Essay Power Struggle Between Stalin and Trotsky In 1921, Lenins health was delicate and fragile; he started

d suffering a series of strokes that in 1924 finally ended his life. In 1922 he retired from any business tha t had to do with the government. During this time he became more aware of the partys weaknesses, and started to be conscious about the threat that Stalin supposed for not only the Bolsheviks, but for Russias future. Lenin wrote his Letter to the Party Congress in 1922, and alerted that Stalin was becoming too powerful and had to be removed immediately from his position. That is why I suggest the comrades think about a way of removing Staling from that post and appointing another man in his stead who in all other respects differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one advantage, mainly, that of being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite, and more considerate to the comrades, less capricious, etc. (Quote from Lenins Letter). January 21, 1924 Lenin dies, and a struggle for power between Stalin and Leon Trotsky takes place. Josep Stalin resulted as the victor, and for the next 30 years he would lead Russia towards a fast industrialization process that caused millions of deaths. Furthermore, it is accurate to say that Joseph Stalins rise was due to his skill and political planning. When Lenin died, there was a wave of commotion over the whole of Russia. Stores and theaters were closed for a week. Stalin managed to make Trotsky miss the ceremony by alerting him that he was going to be late for it. Trotsky had gone some days before to the south of Russia because he was ill and needed to recover. This made it look as if he wasnt bothered to attend to the funeral. This caused his popularity to go down drastically. On the other behalf, Stalin made the most of Lenins funeral. It was the opportunity for Stalin to place himself as Lenins disciple. He wanted the same admiration and prestige that he had.

Industrialization was vital for Russia in the next years. A great issue in party conferences was the NEP, a measure that Lenin had placed to stabilize the economy after observing that war communism was not effective. In the mid 20s the party was deciding if to continue with the New Economic Policy or not. This separated the party into to major parts. Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev were the left wing, that did not want the NEP to remain as their governmental system. They believed it was important to industrialize fast instead. On the other side, Josep Stalin and Nikolai Bukharin composed the right wing. It is ironic because in 1928 Stalin turned against it, calling for rapid industrialization. Meanwhile, the idea of following with the NEP attracted Bukharin towards his side. It is visible how he only tried to place his reputation as Lenins descendant. His real goal now was to score popularity points and make himself look as the most appropriate candidate to replace Lenin. It was a very effective strategy.

A key point in Stalins strategy was to become the Party Secretary. This position allowed him to control what the Politburo talked about and what information they had. His position in the Orgburo, and the secretariat allowed him to assign positions of responsibility within the party organization. He placed people who supported him in high ranks and got rid of those who were not loyal. Everyone underestimated this role, and failed to see the importance of it. This shows Stalins ability to maneuver things and to plan strategies that were very effective. Not only he could appoint people to power, but he also controlled the party membership. This meant that he could get rid of those who were most likely to support Trotsky. In 1924 he managed the Lenin Enrolment, during the next year, the party would triple its membership, young workers and poor uneducated peasants that did everything they were told, and would not cause any trouble.

In 1924 Stalin, Kamenev, and Grigori Zinoviev formed a group of successors allied against Trotsky, who was a strong contender to replace Lenin. Zinoviev and Kamenev created a strong campaign against him, putting in question his real devote to Lenins figure. Stalin did not get involved with this, as he saw happily, the left wing fall apart while he worked on constructing his power. During the time, Stalin put forward a policy that he called Socialism in One Country. This consisted on accepting that the spread of Communism was probably not going to happen in a short period of time. This idea was very popular with party members. He believed that Russia needed no help from other countries, and that they would be able to construct their own and fully working socialist country. He got to peoples hearts because his idea was very patriotic and appealing to them, as it meant to show the world how powerful and capable Russians were. Trotsky believed that communism should still be carried on to other countries, and his theory was called the Permanent Revolution. Stalin used this to accuse Trotsky of not believing in Russia, its people or missions. This placed his prestige far down from Stalins. At the Fourteenth party congress, Zinoviev and Kamenev, tried to eliminate Stalins influence over the party, criticizing him, his position and called for a vote of no confidence in him. But because of the influence Stalin had over the party, this didnt cause him trouble at all. They lost all the votes against him and in 1927 were expelled from the party. In 1928, Stalin turned against the NEP, managing to eliminate Bukharin. In 1929, Bukharin tried to get support to defend the NEP, but he could not combat the votes of Stalins followers. All of the right wing leaders; Bukharin, Rykov and

Tomsky, were afterwards removed from their positions. Now Stalin had rivals, and was the undisputed leader of the USSR.

Clearly, Stalin used a variety of tactics that would ensure his rise to power in no time. He made each of the candidates eliminate themselves while he focused in his development of power. Stalin took advantage of the ignorance of his opponents to outsmart them easily into leaving him as the only one capable of doing the job. it is accurate to say that Joseph Stalins rise was due to his skill and political planning.