How Stalin rose to the top of the USSR Essay

Following the death of Lenin on 22nd January 1924, Stalin, man of brand, rose to the top of the USSR through a combination of luck and by using his governmental skills. Therefore by Stalins fiftieth birthday he had now achieved for himself complete control over the USSR.Stalins trick up to function can be position d feature to his ruthlessness he would non have gained power had it not been for his brutal nature, save in that respect were legion(predicate) factors that contributed to Stalins success. Stalin had the characteristics of a dictator from childhood, in the sense that he was un competent to cope with defeat or admit that he was wrong. This in spades assisted him in his quest to get down ruler of the USSR.Stalin first became spy in 1905 after he first conjugate the communists and dished to raise cash in hand by robbing banks and looting trains. During the civil state of war Stalin stayed loyal and during this season he forcibly seized grain from farmers in t he S erupth in order to operate the workers in the North. As a reward for this Lenin then made him creditworthy for the Red Army in the s come out of the closeth during the Civil War. This brought him into conflict with Trotsky. This meant that already Stalin had made a name for himself and had been recognised by Lenin as person who was reliable and who had impressive dictatorship skills, this is why Lenin gave him a handicraft as Commander in Chief during the civil war.Later on in 1922 Stalin then achieved promotion to General Secretary, this was a fairly boring job, however it was still within the politburo and it keep Stalin busy e really day. As this was not really a position of authority using his manipulative skills Stalin makes the job have a greater political influence, which thus wins himself a effective level of authority. Stalin cute to do all of the poor organisations jobs that everyone else thought were boring, this was the first manipulative move that Stalin took and by having small jobs and by making them plump better Stalin was now becoming more noticed by the bulk and he was getting some respect, which he eventually used to help him rise to power.If Stalin was to be leader of the USSR then this meant that Lenin would have to be out the centering. Lenin suffered several strokes in 1922 and 1923 that left him paralysed and eventually in 1924 he died. If Stalin was to become leader he had to overcome his main opposition for power, which was Trotsky. The funeral of Lenin was organised by Stalin and he overly lead the mourning. This was to create an image to the familiar that Stalin was close down to the deceased however in hindsight we know that he only did this to progress his chance of becoming the next leader.Trotsky was nowhere to be seen at Lenins funeral and had nothing to do with the preparations and many people truism this move by Trotsky as a sign of disrespect and the public now saw Stalin as the better of the two. However S talin was thought to have told Trotsky the wrong naming for the funeral and Trotsky said that he was away at his holiday home retrieve from an illness. Whether this was true or not either way it was a curious move by Trotsky not to turn up, as that now put Stalin in the driving seat for the power of the USSR.Before Lenin died, he wrote a earn to the troupe Congress that outlined his ideas for the future. In this letter he also gave his opinions on the fractions of the Politburo including Stalin and Trotsky, the two main contenders for the leadership of the USSR. After Lenin had died, the letter became know as Lenins volition. Had it been made public at the time it had the potential to destroy Stalins claim to power as this put down showed exactly what Lenin thought of Stalin. At the time Lenin obviously felt that Trotsky was the to the highest degree suitable successor for the reign as in his testament Lenin depict Trotsky as a man with outstanding ability and he also thou ght Trotsky was perhaps the most capable man in the profound Committee. Lenin saw Stalin as too rude and he complimentsed Stalin to be removed from his post as General Secretary. lag Stalin must have been shaken when he heard about what Lenin had to distinguish about him. What Lenin thought of these two candidates was crucial, as the public would not want an enemy of Lenins to be the next leader. This is why Stalin appeared to be very close to Lenin and stand by him. However in spite of these comments the Testament was not made public. The Leftists Zinoviev and Kanenev protested that it was out of date and so a visibly disturbed Stalin was rescued and the truth did not reach the Soviet people. Because the public did not know what Lenin really thought of Stalin, they still saw Stalin as a commendable replacement to Lenin. What Zinoviev and Kanenev did was an important part of Stalins pursuance to get to power because had the testament been released, the public would have dislike d Stalin as they worshiped Lenin.The two main contenders for the leadership of the USSR, Stalin and Trotsky were now involved in a feud with each other. This help Stalin claim power in the way that now the public were on his side and Trotsky now frightened many people in the USSR. Trotsky had the idea of circulariseing socialism across the field he argued that the future security of the USSR lay in trying to spread permanent revolution across the world until the whole globe was Communist. some people in the USSR seed that Trotsky would involve them in future wars and conflicts.Stalin emerged as Lenins successor because of his policies, these were met with greater approval than Trotskys ideas, as Stalin argued that in future, the Party should try to establish socialism in One Country alternatively than Trotskys idea which was to try to spread revolution worldwide, this was very popular. Socialism in one country was the idea that communism shouldnt be spread across the world but that the politburo should concentrate on honest having it in Russia. As the Soviet people were scared of years of war and revolution Stalin seemed to be the man who understood their feeling and did what the public wanted. In 1925, Trotsky gave up his only symbol of power when he resigned from his position as Commissar for War. He now had nothing and because the war was over, the future was looking at bleaker for him. Stalin, because of this, was now the favourite to become the next controller of the USSR.With Trotsky now out of the way, Stalin was now on course to take the leadership of the USSR, he uses his descent and his positions of authority with other members of the Politburo extremely well. Stalin successfully played both the leftists and the right-winger in the Politburo he did this by using his friends who owed him favours. In 1927 Stalin first joined the rightists and attacked the left removing all the important members from the office, then a year later he joined th e leftists and attacked the right, forcing out his opponents and bringing in some of his own allies who would support him. By doing this Stalin was now the most senior member of the Politburo. This was a huge step towards his aim and put him in terminal position to become the next dictator.In conclusion I believe that Stalin achieved total power over the USSR through a combination of political scheming, luck, the mistakes of his opponents and the clever way in which he built up his power base. Each event that leads up to Stalins dictatorship was just as important as the next he got to power through a combination of all of these. If any of the steps to his reign had been missing, there is no doubt that he would not have been in control of the USSR and been able to cause the damage he did.