Farewell Your Majesty . . . you had served me well in life, and of course, you could continue doing the same for me in death!

How Stalin used Lenin’s death to isolate his rivals and consolidate his political reign [extract]

Stalin - front right - next to the corpse of Lenin. In his 'Testament' Lenin had warned his followers against the danger posed by Stalin's rise to power, describing the latter as 'rude' among other things, and called for his removal from the Party's hierarchy. The Testament - or Lenin's will - was read out at the next Central Committee meeting, but its message was never carried out. Unlike most Bolshevik leaders Stalin was not Russian but Georgian by birth and had hailed from the backwater of the Russian Empire and the rugged peasantry. However, his parents had inducted their young son in a seminary [an equivalent to Cambodia's wat or pagoda], and, perhaps this was their best means at ensuring he received some sort of formal education even if preparation for the priesthood would have been the seminary's primary focus. Despite his undistinguished background, however, Stalin made full use of his 'practical side' and quickly established his name within the Party's rank under Lenin's direction and leadership, winning both the Party's trust and Lenin's confidence until at least that late phase in Lenin's life when Stalin began to engineered his faction into position of gradual but steady seizing of political power. Not normally given to demagogy or making rumbling speeches, Stalin knew the importance of biding his time and treating his most loathed rivals and opponents with outward courtesy and even flattery [he once described Trotsky as "indispensable" to the Party despite harbouring inward injury against someone who had famously slighted him, referring to him as the 'Rubbish Collector of the Revolution'; an insult he would subsequently make Trotsky pay for with his own life]. Nevertheless, Stalin maintained his sombre expression at the dead Lenin's side so as to make himself and his feelings inscrutable to others, and to ensure that his face - and not that of Trotsky, his most serious rival and protagonist - appeared by the departing body of the Father of the Russian Revolution - School of Vice [image: google]

Drawing by Sacravatoons

Hun Sen - second from left - maintained a sombre expression and pledged to carry on the controversial late former Monarch's legacy - School of Vice [image credit: google]

"Stalin took a prominent and very public role in the mourning of the leader, but in fact Lenin's death put him in a jubilant mood."

Throughout the summer of 1923, Lenin lay close to death, and a lull settled over the political struggle. But the battle lines were forming in the Politburo and Central Committee. Trotsky seemed to hold the most powerful position, thanks to his close friendship with Lenin before the Soviet leader's strokes, but an opposition had already begun to emerge. Although Stalin would later be Trotsky's primary antagonist, for the moment the opposition included not only Stalin but also two other politicians: Lev Kamenev and G.E. Zinoviev, a leading Bolshevik who had been Lenin's closest aide during the Revolution. Together the three formed what was referred to as the "troika," or "triumvirate"; as Lenin inched closer to death, they launched a series of attacks on Trotsky in party meetings, drawing on his writings and speeches from his years as a Menshevik to attack him for disloyalty to his own movement.

On January 21, 1924, Lenin died. He was only fifty-three. Trotsky was away in the Caucasus that month, and Stalin telegraphed him and said that the funeral would be held immediately, so there was no point in undertaking the long trip back to Moscow. Thus Stalin forced Trotsky to be absent for the funeral--he knew how to create and use symbols to his advantage. Meanwhile, the cult of Lenin instantly sprang up among the Bolsheviks, who ordered their leader's body embalmed and turned into a shrine in Moscow's Red Square. Stalin took a prominent and very public role in the mourning of the leader, but in fact Lenin's death put him in a jubilant mood. However, the death did bring Stalin his share of difficulties: Lenin's Testament, with its warning against Stalin and suggestion that he be removed from leadership, was read at the next Central Committee meeting. This was a critical moment: if his rivals had demanded compliance with the testament at this point, Stalin would not have survived their attacks--his support base was not yet large enough. However, Trotsky kept silent and Stalin's allies, Kamenev and Zinoviev, came to his defense; Stalin retained his post as General Secretary.

Source: sparknotes.com