Essay Plans - Booklet 3

Ideology was of little importance to stalin in his desire to win the power struggle in the years 1924-29

  • Ideology

‘Stalin came to power as a result of the weaknesses of his opponents.’ Assess the validity of this view.

  • Weaknesses of his opponents

    • Last Testament

      • Kamenev and Zinoviev prevented Lenin’s last testament being read out at the 13th party conference because it was unflattering about their opposition to 1917 revolution, even though it would have been the end of stalin’s career.

    • United Opposition

      • Was formed in 1926 (too late to stop Stalin’s rise

      • Was seen as factionalism - all three expelled from the party in 1927

    • Division within Left wing

      • 1924 - Kamenev and Zinoviev attacked Trotsky, questioning his loyalty to Lenin

      • Trotsky retaliated in his book ‘Lessons of October’

  • Position in the party

    • Party Secretary

      • gave him control over Politburo agendas etc.

      • allowed him to control what information others did or did not receive

    • ‘Lenin Enrolment’ (1934-5) when party doubled its membership to 1 million

      • Stalin’s practical policies appealed to them (poorly-educated ex-peasants)

    • Head of orgburo

      • had power to select and allocate party members

        • allowed him to put his supporters in key positions in powerful regional positions (eg. Ukraine)

        • influence over delegates to party conferences

          • 15th party conference - Stalin survived a vote of no-confidence due to control of delegates

          • outvoted

  • Contentious issues

    • Socialism in one country

      • appealed to right of party

      • nationalist elements appealed to peasants/working class

  • Judgement: Although the mistakes of party opponents were significant in Stalin’s success, it was his powerbase that gave him the ability to actively remove contenders, and emerge as the leader of the party.

‘Stalin’s victory in the leadership struggle was because of his opposition to the NEP.’ Assess the validity of this view.

  • Opposition to the NEP

    • economic pressure

    • used to defeat Bukharin and the right

    • had previously supported the NEP against trotskyists.

  • Personal Strengths

    • flexibility on positions, which allowed him to always support the winning side

    • Position within party

    • Managerial reputation - allowed him to be underestimated as ‘comrade index card’ and gain support amongst bureaucrat

      • 3 bureaucrats : 1 proletariat.

  • Weaknesses of others

The ‘Great Turn’ was motivated by Stalin’s desire to reinforce his leadership.’  Assess the validity of this view.

  • Judgement - The great turn was primarily motivated by stalin’s need to reinforce his leadership. whilst economics were an important factor behind the turn, it served as a way to strengthen and deliver greater power to the state, and by extension, Stalin. Therefore, while economics were at the heart of the the great turn, they were a means to achieve the greater goal of power, rather than the motivation for the policy.

  • Reinforce leadership/ political

    • rapid industrialisation bolstered stalin’s commitment to socialism in one country

    • regime needed grain to prop up the industrialisation program

    • great plan and first five year plan was officially announced at the 15th party congress

  • economic

    • NEP’s stagnation

      • could not deliver the framework for industrialisation

    • Industrialisation

      • goal of the first 5 yr plan

        • increase production by 300%

        • increase electric production by 600% (transform economy)

        • eg.

  • ideological

    • NEPmen hated by party and population

    • true socialism required state control over production, not dependent on the peasantry for good grain harvests and low prices.

      • Marxist theory - top down approach

    • Stalin had positioned himself as a theory expert on communism after Lenin’s death, so it was very important to revert to ‘true socialism’

    • Not ideological - Stalin had previously been a defender of NEP against further left elements of his party (eg. Trotsky) therefore this was practical, rather than on principle.

‘The Five Year Plans were devised as a political tool to maintain Stalin’s power.’ Assess the validity of this view.

  • maintaining stalins power

  • improving industrial output

  • ideological

To what extent did Stalin’s rise to power rely on forceful methods in the years 1924-1929?

  • forceful methods

    • ural-siberian method

    • forced collectivisation

  • five yr plans

    • government centralisation

  • propaganda

‘The international position of the Soviet Union had greatly improved by 1929.’ Assess the validity of this view.


To what extent was Stalin’s success in the power struggle after Lenin’s death due to Trotsky’s errors of judgement?