When Lenin died in 1924, a lengthy power struggle began between Trotsky and Stalin. Trotsky took the view that socialism in the Soviet Union must await a revolution in western Europe and even worldwide. Stalin wanted power immediately and offered a rival ideology, ''Socialism in one country''. To fend off accusations of becoming the new 'Napoleon', he gave up his command of the Red Army. However Stalin expelled Trotsky from the Bolshevik party in 1927 and exiled him from Russia in 1929. | When Lenin died in 1924, a lengthy power struggle began between Trotsky and Stalin. Trotsky took the view that socialism in the Soviet Union must await a revolution in western Europe and even worldwide. Stalin wanted power immediately and offered a rival ideology, ''Socialism in one country''. To fend off accusations of becoming the new 'Napoleon', he gave up his command of the Red Army. However Stalin expelled Trotsky from the Bolshevik party in 1927 and exiled him from Russia in 1929. |