Emergence: Methods used to achieve Stalin's power Notes

Methods Used to Establish the Authoritarian Leadership

Institutional Methods

1. General Secretary (1922): Controlled personnel files, Party appointments, and influenced nearly every major decision.
2. People’s Commissar for Nationalities (1917): Managed ethnic minority affairs, expanding his authority.
3. Liaison between Politburo and Orgburo (1919): Positioned at the intersection of decision-making and implementation.
4. Head of Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate (1919): Oversaw bureaucracy, giving him oversight across government operations.
5. Result: Built a wide network of loyal supporters, securing a power base inside the Party.

Stalin’s Use of Party Structures to Consolidate Power

1. Position meant as a bureaucratic role but Stalin transformed it into the USSR’s most powerful office.
2. Controlled Party appointments, gaining patronage power.
3. Built a loyal base by placing allies in key posts.
4. Controlled information through access to Party records and communications, outmaneuvering rivals.
5. Party control through loyalists: Stalin appointed allies to key roles, securing majorities in Party votes and dominating the Secretariat.
6. Lenin Enrolment (1923–25): Doubled Party membership from 340,000 to 600,000; new, inexperienced recruits were loyal to Stalin who controlled admissions.
7. Ban on Factionalism (1921): Originally Lenin’s measure, now used by Stalin to silence rivals and prevent open challenges to policy.
8. Claim to Lenin’s legacy: Portrayed himself as Lenin’s true heir, gaining ideological legitimacy despite Lenin’s criticisms in his Testament.

Manipulation of Lenin’s Legacy and the Cult of Personality: Stalin and Trotsky

1. After Lenin’s death (Jan 1924), Stalin delivered the main funeral oration, presenting himself as Lenin’s loyal heir and Party unifier.
2. This gave him a propaganda advantage over rivals, especially Trotsky.
3. Trotsky missed the funeral, officially due to misinformation, but records suggest he knew the date.
4. His absence made him seem aloof and disrespectful, weakening his support in the Party and public.

Stalin’s Maneuvering within the Party

1. Lenin’s Testament (1923): Criticized Stalin’s rudeness, urged removal as General Secretary, but also attacked Trotsky, Kamenev, and Zinoviev.
2. Suppression: Politburo suppressed publication to avoid mutual damage; Trotsky agreed, missing a chance to weaken Stalin.
3. The Troika: Stalin allied with Kamenev and Zinoviev to marginalize Trotsky, exploiting his unpopularity.
4. Trotsky’s Weakness: Stalin’s plain style appealed to new Lenin Enrolment recruits, while Trotsky’s elitism and intellectualism alienated Party rank and file.

Leon Trotsky: Strengths and Weaknesses

1. Strengths: Brilliant orator, intellectual, architect of the Red Army.
2. Weaknesses: Arrogant, poor at building networks, Menshevik past damaged credibility. Seen as an outsider with little patronage power.
3. Trotsky vs. Stalin and the Party
   1. Bureaucratisation: Trotsky opposed growing Party centralization and Stalin’s Secretariat, calling for internal democracy. This clashed with the Party’s emphasis on unity and control.
   2. Rivalries: 1924 essay attacking Kamenev and Zinoviev backfired; they retaliated by exposing his Menshevik ties.
   3. NEP Disputes: Trotsky (Left) wanted rapid industrialization; Bukharin (Right) favored gradual NEP continuation. Stalin stayed ambiguous, presenting himself as pragmatic and loyal to Lenin.
4. Foreign Policy Clash:
   1. Trotsky: Permanent Revolution (world revolution essential for socialism).
   2. Stalin: Socialism in One Country (focus on Soviet survival and modernization).
5. Stalin framed Trotsky as an arrogant intellectual and reckless radical, out of touch with Russian realities.
6. Result: By the mid-1920s, Trotsky was isolated, undermined by his own weaknesses and Stalin’s ability to exploit divisions.

Stalin’s Defeat of Rivals (1924–29)

1. Eliminating the Left (Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev)
   1. After isolating Trotsky, Stalin turned on Kamenev and Zinoviev.
   2. They shifted to Trotsky’s earlier positions (rapid industrialisation, end of NEP) and joined him in the United Opposition (1926).
   3. The bloc demanded more internal Party democracy and an alternative to NEP.
   4. Stalin allied with Bukharin, Rykov, and Tomsky (Right) to dominate the Party Congress.
   5. Kamenev and Zinoviev dismissed from posts, replaced by Stalin loyalists (Molotov, Kirov).
   6. Trotsky expelled in 1927, deported in 1929, eliminating the Left threat.
2. Turning on the Right (Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky)
   1. The Right defended the NEP, gradualism, and voluntary peasant incentives.
   2. Stalin initially supported them, but by 1928 he adopted forced grain requisition and moved toward collectivisation, borrowing Left tactics.
   3. Bukharin warned against coercion, but was politically isolated.
3. By 1929:
   1. Bukharin stripped of Comintern role and Politburo seat.
   2. Rykov replaced as Premier.
   3. Tomsky removed from trade unions.
   4. All were forced to recant publicly; none expelled at this stage.
4. Outcome
   1. By 1929, Stalin eliminated both Left and Right oppositions.
   2. Emerged as the unchallenged vozhd (leader).
   3. Held control over Party, ideology, and policy, laying the foundation for a personal dictatorship.