How Convincing Is The View That Stalin Simply Took Lenin’s Policies To Their Logical Extent?

Throughout the Communist period in Russia, Lenin was always regarded as almost a Saint. Upon his death, his body was kept in a public tomb on Red Square, and his reputation remained unblemished right up to the time when Communism fell and it was once again legal to criticise the country’s leaders. Stalin however, was regarded as evil incarnate, perverting true communism through his mad paranoia into a totalitarian police state. Whilst it is true that Stalin was certainly a harsh leader, there is also evidence suggesting that Stalinism had it’s roots in Leninism.


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their policy towards each other.
Paragraph - Stalin said he was Lenin’s pupil

Although Stalin portrayed himself as the loyal disciple of Lenin, using his funeral to enforce this, Lenin himself was shown to be very worried about the rise of Stalin to positions of power within the party. Although near to his death in December 1922, Lenin dictated his Testament which was intended to be read at the Twelfth ...