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Unlock This CourseBy the start of 1928 the Left was beaten. Stalin now shared power with the Right: Bukharin, Alexei Rykov and Mikhail Tomsky. Rykov had been head of the Soviet government since 1924. Tomsky led the trade unions. All three wanted to keep the NEP.
The alliance broke over grain. In the winter of 1927-28 peasants sold far less grain to the state than it needed to feed the towns. In January 1928 Stalin travelled to Siberia. He ordered officials to close markets and seize grain by force, and peasants who held grain back were treated as criminals. He called these 'extraordinary measures'.
Bukharin was horrified. To him this was a return to the forced seizures of the Civil War years, and it would turn the peasants against the government. He argued for higher grain prices and steady growth. In 1925 he had even told the peasants, 'Enrich yourselves'. Stalin now said the opposite. He argued that the NEP was failing and that the USSR must build industry at great speed, paid for by squeezing the countryside. These were the Left's old ideas. Stalin had taken them over once the Left was out of the way.
Key terms:
The Right had helped Stalin to destroy the Left. Now Stalin used the same methods on them.
Rykov was replaced as head of the government by Stalin's ally Molotov in 1930.
By the end of 1929 every rival from 1924 had been beaten. Trotsky was abroad, Zinoviev and Kamenev were powerless and the Right had surrendered. The Politburo was full of Stalin's own supporters. His policies of rapid industrialisation and collective farming were now the party's policies.
On 21 December 1929 Stalin's fiftieth birthday was celebrated across the country, and Pravda filled its pages with praise for him. Yet his only important title was still General Secretary. He had become leader without ever taking a new post.
As General Secretary he had spent years filling the party with officials who owed him their jobs. They chose the delegates, so he won every vote in the Party Congress and Central Committee. No rival had a power base like it. Bukharin had a newspaper, and Tomsky had the trade unions, but Stalin had the party itself.
Stalin was patient and never fought everyone at once. He joined the triumvirate against Trotsky, then joined the Right against the Left, then turned on the Right. He changed sides on the NEP when it suited him. He let others make the attacks, so he looked like a calm man of the centre, and he used the ban on factions against anyone who organised against him.
They all underestimated him. Each feared the others more, so they helped him to destroy one another and never united in time. Trotsky was arrogant and would not build support. Zinoviev and Kamenev defended Stalin over the Testament. Bukharin would not take the argument outside the leadership, because he feared being called a factionalist, and his visit to Kamenev came far too late.
'Socialism in One Country' told party members that the USSR could succeed by its own efforts, which appealed to their pride. By 1928 many Communists disliked the NEP, with its private traders and richer peasants, and feared attack from abroad. Stalin's call for rapid industry sounded bold and truly socialist. Bukharin seemed to be defending the better-off peasants.
Some historians add luck. Lenin died before he could act on his Testament, and Trotsky was ill at key moments.
Don't say Stalin always wanted to end the NEP: he defended it alongside Bukharin until 1928. Don't call him a dictator who ruled by terror in 1929. He won the leadership struggle through votes, posts and alliances, and his beaten rivals were demoted, not killed. The economic policies and the purges came later and belong to other lessons.
(c) 'The main reason for Stalin's emergence as leader of the USSR by 1929 was his position as General Secretary.'
How far do you agree? Explain your answer.
You may use the following in your answer:
You must also use information of your own. [16 marks]
I agree to a large extent. Stalin's post gave him the votes that defeated every rival, although his rivals' mistakes and the appeal of his policies also mattered.
As General Secretary from 1922, Stalin appointed the regional secretaries, who in turn chose the delegates to each Party Congress. This meant the congresses were packed with his supporters. At the Fourteenth Party Congress in 1925 he beat Zinoviev and Kamenev by 559 votes to 65, and in April 1929 the Central Committee condemned Bukharin's 'Right Deviation'. His supporters also used the ban on factions against anyone who organised against him, as Bukharin found after his meeting with Kamenev. No rival could match this power base, so each lost whenever a quarrel came to a vote.
However, his rivals made serious mistakes. In May 1924 Zinoviev and Kamenev defended Stalin when Lenin's Testament was discussed, because they feared Trotsky more. This saved Stalin's career. Trotsky sat silent then and later gave up the Red Army without a fight. Bukharin helped Stalin to crush the Left and only turned to Kamenev in July 1928, when it was too late. Because the rivals never united in time, Stalin could remove them one at a time.
A third reason was the appeal of Stalin's policies. 'Socialism in One Country' appealed to party members' pride, because it said the USSR could succeed by its own efforts without waiting for revolutions abroad. By 1928 many Communists disliked the NEP's private traders and richer peasants, so Stalin's call for rapid industrialisation won real support, while Bukharin seemed to be defending the better-off peasants. Delegates therefore had reasons to back Stalin beyond owing him their jobs.
Overall, his position was the main reason, because it was the one factor present at every step. His rivals' mistakes only gave him openings, and it was his control of the party machine that turned those openings into victories. Popular policies helped, but Stalin won the vote in 1925 while defending the NEP and again in 1929 while attacking it, which shows that the votes followed the General Secretary, not the policy. The post made his success possible, and the other factors made it easier.
What lifts this to the top level: it covers three aspects, including one that is not in the bullets, argues both for and against the statement, and reaches a judgement using a clear test (which factor mattered at every step).
An answer that uses only the two bullets cannot reach the top level, so always plan a third factor of your own before you start writing. Here it could be the appeal of Stalin's policies or his tactics. Then make sure your conclusion says why one reason outweighs the others.