Red Icepick
21st October 2009, 22:29
Alright, lets say that Trotsky succeeded Lenin instead of Stalin. Can the Soviet Union under Trotsky's leadership win the Great Patriotic War? Give your answer and discuss.
I'm certainly saying NO myself. Without Stalin's rapid industrialization and his consolidation of Socialism in One Country, the USSR would have been doomed. The Red Army was unbeatable under Stalin and his generals. Zhukov, Konev, Rokossovsky, Chikov, Lelyushenko, and Rybalko were giants who rose to command after Stalin purged the moribund, Tsarist era generals who had no new ideas. If Trotsky was left constantly trying to start his world revolution while leaving the people already under the Red Banner in a lurch, Hitler probably would have overran Poland AND the USSR without even stopping. The bulk of the population would have been deported. He wasn't pragmatic enough to have pulled off receiving all the aid from the liberal western states either. Churchill probably wouldn't have had a problem calling him an Ally, but Roosevelt, who enjoyed and respected Stalin, probably would have spit on Trotsky as opposed to providing Studebakers, Jeeps, and Spam.
In short, the Fascist invasion of the Soviet Union presented an incredible challenge, almost unparalled in history, that would have destroyed most peoples of the globe. Only Comrade Stalin was able to pull it off. If the Trotskyites were left to run that war, the Russian people would have been nothing but ashes and blood smeared snow.
Anyhow, state your case.
I'm certainly saying NO myself. Without Stalin's rapid industrialization and his consolidation of Socialism in One Country, the USSR would have been doomed. The Red Army was unbeatable under Stalin and his generals. Zhukov, Konev, Rokossovsky, Chikov, Lelyushenko, and Rybalko were giants who rose to command after Stalin purged the moribund, Tsarist era generals who had no new ideas. If Trotsky was left constantly trying to start his world revolution while leaving the people already under the Red Banner in a lurch, Hitler probably would have overran Poland AND the USSR without even stopping. The bulk of the population would have been deported. He wasn't pragmatic enough to have pulled off receiving all the aid from the liberal western states either. Churchill probably wouldn't have had a problem calling him an Ally, but Roosevelt, who enjoyed and respected Stalin, probably would have spit on Trotsky as opposed to providing Studebakers, Jeeps, and Spam.
In short, the Fascist invasion of the Soviet Union presented an incredible challenge, almost unparalled in history, that would have destroyed most peoples of the globe. Only Comrade Stalin was able to pull it off. If the Trotskyites were left to run that war, the Russian people would have been nothing but ashes and blood smeared snow.
Anyhow, state your case.