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Y219: Russia 1894–1941

The rule of Stalin: Stalin’s character and rise to power

  • 2 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on Stalin as a political operator, the General Secretary post, his rivals, socialism in one country, Lenin’s Testament, the defeat of the left and right, the personality cult and the political police.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Identify Stalin's four principal rivals in the 1920s.

Key term

Contrast socialism in one country with permanent revolution.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What kind of political operator was Stalin?

    Model answer

    He was patient, hard-working and unremarkable as a speaker or theorist, which led rivals to underrate him, but he was ruthless, a shrewd judge of party opinion and a master of committee and personnel manoeuvre.

  2. 2

    Why was the post of General Secretary so useful to Stalin?

    Model answer

    It let him appoint, promote and transfer officials throughout the party, so that the delegates who voted at congresses increasingly owed their positions to him.

  3. 3

    Identify Stalin's four principal rivals in the 1920s.

    Model answer

    Trotsky, the hero of the Civil War; Zinoviev, party boss in Leningrad; Kamenev, party boss in Moscow; and Bukharin, the leading theorist of the right.

  4. 4

    Contrast socialism in one country with permanent revolution.

    Model answer

    Stalin argued that the Soviet Union could and must build socialism by its own efforts whatever happened abroad, which flattered national pride and promised practical progress; Trotsky argued that the revolution could only be secured if it spread to the advanced industrial countries, which depended on risings that kept failing.

  5. 5

    What did Lenin's Testament say about Stalin, and why did it not destroy him?

    Model answer

    It called him rude and warned that he had concentrated unlimited power and should be removed as General Secretary; it was suppressed because it also criticised the other leaders, who preferred not to publish it.

  6. 6

    How did Stalin defeat Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev?

    Model answer

    He allied with Zinoviev and Kamenev to isolate Trotsky as a factionalist and a threat of military dictatorship, then turned on them when they belatedly joined Trotsky, using the ban on factions to expel all three.

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