2) The struggle for power, 1924-29

Stalin's rise to power

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Disputes after Lenin's death

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A. 'Party democracy' vs Bureaucratisation

* Trotsky demanded return to 'Party democracy' instead of centralising of power to the Secretariat
> criticised especially Kamenev and Zinoviev who joined with Stalin in an unofficial triumvirate within the Politburo

B. How long should the NEP be allowed to run?

> Ideological controversy: the NEP (as a mixed economy with many capitalistic features) marked a retreat from the principle of state control of the economy
> Trotsky: NEP = 'the first sign of the degeneration of Bolshevism'
(< had supported War communism as a form of Marxist revolutionary strategy)
> Lenin's arguments against critics:
- only a temporary concession to capitalism
- 'the commanding heights of the economy' still under the control of the Party (large-scale industry, banking, foreign trade)
> Lenin also introduced a resolution 'On Party Unity' against factionalism which in practise denied the criticism of government policy by party members
> After Lenin's death the question was: How long should the NEP be allowed to run?
> a division between Left Communists (wanted NEP abandoned) and Right Communists (wanted NEP to continue)

C. Question of the modernisation: How and at what speed should the USSR be industrialised?

* To get capital for industrial investments it was necessary to increase a food surplus which could then be sold abroad > Should the peasants be just persuaded (the Right) or even forced (the Left) into line?

D. 'Permanent Revolution' vs 'Socialism in One Country'

Ideology and the nature of the state

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Use the source below > Answer to the questions > Return binder below:
1) Read first pages 25-26. Was Lenin a 'trotskyist'?!? Arguments for and against?

After pgs 27-28 have been read answer to these two questions:
2) According to Lenin/Stalin/Trotsky-biographer Dmitri Volkogonov, 'the greatest secret of Stalin's invulnerability, his diabolical strength, was his monopoly on Lenin'. How should this statement be interpreted?

3) Consider, how fair is it to say that Stalin eliminated 'the Old Guard' for consolidating his own ideological views as an official dogma in the USSR.

Stalin and the nature of the power struggle

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'By the mid-1920's, Stalin's main opponents would come to realize that this 'outstanding mediocrity' was an exceptional politician, cunning, crafty and wilful. Soon, any party and state leaders who had anything to do with him would also realize it. In examining this period of history, one inevitably feels that the great issues surrounding the historic choice were frequently put into second place by the personal ambitions of the leaders, and the struggle how to build a socialism was severely affected by personal rivalry. The chief contenders were Stalin, Trotsky and Zinoviev. Behind their contest lay concrete issues of politics and economics, attitudes to the peasantry, the way to industrialize, the theory and practise of the international Communist movement. On occasion, the differences over these issues were infact of secondary importance and agreement could have been based on their common denominator. But personal ambition, rivalry and militant irreconcilability, particularly between Stalin and Trotsky, gave the struggle a dramatic quality which meant that any ideas that differed from his own were regarded by Stalin solely as class-hostile, capitulationist, revisionit, traitorous, and so on.'

D. Volkogonov, Stalin: Triumph and tragedy, (Transl. H. Shukman) Forum 1996, p. 108.

Instructions for the Paper 1 practise

Why did Stalin emerge as leader of the Soviet Union?

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STAGE 1: Create groups with 3 members. Each member of the group choose one of the following interpretation views (theories):
A) Power politics
B) Structuralist explanations
C) Ideological explanations

STAGE 2: All specializing in same theory should group together to study and discuss about a content and relevance of the view. A theory of yours is introduced in textbook between pages 21 - 23.

> When the account of the view is clear for everyone, use the defeat of the right (on page 20) as a case study for testing a theory in practise. Make this interpretation process together by discussing and giving arguments.

STAGE 3: Go back to your base group and introduce your interpretation on the defeat of the right by using the theory you have specialized in. Discuss about the strenghts and weknesses of these theories as an interpretation key.

Sources

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Uncommon knowledge on Stalin's rise to power: Part 2

(30 min)

Uncommon knowledge on Stalin's rise to power: Part 1

An interwiev with Stalin-biographer Stephen Kotkin (33 min) WSJ Live

Stalin: ´Trostkyism or Leninism?´ (Nov 1924)

Permanent revolution vs Socialism in one country

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