1. Why did Stalin emerge as the leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Lenin? - page 1
Keywords: History GCSE coursework on Stalin
By Northcott on 26/09/2008
Level: VGCSE
Page Number: 1 of 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
After the death of Lenin the Soviet Union needed a new leader, there were many contenders for the much-admired place that was now empty and with no clear successor. Each had their own views and ideas about these three main issues; leadership, industrialisation and collectivisation and party policy as these were the issues that would decide the future of the Soviet Union. These issues specifically were firstly; “collective leadership” against a “dictator”, secondly the decision whether to abandon the N.E.P. and bring in rapid industrialisation and state ownership of land. Third and finally, “Permanent Revolution” versus “Socialism in One Country”. This was just the beginning of the power struggle for Leader of the Soviet Union that was going to be a bloody battle to the death between these much admired men and the rest of Russia as well.
It seemed that Lenin did not specify a new leader on purpose. Instead he created “The Testament”; this was an assessment by Lenin of all the candidates. It highlighted the flaws of each candidate to replace Lenin. It was very critical of Stalin for example “Comrade Stalin, having become Secretary-General, has unlimited authority concentrated in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution.” And also “Stalin is too rude and this defect becomes intolerable in a Secretary-General.” Therefore Lenin decided to undermine Stalin’s control of the party, this is seen when he states “That is why I suggest the comrades think about a way of removing Staling from that post and appointing another man in his stead”. I personally think that if this document were publicly published then Stalin would never have got close to becoming head of the party. It was going to be published at the 13th congress but Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev managed to block the publishing of it, as they were the three that were described in the most unfavourable light in this document. So how did Stalin go from being at the bottom of the pile in Lenin’s books to becoming leader of Russia?
As we already know Stalin did become leader in 1929 but first of all there was the competition he had to face up to. This started with Gregory Zinoviev who had been a Bolshevik since 1903 and had worked closely with Lenin before the lead up to the Revolution. However he opposed the armed
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