Why and how did Stalin rise to power during 1924-1928?.
One can almost imagine Joseph Stalin smiling at his people, happy for once in his life as people celebrated in shabby public squares around bronze majestic statues of him. The year was 1929: his fiftieth birthday. Portraits of him hung in squares and public places, his aging face beaming at his people from beyond the canvas. And yet, for each cheer of congratulation, for every smile spent in a wish, there lay a seed of fear: fear for the Iron Man, for Stalin. And for every bronze statue, for every formidable painting, there lay embedded the factor of suppression. For Stalin had become a demi-god, he had become an entity worthy of complete worship; he had become the subject of countless paintings, countless pieces of literature, forcefully bent in praise of him. But Russia's biggest grievance or biggest gain was this: he had become dictator.
Yet, Stalin's rise to power was anything but effortless; one of the most important factors being that Lenin wrote a letter about Stalin to leading party members, encouraging his expulsion. Lenin could foresee Stalin's motives. This letter, however, eventually fell into Stalin's hands, and was not heard of till after his death. From 1922 till 1929 there was a vehement struggle for power, which resulted in dueling openly in the Politburo. This struggle was fought explicitly after Stalin's death in 1924. And yet, Stalin started planning his rise to power before Lenin passed away. Stalin was a member of three very important committees: the Politburo, Orgburo, and the Secretariat. In these positions he gained supporters quietly. Furthermore, he was the party General Secretary, a position, which granted him the power to elect party-members and expel members who opposed him (as he, technically, represented the party and anything said against him was against he party according to Lenin's administrative setup, discussed in the 10th Annual Congress, 1921).
