After Lenin’s death, Bolshevik entered a period of power struggle. Although Trotsky, according to the testament of Lenin, was believed to be the potential leader, Stalin still became the party leader at the end. Stalin’s raise of power was a result of his political influences, social influences, his background, and approach to communism.
Stalin had a great communist background, and so, he looked like the one who was loyal to the party and had greater influences in the party. He was born in a humble, plain family that his father was a shoemaker and his mother was a waitress, meaning that as a peasant, he understood the essential desires of the public and the party. Oppositely, Trotsky came from an intellectual background with parents who were teachers, and this reduced his understanding on the desire of the peasants. In addition, since Trotsky was originally from Menshevik in 1905, the party members would find him less trustworthy comparing with Stalin.
Stalin got more supports than Trotsky did because they had different personalities. Trotsky was an arrogant person that ‘he [couldn’t] establish his authority among colleagues…by sympathetic attention to the views of lesser intellectual caliber than himself’ (E.H.Carr, Socialism in One Country, 1958), therefore, he could hardly get supports from the party due to his arrogance and his less sympathy with the peasants. However, Stalin was good at following the trends that ‘ he carefully followed the course of debate to see what way the wind was blowing and invariably voted with the majority’(I. Deytscgerm, Stalin). He, therefore, became the majority and was always agreeable to the majority of the party. Hence, Stalin would get more supports.
Stalin not only got his support from his colleagues, but also supports from the public. His approach to communism was ‘Socialism in one country’, which fulfilled the needs of the Soviet Union only. His approach is desirable because this satisfied the nationalistic desires...