Stalin’s Early Life and Career
Early Life
He was born in 1878, in Georgia – a minority state.
He joined the SDs and became a committed follower of Lenin, robbing banks and
trains to raise funds for the Bolsheviks.
By 1912, he had risen to the top of the Bolshevik party and was one of the six
members of the central committee.
He also helped form the Pravda – the party newspaper.
By 1917, he had been arrested 8 times, and had also been exiled several times as
well.
Later, he would denounce those revolutionaries who had fled to the safety of self-
imposed exile.
During the Revolution
He was loyal to Lenin and his policies during the March-October period of 1917,
unlike other members such as Kamenev and Zinoviev, who thought the party wasn’t
strong enough to take power.
Because of Stalin’s non-Russian background, he was appointed Commissar for
Nationalities in 1917.
He was given control of the Caucasus region during the civil war (1918-20), and he
was ruthless.
Lenin’s Growing Suspicion
Lenin began to suspect that Stalin shouldn’t have the power that he has.
This was because:
o After the civil war, Lenin had to intervene to prevent the Gregorian
delegation from leaving after Stalin insulted them.
o Stalin fell out with Lenin’s wife in December 1921, telling her to keep out of
state affairs and calling her a whore.
In 1922, Lenin wrote his ‘testament’, detailing what he wanted to happen to the
party after his death.
In this, he stated that Stalin must be removed from power.
But Lenin was too ill in the final years of his life to be politically active.
So, by his death in January 1924, he had not removed Stalin and the testament
hadn’t been published.
The fact it hadn’t been published was largely to do with the other Bolsheviks, as
none of them took steps to publish it.
This was because Lenin had also said incredibly damaging things about other leading
members of the party, and everybody wanted to protect themselves and their
reputations.
How was Stalin in a Position to take Power after Lenin’s Death?
, Stalin’s Position in 1924
As the government grew in size, certain posts that had not initially been considered
significant became increasingly important.
Stalin, incidentally, had been given several of these seemingly insignificant roles:
o Peoples’ commissar for nationalities (1917) – he was in charge of many of the
officials in the many regions and republics that had made up the USSR.
o Liaison Officer between the Politburo and the Orgburo (1919) – he could
monitor both the party’s policy and personnel.
o Head of the Workers’ and Peasants’ inspectorate (1919) – entitled him to
oversee the work of all government departments.
o General secretary of the communist party (1922) – he recorded and
conveyed party policy, and this enabled him to build personal files on all the
members of the party to use as future blackmail.
With these posts, Stalin became the indispensable link in the chain of command in
the communist party and soviet government.
He could also use them to gain support by putting his own supporters in positions of
power, meaning that he could count on them voting for him in all the various
committees.
This was called patronage.
As such, even if there were people who opposed him, Stalin was always in a position
where he could outvote and outmanoeuvre them.
This was the most important way in which Stalin was able to rise to power, as not
only did it mean he had leverage over other incredibly high-ranking officials, but he
also had support throughout the different levels of central Bolshevik government. As
such, he could manipulate decisions and people at all levels to ensure that it put him
in a good position.
The Lenin Enrolment
Between 1923-25, the party set out to increase the amount of proletarian support.
As such, the party membership went from 340,000 in 1922 to 600,000 in 1925 – the
new recruits were known as the Lenin enrolment.
Although many of the enrolment had little grasp of politics, they understood that the
privileges that came with party membership relied on them being loyal to those who
had invited them into the Bolshevik ranks.
The task of vetting enrolment largely fell to the officials in the secretariat, who
worked directly under Stalin, the general secretary.
This increased his support and meant that he had a reliable body of votes at a local
and central level who owed their newfound privilege to him.
Stalin was also a proletariat, unlike most of the other leaders. So, it was easier for
the new recruits to relate to him and so they liked him better.
This was the second best way in which Stalin was able to rise to power, as it gave
him support at a regional and local level. However, it gave him very little influence
amongst the main governing body of Russia, which is undoubtedly the thing he
