Trotsky was the main organiser of the November Revolution and led the Red Army during the Civil War, so why did Stalin gain power and not Trotsky?
- Although it is believed that Lenin favoured Trotsky, and known that he was mistrusting of Stalin, he never left a clear successor. Lenin…
Lenin actually did leave a very clear message as to who he wanted to be his successor. In Lenin’s last testament he wrote, “Stalin is too rude and this defect, although quite tolerable in our midst and in dealing among us Communists, becomes intolerable in a Secretary-General. That is why I suggest the comrades think about a way of removing Staling from that post and appointing another man in his stead who in all other respects differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite, and more considerate to the comrades, less capricious, etc. This circumstance may appear to be a negligible detail. But I think that from the standpoint of safeguards against a split, and from the standpoint of what I wrote above about the relationship between Stalin and Trotsky, it is not a detail, or it is a detail which can assume decisive importance.”
Lenin, 25 December 1922
I suggest reading this article: http://www.historyguide.org/europe/testament.html
