 When we examine the reasons behind the rise of Stalin, there are TWO MAIN FACTORS RESPONSIBLE:  Stalin’s Cunning Personality  Stalin Outwitted His Rivals  Stalin Pretended to have been Close to Lenin  Made Alliances  Used His Position as Secretary-General of the Party  Favourable Circumstances  Trotsky’s Weaknesses

1) Stalin Outwitted His Rivals  When Lenin died, there were four contenders to his place – Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev, Grigory Zinoviev and Joseph Stalin.  Although Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev were much more capable than Stalin, Stalin managed to outwit them and claim leadership despite Lenin’s will criticising Stalin and naming Trotsky as a successor.

1) Stalin Outwitted His Rivals  Stalin used Kamenev and Zinoviev to get rid of Trotsky before turning on Kamenev and Zinoviev in later years.  Stalin was able to outwit all his rivals because no one saw him as a threat to their rise in power. As a result, Stalin was able to use them against each other and rise to power.

2) Stalin Pretended to have been Close to Lenin  Stalin tricked Trotsky and made him miss Lenin’s funeral which reflected very badly on Trotsky.  Stalin also organised Lenin’s funeral and made himself the chief mourner which gave people the impression he was very close to Lenin.  As a result of pretending to be close to Lenin, many party members supported Stalin’s rise to power.

3) Trotsky’s Weaknesses  Stalin was also able to rise due to Trotsky’s weaknesses. Trotsky had a narrow support base limited to youths, students and the Red Army. As he was too confident of replacing Lenin, he did not bother to build a Party support base unlike Stalin.  He was not well liked in the Party and his views on world revolution were not popular as the Party members preferred the more practical Stalinist view of working on Socialism within the country first.  As a result, Stalin was more popular with the party members and was able to rise to power.

4) Made Alliances  Stalin made alliances with Kamenev and Zinoviev to have Trotsky removed and exiled from Russia.  Once he had achieved his purposes, Stalin turned on Kamenev and Zinoviev using other alliances and had them removed from the Party.  With all these threats removed, Stalin was able to rise within the party.

5) Used his Position as Secretary-General  Stalin used his position as Secretary-General of the Party to appoint his supporters to important posts, ensuring their loyalty.  By controlling the central Party machine, he was able to exert great influence on the Party members and get them to vote on his policies or initiatives (e.g. voting out of Trotsky in 1925).  As a result Stalin was able to rise in power because he was able to gain loyal supporters and influence the party to vote for decisions that would benefit him.

 History Package:  Question 7 (a)  Question 8 (a)  Question 14 (b)  Question 17 (a)  Question 19 (a)  Question 27 (a)  Question 30 (a)

 Explain the GIVEN FACTOR  Explain TWO OTHER FACTORS  Total: Each ESSAY in this case MUST HAVE THREE FACTORS EXPLAINED