Категории: Все - leadership - power - manipulation

по Toh Chen Hao 3 лет назад

233

'Stalin's fear of Trotsky was justified in the leadership contest to succeed Lenin.' How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.

Stalin's actions during the leadership contest to succeed Lenin reveal his significant fear of Trotsky. To consolidate his position, Stalin manipulated perceptions by portraying himself as Lenin'

'Stalin's fear of Trotsky was justified in the leadership contest to succeed Lenin.' How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.

'Stalin's fear of Trotsky was justified in the leadership contest to succeed Lenin.' How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.

no

Stalin's fear of Trotsky was not justified in the leadership contest to succeed lenin due to the non-disclosure of Lenin testament.
The death of Lenin in 1924 provided Stalin not to fear of Trotsky for the contest to rise to power

lenin had mentioned criticisms in the testament about all potential successors but was mostly clear in explaining that Stalin should be removed from the position of Secretary General. However the members of the Politburo decided not to reveal the content of Lenin's testament to the public as it was damaging to them

Stalin retained his reputation and position on secretary general and other members of the politburo feels that Trotsky is a greater threat than Stalin and decided to oust Trotsky from power

This allow Stalin to enlarge his support base from other party members who were more wary of Trotsky .

Hence, Stalin did not need to fear of Trotsky as many members in Politburo are already trying to bring down Trotsky from power, meanwhile with the impression of Stalin as Lenin's successor, Stalin was able to have the opportunity to rise to power as he was able to gain more support from the public as he position as the secretary general still remains. Causing Stalin not to fear for Trotsky and focus on gaining support as other members are helping him to bring Trotsky down.

Stalin's fear of Trotsky was not justified in the leadership contest to succeed lenin due to Trotsky's unpopularity
Trotsky was regarded as Lenin's hand man and he was the head of the Red Army which cause him to have many support and great power, causing him to be seen as a threat to others in Poliburo

Since Trotsky have the support from many people, he became arrogant and started to argued with Lenin and the Party, making him outspoken.

Trotsky criticised Lenin's New Economic Policy(NEP) and the increasing control of the Party by Politburo and Central Executive Committee.

Since he criticised and challenged many organisation and policies of the party, Trotsky's actions seems like an act of disloyalty towards Lenin. This cause many people in the USSR not to trust Trotsky and causes him to lose many support from the locals which cause him to lose his power in the Party.

Thus, Stalin did not need to fear of Trotsky as his arrogance let himself to lose his own power and support from the locals, making Stalin to have more support and power than Trotsky, making Stalin unnecessary to fear of Trotsky to succeed Lenin.

Since Trotsky thought that he had the support of all the soldiers ,he behaved arrogant amongst his peers. He tried to spread the ideology of 'Permanent Revolution', which was to spread Communism across the world and achieving worldwide workers' revolution.

However, his idea of spreading 'Permanent Revolution' was not well-received by the public and gave Stalin the opportunity to promote his ideals instead.

People of the USSR supported Stalin idea of 'Socialism in One Country' which consolidate Communism within the USSR first. This then cause Trotsky to lose support from the people of the USSR and shrink his support base, pushing powerful enemies to support Stalin instead.

Thus, Stalin did not need to fear of Trotsky as he support base was shrunk and Stalin was on the lead of gaining support from the locals, this shows that Stalin have a higher chance of taking over Lenin position, therefore does not need to fear of Trotsky to succeed Lenin.

However during Lenin's 'death, he fell ill

Trotsky was too weak and was unable to organise his own supporters and remained silent on Lenin's criticism on Stalin as he was unable to deal with party politics

Trotsky then excluded himself from decision-making and undermined his position in the party

Since Trotsky was ill and did not have the power to gain support to take over Lenin positions, Stalin did not need to fear about Trotsky as he was too weak to be seen as threat towards Stalin and continue focus on gaining support from others, he also took this opportunity to manipulate others and oust Trotsky from power so that Stalin can rise to power easily

Yes

Stalin's manipulation was one of the action that justified Stalin's fear of Trotsky in the leadership contest to succeed Lenin.
exploitation of ideological divisons

Stalin allied himself with moderates in Politburo to prioritise in causing Trotsky to be expelled from the party

later on breaking alliance with Kamenev and Zinoviev after removing Trotsky from the party as they were planning to overthrow the government

Stalin discredited and isolated both of them and also got the support from the rest of the Politburo to side with him and remove Bukharin and Rykov

After removing all his opponent. Stalin finally rise to power.

Hence, his manipulative actions showed that he feared for Trotsky as wanted to team up with other Politburo party members to removing him from power and afterwards slowly back stab the other opponents in the Politburo so that he could rise to power

control over party organisation

Stalin was appointed as the Secretary General party during 1922 and this gave him the authority to appoint and reassign Party members.

Since Trotsky was his greatest rival, his decided to replace allies of his opponents that was mostly Trotsky with his own allies

controlled Cheka, renamed People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs(NKVD) with his power as a Secretary General.

meanwhile when Trotsky was replaced with Stalin's allies, Trotskys' support base shrank and was forced to resign in 1925 by the Red Army.

Trotsky was then expelled from the Party in 1927 and was later assassinated in 1940 due to criticism of Stalin in writing

Hence Stalin's actions proved that he feared Trotsky in the leadership contest to succeed Lenin as he use actions that were mostly aimed at Trotsky to prevent him from gaining more support and power from the locals and the Red Army, causing Trotsky to lose his power and support and have no other choice but to resign and later on be expelled from the party. Giving Stalin to rise to power from his manipulation which was due to his fear of Trotsky.

pretended to be very close to Lenin

Stalin often try to take as many pictures with Lenin to act like he had close connection with him

When lenin died during 1924, Stalin organised a grand funeral and designated himself as the chief mourner and gave the funeral speech.

-ordered Lenin's body to be embalmed and displayed in the Moscow red square -arranged for city of Petrograd to be renamed as Leningrad

Stalin also used this as an opportunity to kept Trotsky from attending Lenin's funeral by giving him the wrong date.

-this cause many people to feel that Stalin is the next natural successor -many people trusted Stalin and gave him support - people view Trotsky as someone who is arrogant and disloyal towards Lenin, causing Trotsky to lose support from the locals as he was seen as a rebel towards Lenin

This gave Stalin to rise to power easier as Trotsky was seen as someone who is disloyal and should not take over Lenin position.

Hence, Stalin's cunning actions showed that he fears of Trotsky in the leadership contest to succeed Lenin as Stalin feels that Trotsky is too powerful and might gain majority of the supports from the locals after Lenin death, causing Stalin to manipulate others due to his fear of Trotsky, causing Trotsky to lose support and power and this gave Stalin a easier way to rise to power.