That might be true in broad strokes, but Stalin was an exceptionally brutal and stupid individual. Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin, all, I think, were on a very authoritarian road, but Stalin’s autocracy was probably the worst of the lot. A caricature of a strongman.
Yeah, the vibe I always got was that Stalin wanted power first and foremost, whereas Lenin and Trotsky were hardened revolutionaries convinced that what they were doing was absolutely necessary for the success of communism.
Ultimately, none of them lived long or openly enough to know for certain. But yeah the revolution died at krohnstadt.
IMO the Russian revolution was dead on arrival. Russia under the Bolsheviks was always going to be a one-party authoritarian state, and all other major political factions were self-sabotaging clowns who were too disconnected from what the people wanted. As easy as it is to blame the Bolsheviks for killing the revolution, it took everyone, including the people of Russia themselves, collectively dropping the ball for that shitshow to happen.
whereas Lenin and Trotsky were hardened revolutionaries convinced that what they were doing was absolutely necessary for the success of communism.
Lenin instituted NEP before his brain rotting due to progressing syphilis. So - Lenin at least was capable of changing his mind.
Trotsky - it’s complex, his ideology is in theory as far from vegetarian as Stalin’s, but it involved wide participation and equality. Not what Stalin’s regime did.
I think Trotsky wouldn’t have built heavy industries at the cost of hunger and repressions. I’m not sure what the implications of that would be for WWII (would it even happen if what Germans saw to the East weren’t Stalin’s “imperial” USSR, but Trotsky’s “Bolshevik republic aiming for spreading the revolution and unification of mankind and all that”?).
Soviet attempts at reforms during the Thaw were in “vibes” (what people involved talked about publicly and in diaries\memoirs, the action taken) similar to Trotsky’s ideas.
Stalin’s regime was notoriously bloody and cruel, just saying “Trotsky would have done the same” doesn’t deliver IMHO. One can call him the person responsible for the “military communism” policies, but it’s in the name. Maybe peacetime policies would be different.
That might be true in broad strokes, but Stalin was an exceptionally brutal and stupid individual. Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin, all, I think, were on a very authoritarian road, but Stalin’s autocracy was probably the worst of the lot. A caricature of a strongman.
Yeah, the vibe I always got was that Stalin wanted power first and foremost, whereas Lenin and Trotsky were hardened revolutionaries convinced that what they were doing was absolutely necessary for the success of communism.
Ultimately, none of them lived long or openly enough to know for certain. But yeah the revolution died at krohnstadt.
IMO the Russian revolution was dead on arrival. Russia under the Bolsheviks was always going to be a one-party authoritarian state, and all other major political factions were self-sabotaging clowns who were too disconnected from what the people wanted. As easy as it is to blame the Bolsheviks for killing the revolution, it took everyone, including the people of Russia themselves, collectively dropping the ball for that shitshow to happen.
Lenin instituted NEP before his brain rotting due to progressing syphilis. So - Lenin at least was capable of changing his mind.
Trotsky - it’s complex, his ideology is in theory as far from vegetarian as Stalin’s, but it involved wide participation and equality. Not what Stalin’s regime did.
I think Trotsky wouldn’t have built heavy industries at the cost of hunger and repressions. I’m not sure what the implications of that would be for WWII (would it even happen if what Germans saw to the East weren’t Stalin’s “imperial” USSR, but Trotsky’s “Bolshevik republic aiming for spreading the revolution and unification of mankind and all that”?).
Soviet attempts at reforms during the Thaw were in “vibes” (what people involved talked about publicly and in diaries\memoirs, the action taken) similar to Trotsky’s ideas.
Stalin’s regime was notoriously bloody and cruel, just saying “Trotsky would have done the same” doesn’t deliver IMHO. One can call him the person responsible for the “military communism” policies, but it’s in the name. Maybe peacetime policies would be different.