How Did Joseph Stalin Gain Power

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Leading up to the death of Vladimir Lenin, people were uncertain about the stability of the young aspiring General Secretary by the name of Joseph Stalin. Lenin was so concerned about Stalin and his unlimited authority that he advised his comrades to think of a way to remove Stalin from the post of General Secretary. After the death of Lenin , the acting dictator, there was a competition in order to gain political power between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky. Trotsky, who was better known and preferred by almost everyone Lenin included, and Stalin who was fierce and extremely aggressive were both fierce, however Stalin ended up seizing power. Stalin was had a different ideology than most other leaders. His bullish and aggressive mentality led him to many positions of power and in turn led to his seizure of power. Stalin’s seizure of power can be seen from a result of his skilful manipulation of the ideologies …show more content…
This specifically argued that Soviet Russia was too culturally and economically inverted to be able to achieve socialism without the aid of more economically developed countries. The theory of ‘permanent revolution’ had been developed from Marx by Trotsky in 1906 and, by 1917, was shared by most of the leading Bolsheviks – including Lenin. With Lenin dead, the main defender of this line was Trotsky. All Marxists of the day, from Kautsky to Plekhanov to Lenin, believed that only advanced industrial countries were ready for socialist revolution. They tried to stress that countries would achieve power for the workers in strict conformity when they had more advanced technology. Under developed countries could see their future image mirrored in the advanced countries. According to the ideas of Trotsky only after a long, strenuous process of industrial development and a transition to parliamentary bourgeois regime could the working class mature enough to pose the question of socialist