Trotsky, Lenin's brilliant accomplice and civil war hero, seemed the natural replacement. ... More importantly, he was solely responsible for appointing and firing new members. ... This power was further enhanced during the "Lenin Enrolment" (1924- 26) when the party bureaucracy gained 300,000 new members, all appointed by the Secretariat under Stalin's control. ... As Stalin controlled the party machinery, he would always win the propaganda war that followed. By disregarding Marx and Lenin, Stalin was able to disgrace Trotsky in the eyes of the Russian people, and would later have h...

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