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Stalins Rise To Power Essay

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Question: How far did Stalin achieve and maintain what Kruchev described as “the accumulation of immense and limitless power”, in the USSR between 1924 and 1945?
Between 1924 and 1945, Joseph Stalin was able to emerge as the leader of the USSR and maintain what Kruchev described as “the accumulation of immense and limitless power”. Stalin's rise to power was a combination of his ability to manipulate situations and the failure of others to prevent him from taking power, especially Leon Trotsky. Stalin ruled the USSR from 1929 until his death in 1953. His rule was one of tyranny, a great change from the society that his predecessor, Lenin, had envisioned. During his time of reign, Stalin put into effect two self-proclaimed "five-year …show more content…

Also, Stalin was much more involved with the base of the Party and was thought to have worked hard to get himself to the top. Meanwhile, Trotsky was seen as a man trying to push his way in. Further damaging Trotsky, Lenin described him as possessing "…excessive self-confidence… and overly attracted by the purely administrative aspects of affairs…" Even though he unintentionally projected Trotsky in this way, Lenin felt that if the removal of Stalin were not acted upon, the conflict between Trotsky and Stalin would intensify, which would jeopardize the whole Party. Combined with the Testament, Trotsky could have used the Postscript to obtain power, but instead Stalin squashed it in the Central Committee.
Once eliminating Trotsky, Stalin’s idea of, “socialism in our country,” inevitably meant that Russia needed strength. The productions in the USSR had almost reached pre-war levels by the mid-1920s, but the population of Russia had also increased by 20 million people. No matter, Stalin assured that maximum efforts and resources would be given to the expansion and strengthening of Russia herself rather than an effort to start a revolution elsewhere. This is explained in his famous 1931 speech, gaining power for himself. The people had nowhere else to turn to and needed a leader. Stalin was there and knew what to do to make the people interested in his ideas, thus acquired their trust and control. From these ideas, he created his first

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