Under these circumstances, Lenin, who had a well-developed instinct for political self-preservation, allowed his steadfast principles a generous bend. In 1921–1922, Leninist socialism was replaced by the Leninist NEP (New Economic Policy). Many aspects of the Soviet economy reverted to their state before the Bolshevik revolution. The lion’s share of the economy remained under state control, but certain market activities were allowed. The use of money was restored. Peasants were allowed to sell their produce after paying taxes to the state. Private small industry and trade were returned to private ownership (the entrepreneurs who ran small businesses were called “Nepmen”). Despised capitalism came to the Bolsheviks’ rescue, saving their country and their hold on power. Thanks to the NEP, the USSR came back from the brink of disaster in just a few years. But before the recovery could be felt, the horrific famine of 1921–1922, a direct outcome of the Civil War, took millions of lives.
Such was the backdrop to Stalin’s life during the lead-up to the death of his teacher, Lenin. The historical record does not offer evidence of any active involvement by Stalin in discussing or deciding key problems in the transition to the NEP. He followed the political course set by Lenin and was a loyal and true comrade. Lenin undoubtedly valued this loyalty. But after the Civil War, Stalin’s political prominence was hardly guaranteed. Simply being a member of the Politburo assured him a certain degree of power. But in the Soviet party-political system, the degree of power a leader actually exercised was directly tied to the influence of the government agency he headed. From this standpoint, Stalin was in danger of becoming a second-tier functionary.
The conclusion of the war found Stalin running two agencies: the nationalities commissariat and the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate. Neither had meaningful levers of power or more than limited lobbying potential. At a closed meeting, Stalin himself characterized the nationalities commissariat as serving a purely “agitation” purpose without any “administrative rights.”46 He spent very little time at this agency. In November 1921 he submitted his resignation from it to the Politburo, but it was not accepted.47 He did everything he could to abolish the commissariat, and in 1923 he finally succeeded. Even earlier, in 1922, he had managed to shed his duties with the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate. He exchanged these undesirable posts for one that was much more appealing: running the Central Committee apparat. This position moved him into the upper echelons of the leadership.
What brought about this turning point in Stalin’s political career was not only his talents and energy, but also a heated battle within the Soviet leadership. The central conflict was between Lenin and Trotsky, but smaller clashes reverberated all around them. Trotsky was the only top Bolshevik who could rightfully claim to be a leader in his own right, not just a follower of Lenin. His role was more that of a partner and ally in revolution, and he behaved accordingly, earning himself a following within the party. At the end of 1920, Lenin realized that a significant portion of party functionaries, including some within the Central Committee apparat, supported Trotsky. Lenin had to respond to this challenge to his primacy. At the Tenth Party Congress in early 1921, after intense maneuvering and considerable use of his authority, Lenin made sure that his followers received a majority of votes. This outcome determined who would be chosen to run the top party organizations, and many Trotsky followers were removed from their posts. Stalin was one of Lenin’s key allies in this struggle. Given Lenin’s declining health, such cooperation took on new importance. Beginning in mid-1921, he was increasingly plagued by symptoms of severe cerebral arteriosclerosis. Headaches, fatigue, episodes of paralysis, and impaired speech and cognition forced him to take extended vacations.
Lenin’s illness and clash with Trotsky, along with the reshuffling of party personnel, all helped Stalin play an increasingly important role in party affairs. In early 1922, this role was formalized when Stalin was appointed to the newly created post of general secretary of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (of Bolsheviks)—TsK RKP(b). The job of the general secretary included overseeing the Central Committee apparat and its “leading structures”—the bureaucratic machine that carried out the will of the party. Two duties deserve particular mention: setting the agenda for Politburo meetings and deciding personnel matters. Countless mid-level functionaries now depended on Stalin for their careers.
For Stalin, the running of the party apparat was not a burden. His previous party experience and his personality made him well suited for this position. Later, even as dictator, Stalin seemed to enjoy routine bureaucratic work. Upon taking up the post of general secretary, he began to reorganize the work of the Politburo. On 31 August 1922 he announced at a Politburo meeting that certain institutions were tardy in submitting materials for consideration. A resolution was adopted to “not place any matter before the Politburo unless materials are submitted by four o’clock the previous day.”48 A few weeks later, the rule became even stricter: the deadline was pushed back to noon.49 Through these petty decisions Stalin was gradually, and with increasing confidence, shaping how the party apparat was run.
Some interesting accounts survive of how this tendency was perceived within the apparat. Stalin’s assistant, Amaiak Nazaretian, regularly corresponded with Sergo Ordzhonikidze, Stalin’s old friend who was working in Transcaucasia in the early 1920s.50 This correspondence has been preserved in Ordzhonikidze’s archive. In the letters written during the summer of 1922, Nazaretian described his work under Stalin:
Am I happy with my job? Yes and no. On one hand, I’m getting quite an education here, I know what’s going on in international and Russian life, and I’m being schooled in discipline, developing precision in my job.… On the other, this work is purely paper pushing, painstaking, not very satisfying from a subjective standpoint; it’s menial work that takes such tremendous amounts of time that you can’t sneeze or squirm, especially under Koba’s firm hand. Do we get along? We do.… You can learn a lot from him. Now that I’ve gotten to know him, I have extraordinary respect for him.… Under his stern demeanor is an attentiveness to those he works with. We’re creating order in the TsK.
Koba has really got me trained.… He’s really cunning. Hard as a nut, it takes a while to understand what he’s up to.… Despite his well-reasoned savagery of temperament, if I can put it that way, he is soft, he has a heart, and he knows how to appreciate people’s dignity.… Now, the work of the TsK has really changed. What we found here was indescribably awful. Now we’ve shaken things up.51
Nazaretian felt Stalin was tremendously significant: “Ilyich has fully recovered.… Yesterday, Koba went to see him. He has to keep a watchful eye over Ilyich and all of Mother Russia”; “Ilyich undoubtedly has a trusty Cerberus in him, fearlessly standing guard at the gates of the TsK RKP.”52 Nazaretian’s letters provide important details on how Stalin was perceived within the Bolshevik bureaucratic community. In Moscow, according to Nazaretian, an expression came into fashion: “to be going under Stalin.” This referred to officials who had been summoned to Moscow from their previous posts but had not yet been assigned new jobs and were “hanging, so to speak, in the air.”53