1. The Death of Lenin & the Vacuum of Power afterwards

2. Lenin falls ill By 1922, the stress of the last five years was starting to take it’s toll on Vladimir Lenin He grew wary of Stalin and his intentions to build up power and take over leadership of the party In 1922, Lenin suffered two strokes, which left him nearly immobile and speechless

3. At the end of 1922, Lenin decided to make a will, which warned of Stalin: ‘Comrade Stalin has concentrated boundless power in his hands and I am not sure he can always use that power with sufficient caution….’ ‘ Stalin is too rude…. and this fault… becomes unsupportable in the office of General Secretary. Therefore I propose to the comrades to find a way to remove Stalin from that position….’

4. The Death of Lenin Lenin hoped to recover, and get a chance to read his will at the Party Conference in 1923, but he suffered yet another stroke, and eventually died on the 24 th April 1924

5. Lenin was embalmed and lay in state. Petrograd was renamed Leningrad The 24 th of April was made a national day of mourning, and Lenin took on a cult like status

6. Funeral Since Stalin was Secretary General, he got the job of arranging Lenin’s funeral Stalin told Leon Trotsky (the man most people believed would be Lenin’s successor) the funeral was on a different day, so he never showed up! Stalin read the eulogy and was involved in nearly every aspect of the funeral

7. Stalin’s reaction Stalin started altering photos and paintings to have him placed right beside Lenin’s side Privately, Stalin was delighted that Lenin was dead: Lenin had never got the chance to publicly denounce him, so he took his concerns to his grave

8. Leon Trotsky Was seen to be the natural successor to Lenin Trotsky was born in the Ukraine, and had been exiled to Siberia for Revolutionary activities, just like Stalin Was highly educated and a powerful speaker Stalin and Trotsky despised each other!

9. Stalin v Trotsky To keep Trotsky out of power, Stalin formed an alliance with Leon Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev This became known as ‘the troika’ (a Russian Cart, drawn by 3 horses) They managed to stop Lenin’s will being read at the party conference, so nobody knew about his misgivings of Stalin!

10. Trotsky also wanted to see a ‘world revolution of socialism’ (the quick spread of communism to other countries, to help it to survive in the USSR) Stalin believed in ‘socialism in one country,’ which meant consolidating communism in USSR before spreading it overseas The party listened to Stalin, and Trotsky was eventually removed from the party

11. What happened to Trotsky? He was exiled from the USSR Moved to Mexico in 1937 Was murdered with an ice pick by one of Stalin’s agents in 1940

12. Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9t6Qy Ev_fUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9t6Qy Ev_fU