1.  starter activity
Leninism means the ideas of Lenin. Around the picture of Lenin list his key ideas. Why is it so difficult to define what Lenin believed in?

2. What divided the Communist Party in the 1920s?
 Key words: ideology v policy triumvirate v duumvirate
What divided the Communist Party in the 1920s?
 Learning objectives
TBAT explain the different visions of communism within the Communist Party

3. Left or Right?
What are the characteristics of left and right wing politics?
How can you be on the right wing of the Communist Party?

4. Study history – card sort LW versus RW
What do you understand about the differences between these ideologies? (Complete the w/s)

5. Ideological differences
Read Bunce p20-1 and note down what each wing of the party believed in.
Trotsky
Zinoviev
Kamenev
Stalin
Bukharin
Centre
Left Wing
Right Wing

6. Left wing of Communist Party Right wing of Communist Party
 Your task
Read p.20-1 (Bunce) and complete a table similar to the one below. Jot down examples of ideas and individuals.
Take notes on what characterised those in the centre of the Party
Left wing of Communist Party
Right wing of Communist Party

7. Two wings of Communist Party
Left Wing
Individuals like Zinoviev, Kamenev
Liked Trotsky but didn’t want a dictatorship
Liked traditional Bolshevik ideals
Suspicious of NEP & return of capitalism
‘Permanent Revolution’
Right Wing
Individuals like Bukharin
Liked NEP
Liked industrialisation & expansion of Russian economy
Socialism on one country

8.  Your task
Where did party members stand on key areas of debate? Complete the table your teacher provides.
Read the conclusion on p.24 and note the reasons why ideology mattered. Which do you think is the most important explanation?

9.  Your task
In the light of your research into the key issues of the leadership contest, which of the candidates do you now think was most likely to succeed? Write a short judgement paragraph explaining your reasons using detailed, factual evidence.

10. NEP and industrialisation
Disagreement over when & how to end NEP experiment
Trotsky, Zinoviev & Kamenev (left): end NEP, militarisation of labour, forced requistioning of grain
Bukharin, Rykov & Tomsky (right): continue NEP, develop consumer economy to encourage manufacturing industry

11. NEP and industrialisation
Consensus on need to industrialise
Concern over negative effects of NEP – rich superclass, property dealing, land speculation, gambling, prostitution
Arguments over next stage of NEP
High unemployment
Wages out of step with price increases
Reemergence of food shortages
Peasants beginning to hoard produce again

12. ‘Permanent Revolution’ versus ‘Socialism in One Country’
Hard-line Communism – militarisation of labour, collective farming etc
Trotsky
Needed international support -world Communist revolution required
Socialism in one country
Moderate Communism – flexible response to USSR’s needs
Stalin
Nationalist appeal

13. Nature of leadership Collective leadership or rule by committee
Reversal of centralisation process of Civil War
Fear of dictatorship
Fear of Trotsky (Commander of Red Army, Commissar for War)
Need for a moderate candidate
To what extent were Russians justified in thinking there might be a dictatorship?

14. Stalin with his wife Nadya
Party Secretary
Controlled business of Politburo (policy making body of Communist Party)
Controlled agendas & discussions
Controlled information sent out to party members
Stalin with his wife Nadya

15. Positions in Orgburo & Secretariat
Orgburo (Party administration department)
Controlled appointments within Party
Placed supporters in key positions
Made appointments & dispensed favours to regional party secretaries

16. Control of Party Organisation
Controlled selection of party delegates to annual congresses where policy decided and Central Committee chosen
Deliberately chose delegates hostile to opponents, e.g. Trotsky (1924 congress)
Stalin’s position attracted powerful supporters, e.g. Zinoviev & Kamenev

17. Control of Party Membership
Purged party of radical elements, e.g. students & soldiers
Supervised ‘Lenin Enrolment’ (1924/5) doubling membership to 1 million
New membership were non-ideological & poorly educated, drawn to Stalin’s nationalist policies

18.  Your task
Create a timeline showing achievements and set backs. Mark on the timeline any points at which his career might have been stopped when Lenin was alive or during the power struggle.
Successes
Failures