Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Why was Stalin able to defeat his rivals? - Coggle Diagram
Why was Stalin able to defeat his rivals?
Structuralist explanations
S. S. Montefiore, sees Stalin as a ruler in the long Tsarist tradition of absolute rule
= Stalin was a product of Russian history and the administrative system set up in 1917, structure of the society
others point to the impact of emergencies such as the civil war, which led to the development of appointment rather than election for party and state positions, R.Daniels
Ideological explanations
many ideological/political differences among the communist leaders of the 1920s especially regarding NEP
fear of capitalism by many since new groups tended to favour capitalist policies
Socio-cultural explanations
S.Fitzpatrick suggests that social issues are closely linked to structuralist explanations
social structure impacts politics and development of the communist party and the soviet state
Example: During Civil war when it started to look like the Bolsheviks would win, a large number of careerists joined the winning side to secure jobs. These new members were politically conservative, so were drawn to Stalin rather than the revolutionary views of Trotsky
Power politics
Historian: Robert Conquest viewpoint -->
Stalin's rise as a deliberate manipulation of genuine political and ideological differences among the Bolshevik leaders in order to gain supreme power for himself by crushing all other factions
Historian: Robert C. Tucker viewpoint:
Stalin wanted to make himself a revolutionary hero just like Lenin
Stalin was able to succeed also because of the mistakes and weaknesses of his rivals
Stephen Cohen says that Bukharin's commitment to NEP blinded him to the changes of Stalin
E.H Carr portrays Zinoviev and Kamenev as careerist and weak.willed
=nobody realized Stalin's dangers until it was too late
For example, Trotsky made several serious errors and miscalculations that made him unable to organise an effective faction
Deutscher argues that, without Lenin he was virtually isolated at the top of the party from the beginning