Why Was Stalin The Dominant Leader Of The Soviet Union

How did Stalin come to be the dominant leader of the Soviet Union?

On the eve of Lenin’s death, there was no real or clear successor who would take leadership of the party. Even before his death Lenin himself recognised that there would be a power struggle between two of the most prominent leaders in the party, Trotsky and Stalin, which he expressed in his last testament (which was shielded from the public eye until the early 1950’s). In Lenin’s last testament, he even went on to briefly assess members of the party which could result in good leadership within the party. Through reading the last testament it seems clear that Lenin preferred Trotsky as a person, even if he does mention that he can be arrogant, and this can also been seen with
Stalin seemed to be on good terms with Lenin until Stalin had spoken to Lenin’s wife Nadezhda Krupskaya following Lenin’s appraisal of Trotsky which Krupskaya had cited, and Lenin certainly did not like the way Stalin had spoken to her. In short, he amended his last testament and was making it clear that Stalin had to go because he could not be trusted, was rude and was an arrogant. In the party, Stalin had always been perceived as a dull, mediocre and uninteresting person who was happy to get on with dull, mediocre and uninteresting jobs which mainly consisted of administration and he proved he was good at this which was why he was ultimately appointed as the General Secretary of the party among other positions prior to this one – a potentially dire move by Lenin following his death simply because it put Stalin in a position where could place his friends and allies in high positions in the pending power struggle. This then raises the question how exactly Stalin came to be the dominant leader, and I will address potential reasons which could be argued as to
It can be noted that each of his opponents, Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Rykov and Bukharin each had their flaws in the struggle for power – some of them being prominent in their bid for power within the party. Trotsky was Stalin’s main opponent and always seemed to be a favourite of Lenin’s which would seems obvious why Stalin would have such a vendetta against him, not to mention that Stalin was denounced by Trotksy during the October Revolution which Lenin and Trotsky had planned together – and so viewed as one of the more heroic contenders within the party. Trotsky was a gifted theorist and excelled as the commentator, critic, and executor of policies and was noted to be an enthusiastic and influential orator – often inspiring the loyalty of his