During this argument Stalin joined the Rightists, not because he believed in NEP but because they would assist him in driving Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev out of the Politburo altogether. Stalin gained the support of the Rightists, and Trotsky was slowly voted down within the party. In 1925, backed by his supporters as well as those of the Rightists, Stalin dismissed Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev. In 1928, Stalin turned on the Rightists, and argued in favour of industrialisation, and the end of NEP. By this time Stalin has gained so many supporters in the Politburo, any arguments from the Rightists were ignored. At the beginning of 1929, the three leading members of the Rightist party, Bukharin, Tomsky and Rykov resigned and Stalin was made supreme leader of the USSR.
Stalin abused the little power he had to start with in order to remove possible enemies and introduce support for himself. In 1924, at the time of Lenin's death, Stalin was the mere General Secretary of the Communist Party. At the time this seemed a position of little authority, but Stalin made the most of his situation, despite being scornfully referred to as Comrade "Card-Index". He checked the records of every party member for any traces of disloyalty, and introduced false information to some. It was these people who were the first to be dismissed on the grounds of disloyalty to the party, when Stalin had added the information to their records in the first place. As secretary, Stalin also controlled promotions and the appointments of new members. While Lenin had preferred to keep the party small and regularly dismissed people, Stalin enrolled 500,000 new members, who were to become the base of his support group. He was cruel and ruthless, purging many simply because they disagreed with him, while at the same time positioning many people throughout the party, no matter how young or inexperienced, for the sole purpose of supporting him.
