Goodbye Lenin…

What factors helped Stalin to become the sole

leader of the USSR by 1929?
 What factors helped Stalin to become the sole leader of the USSR by 1929?

Pick three characteristics that you believe

are essential for a leader after Lenin
1. A good public speaker. 10. Unwavering loyalty to the party –
they will not question party
2. A good Marxist theoretician, able actions/ideas.
to take over Lenin’s position easily.
11. Played an important role in the 1917
3. Good organisational skills. revolution.
4. Decisiveness. 12. Someone everyone could accept as
5. Able to put things into action when they do not hold strong views.
needed. 13. Ability to debate and good in
6. Ability to melt into the background. discussion.
7. A boring and dull personality. 14. Popular with party members.
8. Good at carrying out mundane, 15. Able to work with other leading
routine tasks. party figures.
16. A ruthless streak.
9. A born bureaucrat – able to
complete the paperwork. 17. A good writer.
What factors helped Stalin to become the sole leader of the USSR by 1929?

Who should lead???

 What factors helped Stalin to become the sole leader of the USSR by 1929?

USSR Leadership Top Trumps

• Your task is to work with the person
next to you to complete the
leadership Top Trumps.
• Each individual has an information
sheet (in case you had forgotten some
of the details) and you should
complete each of the sections
accordingly.
• Ratings 1/10 = VERY poor/low &
10/10 TOP MARKS!
What factors helped Stalin to become the sole leader of the USSR by 1929?

USSR Leadership Top Trumps

Review of findings
• Who did you rate as the
most likely to succeed
Lenin?
• Who had the most
important/influential
positions?
• Did anyone stand out as an
obvious winner/loser?
 What factors helped Stalin to become the sole leader of the USSR by 1929?

Fear of a Dictator...
• A real concern amongst leading figures
was a fear that a Dictator could emerge
– TROTSKY!
• He COULD in theory use the army to
crush opposition.
• Arrogant, rude, certain manner
suggesteed a dictatorial attitude or
character.
• This fear resulted in real opposition to
the idea of Trotsky gaining more power.
 What factors helped Stalin to become the sole leader of the USSR by 1929?

Building a powerbase...
• Each leadership hopeful had
some form of powerbase
which would help them try to
become leader off the USSR.
• Read through the different
boxes outlining Stalin’s
powerbase and in the boxes
next to them briefly try to
explain HOW this could help
him – against who if you can!
 What factors helped Stalin to become the sole leader of the USSR by 1929?

Different Powerbases...

The Orgburo
The Secretariat
Control of Party
Membership
Party Secretary
City Support –
Leningrad & Moscow
Commander of the
Red Army
Popular & Great
Reputation
 What factors helped Stalin to become the sole leader of the USSR by 1929?

Putting it into practice...

• In the exam you will have to answer a total of 4 questions,
2 shorter answers.
• The first will be a causation question, asking ‘why’
something happened/ developed.
• The second question will require you to answer a question
that asks you to assess ‘how important was’ or ‘how far
was...’
– This question basically requires you to examine the feature
raised AND assess how important it was, as well as examining
other factors that influenced the event.
 What factors helped Stalin to become the sole leader of the USSR by 1929?

January 2009
(b) How important was the fear of Trotsky becoming
leader in explaining Stalin’s victory in the power
struggle in the years 1924 to 1929? (24 marks)

• In the exam you will need to plan BEFORE you tackle this
question.
• You should spend around 5 minutes planning AND 20
minutes writing the answer.
• We are each going to plan the answer.
 What factors helped Stalin to become the sole leader of the USSR by 1929?

Task
• You now need to spend 5
minutes planning out an
answer for the question.
• Don't spend ages writing in
depth BUT make sure your
link to the question in each
section is clear.
 What factors helped Stalin to become the sole leader of the USSR by 1929?

Task
• Now you need to swap
your plans with the person
next to you.
• Look at what the person
has produced and come up
with one Next Step,
explaining how they can
improve their plan.
• Use the mark sheme for
guidance.
 What factors helped Stalin to become the sole leader of the USSR by 1929?

Which of these did Stalin have?

1. A good public speaker. 10. Unwavering loyalty to the party –
they will not question party
2. A good Marxist theoretician, able actions/ideas.
to take over Lenin’s position easily.
11. Played an important role in the 1917
3. Good organisational skills. revolution.
4. Decisiveness. 12. Someone everyone could accept as
5. Able to put things into action when they do not hold strong views.
needed. 13. Ability to debate and good in
6. Ability to melt into the background. discussion.
7. A boring and dull personality. 14. Popular with party members.
8. Good at carrying out mundane, 15. Able to work with other leading
routine tasks. party figures.
16. A ruthless streak.
9. A born bureaucrat – able to
complete the paperwork. 17. A good writer.
What factors helped Stalin to become the sole leader of the USSR by 1929?

Want the resources?

• They are all available at
mrmayhew.posterous.com