Stalin's Rise to Power + The Establishment of Dictatorship

• Lenin dictated his "Testament" in December 1922. He was partially paralysed by a stroke.
• Lenin gave opinion of the Politburo in his Testament. He was particularly critical of Stalin because he insulted his wife.
• Lenin suggested Stalin should be removed from the post of General Secretary of the Politburo.
• Trotsky was seen as a charismatic and brilliant orator. Stalin was seen as methodical and unthreatening.
• Trotsky was critical of the decline of internal party democracy within the Politburo.
• Stalin appointed his own supports to key positions as General Secretary so they "owed" their place to Stalin.
• Trotsky was absent from Lenin's funeral because he was recovering from illness and he was misled about the date.
• Stalin praised Lenin and Lenin's funeral. Stalin "committed" himself to carrying on Lenin's work.
• Trotsky believed in a permanent revolution. He believed Russia should actively encourage socialist revolutions abroad.
• Stalin believed in the Decree of Socialism in One Country. This allowed Stalin to accuse Lenin of not having faith in the Russian people.
• Many Politburo members viewed Trotsky as arrogant and dangerously ambitious. They feared he would become too dominant.
• Many people underestimated Stalin's political skill and ambition.
• Stalin had control over the party machine. He "delivered the votes".
• Trotsky was forced out of the position of Commissar for War in 1925.
• Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party in 1927. He was deported in 1929.
• Stalin maintained and extended Lenin's system of one-party rule and centralised control.
• Stalin was keen to assert political dominance within his party. Party congresses took place less frequently.
• Stalin controlled major party appointments as General Secretary. A bureaucracy of loyal servants was developed.
• Stalin benefitted from the Party's membership increase in the 1920s and 1930s. New members were more noticeable because they were younger and less educated.
• New Communist Party members knew that party loyalty would benefit them and their families. This led to reliable supporters of Stalin's dictatorship.
• Stalin ironically claimed the 1936 Constitution was "the most democratic in the world".
• Regional autonomy was promised in the 1936 Constitution. Centralisation caused little self-government.
• The 1936 Constitution promised elections every 4 years.
• Civil rights were promised in the 1936 Constitution. These rights were ignored.
• Some elements of the "Stalinist dictatorship" were established by Lenin in the 1920s.
• Robert Service argued Stalin gained the reputation of an "unprincipled bureaucrat".