History

Stalin: His Rise to Prominence as General Secretary

When Stalin started his political career, no one could ever have expected him to take high office, to the General Secretary of the USSR. And not only that: when he surprisingly did reach that political level, he wielded the position in an innovative manner to gain indisputable power over the USSR, despite the General Secretary role not having originally been intended to mean being the head of the country.

Stalin the Revolutionary

Stalin’s revolutionary career began in his native Georgia where he had engaged in various activities: aiding strikers to illegal publishing. It was here that he committed himself to the Bolshevik party, meeting Lenin in 1905. At this stage, he mostly raised funds for the party via bank robberies and went on various trips on Lenin’s behest. He had however made something of a name for himself during the 1905 revolution.

He was in Baku when the Azeris began vicious pogroms against the Armenians. The latter were wealthier and better equipped so they quickly reciprocated. He viewed these events as a Tsarist distraction and used his gang of Bolsheviks to separate the communities while looting printing equipment and extorting funds in the process. Later as leader of the USSR, Stalin would exploit this very divide himself to make the region easier to control. He was brought onto the central committee of the party in 1912 and also edited Pravda until his arrest a year later in 1913.

The October Revolution and Lenin’s government

During the October Revolution Stalin was relatively quiet especially compared to his relatively active role in 1905. This was, however, where he began clashing with Trotsky as Stalin had showed some support to Kamenev and Zinoviev against the wishes of Lenin and Trotsky. Stalin was at this point assigned the role of speaking for the minorities continuing the theme of Lenin using him to demonstrate that non-Russians would also benefit from his state.

From here Stalin rapidly accumulated bureaucratic positions gaining control of the Soviet anti-corruption apparatus and gaining positions on both the Orgburo and Politburo thus giving Stalin considerable power which could be used quietly, in particular, significant control over appointing other officials. Stalin’s rapid accumulation of power was unimpeded by rivals such as Trotsky who dismissed Stalin as ‘creature of the bureaucracy’. Trotsky’s underestimation of Stalin would prove fatal as he failed to act against Stalin’s domination of the party organisational structure with Trotsky only removing Stalin’s military authority.

This failure to realise the dangers of giving one man so much power over the party organisation was not just missed by Trotsky however. Most of the party leadership was more concerned with theory or visible policy than on the structure that supported it. This suited Stalin who was able to start placing allies such as Molotov in important positions. These allies helped Stalin gain the position of General Secretary when the position was created in 1922.

Meanwhile, Trotsky came under increasing protest and dissent from all corners, the military opposed use of the army as a labour force, many opposed his use of former Tsarist officers and Zinoviev and Tomskii attacked him for angering the unions.

Lenin and Stalin
Lenin and Stalin

Lenin’s Death and Succession

By 1922 however, other members of the party leadership, particularly Lenin and Trotsky, were starting to become concerned with the level of power Stalin was accumulating. Lenin recommended that he be removed from the position of General Secretary in January 1923. However soon after Lenin suffered his third stroke, which placed Lenin in the care of doctors under Stalin’s control. As such Lenin was unable to exert any more political authority before his death in 1924. After Lenin’s death, Stalin allied with Kamenev and Zinoviev to prevent Trotsky from succeeding Lenin. This internal power struggle highlighted the gravity of having underestimated Stalin.

While Trotsky was certainly powerful and influential, Stalin and his allies could and did systematically remove Trotsky’s allies from positions of power and denied them access to the party press. Eventually, Trotsky and his remaining allies were removed entirely with Trotsky being ejected from the Executive Committee. In 1925, he was also replaced as head of the War Commissariat. Additionally, Stalin and his allies used their control over the press to publish brutal accusations against Trotsky and even rewriting official accounts to play down his achievements whilst also creating the impression of Stalin as a main protagonist in the October Revolution.

After this Stalin began to remove his erstwhile allies, removing Kamenev and Zinoviev from positions of power in quick succession in 1926. By 1927 they, along with Trotsky, had been completely removed from the party central committee. Bukharin was next in 1929, when Stalin contrived to have him along with Rykov and Tomskii accused of factionalism resulting in them losing most of their positions (such as Bukharin losing control over Pravda) and were threatened that further opposition would mean expulsion from the Politburo.

Conclusion

Stalin’s rise to power was a cautious and methodical one, he started by gathering bureaucratic and where possible press positions under his control. By the time his potential rivals and even his leader Lenin realised that he had become dangerously powerful, it was far too late. By the end of 1929, nobody was left who could seriously challenge him and most of those who could have been threats in the 1920s, perished in the Great Purges with Trotsky assassinated in Mexico.

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