How Did Stalin Become Leader of the USSR?
Lenin’s death in 1924 created the chaos that helped Stalin rise to power. Lenin left behind him a Russia that required an almost perfect leader to guide it in the right direction after the chaos and turmoil that had it had witnessed when socialist party, the Bolsheviks, turned it upside down in the October Revolution of 1917. The regime in Russia was essentially a dictatorship and so the Russian people had no say in who would be their ruler. Therefore it was all down to what happened within the party. There were several contenders to become Lenin’s successor. Trotksy, who seemed perhaps most likely to take over, was described by Lenin’s political testament as being “the most capable man in the Central Committee” with “outstanding ability”.
