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History B- AQA Modern World History Roaring 20's + Hitler's Germany+ Stalin

Heyy guys!!!
I looked upu for threads on AQA History B and couldn't find any with the topic I am searching for
In my school we aredoing the Roaring 20's, Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Dictatorship and I just need some help and feedback on my work...
Can someone plz help me?? :smile:
Thank youu

Stalin was able to become leader of Russia because of his ability to outmanoeuvre Trotsky at crucial time. Do you agree? Explain your answer.

I agree that Stalin was able to become leader of Russia because of his ability to outmanoeuvre Trotsky at crucial times, even though I do think there were many other reasons why Stalin was able to become leader of USSR such as his strengths and ruthlessness, Trotsky’s weaknesses, Stalin’s suppression of Lenin’s Statement and Stalin’s use of propaganda.

I agree that a main reason why Stalin was able to become leader of Russia was his ability to outmanoeuvre Trotsky at crucial time because this lowered Trotsky’s popularity. When Stalin told Trotsky the wrong date of Lenin’s funeral and organised the funeral so grandly, Trotsky’s failure to attend the funeral would have made him look as though he didn’t care much about Lenin or about his death. Stalin made sure he gave Lenin as much importance as possible in his funeral by embalming his body and keeping it in a mausoleum and by changing Petrograd into Leningrad in Lenin's honour, this further made Stalin look mroe concerned and caring about Lenin than Trotsky. This was the reason why Stalin was able to become leader because he was seen as someone who cared for Lenin (ordinary Russian’s hero).

However,I disagree that Stalin’s ability to manoeuvre Trotsky was the main reason why he was able to become leader in Russia because I think that Stalin was able to become leader of Russia because his strengths and ruthlessness. Stalin was seen as a leading figure during Lenin’s last years when he was left speechless by the series of strokes. This automatically made Stalin seem closer to Lenin. Additionally, Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communists; this gave him the power to appoint junior officials. They all supported him as they owed their positions and therefore when electing the Politburo, Stalin was in control of the whole organisation. Having control over government meant Stalin could do certain things. Also, Stalin had tried to seem like Lenin’s right hand man by altering pictures and making him seem closer to Lenin to ensure people thought they were close. Also he wrote a book called the ‘foundations of Leninism’ in which he praised Lenin’s policies and specifically the NEP. This appealed to many people who wanted a period of stability. This was the main reason why he was able to achieve total power in Russia because Stalin had excellent organisation kills and these skills were viewed as dull by other people like Trotsky, so Stalin remained a “grey blur” until his ruthlessness was established when he told Trotsky the wrong date for Lenin’s funeral. I think that this was the main reason why he was able to become leader of Russia because unless Stalin had the strength and ruthlessness to remain a grey blur, he would have never been able to outmanoeuvre Trotsky at crucial times because he wouldn’t have been trusted.

I also disagree because I think Trotsky’s weaknesses were a main reason why Stalin was able to become the leader of USSR because Trotsky was too arrogant and he didn’t consider the opinions of members of public and therefore he wasn’t very popular amongst people. Trotsky wanted to eliminate the New Economic Policy straight after Lenin’s death and he wanted to begin the fast state-controlled economic and this didn’t appeal to many people as they wanted a period of stability where they could relax with communism a bit. I disagree that Stalin’s ability to outmanoeuvre Trotsky was the main reason why he was able to become leader because unless Trotsky had been so arrogant and believed that he was the successor and didn’t even bother suspecting Stalin, he wouldn’t have been outmanoeuvred by Stalin as he would have been carefully.

Another reason which I think is more important for Stalin to become the leader of Russia is his suppression of Lenin’s Statement. Lenin was viewed as a hero and ordinary Russians loved him and even openly wept on streets after his death, therefore his words would have been taken as law. Having noticed that Stalin was taking too much power within the party, Lenin wrote a statement where he said that Stalin was too rude and impolite and therefore shouldn’t be the next leader and that he believed Trotsky was the most able but he was too arrogant. Even though, Lenin’s wife wanted to publish the statement, Stalin persuaded the Politburo not to publish it. This was an obvious advantage as members of people weren’t exposed to the criticism of Lenin. This was a more important reason why Stalin was able to become leader than his ability to outmanoeuvre Trotsky because unless he suppressed Lenin’s Statement however bad he made Trotsky look, no one would have wanted him as a leader because they all loved Lenin so much and wanted to listen to him.

Overall, I disagree that the main reason why Stalin was able to become leader in Russia was his ability to outmanoeuvre Trotsky at crucial times because I think a more important reason was his strengths which contributed to him becoming leader in many ways and Stalin was seen as a natural successor and he had a lot of luck and good oranisation skills.

Thank you :smile: Please grade or give me a mark out of 12...
I am sorry it's rubbish...I had to finish in 20 minutes...

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