#Stalin #Russia #USSR
x.com/archeohistories/status…Archaeo – Histories (@archeohistories)In the final years of his life, Vladimir Lenin became increasingly worried about the future leadership of the Soviet state.After suffering several strokes between 1922 and 1923, he dictated a series of notes that later became known as Lenin’s Testament. In these writings, he evaluated the personalities and abilities of leading Bolsheviks.
Lenin criticized Joseph Stalin, who had recently become General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1922, describing him as too harsh and concentrated with too much power.
Lenin feared that Stalin’s temperament, what he called “rudeness” and impulsiveness, could damage unity within the party and the fragile Soviet government that had just emerged from the Russian Civil War.
Lenin even suggested that the party consider removing Stalin from the position of General Secretary and replacing him with someone more patient and respectful toward other party members.
However, after Lenin’s death in 1924, the testament was suppressed by senior Bolshevik leaders, including Stalin’s allies. Rather than being removed, Stalin gradually consolidated power through his control of the party bureaucracy and political maneuvering against rivals such as Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev, and Lev Kamenev.
Within a few years, Stalin had emerged as the dominant leader of the Soviet Union, a development that profoundly shaped the country’s political system and global history for decades.
#archaeohistories— https://x.com/archeohistories/status/2033453590564540702
— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) Mar 16, 2026
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