Question

How was Joseph Stalin different from Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin?

Answer 1

Joseph Stalin was a strong, ambitious, brutal, and practical state-man, a man of action and politics. Stalin, born under the name of Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, of Georgian and poor origin, was raised as a street boy by a drunken and violent father. He forged a strong character and a corpulent body, without a very persuasive speech, although a very clever mind. He was patient and reflexive, very smart for politics. Stalin wanted very well trained and disciplined revolutionary professionals, a body of bureaucrats for the Soviet Union.

Lev Trotsky was totally the opposite. Born under the name of Lev Davidovich Bronstein, son of wealthy landowner Jewish parents, he developed a distinguished and very well educated character, he was elegant, but also fanatic enough to lead the masses. Unlike Stalin, he was not only a politician but also a Marxist intellectual and was less methodic and patient than Stalin. Trotsky wanted a not very well organized party of masses and the triumph of the permanent revolution. He wanted to export the revolution worldwide and not keep it limited to one country only.

Vladimir Lenin, born under the name of Vladimir Ilich Ulianov, was in the middle between both characters. He was the basis of the Russian Revolution. He had brilliant political intelligence and ambition, and he was a Marxist intellectual as well. After his death in 1924, the movement was divided between Trotsky and Stalin, and finally, the Soviet Union was lead by Stalin who sent Trotsky to exile. Trotsky died in 1949, killed by spies sent by Stalin to Mexico, where Trotsky was exiled.