KA5 Stalin Essay
- Created by: vlad_the_lad
- Created on: 01-10-21 17:14
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- Stalin Essay
- Power Bases
- Stalin = General Secretary and Head of Rabkrin, could appoint/fire/investigate people, and influence congress discussions
- Trotsky = Red Army, but few members in congress, and fears of Bonapartism
- Bukharin = Head of Media, editor of Pravda
- Kamenev = Moscow Party leader
- Zinoviev = Petrograd Party leader
- Others had good bases, but Stalin's power of patronage extended through all of them - he could flood congress with supporters to vote his way
- Tactics
- Told Trotsky wrong date for Lenin's funeral, gave a speech about continuing Lenin's legacy
- Convinced Kamenev and Zinoviev to block the Testament from public display as it criticised all of them (prevented Stalin looking bad)
- Grounded Bukharin's flight 2x to prevent him going to important meetings, limiting his power in the Central Committee
- Alliances
- Used alliances to stay in power
- Triumvirate 1923-25 with Kamenev and Zinoviev
- Duumvirate 1925-27 with Bukharin
- Used alliances to remove opposition
- Triumvirate opposed Trotsky by supporting the NEP at the 13th and 14th Party Congresses 1924 and 1925
- Duumvirate blocked Trotsky, K&Z at 15th Party Congress, and they're expelled 1927
- 1927 destroyed Bukharin's credibility by turning on the NEP
- Used alliances to stay in power
- Personalities
- Stalin = 'grey blur', intelligent, gifted admin, underestimated, very rude to Krupskaya, understood how ordinary people thought
- Trotsky = heroic, gifted orator and tactician, overly self-assured and arrogant (made enemies)
- Bukharin = favourite of party, clever, too young, disliked for NEP support
- Kamenev and Zinoviev = clever, opposed 1917 timing, hid from civil war, disloyal and cowardly
- Debates
- Economic = reduced Trotsky and Bukharin's popularity. Trotsky was all for rapid industrialisation but was opposed, Bukharin remained pro-NEP after 1927 but Stalin jumped ship to industrialisation (grain production crashed)
- Foreign Policy = Trotsky wanted permanent world revolution otherwise Russia wouldn't survive. Seemed a bad idea = failure to convert Hungary and Germany, failure of Russo-Polish War
- Stalin said socialism in one country = patriotic, Russia was strong, no more war, stability, based in reality
- Power Bases
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