(1) contenders to leadership (1924)

who were the 7 men who wanted to lead the Communist party in 1924?

• Stalin

• Trotsky

• Zinoviev

• Kamenev

• Bukharin

• Rykov

• Tomsky

Stalin positives

• committed Communist

  • arrested 5 times in Tsarist regime

• fought in Civil war

  • Battle of Tsaritsyn

• 1917 = commissar for nationalities

• 1922 = General Secretary

significance of Stalin becoming commissar for nationalities

relationship between central government and ethnic groups

• symbol of trust

• able to manage one of the most divisive aspects of Soviet governance

• put in contact with national and regional leaders

  • build political alliances.

Stalin negatives

• little role in 1917 revolution

• clashed with Trotsky during civil war

  • sanctioned for disobedience

• boring political speaker

• dull - “grey blur”

• party members = “Comrade Card Index”

Trotsky positives

• great orator

• equal contribution to Lenin in revolution

• trusted by Lenin

• led Red Army = helped win civil war

• matched Lenin’s intellect

• popular with younger, more radical members

Trotsky negatives

• arrogant, aloof

• uncompromising views

  • seen as being left wing dictator = Red Napoleon

• ‘outsider’

  • originally Menshevik

  • Jewish

• relied on written debate

  • verbal debate = beneath him

• fell ill in 1923

when did Trotsky fall ill?

1923

Zinoviev positives

• old Bolshevik

  • had worked with Lenin for a long time

• powerful position

  • Head of Leningrad party

• 1921 = chairman of Comintern, member of Politburo

• good orator

significance of Zinoviev being chairman of Comintern?

• face of the Soviet Union’s foreign policy

  • powerbase of loyalists in international communist movement

  • key leader of global revolution

Zinoviev negatives

• opposed October revolution

• fell out with Lenin

  • socialist coalition > Communist dictatorship

• Jewish

• vain, overambitious