Joseph Stalin Leon Trotsky
Born Joseph Dzhugashvili in Georgia in 1878/9 to working class Trotsky was the only member of the Communist
peasants. He was one of the few leading revolutionaries with a party with the ability to rival Lenin intellectually. He
working class/peasant background. As a teenager he found wrote many essays on Marxist theory and was also
Marxism in 1902 and was drawn to revolution. He was soon one of the best speakers within the party. On many
involved in underground meetings, writing pamphlets and even
occasions he managed to bring crowds around to
became involved in robbing banks to help fund revolutionary
his viewpoint and had become extremely popular
activity.
with younger, more radical members of the party.
Between 1902-1913, he was frequently arrested and even
exiled to Siberia, escaping five times. He then adopted the
Between 1917-23, Trotsky’s role in the USSR almost
name Joseph Stalin meaning man of steel. In 1912, he was
matched Lenin’s. He had planned the revolution
invited to join the Central Committee of the Bolshevik party, as
they lacked leading working class members. While the majority and persuaded Lenin to wait until the end of
of the committee stayed abroad, Stalin was the point of contact October, he had organisation and drive had helped
in Russia. When revolution broke out in 1917, he was one of the red army win the civil war. As Commissar for
the first leading party members on the scene in Petrograd. War, he had a great deal of support from the army.
During the events of 1917, he did not really play a leading role.
After this he had been made editor of Pravda, the party He was however, viewed by many other leading Bolsheviks as aloof and as
newspaper. He was in favour of continuing involved in the extremely arrogant. Many leading Bolsheviks were treated with a lack of
Great War in line with many socialists, but changed his line when Lenin decided respect and Trotsky never went out of his way to appeal to these other
to withdraw. After this point he in effect agreed with everything that Lenin important men, alienating them.
wanted. Though central in the party he didn’t really have a clear role. He did not
get along with Trotsky or Sverdlov, the main organisers of the 1917 revolution. Trotsky had only joined the Bolshevik party in 1917, which meant many
He became Commissar for Nationalities after the October revolution, gaining old Bolsheviks viewed him as an outsider and some questioned his loyalty
Lenin’s trust as a devoted Bolshevik. He was sent to Tsaritsyn (later Stalingrad) to to the party.
defend the city and organise food supplies during the civil war, which was a key
strategic position in the fight against the whites. He was dismissed from his Trotsky did not like and indeed wasn’t very good at making political deals
military role for disobeying orders, a characteristic that came up several times or alliances. He preferred to settle arguments where he could debate the
during the civil war. issue or write an essay on the topic. This meant that he gradually became
When Lenin needed a good administrator, and Stalin was appointed head of the isolated from other leading party members.
Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate, allowing him to become more familiar with
other government departments. Soon after he was put in charge of the Orgburo From 1923 Trotsky suffered terrible fevers which meant that he was less
which controlled party organisation and was elected to the Politburo, which was able to deal with the continuous attack from his political rivals. It also
the main organ of power. Finally in 1922, he was elected as the party’s first
resulted in him being away from the Politburo on many occasions,
General Secretary. Others nicknamed him comrade filing cabinet, in reference to
his seemingly control over all areas of party personnel. Lenin clearly believed
lessening his influence.
him to be a capable organiser. However, in his political testament Lenin stated
Stalin was ‘too rude’ and that he should be removed from his position.
Gregory Zinoviev Lev Kamenev
Zinoviev was an old Bolshevik who had been an active Kamenev was an active Bolshevik and revolutionary
party member since 1903. He had worked very closely from 1905. Between 1907-17 he was a close
with Lenin before the revolution and was with Lenin on collaborator with Lenin while both were living
the train as it pulled into Petrograd’s Finland station in outside of Russia in Western Europe. He was a
1917. major contributor to party ideology and often had
heated debates with Lenin. This did not sour Lenin’s
However, he opposed Lenin about the armed uprising view of Kamenev who he saw as able and reliable.
in October and fell out of his favour after arguing about
setting up the new government, with Zinoviev wanting He worked with Zinoviev in opposing Lenin and the
a socialist coalition. armed uprising in October 1917, wanting a socialist
coalition government. This lost him some of his
After this falling out, Zinoviev was not given an influence in the party, but he was still made Party
important position on the Sovnarkom (the new USSR Secretary in Moscow and Commissar for Foreign
government) instead he was made party secretary in Trade. These positions gave him a place on the
Leningrad. This was an important position (and city) Politburo where he would be able to eventually
allowing him to build a powerbase there. He was next made Chairmen of challenge for the leadership.
the Comintern in 1919 and became a full member of the Politburo in 1921.
Kamenev was a moderate Bolshevik who was well liked by other leading
He was known as a good public speaker, but wasn’t particularly figures who regarded him well. However, he was too soft to have been
intellectual. He wasn’t particularly popular with other leading Bolsheviks, able to lead the party. He was more of an intellectual thinker than a
who saw him as vain, incompetent and cowardly. Quite often he would leader.
seemingly disappear when things got dangerous – no one seemingly liked
him! Carr states that Kamenev was intellectually superior to Stalin and Zinoviev,
but “by far the least effective of the three... Kamenev had neither the
desire nor the capacity to lead men; he lacked any clear vision of a goal
toward which he might have led them.”
Nikolai Bukharin Alexei Rykov
Bukharin was one of the younger Bolsheviks. Born in
1888, he was almost a decade younger than Stalin. He Born in 1881 into a peasant family, he had been a
had joined the party in 1906, been arrested in 1912 supporter of the Bolsheviks since 1903, working as
and then escaped to Germany. an agent in Moscow during the 1905 revolution.
Before 1917 he became an important theorist within Rykov did not agree with Lenin’s dictatorial style of
the party, working closely with Lenin developing leading the party and he broke from the party in
political strategy. In 1917 he took a leading role on the 1910. He rejoined the Bolsheviks in 1917. Despite
newspaper Pravda. his differences with Vladimir Lenin, Rykov was
appointed Lenin’s Deputy as Chairman of the
He led the opposition to signing the treaty of Brest- Sovnarkom between 1921-24. He then succeded
Litovsk and between 1920-1 he criticised Lenin and Lenin, becoming Chairman of the Sovnarkom
Trotsky, but this didn’t appear to harm his relationship between 1924-29.
with Lenin. He eventually became a full member of the Politburo in 1922.
He would speak his mind and was direct – a
Bukharin was a man with many interests including art, poetry and characteristic some took offence as a result of. He was more statesmanlike
literature. He liked to enjoy life and it was apparently difficult to dislike than many other leading figures within the party but he had a major
him. He was however a capable and intelligent speaker, able to argue weakness – alcohol. His reputation as a drinker was so bad than some
fiercely. Lenin called him ‘the golden boy’ of the Bolshevik party, however groups even called Vodka Rykova!
he seemingly lacked a cunning streak.
In his political testament, Lenin called Bukharin ‘the biggest and most
valuable theoretician in the whole party’ and ‘the favourite of the whole
party’.
