Stalin kicked from the party

In 1922, Lenin was in semi-retirement due to stroke. At the end of the year, he wrote a testament that was to be read out at the 1923 party congress, however, following his stroke that year, his wife held it in secret, hoping for Lenin's recovery, however, when he did not recover, his widow wished that the testament be read out in the 1924 congress.
The testament was a criticism of a number of party members, the most prominent of these being Stalin, the general-secretary of the party, and Trotsky, Stalin's major opponent in the vie for control of the country.
In Lenin's testament, Lenin asked for the removal of Stalin from his position and the instatement of someone else. However, this wasn't to happen, as Stalin's triumvirate (Stalin, Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev) managed to successfully compromise the reading Lenin's testament, thus, it did not had the effect that Lenin wanted, and Stalin retained his position as general-secretary, and in the ensuring years, take control of the Soviet Union.
What if, however, Lenin's last testament led to Stalin's downfall from his political position, who would replace him, and who would lead the Soviet Union in the ensuring years?
 
Cool

I'm actually reading a biography of Stalin and I'm reading a chapter dealing with this exact issue...cool.

Anyway, Trotsky had the most to gain from Lenin's final testament but he made a couple errors. First, he missed Lenin's funeral and second, they had a party congress shortly afterwards and he failed to use the testament at that time. When he did finally bring it up Stalin and the triumvirate were in a position to block it being read.

Trotsky missed many opportunities to grab power because he underestimated Stalin.

I think if he pressed the reading of the testament when it could still enefit him he may have won the day. Got totally outmaneuvered by Uncle Joe.
 
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