On his deathbed, Lenin attempted to ensure unified leadership within his party.
After his death in 1924, Lev Trotsky, his most trusted follower, was disposed of by
Stalin, who eventually forced him into exile to Central Asia, Turkey and finally Mexico,
where Trotsky would be assassinated.
Lenin had condemned Stalin before his death, yet Stalin managed to suppress and crush any
opposition and consolidated his power.
He would become the Soviet Union’s dictator until his death in 1953, ruthless, without
any regard for human lives and with millions of deaths to his name.
What happened between Trotsky and Stalin, the Communist Party and the Soviet Union following
Lenin’s death?
The Succession Struggle
As soon as the Bolsheviks, under Lenin, achieved victory in the Russian civil war, and overcame
the economic difficulties and famine, Lenin was stricken by multiple strokes.
From 1922 until his death in 1924, he was a very ill man.
He had not given a clear and unanimous protocol for his succession.
At most, he ensured that his succession crisis would be confusing and lengthy.
In essence, he hoped for some form of collective leadership that he did not define, creating
an impossible situation.
In the months before his third stroke, which robbed him of the ability to speak, he dictated
several important articles and letters that would become the political testament of the
Communist Party.
The most important point was Lenin’s conclusion about the victory of socialism in one country,
namely Russia.
On the 4th of January 1923, Lenin dictated another letter that was critical about Stalin
and that the committee should consider removing him from his position.
Lenin requested that after his death, this letter would be read at a party congress.
Vladimir Lenin passed away on the 21st of January 1924.
That evening, the Central Committee of the Communist Party came together in a special
meeting.
The Party stated that “Lenin’s physical death was not the death of his ideology”.
It was thought that Trotsky, probably overestimating his chance of being elected as the new party
leader, left Moscow three days before Lenin’s death.
In reality, he left the city to recover from an illness.
Stalin sent Trotsky a telegram after Lenin’s death, giving the wrong date of the funeral.
The funeral was dominated by another candidate: the Georgian Stalin.
He was playing a tactical game attempting to gain control over the party.
The succession struggle has begun.
How did Stalin become so powerful?
Joseph Stalin, born in 1878, was arrested six times between 1902 and 1913.
He escaped from exile, twice.
The February Revolution ended his last penalty.
From 1912 onwards he was included in Lenin’s Central Committee, while Lenin was ensuring
that the committee was filled with loyal and colourless types.
When Lenin and the other Bolshevists returned to Russia from their exile in 1917, Stalin
faded to the background.
Oddly enough, Stalin’s position of power after Lenin’s death was thanks to his lack
of treading to the forefront and yearning for a position of power.
All the tasks and functions Lenin had given him after 1917 required a cunning personality,
rather than imagination - diligence, instead of flair.
While Trotsky was reaping recognition as a Soviet Diplomat, and as the army commander
among his troops, while “Iron Felix” Dzerzjinsky sowed fear and awe as the new head of the
Cheka, the secret police, and while other leading party members were tasked with getting
the economy back on track, Stalin focused himself on normal tasks, such as recruitment,
promotion and degrading other party members.
A by-product of this work was the accumulation of an enormous amount of power, which only
started to worry Lenin when it was too late to do anything about it.
The Struggle
It was evident that Trotsky, who had a strong claim to the leadership, had to be held in
check.
Stalin’s first tactical move was to form an alliance, a trojka, with two other contenders
and notable Soviet politicians, Lev Kamenev and Grigori Zinovjev.
This alliance prevented Trotsky from succeeding Lenin as the first minister - probably one
of the least colourful Soviet officials, Alexei Rykov was elected for this post.
The same alliance aided Stalin when Lenin’s letter denouncing Stalin, was read at the
13th Party Congress.
Trotsky was not elected as the successor of Lenin, the next step was to attempt to kick
him out of the party.
Trotsky, after all these setbacks, was extremely combative.
Trotsky and Stalin had a history of conflict - their first large conflict was about the
organisation and tactics of the Red Army, then about internal party democracy.
When Stalin became General Secretary, he made it a habit to directly appoint secretaries,
instead of having them elected.
Exporting the Revolution?
An issue that may seem theoretical but was at the core of the conflict between Trotsky
and Stalin, was the direction of the Bolshevik party and its communist ideology.
The majority of Bolsheviks were convinced that communism within Russia was something
that could be established.
Trotsky claimed that communism in an agrarian country, which Russia still was, was only
possible if there was an international revolution by the proletariat in developed countries.
According to Trotsky, a Russia attempting to build a Communist state on its own would
not be able to defend itself against the conservative, capitalist European countries.
The most important task of the party was encouraging other revolutions in other countries.
Exporting… the revolution.
Trotsky regarded violence as the most important tool in politics, no wonder he was commander
of the Red Army during the civil war.
The 13th Party Congress and Trotsky’s demise
In may 1924, during the 13th Party Congress, Zinovjev recalled this entire list of disputes
between Trotsky and Stalin and framed them as Trotsky’s conflicts with the party.
He demanded an open apology.
Trotsky refused to apologize and rebutted.
He published a pamphlet, “the lessons of October” which indirectly claimed he was
the mastermind behind the Russian Revolution in 1917 and downplayed the role of the Bolshevik
party.
The effects were two-fold: they impaired Zinovjev and Kamenev, who publicly opposed the revolution
in 1917 but because Trotsky downplayed the role of the party, the members of the party
stuck together closer and as a result, Stalin’s position was strengthened.
The last round of the succession struggle was in 1925 when the Politburo forced Trotsky
to resign as the minister of Defence, making use of the phenomenon known as party-discipline.
His supporters lost their positions in the army…
Trotsky slowly became isolated.
The fight against Stalin continued, though it became an uphill battle.
Several local party organisations asked the central committee to remove Trotsky from his
position.
The Armenian communists demanded that Trotsky should relieve his command of the Red Army.
In 1927 Trotsky was removed from the Politburo and forced into exile to Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan.
In 1929 Trotsky is expelled to Turkey.
Eventually, he fled to Mexico in 1937, where he was assassinated in 1940.
Most of his followers would die in the Gulags, sent there by Stalin and the Soviet Secret
Police, the NKVD, which started a full-fledged crackdown on Trotskyists once Stalin consolidated
his power.
After Trotsky was forced into exile, Stalin was left with multiple prominent Soviet officials
attempting to prevent him from grabbing power, among which Bucharin, Tomsky and Rykov.
I Next week, the power struggle inside the party continues between these men.
Stalin would eventually be able to consolidate his power, but not after purging all of the
Old Soviet Officials, Commanders of the army, civil servants, and over a million men, women
and children.