Editing Joseph Stalin (section)

=== Intra-Party struggle ===
		
		
==== Transcaucasian Debate ====
		
After the Bolsheviks overthrew the bourgeois republics of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan in the Caucasus, bourgeois nationalism persisted in resisting Soviet power. 

In July 1921 Stalin said, "Nationalism -- Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani - has shockingly increased in the Transcaucasian republics during the past few years and is an obstacle to joint effort. ... Evidently, the three years of existence of nationalist governments in Georgia (Mensheviks), in Azerbaijan (Mussavatists) and in Armenia (Dashnaks) have left their mark".<ref name=":0" />

Lenin proposed to unify these countries into one Transcaucasian Republic. The Politburo approved and the Central Committee confirmed it three times. This prevented Georgia from chauvinistic economic domination over the Caucasus, through its control of ports. It was opposed by the "Georgian deviation", which resigned in protest, and many of whom later joined Trotskyism.<ref name=":0" />

In 1922, Lenin said in regards to "the Turkestan, Caucasian, and other questions", "I don't think Comrade Preobrazhensky could suggest any better candidate than Comrade Stalin."<ref name=":0" /> 

Stalin, Cheka leader [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]], and Georgian communist Sergo Ordzhonikidze did the main work to root out the Georgian deviation.<ref name=":0" />

==== Rise to General Secretary ====
		
Lenin chose Stalin as General Secretary of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This was Stalin's most powerful position, as he was considered the most senior ranking member of the Politburo, a council of about a dozen people which would act when the Central Committee (of hundreds of people) was not in session.

"On Lenin's motion, the Plenum of the Central Committee, on April 3, 1922, elected Stalin . . . General Secretary of the Central Committee". (G. F. Aleksandrov et al (Eds.): ‘Joseph Stalin: A Short Biography'; Moscow; 1947; p. 74-75).

Historians Ian Grey, Adam Ulam and Robert McNeal concur that Lenin most likely chose Stalin for this post.<ref name=":0" />

==== "Lenin's Testament" ====
		
In December 1922, Lenin suffered a second, serious stroke and left Moscow. From then, a series of letters appeared known as "Lenin's Testament", allegedly dictated by Lenin to his nurse. In these, Lenin suddenly began to condemn Stalin as a "nationalist-socialist" and "a vulgar Great-Russian bully" and praise Trotsky and the Georgian deviation.

Lenin "wrote" (allegedly dictated a letter) to the lead Georgian deviator, Mdivani, pledging his support for the Georgian deviation, against Stalin, Dzerzhinsky and Ordzhonikidze. Trotsky around the same time proposed to support the Georgian deviation and split up the Transcaucasian republic, but the Politburo voted it down 6-1.<ref name=":0" />

It is speculated that Lenin's nurse or his wife Krupskaya (who later joined the Trotskyist opposition) ghostwrote these letters or misinformed Lenin after his stroke.<ref name=":0" />

The 13th Party Congress in 1924 did not publish these letters, but read them to a closed session with the explanation that "Lenin was ill".<ref name=":0" />

Trotsky even wrote in 1925 that Lenin had no "testament".<ref>The Real Stalin Series: Lenin's Testament. https://espressostalinist.com/the-real-stalin-series/lenins-testament/</ref> However, he later changed his tune and claimed that Lenin's Testament made him the rightful "heir" of Lenin.

The spurious "Lenin's Testament" has been repeated uncritically by Cold War propaganda (such as CIA-edited Wikipedia<ref>Wikipedia promoting the fake Lenin's Testament.
	
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin#Declining_health_and_conflict_with_Stalin:_1920%E2%80%931923</ref>) and thus distributed to the average internet "researcher" of Stalin. One of the major sources for this lie is [[Nikita Khrushchev]].<ref name=":0" />