Joseph Stalin – Great History

The Death of Stalin

By 1953, Joseph Stalin had dominated Soviet politics for almost three decades. Rising from a relatively obscure revolutionary in the years before the Russian Revolution, he gradually consolidated power after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, outmanoeuvring rivals such as Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev until he emerged as the undisputed leader of the Soviet Union.

Under Stalin, the Soviet Union underwent a dramatic transformation. Through a series of ambitious Five-Year Plans, the country was rapidly industrialised, turning what had largely been an agrarian society into one of the world’s leading industrial powers. Massive factories, railways and infrastructure projects were constructed across the country, while collectivisation fundamentally reshaped Soviet agriculture. These policies helped lay the foundations for the Soviet Union’s emergence as a global superpower, but they came at an immense human cost. Millions died during famines, political repression and forced labour programmes, while entire communities were uprooted in the pursuit of economic and political objectives.

The Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War further elevated Stalin’s status. To many Soviet citizens, he was the leader who had guided the country through its darkest hour and emerged victorious. Across the Soviet bloc, portraits of Stalin hung in factories, schools and government buildings, while state propaganda cultivated an immense personality cult around him. Criticism of the leader was unthinkable.

A portrait of Stalin in the centre of Berlin

Yet beneath this image of strength lay a system increasingly shaped by fear. Stalin’s distrust of both real and imagined enemies had fuelled the Great Purges of the 1930s, during which hundreds of thousands were executed and millions more were imprisoned in the Gulag system. Senior party officials, military commanders, intellectuals and ordinary citizens all lived under the constant threat of denunciation and arrest. Even members of Stalin’s inner circle understood that a single mistake could end their careers, their freedom or their lives.

On the evening of 28 February 1953, Stalin invited several members of his inner circle to his dacha at Kuntsevo, west of Moscow. Among the guests were Lavrentiy Beria, Georgy Malenkov, Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin. Such gatherings were a regular feature of Stalin’s final years. The Soviet leader often kept his subordinates awake into the early hours of the morning, eating, drinking and discussing politics while they carefully navigated the dangers of displeasing one of the most feared men in the world. The meeting stretched late into the night. The guests eventually departed shortly after four o’clock in the morning on 1 March, leaving Stalin alone. Before retiring, he instructed his guards not to disturb him. This was not unusual. Stalin frequently worked irregular hours and expected complete obedience from those around him.

As the day progressed, however, something seemed wrong. Normally, Stalin would emerge from his rooms or summon staff at some point during the morning. This time there was only silence. The guards grew increasingly anxious but were reluctant to investigate. Years of Stalin’s rule had taught them that interrupting him without permission could have severe consequences. The hours passed. Afternoon became evening. Still there was no sign of movement from inside Stalin’s quarters. Shortly after 10 p.m., a member of staff noticed a light had come on in Stalin’s room. The guards took this as a sign that he was awake and hesitated to enter. When no further activity followed, concern finally overcame fear. One of the guards cautiously opened the door. The scene inside was alarming. Stalin was lying on the floor beside a table, partially paralysed and unable to speak.

The guards immediately informed senior Soviet officials. Beria, Malenkov, Khrushchev and others soon arrived at the dacha. Yet even then, precious time was lost. Some accounts suggest that Beria initially dismissed the situation, insisting that Stalin was merely asleep. Whether this was genuine misjudgement or political calculation remains one of the most debated questions surrounding Stalin’s final days. Doctors were eventually summoned, but they arrived many hours after Stalin had first collapsed. Their diagnosis was grim. The seventy-three-year-old Soviet leader had suffered a severe cerebral haemorrhage that had left much of his body paralysed. Over the following days, members of the leadership gathered around his bedside as millions of Soviet citizens remained unaware that the man who had ruled their country for a generation was dying. Ultimately, Stalin died on March 5th of 1953, leaving the Politburo without Stalin’s guidance, while Malenkov assumed the role of acting General Secretary. Whilst many were distraught by this, some saw an opportunity. Out of those, 3 members of the Politburo emerged from the power struggle, all vying for the top job.

Georgy Malenkov – Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union

A loyal Stalin lieutenant who had spent years climbing through the Communist Party bureaucracy, Malenkov had become one of the most influential men in the Soviet Union during the final years of Stalin’s rule. Calm, methodical and politically experienced, he initially appeared to have the strongest claim to leadership. In the days after Stalin’s death, he assumed several of Stalin’s government responsibilities and seemed destined to emerge as the new dominant figure.

Lavrentiy Beria – Former Head of the NKVD

If Malenkov possessed legitimacy, Beria possessed power. As the longtime chief of Stalin’s security apparatus, Beria had overseen some of the darkest chapters of Stalin’s rule. Millions had passed through institutions under his control, from prisons and labour camps to the secret police itself. Feared throughout the Soviet Union, Beria understood the inner workings of the Soviet state better than almost anyone alive. With Stalin gone, many of his colleagues feared that Beria could use his influence over the security services to seize power for himself.

Nikita Khrushchev – Moscow Party Head

Unlike Malenkov and Beria, Khrushchev was not initially seen as the frontrunner. A former miner who had risen through the Communist Party ranks, he had survived Stalin’s political purges through a mixture of loyalty, political skill and an ability to avoid attracting unwanted attention. Though often underestimated by his rivals, Khrushchev had spent years building relationships throughout the party. While others focused on titles and institutions, he quietly cultivated support among the officials whose votes would ultimately decide the future of the Soviet Union.

Rather than appoint a new supreme leader, the leading figures agreed to govern collectively. On paper, Georgy Malenkov emerged as the most powerful man in the Soviet Union. He became Chairman of the Council of Ministers, effectively the Soviet premier, while also briefly retaining a senior position within the Communist Party itself. Yet it was Lavrentiy Beria who appeared to hold the strongest hand. Within weeks of Stalin’s death, he had regained control over the Soviet security apparatus by merging the Ministries of Internal Affairs and State Security under his authority, in an organisation that eventually became the KGB. This gave him influence over the police, intelligence services and prison system. Many of his colleagues viewed this development with alarm. They had spent years watching Stalin use the security services to destroy rivals and now feared that Beria might do the same.

(Left to right) Stalin, Malenkov, Beria and Anastas Mikoyan at the Dynamo Stadium in Moscow

At first, Beria appeared surprisingly reform-minded. He oversaw a large amnesty that released over a million prisoners from Soviet camps and prisons, scaled back several ongoing political investigations and signalled support for a less confrontational foreign policy. He even suggested that East Germany might need a different political approach after growing unrest there. Whether these proposals reflected genuine reformist beliefs or an attempt to build political support remains a matter of debate among historians. Whatever his intentions, Beria’s actions frightened many members of the Soviet leadership. To some, he appeared to be positioning himself as a new Stalin: a man with control over the security services and the ability to remove opponents at will. Nikita Khrushchev in particular became convinced that Beria had to be stopped before he could consolidate power.

One man whose support Khrushchev desperately needed was Georgy Zhukov. Zhukov was one of the most celebrated military commanders in Soviet history, having played a central role in the defence of Moscow, the victory at Stalingrad and the capture of Berlin. Although Stalin had sidelined him after the war, his prestige within the armed forces remained immense. Khrushchev and his allies feared that Beria’s control of the security services made him too dangerous to confront without military backing. Zhukov agreed to support the conspiracy and organised loyal army officers to intervene when the moment came.

A photo of Khrushchev (left) and Zhukov (centre)

Unlike Beria, Khrushchev possessed neither a personal army nor direct control over the state bureaucracy. What he did have was influence within the Communist Party. Over the spring and summer of 1953, he quietly built support among senior party officials while working to convince Malenkov and others that Beria represented a threat to all of them. Even those who disliked Khrushchev often feared Beria more. The turning point came after the East German uprising of June 1953. As Soviet tanks restored order in East Berlin, concerns about Beria’s growing influence reached a breaking point. Khrushchev, Malenkov and several other senior leaders secretly agreed that he had to be removed. To ensure success, they enlisted the support of Marshal Georgy Zhukov and the Soviet military.

On 26 June 1953, Beria attended a Presidium meeting in the Kremlin believing it would be routine. Instead, Khrushchev and his allies launched a coordinated attack on him, accusing him of abusing his power and betraying the interests of the Soviet state. As the confrontation escalated, Zhukov’s military officers entered the room and placed Beria under arrest. The man who had spent years orchestrating arrests for others now found himself a prisoner. Beria was held in secret confinement while the new leadership consolidated its position. In December 1953, he was tried by a special tribunal on charges including treason, terrorism and counter-revolutionary activity. Found guilty, he was sentenced to death and executed shortly afterwards. His remains were cremated and buried in the woods.

Beria’s downfall fundamentally altered the balance of power. Although Malenkov remained premier, it was Khrushchev who emerged from the crisis in the strongest position. Over the next three years he steadily outmanoeuvred his remaining rivals, strengthened his influence within the Communist Party and ultimately established himself as the dominant figure in Soviet politics. By 1956, the struggle that began with Stalin’s death had effectively been decided.

With Beria gone, the struggle for power was far from over. Georgy Malenkov remained Chairman of the Council of Ministers and, on paper, appeared to be the most powerful man in the Soviet Union. Yet Khrushchev possessed something equally valuable: control over the Communist Party itself. As First Secretary, he spent the next two years carefully building support among regional party officials, promoting loyal allies and presenting himself as a practical reformer rather than an ambitious revolutionary. While Malenkov argued for greater investment in consumer goods and a reduction in military spending, Khrushchev gradually convinced many within the party that his rival lacked the strength and authority needed to lead the country.

Khrushchev and Malenkov at a meeting of the Radmin

By early 1955, Khrushchev had gathered enough support to force Malenkov from the premiership. Although Malenkov remained in government for a time, his political influence had been shattered. For the first time since Stalin’s death, it was becoming clear who was emerging victorious from the succession struggle. Unlike Beria, who had attempted to seize power through control of the security services, Khrushchev had won through party politics, alliances and patient manoeuvring behind the scenes. Having secured his position, Khrushchev turned his attention to Stalin’s legacy. Many Soviet citizens still viewed Stalin as the great leader who had industrialised the country and led it to victory in the Second World War.

Yet within the party leadership there was growing unease over the scale of the terror that had accompanied his rule. Khrushchev believed that if the Soviet Union was to survive and prosper, it could no longer be governed through constant fear, purges and mass repression. In February 1956, at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party, Khrushchev delivered what became known as the Secret Speech. Speaking behind closed doors to party delegates, he launched a devastating attack on Stalin’s cult of personality, accusing the former dictator of abusing his power, ordering unlawful arrests and executions, and betraying the principles of Lenin. For many delegates, who had spent decades praising Stalin as an infallible leader, the speech came as a profound shock

A photo of Khrushchev at the Secret Speech

The consequences were enormous. Across the Soviet Union, statues of Stalin were removed, cities and institutions bearing his name were renamed, and countless political prisoners were released from labour camps. The secret police lost much of the unchecked power they had enjoyed under Stalin, while censorship and political repression were eased, though never abolished entirely. The process became known as De-Stalinisation, and it marked the most significant change in Soviet politics since Stalin himself had come to power. Yet Khrushchev’s reforms were not without limits. He never questioned the Communist Party’s monopoly on power and remained willing to use force when he believed Soviet control was threatened, as demonstrated by the crushing of the Hungarian Uprising in 1956. His vision was not to dismantle the Soviet system, but to reform it. He wanted a Soviet Union that remained communist, but one that was less dependent on terror and less dominated by the memory of a single man.

Stalin’s death marked the end of one of the most brutal chapters in Russian history. For nearly three decades he had dominated the Soviet Union through fear, transforming it into a global superpower while simultaneously overseeing purges, famines, labour camps and political repression on an immense scale. Yet his passing revealed a truth that dictators often try to conceal: no individual is indispensable. Within months, the men who had spent years obeying Stalin were fighting amongst themselves for control of the system he had built. Of all the contenders, Khrushchev emerged victorious. Through a combination of political skill, strategic alliances and careful timing, he defeated both Beria and Malenkov and established himself as the Soviet Union’s new leader. More importantly, he began the difficult process of dismantling the culture of fear that Stalin had created. The Soviet Union that emerged after 1953 was still an authoritarian one-party state, but it was no longer Stalin’s Soviet Union. The struggle that followed his death reshaped the Communist world, altered the course of the Cold War and demonstrated that even the most powerful dictatorship could change once the man at its centre was gone.

The Battle of Stalingrad

By July of 1942, Operation Barbarossa had been raging for over a year. The United States had entered the war and with no signs of Britain surrendering despite the U-Boat warfare and bombing campaign, Hitler decided to turn his back on his old ally and invade the Soviet Union. For the last 13 months, the operation had raged on and they were beginning to fall short of key objectives. One important thing that the Germans were lacking was oil. They were now over 1,000 miles into foreign territory and, with the Russian scorched earth tactic, supply lines were running thin.

In one last ditch effort to find some more oil. Hitler set his eyes on the Caucuses, an oil rich area of the Soviet Union in modern day Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. However, Hitler added a new objective to the plan. He believed that in order to secure the Caucuses, they would need to capture the key city of Stalingrad.

Stalingrad, named after General Secretary Joseph Stalin, was a massive supply hub, due to its bountiful number of factories and a massive transport hub. Despite this, German High Command did not believe that Stalingrad was a very important objective, who thought that Army Group South should flank the Caucuses by pushing through to Astrakhan and then the armies would go down from there. However, Hitler believed that they should split Army Group South in half from the onset, and assigning Friedrich Paulus and his 6th Army to capture Stalingrad.

A photo of a building in Stalingrad before the war

The advance was swift and forceful, and the city was very close to being surrounded. However, due to the advance the supply line was even thinner. Some in the 6th Army resorted to eating their own horses to prevent themselves from starvation. 1/4 of the casualties from the 6th thus far had been due to disease rather than bullets.

Meanwhile, Stalin had prepped for a change of plans. Wanting to keep the city named after himself, he had built a large number of tanks, placing all his reserves in the city. On the 28th of July, Stalin issued his infamous order 227.

Not one step backward without orders from higher headquarters!
An excerpt from Order 227

Any officer or soldier who did not comply with the order would, most likely, be shot on sight. After a large Luftwaffe attack, the 6th Army pushed into Stalingrad, managing to seize much of the suburbs. The Soviet Divisions were now split in two, with the 62nd and 64th armies shipping supplies and reinforcements across the Volga River, whilst under heavy bombardment from the Luftwaffe.

The Russians are ordered to stay close to German lines, in order to stop air support out of fear that Hitler would bomb his own men. The unique urban combat of Stalingrad had begun, with most gunfights engaging within spitting distance of the enemy. The German advance slowed but pushes into the city were still made. The Soviet Divisions in Stalingrad were on their last legs, until the Russian secret weapon eventually came.

The winter soon began to set in. The already hungry Germans were also beginning to feel the effects of the cold. The German advance either halted or slowed to a crawl, allowing Soviet High Command to recuperate and form a plan of counter assault. Whilst the plan is being formed, Paulus, orders another assault. The Germans manage to push back the Soviet forces to a small sliver of land against the Volga. However, having suffered 60,000 casualties, the battered and hungry German army cannot advance. A stalemate began to set in

Barmaley Fountain in the middle of the war torn city

Eventually, Georgy Zhukov, one of the key Russian Generals in the defence of the city, unleashes his master stroke. Operation Neptune goes ahead on November 19th, with 10 entire armies, totalling 1 million men, push through the German line, managing to encircle the German 6th and 4th armies, taking out the Romanian 5th corps, inside the city in only 3 days.

With supply lines cut off, Hitler decided to airlift supplies into Stalingrad. However, for reasons unknown, only army supplies, such as ammunition, was dropped and not food and clean water, a dire resource in the war torn city. Not only that but he also ordered 500 tons of said supplies to be dropped into the city, despite Paulus claiming that they needed 700 and the Luftwaffe saying they could only manage 300. Many Germans starved whilst the wounded succumbed to the elements, dying of hypothermia as winter truly began.

Around Christmas, Erich von Manstein, head of the Wehrmacht, ordered a push through the soviet line in order to relieve the 6th and 4th Army. However, due to orders from the Fuhrer, and dwindling numbers, Paulus did not attempt to meet up with Manstein’s men. Thousands more die in this attempted breakthrough. With no ammunition or food, the Germans are offered 2 surrenders by Zhukov, both of which Hitler orders Paulus to deny. by this time only 40,000 men of the 300,000 who initially marched on Stalingrad are still alive, whilst there are 18,000 men who are injured and yet untreated due to the lack of medical supplies. The situation became even more dire once the Soviets capture the last airfield that could be used for airdrops into Stalingrad. Despite his failure, and the German force in Stalingrad being split in two, Paulus received a promotion to Field Marshal, from Hitler himself. However, Hitler knew that there has never been a single Field Marshal ever who has been taken alive. Hitler had just signed Paulus’ death warrant.

Eventually, the Russians found his base of operations in a worn out department store basement, with the southern part of the army falling not long after that. The Soviets took mercy on Paulus, who lived out the rest of his life in East Germany until 1957. He is the only Field Marshal to ever be taken prisoner. The commander of the northern pocket also subtly requested that his men surrender. 11,000 German insurgents did not surrender and it would not be until March of 1943 before Stalingrad was clear of a German presence.

Many historians cite Stalingrad as a key turning point in the war. If Stalingrad had been captured, it would’ve been a catastrophic loss of life and morale for the Red Army. Thankfully, Hitler’s forces were pushed all the way back to Berlin thanks to the Soviet victory at Stalingrad, leading to the death of Hitler in April, 1945, and the end of the war in Europe. However, it came at a heavy cost. The Battle of Stalingrad was and still is the single deadliest battle in human history.

Casualties

German Reich – 800,000-1.5 million casualties
Soviet – 1.3 million
Civilian – 40,000

The Winter War

In the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland, the USSR occupied the Eastern half of the country, now sharing a border with Germany due to an invasion that lasted a little over a month. The haste at which this was achieved was partially due to the fact that Poland, having only been birthed in the collapse of the German and Russian Empires was very behind militarily speaking, especially compared to the technologically superior Wehrmacht. Stalin believed he could achieve this again with another nation that was formerly a part of the Russian Empire.

The plans and outcome of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

Finland, which had only gained independence 22 years prior, was number one on Stalin’s bucket list. As democracy in Finland was making bounds, he believed that the area of Karelia specifically posed a threat to the key city of Leningrad in the North. Stalin demanded that Karelia be seceded. Finland, having declared itself neutral upon the outbreak of WW2, sought help from Britain, France and Sweden after the ultimatum was received, to no avail. On November 30th, 1939, Finland refused the ultimatum, and Stalin began moving Soviet forces into Finland.

Despite the vast size and mechanisation of the Soviet Army, the Finnish largely had the upper hand. The main problem was the terrain and weather, as that winter was recorded as one of the coldest in European history, reaching as low as -40 Degrees. Not only that but, having been aquainted with the terrain, the Finnish made easy work of the Soviets with the assistance of skis and a distinctive winter camoflauge. The skis worked effectively at quickly swooping past and taking out enemy forces, especially the tanks, which were stopped when Finnish skiers lodged crowbars and logs into the tank tracks, stopping them dead. They would also use Molotov Cocktails, a tongue and cheek reference to the Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, who worked on the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, with German Reichsminister of Foreign Afffairs Joachim von Ribbentrop, that gave the Soviets a claim to Finland.

However, the tide of the war began to turn as Stalin appointed a new commander, Marshal Semyon Timoshenko, who sent new and improved forces into Finland. Eventually, having been overrun and tired out, the Finnish were forced into surrender, giving up multiple territories as a part of the peace deal. The Soviet Union was removed from the League of Nations after declaring the invasion illegal. It also demonstrated the hesitancy of the Allies and the weakness of the Soviets to Hitler, who would use these to his advantage in the coming years. This was not the end for Finland, however, as it would lick its wounds and come back with a vengeance.

Invasion of Poland

Gaining living space, striving for land power in the East. France’s opposition to this is unavoidable, but not that of England or Italy. […] France as an ally is possible, but undesirable. Help for South Tyrol only with Italy against France; this also means freedom of movement against the East.
Hitler writing in his second posthumously published book, 1928

After World War 1, many Eastern European countries were unified to form Poland. As such, Poland divided East Prussia from the remainder of Germany. Hitler formed a non-aggression pact with Joseph Stalin, Communist Leader of the Soviet Union. The non-aggression pact also included the East of Poland being occupied by the Soviet Union in the event of an invasion. Many people didn’t agree with this, since Hitler was heavily anti-Communist, with many anti-leftist purges taking place in Germany and in their recently annexed territories.

On the night of August 31st, 1939, 3 men dressed in Polish Army Uniforms infiltrated Gleiwitz Radio Tower, on the Polish-German border. They transmitted anti-German messages, all in Polish, to the people of Germany using a radio tower. The next day, a man in a Polish Army Uniform was found dead near the tower. His body was reported to the police. This was a staged operation by the Nazis.

Gleiwitz Radio Tower, the staging of the false attack

The man found dead was Franciszek Honoik, a Polish man, who was legally the first casualty of the war. Franciszek was killed by the Gestapo. He was unmarried, 43 and wasn’t even a soldier. The same day, German soldiers marched on the west side of Poland, with Soviet soldiers closing in on the East.

The German tactic known as Blitzkreig, involving striking fast and hard with as many units as possible, was used in taking out many Polish divisions. Not only that, but the highly advanced Panzer Divisions combined with the Stuka Dive bombers made quick work of the Polish Cavalry. The West of Poland was captured within two weeks. On October 6th, the last Polish Division surrendered, having been encircled by the German Army. The invasion only lasted 1 month and 5 days. In accordance with the agreement, Germany occupied the West, establishing the Generalgouvernement in the southern region, with the USSR Occupying the East.

Casualties

Germany – 16,343
Soviet Union – 737
Poland – 66,000

This morning, the British ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o’clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.
Neville Chamberlain’s radio broadcast to Britain, September 3rd, 1939

The Death of Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik revolution and later head of the Soviet Union after its creation in 1922, had suffered a series of strokes and died at age 53 in 1924. Lenin overthrew the short lived Russian Republic in October 1917, which itself had overthrown the old Russian Royal Family and the Russian Emperor, Tsar Nicholas II, in February 1917. Both Alexander Kerensky, leader of the republican movement, and Lenin agreed that the Empire was not a way to govern Russia effectively.

Through uneven industrialisation that lagged behind Western Europe and the immense strain of a disorganised defence against Germany and Austria-Hungary, many Russians came to see the Tsar as ineffective at best and dangerously out of touch at worst. Although unpaid labour, referred to as serfdom, had been abolished decades earlier, millions of peasants still lived in conditions little better than feudal poverty, while the aristocracy retained immense wealth and privilege. The First World War exposed that the Tsarist system could not handle modern war, modern economics, or modern politics.

However, Kerensky and Lenin disagreed on what should replace it. Whilst Kerensky believed that a republican democracy should replace the Tsar, Lenin believed that it should be replaced with an idea called communism, which came from a pair of German philosophers known as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It argues that capitalism, where wealth and industry are controlled by private individuals and profit is the primary motive of work, should be replaced by a system in which workers collectively own and control production. In theory, this would abolish economic classes and reorganise society around human need rather than profit, eventually removing the need for private property, money and even the state itself. Lenin truly believed that communism was the way forward.

However, the economic devastation of the First World War, the harsh peace imposed by Germany, a multi-sided civil war against anti-Bolshevik forces and repeated assassination attempts all pushed the new regime toward emergency measures. Specifically, Lenin dissolved the Constituent Assembly due to losing the January 1918 election, suppressed rival parties through a secret police known as the Cheka, and placed much of the economy under direct state control during the civil war. In practice, power shifted away from the Workers’ Councils, called Soviets, and into the hands of the Party leadership, contradicting the revolution’s original promise of popular control. This also led to great stress, leading to his strokes and his eventual death.

One person was widely seen by many revolutionaries as Lenin’s most prominent potential successor, that being Leon Trotsky. Having met Lenin during his time in exile, Trotsky was elected as the chair of the Petrograd Soviet, and was one of the key leaders in the October Revolution before being appointed the People’s Commissar of Foreign Affairs, a position in which he negotiated peace with Germany. He also served as People’s Commissar for Military Affairs, where he led victories in the Russian Civil War, and became a close ally of Lenin through a party bloc created to stop the growing bureaucracy of the Soviet Union.

In this bloc, he advocated for greater industrialisation efforts, voluntary collective farming and party democratisation along with the New Economic Policy, which would combine elements of a free market and a single market economy but still remain under state control. Trotsky appeared to many as Lenin’s natural successor due to his role in the revolution and the civil war, but he faced strong rivals within the party leadership, the most notable of which was Joseph Stalin.

Prior to the revolution, Stalin was a minor figure within the Bolshevik movement. He was not an important theorist or a particularly good public speaker, but rather a dependable organiser. He edited party newspapers, maintained underground networks, and helped finance the movement through “expropriations,” including notorious bank robberies carried out by Bolshevik militants. After the revolution, he was appointed General Secretary of the party’s Politburo Central Committee, the highest executive committee within the party and the de facto ruling body of the country. What many saw as a simple, somewhat boring job, Stalin used his position as General Secretary to amass loyalists and centralise power under him. When Lenin died, Stalin had the power to simply erase the fact that Lenin had warned against making him leader, and seized power.

Stalin expelled Trotsky from the party by 1927 due to their opposition to one another and began a mass economic revitalisation plan known as the Five Year Plan. Whilst his plan did increase industrialisation efforts, it also caused a mass famine, including a catastrophic famine in Ukraine known as the Holodomor, caused by forced collectivisation and grain requisitioning policies. Many have characterised the Holodomor as a genocide of ethnic Ukrainians.

He also enforced a mass forced labour system through camps known as Gulags and murdered over 700,000 people who he perceived as political opponents, in an event known as the Great Purge. During his time in power, he transformed the country and the reputation of communism into an authoritarian, brutal police state, which later became the model for other communist leaders throughout the 20th Century. It is estimated that, during his regime, anywhere between 6 million and 9 million Soviet citizens were killed.