Class Reading Tasks - Stalin

From the vantage point of the present, it is easy to look back at the tenure of any great leader and draw conclusions about just what it was that made him/her great. We can examine the circumstances under which their leadership flourished; piece together what we know of their character and personality traits; delve into the factors that may have driven them; and dissect their leadership style all in an effort to pinpoint the source of their success. The ‘Great Man’ theory, popular in the 19th century and now thoroughly debunked, held that leaders are born, not made; suggesting that men like George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., and Winston Churchill were born with the innate capacity to change the world (Landis,

The factors that contributed to Stalin becoming the next leader are plentiful and can mostly be divided into Stalin’s own strengths and the weaknesses of his most important rival, Trotsky. All the factors can also be linked in one way or another, as shall be seen in this answer.

Also, Stalin was much more involved with the base of the Party and was thought to have worked hard to get himself to the top. Meanwhile, Trotsky was seen as a man trying to push his way in. Further damaging Trotsky, Lenin described him as possessing "…excessive self-confidence… and overly attracted by the purely administrative aspects of affairs…" Even though he unintentionally projected Trotsky in this way, Lenin felt that if the removal of Stalin were not acted upon, the conflict between Trotsky and Stalin would intensify, which would jeopardize the whole Party. Combined with the Testament, Trotsky could have used the Postscript to obtain power, but instead Stalin squashed it in the Central Committee.

Joseph Stalin, from the time that he was a low level revolutionary to the years that he spent as the dictator of the Soviet Union, always knew what he needed to do to achieve his goals. His organized rise to power allowed him to gain a steady flow of followers who would support him for decades to come. Stalin received a minor government position in 1917, but by the time a new leader was needed in 1924, he “had turned the largely routine post of Party general secretary into the most powerful office in the Soviet Union” (“Joseph Stalin) and “had built a personal empire for himself through his control over committee appointments at all levels . . . expand[ing] the leading Party organs with his supporters, who then voted against his rivals”

This leader has 3 distinctive qualities that have given him the abilities to do magnificent things. The first quality is his ability to make decisions. “Decision-making leaders are leaders are leaders who solve problems by making good decisions that result in lasting solutions” (Borek, Lovett, & Towns, 2005). I have seen him make very hard decisions, some decisions he has made I didn’t

He enjoyed the idea that everybody was equal, but he still showed resentment towards it. His inner conflict between these two ideas and his experiences as a member in the Spanish Civil War caused him to choose a median between the community ideals which he saw and the individual ideals which he missed: “I have seen wonderful things and at last really believe in socialism, which I never did before” (qtd. in Chen).

In all major countries they’ll always go through some type of “revolution,” in order to sort everything out. There will always be a rise and fall in a country’s history and in 1917 it was Russia’s turn to revolt. When the current czar during the revolution said, “I am not yet ready to be Tsar. I know nothing of the business of ruling.” (Doc 1) He wasn’t lying, everyone

In 1917, Tsar Nicholas ll is the current ruler of Russia. Russia’s economic growth is increased by the czar’s reforms of the production of more factories. Since, Russia desperately needed to keep up with the rest of Europe’s industry. This reform worked out perfectly, but the working conditions of these factories didn’t please factory workers. After the events of the Russo-Japenese War, “Bloody Sunday”, and WW1, all of Russia was in utter chaos under the czar’s ghastly leadership. With no signs of the czar’s attempt to solve the problems that kept coming up, all of Russia banded together and filled the streets with strikes and riots. A revolution was peaking among the peasants. The uprising brought Nicholas ll no choice but to abdicate

He accomplished many things, he was a good leader in industrializing and implementing his ideology even at the expense of the many human lives. Joseph Stalin was a prospering leader in apace rising the Soviet Union’s economy as shown in Document 3. Document three, a chart that shows steel and coal production throughout Stalin’s five years plans. Coal production quickly raised. By the end of his second plan it went up to a hundred and fifty million metric tons, that's five times the initial quantity.

He had a set of beliefs, as well as opinions that he was not easily shaken from. In the statement, “I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by

Stalin, on the other hand, aligned himself with the right wing of the party, even though he did not believe in the NEP. He wanted

Yet it was Joseph Stalin who was eventually to emerge as leader of the party. This was largely because Stalin was a clever and astute politician, who was seen as being a man of the people. He was able to manoeuvre himself into a position of power through his role as General Secretary of the Communist Party. Once in power, he exerted an iron grip on the USSR. Stalin’s aims differed from Lenin’s in that he did not expect to spread Communism worldwide until Communism was secure in the USSR.

It is undeniable that Stalin had a profound impact on the Soviet Union following Lenin’s death. His rise to power within the Soviet Union has provided historians with a hotbed of political intrigue for many years. He was an opportunist, coming to dominance by manipulating party politics and influential figures in the politburo to eliminate his opposition by recognising and exploiting their weaknesses thus becoming the dominant leader of the Soviet Union. He was severely underestimated by other members of the Politburo about his potential within the party, leading to missed opportunities to ally and stand against him- a mistake that Stalin never made. He gained support from the public by exploiting the idea of ‘the Cult of Lenin’ in 1924 at Lenin’s funeral, and then adopting this concept for himself, thereby likening himself to Lenin; and, more importantly, gained support from other party members by following the wishes of Lenin, for example, initially supporting the continuation of the NEP and supporting the idea of factionalism. This essay will also argue that he was ideologically flexible as he was able to change his ideas for the party according to who he needed as an ally, in order to achieve dominant status in the party. He sought out which individual was the biggest threat, and eliminated them before they could stand against him.

wanted to be leader and thought he was the best for the job. Already he had

Stalin was extremely ambitious and his initial taste of power had made him even more egotistical. Trotsky fled but was hunted down and eliminated to ensure Stalin retained power. The long term effects of this ensured that future opponents of Stalin would also be eliminated. With Lenin dead and Trotsky eliminated Stalin realized he was now able to concentrate on his own policies. He abandoned Lenin's idea of 'World Revolution' and adopted his own policy of 'Socialism in One Country'.