To what extent was Stalin’s rise to power based purely on luck?

In 1929, Stalin became the leader of the USSR and begun his consolidation of power. There were many factors as to how Stalin got to power; this essay seeks to discuss these factors, and evaluate how far luck was in serve as the inciting cause of his rise. I will look to examine Stalin’s power and personality, luck and actions of others. Luck played an important role in Stalin’s rise to power, however, Stalin had many great features and his political positions before ruler played to his strengths.

Stalin emerging as the ruler of the Soviet Union in 1929 was greatly fuelled by him working in many seemingly weak positions within the Bolshevik Party. But, it was these positions that enabled Stalin to gather power and influence throughout the party, which proved vital to his success and downfall of Trotsky. In the early Bolshevik days there were only a few members of the party; Lenin knew them all well and because of Stalin’s great organisation skills he included him as one of the six members of the Central Committee, where he became editor of the Pravda. Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and by the October Revolution it was selling around 100,000 copies a day. Being editor of Pravda was a huge advantage for Stalin as he could voice his views and opinions in a persuasive manner through the articles and hopefully, get people to support him.

Furthermore, in November 1917 Lenin appointed Stalin as Commissar of Nationalities as a reward for his belief and assistance of the October Revolution. Being Georgian, Stalin was seen as the obvious choice as Commissar of Nationalities. Moreover, this job gave Stalin enormous power; this was because almost half of the country's population were non-Russian. Stalin now had the control and responsibility of dealing with 90 million non-Russian citizens. As Stalin promised the various nationalities of Russia complete freedom, they took an immediate liking to him. However, this position did not let Stalin look at members of the Bolshevik Party, General Secretary did.

In 1922, Stalin was assigned as General Secretary of the Communist party’s Central Committee; this was an essential position in Stalin’s rise to power. Combined with his incredible memory, Stalin accumulated personal information about party members and began to build up individual files, which included such information as character and commitment to the party. Moreover, Stalin had the power to place certain people in key positions in the party. Throughout the Civil War, Bolshevik officials were captured and shot. Therefore, Stalin rebuilt the party selecting his supporters to fill these positions. With the party members full support he had the power to destroy any policies he did not agree with, and select the policies he felt were beneficial to his rise to power. In 1924, Stalin supervised the Lenin Enrolment, the membership of the party doubled with mostly young, uneducated proletarians. This was very beneficial to Stalin’s rise to power because these young peasants were unlikely to argue against any of his ideas and simply obey the instructions they were given.

The positions that Stalin held in the party (General Secretary, member of the Orgburo and Secretariat) provided him with tremendous power and influence over the policy and members of the party. 1921 saw the ban on factions and this was potentially a devastating weapon in the hands of Stalin. Throughout the Power Struggle Stalin used his power to his advantage. Trotsky was quickly defeated in the votes for Lenin’s successor because the party was crowded with obeying Stalinist delegates which Stalin gathered in 1924 from positions as General Secretary. Furthermore, at the 14th Party Congress 1925, Zinoviev and Kamenev tried to break Stalin down; they called for a vote of no confidence in him, ending on NEP and a tough line against peasants. However, by this time Stalin’s control over the party was almost complete and they gave him very little trouble. When Stalin turned against the NEP in 1928 he attacked the right wing of the Party: Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky. The right wing put up a good defence but at the 1929 congress they found themselves outvoted by Stalin’s well-instructed supporters. The leading Bolsheviks of the right wing were removed and partly because of Stalin’s power he won the Power Struggle and became the leader of the USSR.

From my perspective, I believe that without these political positions and the power they gave Stalin in the party, he wouldn’t have gathered enough support to win the Power Struggle against opposing leading Bolsheviks and become Lenin’s successor. However, power was just one factor of Stalin’s rise to power, the actions of others also played an important role.

Throughout Stalin’s rise to power many people underestimated his personality and political positions. Stalin was ranked an outsider in the race to succeed Lenin and no one thought of him as potential opposition and possibly become party leader. Stalin used his political positions very cleverly and they all played to his strengths, for example: no one thought he’d voiced his opinions through the Pravda’s articles in 1917. Stalin was described as a ‘grey blur’ meaning no one seemed to notice him and see him as a threat. For Stalin this was a huge advantage as he wasn’t in everyone’s good books but at the same time not in everyone’s bad books; this meant he could gather information about his opposition and eliminate them one by one without being noticed by other contenders in the power struggle. Not being suspected of anything allowed Stalin, like chess, to intelligently plan out his next move, unlike Trotsky who jumped straight in with his arrogance. The fact that they underestimated Stalin led to the contenders of the power struggle concentrating on other opponents who they felt may be a threat to themselves.

Throughout the power struggle political infighting began to take place as the Bolshevik leaders battled politically to try and become leader of the USSR. The political infighting attacks held against Stalin were easily dismissed as Stalin had many supporters; however, attacks against others generally spelt bad news for them which was great for Stalin. In 1924, Zinoviev and Kamenev carried out a vicious attack on Trotsky by questioning is commitment and raising his opposition to Lenin pre-1917; this caused hysteria in the left wing and Trotsky retaliated, attacking them in lessons of October. This was brilliant for Stalin as he diplomatically watched the left wing fall apart.

The actions of others we’re very helpful to Stalin and without powerful members of the party underestimating him he would have found it very hard to come to power. As well as this, throughout the power struggle there was a lot of political infighting and this also helped create less opposition to Stalin and also give him the opportunity to seem like a peace maker trying to keep party unity. But, it wasn’t just the power of Stalin and the actions of others that made him leader of the USSR in 1929; Stalin was a very lucky man.

Before Lenin passed away in January 1924 he wrote a will stating his concern for Stalin’s growing power and he felt he would abuse his power if he became leader: this was called Lenin’s Will & Testament. Krupskaya gave this secret testament to the Central Committee in May 1924. If read out at the 13th Party Congress it would be the end of Stalin’s career. However, Zinoviev and Kamenev prevented the testament being read out, probably because they thought Stalin was no threat to them. They also thought the testament would help Trotsky.

Throughout the power struggle the leading Bolsheviks all thought of Trotsky as the main threat. This was because Trotsky had the most things going for him and was very close to Lenin. Zinoviev and Kamenev in particular were not fond of him and wanted him out of the equation. This helped Stalin as no one thought he would become leader and therefore he could build his power base without other peoples attention turned on him.

As well as this, Zinoviev and Kamenev were terrified of Trotsky as he launched an attack on them in Lessons of October, in which he criticised their unwillingness to back Lenin in the 1917 revolution. As a result of this, Zinoviev and Kamenev allowed Stalin to introduce more of his supporters into key positions in the party organization. This proved great for Stalin as he brought in mainly young Bolsheviks who obeyed his theories and ideology without hesitation or argument. However, Zinoviev and Kamenev soon joined Trotsky.

In 1926, Zinoviev and Kamenev joined Trotsky to form a ‘United Opposition’ and made an appeal to the part masses and workers to take part in demonstrations against Stalin in Moscow. This was a huge mistake as they could now be accused of ‘factionalism’ and be kicked out of the party. All three lost their positions of power in 1927 and were expelled from the party. This was great news for Stalin as there was less opposition to worry about.

Finally, when Lenin died he left a legacy behind. Lenin had set the trend for dictatorship through his brilliant speeches and how he led the 1917 revolution. This was very lucky for Stalin as he would be accepted as a dictator and single ruler of Russia.

Overall, throughout my essay I have found a number of factors that greatly contributed to Stalin’s rise to power. I now know that luck was a very important part in his rise, but, we also have to interpret the other factors which include: Stalin’s power, personality and the actions of others. Some factors were pre- planned and some just lucky. For example it was due to luck that he was able to appear at Lenin’s funeral and act as his loyal disciple and therefore gain trust as well as respect, however it was after many years of hard work and studying that he was able to use his political positions to place his supporters into key positions. I believe, if Stalin didn’t have one of these factors going for him he wouldn’t have been able to become leader of the USSR, these factors are all of the same significance.

By Stephen Leatherbarrow