Why did Stalin take power and not Trotsky? The power struggle between the Bolshevik after Lenin's death.

Essay by danspeedHigh School, 10th gradeA-, February 2003

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Why did Stalin take power and not Trotsky?

In 1921 Lenin died and a power struggle emerged upon the top members of the Bolshevik party to take over as leader of the Bolshevik party no knowing that in doing so will eventually get themselves exiled out of Russia or Killed by a man largely underestimated and never thought to go to the extremes he did.

Lenin had been ill for some time and it was obvious he was not going to live for much longer after having a series of strokes. But there were going to be a few problems as Lenin was not Royalty his son could not take over and as Russia was not democratic there could be no election to see who would be the one to take over in Lenin's position easily. So a power struggle emerged in the party with all the main powers in the party in the running including Leon Trotsky and Stalin.

Stalin had had a very harsh upbringing in Gorgia where his often drunken father would beat him and his mother. Stalin was also very lucky when he was a young boy as he survived through the then deadly small pox which gave him scars all over his body and also food poisoning which left him with a partly withered arm.

At school he was a prize student and picked up Russian very quickly. It was also noted when he was younger that he was totally devoted to one person, his mother. He then moved to a school for young priests but was influenced there by the books of Karl Marx and other such revolutionaries. He was later expelled from the school for abusive behavior to one of the teachers.

He then decided to voice his views and became a...