;We would propose peace to all the belligerents…all the oppressed, and those who do not have equal rights…And we would also raise in rebellion, the Socialist proletariat of Europe against their governments. ” It was Lenin’s hope that once it had occurred in Russia, revolution could and should spread to the rest of Europe, with Communist Russia playing a leading role in the process. This was to remain a contentious issue amongst the Bolsheviks until well after Lenin’s death and was to engender a serious rift between Stalin and Trotsky, ultimately leading to the latter’s demise.The first point that needs to be made in comparing Stalin’s ideological stance to Lenin’s, is that politics did not cease after the Revolution and Stalin was also a politician. Because Lenin in life, and more so in death, acquired god-like status as the new state’s liberator, leader and saviour, his heir had to be seen to pay him the due respects. Stalin went to great lengths to be seen as a strict follower of Lenin’s ideological principles. Thus, delivering Lenin’s funeral oration he said:“We Communists are people of a special mould. We are made of special stuff. We are those who form the army of the Great Proletarian Strategist, the army of Comrade Lenin. There is nothing higher than belonging to this army…In leaving us Comrade Lenin abjured us to hold high and keep pure the great title of member of the party. We vow to thee Comrade Lenin, that we shall honourably fulfill this thy commandment.” On numerous points Stalin fully concurred with Lenin. Service remarks that as a young Bolshevik, it was reported that Stalin reacted with great enthusiasm to themes of dictatorship, terror, modernity, progress and leadership in Lenin’s writings. Once in power he stressed that the party was the institutional cornerstone of the October Revolution. This had been Lenin’s attitude...
