Stalin's rise to power summary

How did stalin use his position as general secretary to gain control of the party
Stalin's rise to power bbc bitesize
When was stalin born

•

Stephen Kotkin’s Stalin Is a Distorting Mirror of the Russian Revolution

Review of Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928by Stephen Kotkin (Penguin Random House, 2015).

Stalin: Paradoxes of Power,1878–1928, is the first of a projected three-volume biography of the Soviet despot written by Stephen Kotkin, John P. Birkelund Professor of History and International Studies at Princeton University, and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Kotkin dedicates his Stalin to John P. Birkelund — “businessman, benefactor, fellow historian.” I had never heard of Mr Birkelund before, so I looked him up.

A Princeton ’52 graduate, Mr Birkelund was Chairman of the Wall Street investment firm Dillon, Read & Co. between 1986 and 1998; sat on more than a dozen Company Boards, including Barings Bank and the New York Stock Exchange; and was a trustee for a similar number of public organizations, notably the Frick Collection and the New York Public Library.

A standard-bearer of free-market politics, Birkelund was active in the Republican Party, contributing financially to the Senate e

•

22. FACTIONALIST AGAINST FACTIONS

The year 1925 brought the disputes in the Politburo to a head. Personal bickering became all-out factional conflict as Zinoviev and Kamenev moved into open opposition to Bukharin and Stalin. They wrangled over the party’s internal organisation as well as over international relations. Official agrarian measures were also highly controversial. Bukharin in his enthusiasm for the New Economic Policy had said to the more affluent peasants: ‘Enrich yourselves!’¹ This hardly coincided with Lenin’s comments on kulaks over the years. Even in his last dictated articles Lenin had envisaged a steady movement by the peasantry towards a system of farming co-ops; he had never expressly advocated the profit motive as the motor of agricultural regeneration. Stalin’s ally Bukharin appeared to be undermining basic Leninist ideas, and Zinoviev and Kamenev were not just being opportunistic in castigating this. They generally objected to the growing compromises of the New Economic Policy as it had been developed. Stalin and Bukharin s

•

My IBDP HL class looks at Stalin’s biography and political personality; history often ignores the psychological makeup of the people to focus less on trivia than on simple dates. Stalin’s rise to power, his place in the party apparatus, and changes in membership are dealt with. To fully understand Stalin’s success, the class will see a Powerpoint that considers discontent with the policies of NEP.

Outline

Joseph Stalin was born Iosif Dzhugashvili (officially and this is no longer believed) December 21 1879- the same day as my son! Everyone who knew Stalin as a boy spoke of traits that have been described as that of an angry “rebel personality.” He tended to rebel against every manifestation of authority over him, notably at the seminary where he studied. Here he showed political defiance: He joined an underground Social Democratic Party circle (for which he was expelled from the seminary).

Complicating this, he was known to be insecure and defensive. He was Georgian, small, and severely pockmarked from smallpox. One arm was shorter than