in Mexico in 1940, this was the last of the important old Bolsheviks he had killed.
In a nutshell, he came to power by manipulating those around him, by exploiting the posts he held for maximum political effect, and by being utterly ruthless in his pursuit of power.
See:
The Road to Terror by J Arch Getty & Oleg Naumov
Stalin, A Biography – Robert Service
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSstalin.htm
imperialpoetpurple says
Trotsy was a man of action, and he was brilliant as an orator and theorist…and as a planner…but he was horrific when it came to being an administrator and getting mundane little things done. He was easily offended and could be a difficult prima donna of a personality. Stalin was a publishable poet, and he was actually charasimatic – not as an orator – but as someone who could compliment and charm you, and get you drinking and attending parties with him every night. Stalin was a singer and a womanizer. Stalin was very personable. Stalin was also a sociopath with ruthless boundaries.
Trotsky and Stalin hated the sight of each other from the first day they ever met. Trotsky had been a Menshevic and then sided with Lenin. Stalin had been a Robin Hood Robber and organizer…and a kind of Georgian folk hero with a giant ego.
At the time of Lenin’s death, Lenin had already declared to his wife and others that Stalin was dangerous and had to be ousted from the party. Lenin realized that Stalin was a thug. At the time of Lenin’s death, there were only two politburo members who were allowed to visit Lenin without an appointment or formal approval – Stalin and Trotsky.
The men Lenin liked best to succeed him were likely Trotsy or Nicholai Bukharin. At the time of Lenin’s death, Trotsky was on a train headed off to vacation. He also had a cold. He notified Stalin and basically asked if he had to attend the funeral, if his absence from Lenin’s funeral was understood…
Stalin then of course told Trotsky not to worry, that he would make sure everyone knew that he was ill and could not attend… Stalin of course did just the opposite and made sure that everyone was extremely suspicious and offended by Trotsky’s absence. Trotsky was dumb like that… On the other hand, he might have already have seen the handwriting on the wall. Stalin murdered and purged Lenin’s entire politburo including Bukharin… accusing them of treason and being spies for Germany and he would buddy up with officials or a politburo member to get them to legitimize the existance of a conspiracy – to get rid of people, and then he would turn on that official/politburo member who helped him. ..so as to kill several birds with a single stone. Trotsky got away, but was eventually hunted down in Mexico. Trotsky however did get the word out to the world and caused a real split in the party. Trotsky in the 1930’s predicted that Stalin was the death of the Revolution and that within about 50 yrs. the USSR would collapse and likely return from state capitalism to a more traditional form of capitalism if it did not have another revolution that would dispose of Stalin…
and being involved in various plots. One favorite technique was that Stalin would take charge of an investigation of an assasination
Stalin was a sociopath. He just did what he wanted to do. There is one instance supposedly where he was having an argument with his son where he stated ‘Look I’m your father. I’m talking to you as your father. Stalin doesn’t exist. He’s just something I created…’ Stalin had some paranoid traits, but I would not say he suffered from paranoia. There were in fact many people who would love to kill him. He was surrounded by many layers of security ie. even the curtains and tapestries were cut so that nobody could hide behind them. Stalin was a passionate many. Quite a few of the people he eventually purged or ordered to be executed – had once been people he charmed, praised and loved for years ie. Bukharin had known Stalin for many years. The trouble was that Stalin’s passions could
waver from love to jealous hatred in his continued gradual rise to power. Stalin did not suddenly come to great power, but steadily did so through ruthless plotting…
tuffy says
Stalin forced Trotsky into exile and took control of the Soviet Union. In 1940 Trotsky was murdered in Mexico by Stalin’s assassin squad.
Keir says
lenin hated stalin. lenin supported Trotsky
essentially stalin was a minor bureaucrat in the Politburo, but he was intelligent, after lenins death he allied himself with the right wing of the party to discredit the left wing, then he adopted the left wing policies and discredited his former right wing allies, then he appointed stalinist supporters into the Politburo.
stalin was a mass-murdering f**khead but he was smart, he was pragmatic