1. Who was the strongest contender for the leadership of the Party?

2.  starter activity One murder is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.
What does this quote tell us about Stalin’s personality?

3.  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 Be prepared to explain your reasons.

4.  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.

5.  Plenary
On balance do you think Stalin’s weaknesses were outweighed by his strengths? Write a short judgement paragraph supporting your answer.

6.  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

7. 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’)

8. 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.

9. 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)

10. 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

11. 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)

12. 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

13. 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

14. Kamenev - strengths Active member of Bolshevik Party since 1905
Worked closely with Lenin from
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’

15. Kamenev - weaknesses Opposed Lenin’s April Theses
Opposed armed uprising of October 1917
Wanted socialist coalition govt.
E. H. Carr, ‘lacked vision’

16. 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

17. Bukharin - weaknesses Led opposition to Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Criticised Lenin & Trotsky over trade union debate
Lacked political skills

18. Rykov - strengths Working class background Chairman of Vesenkha
Chairman of Sovnakom
Strong speaker
Supporter of NEP & opponent of War Communism

19. Rykov - weaknesses Personal weaknesses – alcoholic Too outspoken
Lacked political acumen

20. Tomsky - strengths
Important figure in trade union movement – active member of metalworkers’ union
Chairman of Central Council of Trade Unions
Working-class background

21. Tomsky - weaknesses Lacked senior position within party
Opposed Lenin over trade union debate (1920)

22.  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.

23.  starter activity
Read the soundbites by the leadership contenders and decide who is speaking.
Soundbites

24. What were the main issues in the leadership struggle?

25.  Your task
Read p 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’

26. 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?

27. 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

28. What do we mean by left and right-wing politics
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?

29. 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

30. ‘Permanent Revolution’ versus ‘Socialism in One Country’
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

31.  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.

32.  Your task
Study chart 9C on p. 142 and list the ways Stalin built up his power base. Which was the most important?

33. Stalin with his wife Nadya
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

34. 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

35. 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

36. 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 non-ideological & poorly educated, drawn to Stalin’s nationalist policies

37. How did Stalin actually become leader?

38.  Your task  starter activity
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

39. Two wings of Communist Party
Zinoviev
Bukharin
Kamenev

40. 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

41.  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

42. 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?

43. What sorts of criticisms do you think Lenin might have made of Stalin?
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?

44. Why was Commissar for War such a powerful post within the Politburo?
3. In 1924, 13th Party 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.
Why was Commissar for War such a powerful post within the Politburo?

45. 4. 1924, Zinoviev & Kamenev attack Trotsky on his support for Lenin
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?

46. 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?

47. What were the main risks in expelling these men from the Communist Party?
, 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

48. 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?

49. What happened to Trotsky?

51.  Discussion
Do you think Trotsky was partly to blame for his own death?

52.  Your task
Read the sources 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 personal characteristics
Weaknesses of opponents
Luck

53.  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’.