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Regular version of the site

Professor Luks's Lecture "Why did Stalin win the fight for Lenin's legacy (1923-1929)?"

On June 8, 2020, the scientific Director of the IL for the Study of Russian and European Dialogue Professor Leonid Luks made an online report

The struggle for the role of Lenin's successor in the Bolshevik party began during the life of the founder of the Soviet state. However, what could this continuity mean? Lenin did not hold any office that his successor could have inherited. In the Politburo, Lenin was only the first among equals. True, Lenin also held the post of Chairman of the Sovnarkom, but this did not give him special rights within the party. The most important political decisions in the Soviet state were made not by the government, but by the party leadership. In other words, neither the Bolshevik party nor the Soviet state apparatus had a position that gave its holder special powers. Lenin's special role within the party was not related to the functions he performed, but to his personality. His successor had to have a popularity in the party that could be compared to Lenin's. Therefore, both the party and the Comintern expected at that time the appearance of a new charismatic personality who could take over both the party and the world Communist movement the role played for many years by the founder of Bolshevism. To what extent did such expectations influence the struggle for Lenin's legacy? This is one of the questions that the lecture was devoted to.