Who was the strongest
contender for the
leadership of the Party?
 starter activity
One murder is
a tragedy, a
million is a
statistic.
What does this quote tell us about Stalin’s personality?
 Your task

Look at the list on p.135 and choose 6 that
would have been advantageous to becoming a
leader of the USSR in 1924. Be prepared to
explain your reasons.
 Your task

Study the information about Stalin on p.136 and
construct a scales chart highlighting the
successes and failures in his career or his
character.
 Plenary

On balance do you think Stalin’s weaknesses
were outweighed by his strengths? Write a short
judgement paragraph supporting your answer.
 Your task








Your teacher will assign you a contender for the party leadership.
You will become an expert on the strengths and weaknesses of
different contenders for the party leadership. Research your own
leader from the list below and then complete a table your teacher
gives you.
Stalin
Trotsky
Zinoviev
Kamenev
Bukharin
Rykov
Tomsky
Stalin - strengths






Genuine working-class
background (mother a
seamstress & washerwoman/
father a cobbler)
Hardworking – won a place
at seminary
Admired Lenin’s writings (as
a youth)
Party activist
Fundraiser (raiding banks)
Reputation for toughness
(‘man of steel’)
Stalin - strengths



Editor of Pravda
Opportunist – 1919, used roll as Head of
Peasants’ Inspectorate to familiarise himself
with workings of govt.
Careerist – rapid promotion to Orgburo,
Politburo & General Sec.
Stalin - weaknesses



October Revolution – played little part
Antagonised leading Communists, e.g. Sverdlov
& Trotsky
Reputation for ‘industrious mediocrity’, ‘a grey
blur which flickered obscurely but left no trace’
(Sukhanov, 1917, died 1940 in a gulag)
Trotsky - strengths





Rivalled Lenin in intellect
& charisma
Great orator
Popular with youth &
committed Communists
Superb organiser
(October Revolution,
Civil War)
Commissar for War –
strong military support
Trotsky - weaknesses





Personal weaknesses - arrogant & aloof
Lacked political skills – didn’t foster support
among fellow Communist leaders
Radical & potentially divisive views
Poor public perception – seen as outsider &
lacking party loyalty
Ill health (possibly malaria) – absent for key
meetings & events (Lenin’s funeral)
Zinoviev - strengths






Longstanding Bolshevik –
active since 1903
Close to Lenin – arrived in
Petrograd with Lenin, April
1917
Party Sec. in St Petersburg –
able to build powerbase
Chairman of Comintern
Member of Politburo
Good orator
Zinoviev - weaknesses




Opposed armed uprising in Oct. 1917
Disagreed with Lenin about formation of new
govt. – exclusion of other socialists
Lacked popular appeal – E.H.Carr, ‘weak, vain
& ambitious’
Not an intellectual
Kamenev - strengths








Active member of Bolshevik Party
since 1905
Worked closely with Lenin from
1907-1917
Major contributor to party doctrine
Party Sec. in Moscow
Commissar for Foreign Trade
Member of Politburo
Moderate
E.H.Carr, ‘Intellectually superior to
Stalin & Zinoviev’
Kamenev - weaknesses




Opposed Lenin’s April Theses
Opposed armed uprising of October 1917
Wanted socialist coalition govt.
E. H. Carr, ‘lacked vision’
Bukharin - strengths






Appealed to youth
Major figure in party before
1917
Close to Lenin – called him
‘the golden boy of the
Bolshevik Party’, ‘the
favourite of the whole Party’
Contributor to Pravda
Member of Politburo
Intellectual & epicurean
Bukharin - weaknesses



Led opposition to Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Criticised Lenin & Trotsky over trade union
debate
Lacked political skills
Rykov - strengths





Working class
background
Chairman of Vesenkha
Chairman of Sovnakom
Strong speaker
Supporter of NEP &
opponent of War
Communism
Rykov - weaknesses



Personal weaknesses – alcoholic
Too outspoken
Lacked political acumen
Tomsky - strengths



Important figure in trade
union movement – active
member of
metalworkers’ union
Chairman of Central
Council of Trade Unions
Working-class
background
Tomsky - weaknesses


Lacked senior position within party
Opposed Lenin over trade union debate (1920)
 Your task
Ignore what you might know about who
succeeded Lenin after his death. In 1924 who
was the most likely candidate. Write a judgement
paragraph, using detailed factual evidence to
support your answer.
 starter activity
Read the soundbites by the leadership
contenders and decide who is
speaking.
Soundbites
What were the main
issues in the leadership
struggle?
 Your task

Read p.139-141. Summarise the key issues
surrounding the leadership contest. Use the
following headings to help structure your notes:
Nature of leadership
 NEP and industrialisation
 ‘Permanent Revolution’ versus ‘Socialism in One
Country’

Nature of leadership





Collective leadership or rule
by committee
Reversal of centralisation
process of Civil War
Fear of dictatorship
Fear of Trotsky (Commander
of Red Army, Commissar for
War)
Need for a moderate
candidate
To what extent were Russians justified in thinking there
might be a dictatorship?
NEP and industrialisation







Consensus on need to industrialise
Concern over negative effects of NEP – rich
superclass, property dealing, land speculation, gambling,
prostitution
Arguments over next stage of NEP
High unemployment
Wages out of step with price increases
Re-emergence of food shortages
Peasants beginning to hoard produce again
What do we mean by left
and right-wing politics?
How would this apply to
the Communist Party?
Who would be on the
left and who would be on
the right?
NEP and industrialisation



Disagreement over when & how to end NEP
experiment
Trotsky, Zinoviev & Kamenev (left): end NEP,
militarisation of labour, forced requistioning of
grain
Bukharin, Rykov & Tomsky (right): continue
NEP, develop consumer economy to encourage
manufacturing industry
‘Permanent Revolution’ versus
‘Socialism in One Country’




Permanent Revolution
Hard-line Communism –
militarisation of labour,
collective farming etc
Trotsky
Needed international
support -world
Communist revolution
required




Socialism in one country
Moderate Communism –
flexible response to
USSR’s needs
Stalin
Nationalist appeal
 Your task
In the light of your research into the key issues of the
leadership contest, which of the candidates do you now
think was most likely to succeed? Write a short
judgement paragraph explaining your reasons using
detailed, factual evidence.
 Your task
Study chart 9C on p. 142 and list the ways Stalin built
up his power base. Which was the most important?
Party Secretary



Controlled business of
Politburo (policy making
body of Communist
Party)
Controlled agendas &
discussions
Controlled information
sent out to party
members
Stalin with his wife Nadya
Positions in Orgburo & Secretariat




Orgburo (Party
administration
department)
Controlled appointments
within Party
Placed supporters in key
positions
Made appointments &
dispensed favours to
regional party secretaries
Control of Party Organisation



Controlled selection of party
delegates to annual
congresses where policy
decided and Central
Committee chosen
Deliberately chose delegates
hostile to opponents, e.g.
Trotsky (1924 congress)
Stalin’s position attracted
powerful supporters, e.g.
Zinoviev & Kamenev
Control of Party Membership



Purged party of radical
elements, e.g. students &
soldiers
Supervised ‘Lenin
Enrolment’ (1924/5)
doubling membership to 1
million
New membership were nonideological & poorly
educated, drawn to Stalin’s
nationalist policies
How did Stalin actually
become leader?
 starter activity
 Your task
Even today politics is defined by those who are ‘on the
right’ and those who are ‘on the left’. What do these
terms mean for politicians today? What do you think
they meant for politicians in Russia after the Bolshevik
Revolution?
The House of
Commons
Two wings of Communist Party
Zinoviev
Bukharin
Kamenev
Two wings of Communist Party





Left Wing
Individuals like Zinoviev,
Kamenev
Liked Trotsky but didn’t
want a dictatorship
Liked traditional
Bolshevik ideals
Suspicious of NEP &
return of capitalism
‘Permanent Revolution’




Right Wing
Individuals like Bukharin
Liked NEP
Liked industrialisation &
expansion of Russian
economy
Socialism on one country
 Your task
Create a timeline showing achievements and set backs.
Mark on the timeline any points at which his career
might have been stopped when Lenin was alive or during
the power struggle.
Successes
Failures
Stalin’s six steps to power!
1. Before Lenin’s funeral Stalin tricks Trotsky into not
coming. People think Trotsky can’t be bothered to turn
up. Stalin, meanwhile, makes a stirring speech praising
Lenin and saying he was Lenin’s disciple.
Why was it so important to be seen at Lenin’s funeral?
2. May 1924, just before
13th Party Congress,
Central Committee
decided not to publish
Lenin’s testament, as it
contained criticisms of
them as well as Stalin &
may have overly favoured
Trotsky
What sorts of criticisms do you think
Lenin might have made of Stalin?
3. In 1924, 13th Party
Why was Commissar for War such a
powerful post within the Politburo?
Congress, Zinoviev &
Kamenev join forces
with Stalin to defeat
Trotsky. Stalin (party
secretary) packs
Congress with
supporters. Trotsky lost
the vote due to his
support for ‘ban on
factions’ and soon his
job as Commissar for the
War.
4.1924, Zinoviev &
Kamenev attack Trotsky
on his support for Lenin.
Trotsky publishes
‘Lessons of October’
challenging their loyalty
to 1917 Revolution.
Stalin sits back &
watches opponents
destroy each other.
Stalin played a very clever political
game. Why didn’t his rivals do the
same?
5.1926, Stalin turns on
Zinoviev & Kamenev, joining
forces with Bukharin and the
right of the party attracted by
nationalist ‘Socialism in One
Country’ policy. Stalin
supporters pack the Congress
and Zinoviev and Kamenev
lose vote of no confidence &
their jobs in the Politburo.
Trotsky, Kamenev &
Zinoviev form ‘United
Opposition’ movement and
in 1927 expelled from party.
Stalin played a very clever political
game. Why didn’t his rivals do the
same?
What were the main risks
in expelling these men from
the Communist Party?
6. 1928, Stalin attacks Bukharin and supporters of the
NEP. Proposes rapid industrialisation & militarised
labour (views of the left he has smashed!) Bukharin,
Rykov & Tomsky out-voted, expelled from Politburo
By 1929, his 50th birthday, Stalin was undisputed leader
of the USSR.
What do you think Stalin’s next steps would be in further securing his position?
What happened to
Trotsky?
 Discussion
Do you think Trotsky was partly to blame for his own
death?
 Your task
Read the sources 9.3-9.10 and identify reasons they provide as to
why Stalin eventually became leader. Use the table below to guide
you.
Importance
of control of
party
Policies
Stalin’s
Weaknesses
personal
of opponents
characteristi
cs
Luck
 Your task



List the reasons why Stalin succeeded to the
leadership of the party and the reasons why
Trotsky failed.
What evidence would you use to support these
judgements?
Write an essay entitled, ‘Why did Stalin rather
than Trotsky emerge as the leader of the USSR
in 1929’.