Salin's rise to power: analysis and context

¶ … history in the Soviet Union. Specifically it will discuss Stalin's rise to power as Brain Moynahan discusses it in the book "The Russian Century." Joseph Stalin was one of the most well-known leaders in Russian history. He led Russia into the Cold War from World War II, and he was ruthless when it came to his enemies. He began his rise to power began during the Russian Revolution when the Bolsheviks were removed from ruling Russia and Communism began. Stalin was a brutal leader but worshipped by many Russians. His rise to power shows what influence and violence can do for a political career.

Russian poet described Stalin as "the Kremlin mountain man with a cockroach whistler's leer" (Moynahan 5). That description, according to the author, cost the poet his life. Joseph Stalin was known as a leader of the Russian people, but he was also a cruel and heartless man interested only in power, and that is one way he rose to be leader of the Soviet Union. He was also cunning and politically aware, and he knew how to use his power to make himself more necessary in the Party. Many people did not think he was strong enough to lead the Soviet Union, but he showed them they were wrong. He was ruthless, he was cruel, and he was vindictive, but he led the Russians for decades, and got them through World War II to become one of the strongest powers on Earth.

Stalin's rise to power began before the Russian October Revolution of 1917. He had actually joined the Communist Party in 1912 and served in several different jobs. He became the commissar for nationalities after the Revolution was successful. Many party officials did not think much of him, and paid no attention to him. However, he always seemed motivated by power. Author Moynihan notes, "Bolshevik bureaucracy sprouted after the civil war; the dull Party workhorse [Stalin], the hack who presented no apparent challenge to the high achievers around him, worked his way slowly to the top" (Moynahan 100). Stalin also took the position of commissar of the workers' and peasant's inspectorate, called the Rabkrin, and this gave him great power in the new bureaucracy. He was also a liaison between the Party and the Politburo, which means he gave orders to Party personnel. All of these duties made him a key figure in the Party and gave him more and more power. By the spring of 1922, Stalin's power had increased, and he was named general secretary of the Central Committee, which only added to his power and prestige in the Party.

Many people believe that Stalin and Lenin were very close, but that is not really the case. Lenin had a stroke in May of 1922, and before his next series of strokes that turned him into a "wheelchair-bound half-vegetable" (Moynahan 101), he wrote about all of his staff members and gave his recommendations about who should take his place as the leader of Russia. He thought Stalin was a good leader, but actually wanted him replaced as general secretary because he was rude. He said his replacement should be "more patient, more loyal, more polite and attentive to comrades, less capricious" (Moynahan 101). However, this recommendation never reached the public because Lenin had another stroke, and it overshadowed all of his recommendations.

Lenin's health gave Stalin the power he needed to take over the government. He formed a coalition with two other Politburo members, Grigori Zinoviev from Petrograd, and Lev Kamenev from Moscow. They wanted to keep Leon Trotsky, another high-ranking Party official from taking over the government. Trotsky seemed like a good leader, but he was more bourgeois than Stalin was, or at least Stalin created an image of the "perfect" Party member. Stalin lived a simple, even Spartan life, while Trotsky still used the royal Romanov china when he ate. Stalin realized Trotsky was one of the main contenders for Lenin's leadership position, and so, he saw him as his main threat. He began to work against him in very subtle ways.

Stalin was very canny, and when Lenin died in 1924, he saw that the Russians really needed devotion and public belief in their lives. They began to worship Lenin, and Stalin encouraged this by playing a prominent role at Lenin's funeral and encouraging the Party to collect and display some of Lenin's personal belongings and important documents. He made the people believe that he had supported Lenin and Lenin supported him, even though that was not true. While publicly he seemed humble and meek, in reality he was now waging war against Trotsky. Because he had so much power within the Party, he began to speak out against Trotsky, and people were afraid of their own positions, so they listened and they began to support Stalin. He always used his power to put fear into the people around him.

Trotsky's power was in his leadership of the Red army, and Stalin began to work against him to replace him with someone of his own choosing. Stalin kept index cards with information on all the people surrounding him in government. He liked to know who his enemies were, and he liked to get rid of them. He used to listen to phone conversations in the Kremlin, and he used this information against people or to make them fear him. Stalin was always feared by the people who knew him the best, and underestimated by those who did not, such as Lenin. Stalin used his power and information to begin to turn people against Trotsky, both inside the Party and with the Russian people.

By the end of 1924, people were calling for Trotsky's resignation, and by 1925, he had resigned as the leader of the Red army. Another of his cohorts took over the duties, but Stalin then began to work to get his own supporters into power. After he accomplished this, he had the two men that he had formed an alliance with, Zinoviev and Kamenev, removed from the Politburo, along with Trotsky. Stalin had accomplished what many people thought he did not want; he had used his power, his wits, and sheer cruelty to rise to leader of the Soviet Union.

The people were not always happy with Stalin's rule, and at first, they demonstrated against him. In 1927, "Trotsky and Zinoviev called for street demonstrations in Leningrad and Moscow in protest against Stalinist policies. They were broken up by secret police" (Moynahan 104). The people that has supported and even helped Stalin in his rise to power now were against him, but he had too much control and too much power. If people disagreed with his policies and his power, he simply had them exiled or executed. Moynihan writes, "Soon members were to fall like snowflakes" (Moynahan 104). Stalin was ruthless in his quest for power and ruthless when it came to the people that disagreed with him.