evik party under Vladimir Lenin. From 1903 to 1912 Stalin was arrested, and managed to escape, several times. He was exiled to Siberia from 1913 to 1917, returning only after the fall of the Tsar. With the fall of the Tzar and the country in the hands of the revolutionaries Stalin believed it to be the perfect time to come back and renew his political ambitions. Stalin was appointed Commissar of Nationalities after the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917. After Lenin's death in 1924 the country was ruled by a triumvirate consisting of Stalin, G. E. Zinoviev and L. B. Kamenev. From this point on Stalin simply concentrated more and more power into his own hands. In 1925 Stalin made a turn to the right, got rid of his two companions and established a coalition with moderate leaders Burkharin, Rykov, and Tomsky, which lasted until 1928, when collectivization of agriculture and the forced industrialization came about. Stalin now followed a simple pattern, he simply systematically replaced all those who were not his absolute followers. By 1930 his rule was absolute. Stalin was now free to go ahead and pursue his plans to industrialize and arm the Soviet Union. The only other obstacle in his path was the army leadership. Stalin viewed the army as a threat to his power and took steps to remove that threat. He organized all of his followers to delve into the lives of the military leadership and find out if they were traitors. Many of Stalin's followers used this as a way of getting back at old rivals and enemies. All kinds of false evidence was manufactured. Stalin took all of this at face value and a great number of the army leadership was either killed or exiled. There were also several show trials put on to demonstrate to the Soviet people that all of the killing was being done for a reason and that there really were conspirators and spies among them. Several accused openly confessed to active membership of a plot to murder the Soviet leadership...
