AREA 7 : Why did Stalin emerge as the leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Lenin?

In his Political Testament, Lenin named Trotsky as his successor and recommended that Stalin should be dismissed from the post of General Secretary of the Party.

Lenin’s widow handed the Testament to the Central Committee in May 1924, but the other Bolshevik leaders decided to keep the Testament secret. They did not want Trotsky to succeed Lenin. Trotsky was outspoken and arrogant and unpopular with the other Bolshevik leaders. This gave Stalin the chance to become the ruler of the Soviet Union.

• From 1924 the Soviet Union was ruled by a committee of Kamenev, Zinoviev and Stalin. But Stalin soon began to conspire with the right wing in the Communist Party, Bukharin and Rykov so that he could get rid of Kamenev and Zinoviev. He attacked the plans of the left wing to bring about rapid industrialisation in Russia and sided with the supporters of NEP.

• But once he had got rid of the left wing, Stalin then turned on Bukharin and Rykov and in 1928 emerged as the sole ruler of the Soviet Union. All of his opponents found that he had so much support in the party that opposition was useless. He then introduced much greater plans for industrialisation than the left wing had ever thought of.

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