Why was Kirov gaining more popularity in comparison to Stalin?

Question by : Why was Kirov gaining more popularity in comparison to Stalin?
Many historians believed that Stalin purposely planned the assassination against Sergei Kirov. One of the reasons was that Kirov was beginning to look like a political threat. What made Kirov so popular? What did he have that Stalin didn’t?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Spellbound
Kirov was dynamic, handsome and a capable party leader. He was improving life for the citizens of Leningrad. He was also a very sociable man, popular amongst his peers in the party and those who worked for him.

Stalin was reclusive, paranoid and distrustful of those around him. He was sociable with his Politburo colleagues, but he liked to keep them up half the night drinking vodka and singing songs – whilst he drank water.

However, there is still no evidence that Stalin had Kirov killed, and the Great Purge began two years afterwards – so Stalin did not use the murder as an excuse to launch the purge. Stalin would not have been afraid of having Kirov arrested, he had more important and more popular people arrested than Kirov. Most historians are now of the opinion that Stalin did not have Kirov killed, but merely used his death to his advantage.

See:
On the Origin of the Great Purges – J Arch Getty

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