Page 58 - All About History - Issue 34-16

What if…

Trotsky had

come to power?

USSR, 1924

Written by Jack Griffiths

oseph Stalin emerged strongest in the power more moderate cause in the anti-fascist alliance. on the Kremlin after the war’s end. “After the war,
vacuum left by Lenin’s death in the USSR. Having said that, Trotsky took a more moderate a challenge would have come to Trotsky from his
However, if fellow Politburo member Leon view when he was in power after the revolution generals, so the military may have moved against
Trotsky had risen to power, things could than he did when he was in opposition.” him. Trotsky may not have been as successful as
J have been very different. Professor Geoffrey As war dawned, Trotsky, who didn’t suffer from Stalin in getting the power back from the military
Roberts believes the state would have still been the same insecurities that plagued Stalin, wouldn’t and to the party. He could have won the war but
under authoritarian rule, as this would have been have purged the Red Army. Roberts sees this as then been replaced by one of his generals.” Rather
required to maintain the communist grip on power. a possible handicap, as under Stalin, “Mikhail than a military dictatorship developing, the USSR
“He would have been a more moderate dictator, but Tukhachevsky and his allies were replaced by is liberalised; having profound effects on the
there would have been a cult of Trotsky to bind the generals who were younger, dynamic and more upcoming Cold War and the rise of Mao in China.
country together, ensuring loyalty to the system.” technically advanced.” Leadership wise, Trotsky Whatever happens, Trotsky is left to reflect as the
The Trotsky-led USSR weathers the storm and Stalin may well have been similar. “They both Red Army marches on the Kremlin.
of the 1920s and 1930s using “the same brutal believed in a highly centralised military leadership,
terroristic measures as Stalin, but maybe not advocated a disciplinary regime and were prepared PROFESSOR GEOFFREY ROBERTS
quite as extreme.” Trotsky sees the use of Stalin to use terror tactics to impose their will. However,
Historian, biographer and political
as an ally, but also fears his influence in equal I do think Stalin would have been better. He was
commentator, Geoffrey Roberts is
measure. To appease him, he is made a deputy a much more personable character. Trotsky was professor of history at University College
to General Secretary Trotsky and plays the role more aloof – a bit cold.” Cork, Ireland, and has written books
on the USSR in World War II, the Soviet
that Vyacheslav Molotov did in the 1939 pact The USSR wins the war, but in the first few role in world politics and the Battle of
with Joachim von Ribbentrop and Nazi Germany. years of the conflict, negativity towards Trotsky Stalingrad. He is the author of a trilogy
Regarding the Third Reich, Trotsky and Stalin grows. Stalin sees an opportunity to assert his of books on prominent Soviet leaders: Stalin’s Wars: From
World War To Cold War, 1939-1953 (2006); Molotov: Stalin’s
would have acted in a similar way: “Both Stalin authority but Trotsky senses the threat and Cold Warrior (2012); and Stalin’s General: The Life Of Georgy
and Trotsky perceived the threat that Hitler and banishes him from the Soviet Union for life. Zhukov (2012). Professor Roberts is a frequent contributor
to Irish and British newspapers and to Irish, British and
the Nazis posed. Trotsky saw the solution as more However, the military are also firmly against him
Russian TV and radio programmes.
of an intense revolutionary struggle. Stalin took a and the new breed of Red Army generals march
Alternative timeline

O Death of Lenin O Rise of Trotsky O The USSR under Trotsky O The economy falters O International relations
The revolutionary leader Trotsky becomes undisputed Two years in and the Bolshevik The Soviet economy isn’t as The Soviet Union is admitted
dies. Trotsky quotes Lenin’s leader and organises Stalin, regime answers only to the cult developed as it would have to the League of Nations with
Testament as the reason he Kamenev and Zinoviev into of Trotsky in an authoritarian been under Stalin due to an Trotsky unable to get his idea
should be the new leader. The his chosen political posts, with Soviet state. Trotsky outlines his indecisive Trotsky. To silence for global communism off
majority agree. himself as general secretary of very own five-year plan for the him, Stalin is essentially put the ground. The Red Army is
21 January 1924 the Central Committee. 1924 economy. 1927 second in command. 1931 expanded with no purges. 1934
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