The Struggle for Power Between Stalin and Trotsky

Since the time the Modern History class started to focus on the Russian Revolution, we were introduced to Stalin and his childhood and how he got insane and became more violent especially to other peers in high school. To me I thought that Stalin would be a great leader to the Russian Revolution, but he derailed towards the evil side. I really wanted to figure out his mentality during school and what triggered him to do the things he did and cause fights and kill many innocent people as his occupation or to serve his country. From being the top of the class in terms of education and the best student in terms of marks, how did he become such a nuisance to the school and the teachers teaching at the school. Was Stalin’s goal to change history?

In the early 1890s, for Marxist studies and the challenge of Russian workers to engage in revolutionary activity, Lenin left his legal career. Arrested and forced into exile in Siberia in 1897, he later visited Western Europe, where the Social Democratic Workers ' Party's Bolshevik faction was formed in 1903. The Bolsheviks were a militant revolutionary party that tried to overthrow the Czarist government and set up a Marxist government.

Workers in Russia were rebellious in 1905, However, Lenin realized that the opportunity for the Communist revolution had come, not until 1917, and the disastrous involvement of Russia in World War I. In March 1917, the Russian garrison in Petrograd was forced to abdicate by the Bolshevik cause. Lenin immediately left Switzerland and crossed the line of the German enemy to Petrograd on April 16, 1917. Six months later, the Bolsheviks seized Russia's power, and Lenin became the virtual dictator of the country. But civil war and foreign intervention delayed the entire Bolshevik control of Russia until 1920. Lenin's government nationalized and distributed industry and land. The Union of the Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) was founded on December 30, 1922. When Lenin died at the beginning of 1924, his body was embalmed in a mausoleum next to Moscow's Kremlin. Leningrad had been renamed Petrograd in his honor. Joseph Stalin, a fellow revolutionary, succeeded him as leader of the Soviet Union.

Lenin was killed in 1924 and Joseph Stalin led the U.S.S.R. Trotsky called for a continuous world revolution against the declared policies of Stalin, which would inevitably lead to the dismantling of the Soviet state. He also criticized the new regime for the suppression and failure to develop proper economic planning in the democracy of the Communist Party. In response, Stalin and his supporters launched the propaganda against Trotsky. He was removed from the post of the War Commissioner in 1925. One year later he was expelled from the Communist Party in 1927. He's been expelled. Trotsky began his internal exile at Alma-Ata in January 1928 and was expelled the following January and It was expelled outright from the Soviet Union.

He was received by the government of Turkey and moved to Prinkipo Island where he worked on his autobiography and history of the Russian Revolution. After four years in Turkey, Trotsky lived in France and Norway, and in 1936 asylum was granted in Mexico. He was found guilty of treason in absentia during the purge of Stalin's political enemies when he settled in Mexico City's suburb with his family. He remained with a machine gun attack in his house, but on August 20, 1940, the Spanish Communist, Ramon Mercader of Spain, who wounded him with an ice-ax, was killed. He died of his wounds the following day.

During the Russian Revolution when Stalin finally gained control of the USSR he thought he was the leader and controller of the USSR. Stalin thought he was the centerpiece to the revolution successes and therefore he created this image to tell everyone in the Russian Revolution that he was a Revolutionist and was going to transform the USSR to make it better and make better future industrialization.

The purpose of this propaganda poster is to inform viewers that Stalin was a leader and a controller. This is demonstrated through the looks on everyone’s faces as everyone was looking, smiling and acknowledging Stalin and through the camera angle the community are looking up at Stalin which suggests that he was a leader. From this it can be conveyed that everyone knew that he would be the best thing to happen to the country, this propaganda poster is a primary source directed to tell everyone that Stalin is the new face that will change many peoples life and before he was this powerful many people thought he was weak and a useless person during school and high school but changed everyone’s view and respect to him once he got this position. This source helps answer sub questions 1 as it also tells what happened after Lenin left the USSR – After Lenin died Stalin wanted the USSR to be all about himself, and the USSR was all about him and he was self-centered.

The purpose of the article ‘Stalin banishes Trotsky’ that I read is to inform readers about the rivalry between Trotsky and Stalin and what happened afterwards, and there was a lot of rivalry taken place, this is demonstrated through the lines “Stalin and his supporters launched propaganda against Trotsky”. Which is conveying that Stalin and Trotsky did not agree with each other and therefore needed to come to necessary measures to make sure one didn’t get the role they were fighting for. Eventually, things got worse for Trotsky and Stalin eventually got more power and popularity, this is shown in the line “Trotsky began his internal exile at Alma-Ata in January 1928 and was expelled the following January and It was expelled outright from the Soviet Union.” Which suggests that Stalin had better chances of being the leader of the USSR as getting kicked from the Soviet Union isn’t a good impression to society.

There were also a propaganda poster tilted ‘Against Trotskyism’ made in 1913. It was a primary source that was made by Leon Trotsky himself and was a letter to inform the Chkheidze. The purpose of this propaganda poster is to inform viewers that Trotsky had or appeared to have better motives than Stalin and Lenin. This is a very controversial poster as it makes you think, is Stalin a good leader? and is his theory of “Socialism in One Country”, A correct statement. From the description of the poster “The entire edifice of Leninism at the present time is built on lies and falsification and bears within itself the poisonous elements of its own decay”. This is implying that Lenin himself was a lie and he was built on Falsification. There wasn’t just rivalry with Stalin but before Lenin died there was already rivalry.

Trotskyism is a rich revolutionary tradition. Coined by his godfather Leon Trotsky, it was renowned for its militant leaders and groups. Trotskyism is vehemently anti-Stalinist and opposes Joseph Stalin's theory of 'Socialism in One Country.' Before Lenin died, all 3 of the revolutionists (Trotsky, Stalin and Lenin) wanted to become the USSR leader. This propaganda poster is opposing Joseph Stalin, Lenin and is trying to make Trotsky more powerful, and more popular to the common society.