I HOME I CHRONICLE I INTERACTIVE I SEARCH I---Themes: I Societies Main I South Africa I Russia I Japan I

When Lenin died in 1924, Josef Stalin succeeded him as leader of the Soviet Union. Other contenders for the leadership were Trotsky, leader of the Red Army, and two senior members of the Communist Party. While Trotsky’s goal was to spread the revolution across the world, a policy called internationalism, Stalin wanted to secure the revolution in Russia first, termed "socialism in one country". The Party Congress supported Stalin and by 1927 Trotsky and his supporters had been thrown out of the Party and exiled abroad.