Leadership Struggle

In 1918 Lenin was shot twice by a Socialist Revolutionary, Dora Kaplan. He seemed to recover but suffered a stroke in May 1922.

He returned to work in October, suffered a second stroke in December, a third in March 1923 and a final stroke in January 1924. From 1923 to his death in 1924, Lenin was seriously disabled.

During this time Lenin’s well-being was in the hands of Josef Stalin. He was deputed by the Politburo to provide for his recovery.

Stalin and the General Secretaryship

Stalin made a serious political mistake when, as Commissar for Nationalities, he used force to subdue the Georgian Communist Party in 1921. A new post was found for him in April 1922 as General Secretary of the Communist Party. This was not a promotion. It was a step down to an administrative post.

Within the Communist Party’s structure, the Central Committee was supposed to be most powerful organisation.

In fact, its important decisions were made in its committees: the Politburo for policy, the Orgburo for party organisation and personnel, and the Secretariat for business organisation.

The strain of the General Secretaryship had killed Yakov Sverdlov, the first Secretary.

However, the General Secretaryship was crucial in the power struggles following Lenin’s retirement:

• it brought membership of the three crucial organisations that ruled the Party: the Politburo, Orgburo and Secretariat
• in charge of the Orgburo, Stalin directed personnel to carry out Politburo decisions and filled positions within the Party hierarchy
• as Secretary, Stalin controlled the flow of information to the Politburo, wrote its agendas and minutes and controlled many other areas of Party organisation

The struggle against Trotsky

Trotsky was the most able member of the leadership but he was disliked because:

• he had only joined the Bolshevik Party in June 1917, when success was already likely
• he had not served a long apprenticeship as others had within the Party
• he was arrogant and insensitive
• many thought that he would take over when Lenin died and become a dictator

Trotsky was seen as a Napoleonic figure because he was Commissar for War and had heroic standing in the Party.

Ranged against Trotsky in the Politburo in 1923 was the Troika of Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev.

Bureaucratisation

In a letter to the Central Committee in late 1923, Trotsky criticised the lack of democracy within the Party, the practice of filling key posts through nomination by the Orgburo and the dominance of full-time officials.

This attack on the Party bureaucracy was supported by the so-called ‘Platform of the 46’, a group of dissatisfied Congress members. It directly criticised the power of the Troika.

‘Socialism in One Country’

Lenin and Trotsky had always maintained that the victory of socialism in Russia would be accompanied by world revolution. By 1923, however, it looked increasingly unlikely that communist revolution would sweep Europe.

Stalin argued that socialism could be achieved in Russia independently of international revolution. By showing his belief in the Russian proletariat, he won most of the Communist Party over to his side.

On 17th January 1925 Trotsky was removed as War Commissar. He kept his membership of the Politburo.

The struggle against the Left opposition

In 1925 the Troika fell apart. Zinoviev and Kamenev recognised that Stalin, not Trotsky, was the greatest threat to their own leadership ambitions.

In 1925 Zinoviev published Leninism: An Introduction to the Study of Leninism. He no longer supported the NEP and now attacked ‘Socialism in One Country’, supporting Trotsky’s view of the importance of international revolution.

Stalin packed the 14th Congress, held in December 1925, with his own supporters. He defeated Kamenev and Zinoviev’s group.

The struggle against the united opposition

At the 14th Congress Zinoviev had called for all oppositionists who had left active Party life to combine to oppose Stalin.

An alliance between Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev was tried. It was unsuccessful.

These former enemies could never agree on positive policies and their presence on one platform only showed their own ambition.

Trotsky and Kamenev were removed from their Politburo membership in October 1926 after denunciation from the Party and press.

In early 1927 they organised public demonstrations against the government. Stalin had Kamenev and Trotsky expelled from the Party in December 1927.

Trotsky was sent into internal exile at Alma Ata and, a year later, into foreign exile. Kamenev and Zinoviev were sent to Kaluga but readmitted to the Party the next year.

The struggle against the Right opposition

In January and February 1928 Stalin resorted to forcible grain collection. He was criticised in private by Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky, who also condemned his policy of rapid industrialisation.

The conflict continued in private in 1928 and 1929. The Right was steadily undermined.

By late 1929 Stalin and his supporters launched a campaign of denunciation in the press. The opposition signed a reversal of their views. The Central Committee removed Bukharin from the Politburo and censured Rykov and Tomsky.

Stalin was left supreme. All the leaders with potential support in the lower ranks of the Party had been rooted.