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Core Study: Power and Authority in the Modern World 1919-1946
Quick questions on Stalin's rise to power in the USSR: HSC Modern History Core Study
8short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is lenin and the succession?Show answer
Lenin died on 21 January 1924 after a series of strokes. He left no clear successor. Five senior Bolsheviks competed: Trotsky (Commissar for War, intellectual leader of the Left), Zinoviev (head of the Comintern and Leningrad party boss), Kamenev (Moscow party boss), Bukharin (editor of Pravda and theorist of the Right), and Stalin (General Secretary of the Party since April 1922).
What is lenin's Testament?Show answer
Lenin dictated a Testament (December 1922 to January 1923) assessing each leader. He warned that Stalin had "concentrated enormous power in his hands" and criticised his "rudeness" after a quarrel between Stalin and Lenin's wife Krupskaya. He recommended Stalin's removal as General Secretary. The Central Committee, persuaded by Zinoviev and Kamenev (who feared Trotsky more), voted in May 1924 not to publish the document.
What is the succession struggle?Show answer
Stalin moved against rivals in stages. He allied with Zinoviev and Kamenev (the "Triumvirate") against Trotsky from 1924. Trotsky was removed as Commissar for War in 1925, expelled from the Politburo in 1926, expelled from the Party in November 1927, exiled to Alma-Ata in 1928, and deported from the USSR in 1929.
What is ideology?Show answer
Stalin's slogan "Socialism in One Country" (1924-1925) contrasted with Trotsky's "Permanent Revolution." Stalin promised that the USSR could build socialism within its borders, independent of revolution abroad. After the failure of the German Communist uprising in October 1923, this appealed strongly to a population exhausted by war and revolution.
What is treating the succession as a single event?Show answer
Stalin won in four stages over five years, not in one move.
What is skipping the Testament?Show answer
Markers expect you to know it existed and was suppressed in May 1924.
What is confusing Trotsky's role?Show answer
Trotsky was Commissar for War, not General Secretary. Stalin held the position that mattered.
What is misdating exile and death?Show answer
Trotsky was exiled from the USSR in 1929 and assassinated in Mexico City on 21 August 1940 by Ramon Mercader.