Talk:Timeline (Lenin's Testament)

I studied Soviet history extensively in college (and the world warsI). I would recommend a lot of wikipedia reading obviously, because I'm just an internet guy on here, but I can mention a bunch of things someone writing something like this could look into.

1. Bukharin, who I see is supposed to replace Lenin, was quite young and had a political stance that was criticized by Lenin. (He was ultra-left, before later moving to head the right under NEP). Zinoviev and Kamenev were the big power players besides Lenin and Trotsky, and in real life Stalin did not succeed Lenin but operated in an alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev known as the Troika. He took consolidated power over a few years through the bureacracy. The troika in fact fought Trotsky, who was seen as Lenin's obvious successor by many. By the time Stalin gained enough power, Zinoviev and Kamenev joined Trotsky in a unified opposition in 1926-27, by by then it was far too late. Bukharin remained an ally of Stalin for a few more years before he too was suppressed and then purged.

A lot of "important" people in the USSR during Stalins period depended on Stalin and the elimination of earlier figures. A lot of those figures were killed in real life in the 1930s. The factions in the 20s are very important, because they would have endured no matter who was in charge unless Stalin did what he did. The right of the party is characterized by figures such as Tomsky, the left of the party changed all the time, and was different before and after Lenin. The "Center," so-called, was actually the fairly unpolitical bureacracy, which usually supported current policies such as the NEP. Stalin was its representative in the party hierarchy.

2. The following alternative plans were posed in the 20s.... Trotsky (end NEP slowly and gradually transition into statified economy without traumatic changes, obviously would not have destroyed military command he had built or suppressed foreign revolutionary activity or foreign trade).... Bukharin and/or other right figures.... at times advocates continuing NEP indefinately, and keeping the USSR as a state capitalist country which very slowly developed. Stalin supported the right line until shifting suddenly around 1930, when he violently shifted the economy into full statification in a short number of years. The costs were high and methods brutal, but he relatively succeeded. A big element was the "Socialism in one country" policy, which mean't ambilivent positions on other revolutions, including Spain '34-37, China '27, etc, and signing of opportunist deals that hurt the USSR's image. The purges had an incalculable cultural and political effect. The lights of Soviet culture, science and politics were shut up. Even noted scientists such as Vygotsky were not allowed to publish. In the 40s, Stalin created a pseudo-science opposing the theory of evolution to justify agricultural policies. Yearbuilt1938 (talk) 04:52, February 15, 2015 (UTC)