After Lenin died in 1924, the seven members of the Communist Party Politburo declared that they would share power. They were, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Stalin, Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky. The truth is that a power struggle took place between them.

After 1921 anyone who stood up to Lenin and the Communist Party was treated as an outlaw. Inside the party Lenin banned arguments and splits. The Central Executive Committee ruled the party. Inside it a small group close to Lenin, the Politburo, took the important decisions. Another group, the Orgburo, was responsible for organisation, and the Secretariat carried out the decisions, making sure that the Government, Sovnarkom, did what the communist Party told it to do. Lenin was Chairman of Sovnarkom and appointed leading members of the party to it.

In 1924, however, Lenin died. At his funeral people wept and queued in their thousands to pay their last respects. Stalin helped to carry the coffin. Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his memory.

The favourite to replace Lenin was Trotsky. He was on sick leave when Lenin died and missed the funeral. He claimed that Stalin had tricked him by giving him the wrong date. Oth

By the end of 1920 the Bolsheviks had begun to lose the support of even their closest followers. Six years of war had ruined the economy and brought famine. In the cities, thousands of hungry, orphaned children wandered the streets, scavenging and thieving.

Lenin had achieved power by force rather than by popularity. To continue in power he had to retain the loyalty of his supporters and to improve the economic conditions of the Russian people. At the same time he needed to strengthen the control of the Communist Party over the Empire. Lenin had solutions for these problems; the replacement of War Communism by a new Economic Policy and the appointment of Joseph Stalin as General Secretary of the Communist Party. The first solution was a temporary retreat from Communism; but it was the second solution that he came to regret.

This however, did not mean that communism had been abandoned. Lenin demanded ‘commanding heights’ for major control. The state controlled everything; banking, foreign trade, steel, iron and coal production and transport. Lenin thought the new economy was a temporary expedient, one must go back to be able to go forward.

He was able to manipulate with the advantage that his rivals to succeed Lenin saw each other as more of a threat than Stalin himself. They underestimated the power he had as General Secretary to control party members and to know everything that was happening. This allowed Stalin to build alliances, isolate his rivals and destroy them one by one. By 1929 he was the new leader of Russia, and Lenin’s successor.

Some topics in this essay:
Policy NEP, War Communism, Kamenev Zinoviev, Kirov Molotov, Communist International, Lenin Stalin, National Economy, Stalin Stalin, Soviet Union, Chairman Sovnarkom, war communism, communist party, kamenev zinoviev, lenin died, civil war, lenin died 1924, bukharin rykov, lenin economy, economic policy, rykov tomsky, soviet union, bukharin rykov tomsky,