Editing Lenin's Testament (section)

==Background==

{{Multiple image
| total_width       = 350
| image1            = Lenin in 1920 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Lenin in 1920|upright=0.80
| image2            = Trotsky Profile.jpg|Trotsky_Profile
| footer            = Lenin and Trotsky (both photographed in 1920) were viewed as the leading figures in the [[Lenin's First and Second Government|first Soviet government]]
}}

Lenin was seriously ill by the latter half of 1921,{{sfnm|1a1=Shub|1y=1966|1p=426|2a1=Lewin|2y=1969|2p=33|3a1=Rice|3y=1990|3p=187|4a1=Volkogonov|4y=1994|4p=409|5a1=Service|5y=2000|5p=435}} experiencing [[hyperacusis]], [[insomnia]], and regular headaches.{{sfnm|1a1=Shub|1y=1966|1p=426|2a1=Rice|2y=1990|2p=187|3a1=Service|3y=2000|3p=435}} At the Politburo's insistence, in July he left Moscow for a month's leave at his Gorki mansion, where he was cared for by his wife and sister.{{sfnm|1a1=Service|1y=2000|1p=436|2a1=Read|2y=2005|2p=281|3a1=Rice|3y=1990|3p=187}} Lenin began to contemplate the possibility of suicide, asking both Krupskaya and Stalin to acquire [[potassium cyanide]] for him.{{sfnm|1a1=Volkogonov|1y=1994|1pp=420, 425–426|2a1=Service|2y=2000|2p=439|3a1=Read|3y=2005|3pp=280, 282}} Twenty-six physicians were hired to help Lenin during his final years; many of them were foreign and had been hired at great expense.{{sfnm|1a1=Volkogonov|1y=1994|1p=443|2a1=Service|2y=2000|2p=437}} Some suggested that his sickness could have been caused by metal [[oxidation]] from the [[bullet]]s that were lodged in his body from the 1918 assassination attempt; in April 1922 he underwent a surgical operation to remove them.{{sfnm|1a1=Fischer|1y=1964|1pp=598–599|2a1=Shub|2y=1966|2p=426|3a1=Service|3y=2000|3p=443|4a1=White|4y=2001|4p=172|5a1=Read|5y=2005|5p=258}} The symptoms continued after this, with Lenin's doctors unsure of the cause; some suggested that he had [[neurasthenia]] or [[cerebral arteriosclerosis]]. In May 1922, he had his first stroke, temporarily losing his ability to speak and being paralysed on his right side.{{sfnm|1a1=Fischer|1y=1964|1p=600|2a1=Shub|2y=1966|2pp=426–427|3a1=Lewin|3y=1969|3p=33|4a1=Service|4y=2000|4p=443|5a1=White|5y=2001|5p=173|6a1=Read|6y=2005|6p=258}} He convalesced at Gorki, and had largely recovered by July.{{sfnm|1a1=Shub|1y=1966|1pp=427–428|2a1=Service|2y=2000|2p=446}} In October, he returned to Moscow; in December, he had a second stroke and returned to Gorki.{{sfnm|1a1=Fischer|1y=1964|1p=634|2a1=Shub|2y=1966|2pp=431–432|3a1=Lewin|3y=1969|3pp=33–34|4a1=White|4y=2001|4p=173}}

In Lenin's absence, Stalin had begun consolidating his power both by appointing his supporters to prominent positions,{{sfnm|1a1=Shub|1y=1966|1pp=426, 434|2a1=Lewin|2y=1969|2pp=34–35}} and by cultivating an image of himself as Lenin's closest intimate and deserving successor.{{sfn|Volkogonov|1994|pp=263–264}} In December 1922, Stalin took responsibility for Lenin's regimen, being tasked by the Politburo with controlling who had access to him.{{sfnm|1a1=Lewin|1y=1969|1p=70|2a1=Rice|2y=1990|2p=191|3a1=Volkogonov|3y=1994|3pp=273, 416}}

Lenin was increasingly critical of Stalin; while Lenin was insisting that the state should retain its monopoly on international trade during mid-1922, Stalin was leading other Bolsheviks in unsuccessfully opposing this.{{sfnm|1a1=Fischer|1y=1964|1p=635|2a1=Lewin|2y=1969|2pp=35–40|3a1=Service|3y=2000|3pp=451–452|4a1=White|4y=2001|4p=173}} There were personal arguments between the two as well; Stalin had upset Krupskaya by shouting at her during a phone conversation, which in turn greatly angered Lenin, who sent Stalin a letter expressing his annoyance.{{sfnm|1a1=Fischer|1y=1964|1pp=637–638, 669|2a1=Shub|2y=1966|2pp=435–436|3a1=Lewin|3y=1969|3pp=71, 85, 101|4a1=Volkogonov|4y=1994|4pp=273–274, 422–423|5a1=Service|5y=2000|5pp=463, 472–473|6a1=White|6y=2001|6pp=173, 176|7a1=Read|7y=2005|7p=279}}

Lenin also threatened to break relations with Stalin in a letter, written in March 1923, after learning of his rudeness towards his wife.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lenin: 813. TO COMRADE STALIN |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1923/mar/05.htm |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=1992 |publisher=Mehring Books |page=112}}</ref> Lenin had also expressed strong criticism of the [[Rabkrin|People's Commissariat of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection]] which had been overseen by Stalin from 1920 until 1922. He stated: "Everybody knows that no other institutions are worse organised than those of our Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection, and that under present conditions nothing can be expected from this People's Commissariat".<ref>{{cite web |title=Better Fewer, But Better |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1923/mar/02.htm |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |page=78 |language=en}}</ref> Trotsky had also attempted to publish Lenin's criticisms of the Rabkrin for several weeks but the Politburo, under the control of the triumvirate, refused.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |page=605 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YGznDwAAQBAJ&q=isaac+deutscher+trotsky+the+prophet |language=en}}</ref>

Conversely, Lenin expressed hostility to the initial attempts by the [[triumvirate]] to remove Trotsky from the leadership. In a 1922 memo written to Kamenev, he chastised the efforts by the Central Committee to "throw Trotsky overboard" as the "height of stupidity. If you do not consider me already hopelessly foolish, how can you think of that?".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Swain |first1=Geoffrey |title=Trotsky and the Russian Revolution |date=24 February 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-81278-4 |page=89 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_a3pAgAAQBAJ&dq=to+throw+trotsky+overboard+lenin&pg=PA89 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |page=57 |language=en}}</ref>

Various historians have cited Lenin's proposal to appoint Trotsky as a [[Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union|Vice-chairman of Soviet of People's Comissaries of the Soviet Union]] as evidence that he intended Trotsky to be his successor as [[head of government]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Danilov |first1=Victor |last2=Porter |first2=Cathy |title=We Are Starting to Learn about Trotsky |journal=History Workshop |date=1990 |issue=29 |pages=136–146 |jstor=4288968 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4288968 |issn=0309-2984}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |page=438 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC&dq=Victor+Danilov+Trotsky&pg=PA438 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bullock |first1=Alan |title=Hitler and Stalin : parallel lives |date=1991 |publisher=London : HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-00-215494-9 |page=163 |url=https://archive.org/details/hitlerstalinpara0000bull/page/132/mode/2up}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The prophet unarmed: Trotsky, 1921-1929 |date=1965 |publisher=New York, Vintage Books |isbn=978-0-394-70747-1 |page=135 |url=https://archive.org/details/prophetunarmed00isaa/page/134/mode/2up?q=promote+rykov+}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Dziewanowski |first1=M. K. |title=Russia in the twentieth century |date=2003 |publisher=Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Prentice Hall |isbn=978-0-13-097852-3 |page=162 |url=https://archive.org/details/russiaintwentiet0000dzie/page/162/mode/1up?view=theater}}</ref><ref>“Trotsky could have become the number two man in the government, with full official status, but he stubbornly refused the post of Lenin’s deputy. When he decided to fight, to appeal to the “party rank and file”, the train had already left”.{{cite book |last1=Antonov-Ovseenko |first1=Anton |title=The time of Stalin--portrait of a tyranny |date=1983 |publisher=New York : Harper & Row |isbn=978-0-06-039027-3 |page=24 |url=https://archive.org/details/timeofstalinport00anto/page/24/mode/2up?q=swearing}}</ref> He had been expected to assume responsibility over the [[Supreme Soviet of the National Economy|Council of National Economy]] or [[Gosplan]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Getty |first1=J. Arch |title=Practicing Stalinism: Bolsheviks, Boyars, and the Persistence of Tradition |date=27 August 2013 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-16929-4 |page=53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RaYzAAAAQBAJ&dq=Lenin+Trotsky+chairman+gosplan+1923&pg=PA53 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Douds |first1=Lara |title=Inside Lenin's Government: Ideology, Power and Practice in the Early Soviet State |date=22 August 2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-350-12649-7 |page=165 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yf5aEAAAQBAJ&dq=on+lenin%27s+initiative+trotsky+deputy&pg=PA165 |language=en}}</ref> Prior to the introduction of the factional [[Ban on factions in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|ban in 1921]], due to intra-party controversies and the wider conflict of the Civil War, Trotsky had a considerable following among the party activists and members of the Central Committee against the narrow majority supporting Lenin. His supporters also controlled the newly established [[Orgburo]] and the [[Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Party Secretariat]] before the appointment of Stalin as General Secretary.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=162 |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Reiman|first1=Michal |title=Trotsky and the struggle for "Lenin's heritage". Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |pages=42–52}}</ref> According to historian [[Sheila Fitzpatrick]],  Trotsky would have been the likely successor to Lenin had he assumed the position of first deputy at [[Sovnarkom]] and this position would have given him an institutional base against Stalin's base in the party.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fitzpatrick |first1=Sheila |title=The Old Man |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n08/sheila-fitzpatrick/the-old-man |journal=London Review of Books |language=en |date=22 April 2010|volume=32 |issue=8 }}</ref>

In 1922, Lenin allied with Leon Trotsky against the party's growing [[Nomenklatura|bureaucratisation]] and the influence of Joseph Stalin.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mccauley |first1=Martin |title=The Soviet Union 1917-1991 |date=4 February 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-90179-2 |page=59 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7cbKAgAAQBAJ&dq=the+soviet+union+1917+1991+lenin+trotsky+bloc+1922&pg=PA59 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky 1921-1929 |date=2003 |publisher=Verso |isbn=978-1-85984-446-5 |page=63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mgubj5z1XUcC&dq=lenin+trotsky+bloc+1922+stalin&pg=PA63 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kort |first1=Michael G. |title=The Soviet Colossus: History and Aftermath |date=18 May 2015 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0-7656-2845-9 |page=166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BHaWGEZA5zMC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Volkogonov |first1=Dmitriĭ Antonovich |title=Trotsky: The Eternal Revolutionary |date=1996 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-00-255272-1 |page=242 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FdqOQgAACAAJ |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=V.L.Lenin |title="To L. D. Trotsky", 13 December 1922 |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/dec/21.htm}}</ref> All evidence suggests that Lenin spent the winter of 1923 preparing to launch an attack on Stalin during the [[12th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)|Twelfth Party Congress]] and had approached Trotsky to take on responsibility for the Georgian Affair.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Khlevniuk |first1=Oleg V. |title=Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator |date=19 May 2015 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-16694-1 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dy7CCAAAQBAJ&dq=attack+stalin+at+the+twelfth+party+congress&pg=PA72 |language=en}}</ref> Lenin had also encouraged Trotsky in his absence to challenge Stalin at the Twelfth Party Congress over his methods in managing Georgian Bolsheviks.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Patenaude |first1=Betrand |title="Trotsky and Trotskyism" in The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 1, World Revolution and Socialism in One Country 1917–1941 |date=21 September 2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-21041-6 |page=199 |language=en}}</ref>

During December 1922 and January 1923, Lenin dictated "Lenin's Testament", in which he discussed the personal qualities of his comrades, particularly Trotsky and Stalin.{{sfnm|1a1=Fischer|1y=1964|1pp=638–639|2a1=Shub|2y=1966|2p=433|3a1=Lewin|3y=1969|3pp=73–75|4a1=Volkogonov|4y=1994|4p=417|5a1=Service|5y=2000|5p=464|6a1=White|6y=2001|6pp=173–174}} An early, typed version of the testament, which was based on the shorthand notes, was burned by Lenin's secretary, Mariya Volodicheva on the orders of Stalin.<ref>{{cite book |title=Lenin and His Comrades: The Bolsheviks Take Over Russia 1917-1924 |date=26 October 2010 |publisher=Enigma Books |isbn=978-1-936274-15-4 |page=230 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xlHrXDnmOeQC&dq=Volodicheva+testament+burned&pg=PA230 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Service |first1=Robert |title=Lenin: A Biography |date=2000 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-00828-1 |page=467 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=frDGHIxc4EUC&dq=Volodicheva+testament+burned&pg=PA467 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Read |first1=Christopher |title=Lenin: A Revolutionary Life |date=11 January 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-62471-3 |page=280 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UNkev4PJX5AC&dq=Volodicheva+testament+burned&pg=PA280 |language=en}}</ref> However, four other copies of the testament were stored in a safe.<ref>{{cite book |last1=White |first1=James D. |title=Lenin: The Practice and Theory of Revolution |date=14 March 2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-333-98537-3 |page=174 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_JNKEAAAQBAJ&dq=Volodicheva+testament+burned&pg=PA174 |language=en}}</ref>