Question by deideiblueeyez: What would you say the relationship between Lenin and Stalin?
I don’t really have a grip on Stalin to begin with. Russia in its entirety is just alien to me, let alone the history and people that came out of that (Yeah Stalin is really Georgian but shh..) But could you tell me what their relationship was between one another? Like was it like teacher and student, or was it like Lenin was teaching Stalin everything before he died but Stalin grew out of control with his ambitions or what..?
Could you give me a clear , simple explanation?
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Answer by Nick C
They started out as teacher and student but after Lenin’s death Stalin went his own way
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Spellbound says
Stalin was enamoured by Lenin as a young revolutionary based in the Caucuses (Georgia and Azerbaijan). He rose through the Bolshevik ranks in Georgia and eventually met his hero in Tammerfors, Finland at the Russian Social and Democratic Labour Party conference.
At the conference Lenin liked the young firebrand, who, discreetly, offered to keep on robbing banks to fund Lenin's faction of the party (the Bolsheviks).
In the period between the two revolutions of 1917, Stalin again proved useful, he arranged for Lenin to be smuggled out of the country after the failed Bolshevik coup known as the July Days. Stalin provided wigs and disguises, safe-houses and the travel arrangements for Lenin. Stalin's rough manners appealed to Lenin, as he could cut through the intellectual debates, offering Lenin a clear and concise version of his own (often overly long) words and ideas.
After the October Revolution, Stalin was still useful to Lenin: Lenin knew that his brutal side would be useful during the civil war that erupted. Stalin was sent to the city of Tsaritsyn (later known as Stalingrad, now Volgograd). Here he organised the troops and began a bloody purge of officers and officials accused of disloyalty – Trotsky was concerned that Stalin's bloody rule in the city could see all support for the Bolsheviks disappear, he recalled him to Moscow. Stalin still considered himself as Lenin's pupil, he was devastated when Lenin rebuked him for one of his proposed policies.
After Lenin's first stroke in 1922, Stalin was given the role of Lenin's contact with the Politburo. This meant that he controlled all of Lenin's correspondence. The relationship between the two men was still close – but not as close as Stalin later portrayed it.
Stalin was, from childhood, a cunning, manipulative person who used people for his own ends. He was a dedicated Bolshevik, he revelled in the underground, illegal world of revolutionary Russia. And, when the Bolsheviks seized power, he continued to enjoy conspiratorial politics, seeing traitors and enemy spies at every turn. His ambitions were always those of the school bully – to gain and maintain influence and power by keeping his allies on their guard.
See:
Lenin a Biography – Robert Service
Stalin a Biography – Robert Service
Randal says
After Lenin participated in an attempted revolution, Stalin helped Lenin evade capture and, to avoid a bloodbath, ordered the besieged Bolsheviks to surrender.
He [Stalin] smuggled Lenin to Finland and assumed leadership of the Bolsheviks. After the jailed Bolsheviks were freed to help defend Saint Petersburg, in October 1917, the Bolshevik Central Committee voted in favor of an insurrection. On 7 November, from the Smolny Institute, Stalin, Lenin and the rest of the Central Committee coordinated the coup against the Kerensky government—the so-called October Revolution. Kerensky left the capital to rally the Imperial troops at the German front. By 8 November, the Winter Palace had been stormed and Kerensky's Cabinet had been arrested.
Lenin formed a five-member Politburo which included Stalin and Trotsky. In May 1918, Lenin dispatched Stalin to the city of Tsaritsyn.
Stalin was determined to take the Polish-held city of Lviv. This conflicted with general strategy set by Lenin and Trotsky, which focused upon the capture of Warsaw further north.
Lenin still considered Stalin to be a loyal ally, and when he got mired in squabbles with Trotsky and other politicians, he decided to give Stalin more power.
Lenin suffered a stroke in 1922, forcing him into semi-retirement in Gorki. Stalin visited him often, acting as his intermediary with the outside world. The pair quarreled and their relationship deteriorated. Lenin dictated increasingly disparaging notes on Stalin in what would become his testament. He criticized Stalin's rude manners, excessive power, ambition and politics, and suggested that Stalin should be removed from the position of General Secretary.
Therefore, it appears that Stalin 'used' Lenin to forther his own ambitions.