Compare and contrast the rise of power between Lenin and Stalin?

Answer 1

Although Lenin and Stalin were very different they still had some similarities. When Lenin gained rule, the first couple of years, all he yearned for was to put down the civil war. He wanted to help and repair both the state and economy after it was basically destroyed after World War 1, both revolutions, and the long, hard years of the civil war. He tried to accomplish this by doing many things, and started with the government. First they came up with something called the Supreme Soviet which gave all the citizens 18 and older, the right to vote. This helped because it allowed more people to be involved and gave people an opportunity to put their input. Which was illusionary. Also, Lenin tried to create a new government which brought a lot of the old Russian Empire in the Soviet Union together. He was able to succeed in some things, but after he retreated from policy of war communism, this almost brought down the entire economy to an end. After this, things began to go in the opposite direction. Peasants refused to work and factories and mines outputs had dropped. But he was able to fix the problems by compromising with capitalism which assisted the Soviet economy to recover. That being said, the lifestyle of the people never improved. Unfortunately, in the year 1924 Lenin died suddenly.

After this, Stalin decided to take over. Before Lenin's death, he did speak his mind about Stalin. He described him as rude and not a good leader. Stalin was a sharp political operator. After becoming the general secretary of a communist party, he decided to take advantage of that position by forming a group of communist officials. He wanted to focus his time on building socialism at home. Stalin was a very violent leader though. Trotsky, who also wanted to be leader but lost to Stalin, fled after being isolated by Stalin. Stalin then sent one of his agents to murder him, and Trotsky was killed. This shows that he was a violent leader. Another one of Stalin's aims was to make the Soviet Union into a modern industrial power. In order to help his wishes to be granted, he came up with something called the five-year plan. This was meant to build a strong industry and to have transportation progress. Later he decided to put everything under government rule. Things did begin to progress but still economy was bad, and wages were low. The food was scarce and workers had little to show for their sacrifices. Stalin killed thousands of peasants after they refused collectivization. They killed animals, destroyed tools, and burned the crops and in return Stalin either sent people to murder them or had them die from overworking. But still Stalin was not satisfied. He feared that rival parties were plotting against him, and to take care of that he created the purge. Although the purge increased his power, it hurt his army which he paid for later when Germany attacked.

Few will deny that Lenin was also a violent leader.

Answer 2

They were enemies and had very differing opinions.