Why was Stalin successful in replacing Lenin?

• Stalin skilfully portrayed himself as a moderate figure in the centre of the party.
• Stalin recognised early on that the power struggle was to be mainly fought behind the scenes and at Party Congresses.
• Using his position of General Secretary, he built up a network of support within the party.
• Stalin was brilliant at reading the mood of the party.
• Stalin made skilful use of Lenin's legacy to promote himself.

  • He was the chief mourner at Lenin's funeral and routinely quoted Lenin in his speeches and writing.
• All of Stalin's opponents underestimated him.
• Trotsky was a brilliant orator and theoretician but he was not well-suited to the power struggle.
• The Right Opposition allowed themselves to be used by Stalin to defeat the Left and were then destroyed themselves.
• Divisions over the NEP played into Stalin's hands.
• Stalin's policy of "Socialism in One Country" proved to be a more popular and flexible ideology than Trotsky's "Permanent Revolution".