Josef -||- Lenin's Death -||- Party Politics- Left vs. Right -||- Stalin & Stalinism -||- World War II
The Power Struggle: Left vs. Right
So how exactly did the non-educated, mediocre, 'gray blur' come to power? First off, he had his numerous positions that made everyone reliant on him, second...he was quite good at politics and played the left and right off each other pretty well.
After Lenin's death, the party split into two groups- The Rightists, and the Left Oppostion.
The Rightists were led by Bukharin. His group believed in the continuaton of NEP (Lenin's New Economic Policy) for the next 20 years (at least). This would encourage the peasants to grow more food. The food could be sold for profit, and as the profits increased, the townspeaople would start having jobs in factories that made consumer goods for peasants to buy. Both classes would become prosperous gradually. Quite capitalist, but quite nice sounding too. It was logical.
The Left Opposition was made up of Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev who believed in forming an industrial country as quickly as possible. They feared Western invasion if the country remained agricultural for too long. Their idea was to take control of the farming land and force the peasants to produce as much food as was needed.
Stalin was never an established member of any one group. Instead, he played them both and switched as he needed to. In the end, he would join with Kamenev and Zinoviev to form a bloc. This bloc would work to prevent Trotsky from gaining power. Trotsky, had very few friends.