41. Lenin’s Death and the Shift of Power¶
Core Argument¶
Following Lenin’s death, the shift of power within the Bolshevik Party was not a simple transfer of authority but a profound symptom of revolutionary decline. Trotsky argues that losing power reflects a deterioration in revolutionary ideas and mood, both within the ruling party and among the masses. The party stratum that had seized power developed its own aims, independent of the revolution’s original trajectory. A psychological transformation took hold: the apparatus grew conservative, absorbed by routine and self-interest, while international prospects dimmed. Many Bolsheviks lost their class instinct and theoretical stability, reverting to philistine attitudes. Trotsky observed this in the new ruling stratum’s gossip, drinking, and triviality, which excluded him. He identifies this as the psychological reflection of deeper social changes—a protracted “Thermidor” achieved through intrigue rather than guillotine. The baiting of the theory of permanent revolution expressed this revolt against revolutionary demands.
Lenin, from his deathbed, had planned to remove Stalin, Dzerzhinsky, and Ordzhonikidze. After his death, the opposite occurred: Dzerzhinsky headed the Supreme Economic Council, Ordzhonikidze the Central Control Commission, and Stalin gained unprecedented power, while Lenin’s ally Mdivani was imprisoned. Stalin is described as practically gifted but theoretically primitive and empirically minded, the product of a period of political backsliding. Trotsky was deliberately deceived about the date of Lenin’s funeral to prevent his return to Moscow.
Krupskaya’s letter, written days after Lenin’s death, testified that Lenin’s attitude towards Trotsky remained unchanged from their first meeting in London in 1902 until his death. Trotsky had compared Lenin to Marx in an article Lenin read shortly before dying. Trotsky saw this as confirmation that their relationship had followed a Hegelian dialectic: joint work, bitter factional struggle, then synthesis on a higher historical foundation. Despite the period of antithesis, Lenin’s support had endured.
A Central Committee delegation visited Trotsky in Sukhum to discuss war department personnel changes, but this was a farce—changes were already being made behind his back. Sklyansky was dismissed first, Stalin’s revenge for earlier defeats. Trotsky defined Stalin as “the outstanding mediocrity in the party,” arguing that Thermidor demanded mediocrities who could not see beyond their noses.
After Lenin’s death, a campaign against Trotskyism erupted. Lenin’s corpse was embalmed and used against the living Lenin and Trotsky. A 1913 letter from Trotsky criticising Lenin was disinterred from police archives and published, a political fraud Trotsky compared to the Dreyfus forgeries. Trotsky concluded that slander meets a historical demand: a period of reaction was underway, a recoil after the great effort of revolution.