Lenin's Testament
Lenin's Testament is a document dictated by Vladimir Lenin in late 1922 and early 1923, during and after his suffering of multiple strokes. In the testament, Lenin proposed changes to the structure of the Soviet governing bodies; sensing his impending death, he also criticised Bolshevik leaders Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Bukharin, Pyatakov, and crucially Stalin. He warned of the possibility of a split developing in the party leadership between Trotsky and Stalin if proper measures were not taken to prevent it. In a post-script it is also suggested Joseph Stalin be removed from his position as General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party's Central Committee; Stalin suppressed the document.
Although there are some historical questions regarding the document's origins, the majority view is that the document was authored by Lenin.
Background
Lenin was seriously ill by the latter half of 1921, experiencing hyperacusis, insomnia, and regular headaches. 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, Nadezhda Krupskaya, and sister. Lenin began to contemplate the possibility of suicide, asking both Krupskaya and Stalin to acquire potassium cyanide for him. Twenty-six physicians were hired to help Lenin during his final years; many of them were foreign and had been hired at great expense. Some suggested that his sickness could have been caused by metal oxidation from the bullets that were lodged in his body from the 1918 assassination attempt; in April 1922 he underwent a surgical operation to remove them. 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. He convalesced at Gorki, and had largely recovered by July. In October, he returned to Moscow; in December, he had a second stroke and returned to Gorki.In Lenin's absence, Stalin had begun consolidating his power both by appointing his supporters to prominent positions, and by cultivating an image of himself as Lenin's closest intimate and deserving successor. In December 1922, Stalin took responsibility for Lenin's regimen, being tasked by the Politburo with controlling who had access to him.
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. 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.
Lenin also threatened to break relations with Stalin in a letter, written in March 1923, after learning of his rudeness towards his wife. Lenin had also expressed strong criticism of the 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". 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.
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?".
Various historians have cited Lenin's proposal to appoint Trotsky as a 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. He had been expected to assume responsibility over the Council of National Economy or Gosplan. Prior to the introduction of the factional 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 Party Secretariat before the appointment of Stalin as General Secretary. 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.
In 1922, Lenin allied with Leon Trotsky against the party's growing bureaucratisation and the influence of Joseph Stalin. All evidence suggests that Lenin spent the winter of 1923 preparing to launch an attack on Stalin during the Twelfth Party Congress and had approached Trotsky to take on responsibility for the Georgian Affair. Lenin had also encouraged Trotsky in his absence to challenge Stalin at the Twelfth Party Congress over his methods in managing Georgian Bolsheviks.
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. 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. However, four other copies of the testament were stored in a safe.
Document history and authenticity
Lenin wanted the testament to be read out at the 12th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to be held in April 1923. The document was originally dictated to Lenin's personal secretary, Lydia Fotiyeva. However, after Lenin's third stroke in March 1923 that left him paralyzed and unable to speak, the testament was kept secret by his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, in the hope of Lenin's eventual recovery. She possessed four copies while Maria Ulyanova, Lenin's sister, had one. It was only after Lenin's death, on January 21, 1924, that she turned the document over to the Communist Party Central Committee Secretariat and asked for it to be made available to the delegates of the 13th Party Congress in May 1924.An edited version of the testament was printed in December 1927 in a limited edition made available to 15th Party Congress delegates. The case for making the testament more widely available was undermined by the consensus within the party leadership that it could not be printed publicly as it would damage the party as a whole.
The text of the testament and the fact of its concealment soon became known in the West, especially after the circumstances surrounding the controversy were described by Max Eastman in Since Lenin Died. The full English text of Lenin's testament was published as part of an article by Eastman that appeared in The New York Times in 1926. In response to Eastman's article, Trotsky described the claim that the Central Committee concealed the testament as "pure slander". Trotsky also rejected the characterization of the document as a "will", describing the document as one of Lenin's letters providing advice on organizational matters. Trotsky would later explain his decision during the Dewey Commission hearing in 1937, in which he stated that Eastman had made the publication without his consent and pressure from the majority of the Politburo members had led him to disavow Eastman's publication.
Historian Stephen Kotkin argued that the evidence for Lenin's authorship of the Testament is weak and suggested that the Testament could have been created by Krupskaya. However, the Testament has been accepted as genuine by other historians, including E. H. Carr, Isaac Deutscher, Dmitri Volkogonov, Vadim Rogovin and Oleg Khlevniuk, and Kotkin's argument was specifically rejected by Richard Pipes. Moshe Lewin cited the document as a representation of Lenin's views and argued that “the Soviet regime underwent a long period of “Stalinism”, which in its basic features was diametrically opposed to the recommendations of the testament”.
Historian Ronald Suny wrote that Kotkin's hypothesis lacked mainstream support in a review:
"Few other scholars doubt the authorship of the document, which accurately reflected Lenin’s views, nor was it questioned at the time it was written and debated in high party circles. Kotkin’s interpretation, fascinating as it is, relies on conjecture rather than evidence".
A number of modern Russian historians, most notably Valentin Sakharov author of the book “Political testament” of V. I. Lenin" express doubts about the authorship of Lenin, affirming that Krupskaya or even Leon Trotsky could be the true author of the letter, a view which is shared by historians Vladimir Ermakov and Yuri Zhukov.
Conversely, historian Mark Edele was critical of this hypothesis and argued that Kotkin "went as far as embracing the empirically shaky thesis that Lenin’s 'Testament' was a forgery. As one of his critics pointed out, this discredited position is otherwise embraced only by Russian neo-Stalinists".
Historian Hiroaki Kuromiya has attributed claims of a forgery to Russian historian Valentin Sakharov who argued that Lenin's entourage had forged some of the documents to discredit Stalin. However, Kuromiya stated that Sakharov's claim had "generated much controversy and little consensus".
Historian Peter Kenez believed that Trotsky could probably have removed Stalin with the use of Lenin's testament but he acquiesced to the collective decision not to publish the document.
Historian Geoffrey Roberts stated that none of the Soviet figures questioned the authenticity of the document at the time. He noted that Stalin himself quoted the full passage of the testament and commented that "Indeed I am rude, Comrades, to those who rudely and perfidiously destroy and split the party. I have not hidden this, and still do not". Similarly, historian Roman Brackman stated that Krupskaya circulated copies of Lenin's testament to all the Politburo members and noted that Stalin upon reading the Lenin's testament had "exploded with obscene swearing at Lenin in the presence of Kamenev and Zinoviev". Historian Vadim Rogovin cited a letter written by Grigori Zinoviev between July and August 1923 which referenced Lenin's characterization of Stalin in the testament as "a thousand times correct". Rogovin also cited a published correspondence from Zinoviev and Bukharin which was addressed to Stalin and stated, "there exists a letter by V.I., in which he advised not to elect you Secretary". According to Stalin's secretary, Boris Bazhanov, Lenin "in general leaned towards a collegial leadership, with Trotsky in the first position". Old Bolshevik and historian, Vladimir Nevsky, believed that Stalin was appointed the General Secretary because he used false rumors to convince Lenin that the party faced a split. Nevsky also claimed that Lenin would later deeply regret trusting Stalin and strove to correct this mistake with his "Testament". According to Kuromiya, Stalin pleaded with the People's Commissar for Finance, Grigory Sokolnikov, not to discuss Lenin's testament at the 15th party Congress.