Lenin's Illness

• Lenin was injured in an assassination attempt in 1918.

  • These injuries were believed to have led to Lenin suffering a series of strokes from late 1921 until his death on 21 January 1924.
• Lenin was able to continue working in 1922, but a major stroke in March 1923 took away his speech.
• After the March 1923 stroke, Lenin was removed from the day-to-day business of government but the "Cult of Lenin" meant he remained influential.
• Lenin was concerned by the extent of the growth of the Party bureaucracy and Stalin's control of it.
• Lenin was particularly worried by the amount of power Stalin had accrued to himself.
• From 1922, Stalin was General Secretary of the Communist Party, which gave him a huge amount of influence over the Party bureaucracy.
• Stalin had earlier abused his power by intimidating and bullying the Communists who were governing Georgia.