Lenin dies, and the succession struggle begins
A fourth stroke kills the man who built the Bolshevik state. He never named who should come after him.
Quick facts
- Died
- 21 January 1924
- Ruling alliance
- Stalin, Zinoviev, Kamenev ("Triumvirate")
- Trotsky exiled
- 1928-1929
What happened
Vladimir Lenin, incapacitated by his earlier strokes, died of a fourth and fatal stroke on 21 January 1924. He had presided over the Politburo as first among equals but had failed to designate a clear successor, and his suppressed Testament's warnings about Stalin never received the wide airing Lenin had intended. Stalin, Grigory Zinoviev, and Lev Kamenev formed an informal ruling alliance known as the Triumvirate in the Politburo, using it to isolate Trotsky, who had expected his record in the civil war to carry him to leadership but made little effort to secure his position once the succession fight began. Stalin used his post as General Secretary, control of party appointments and membership, to steadily out-organize his rivals over the following years.
Why it matters
Lenin's death triggered a power struggle that dragged on for the rest of the 1920s, ending with Stalin expelling Trotsky from the Politburo in 1926, from the party in 1927, and from the Soviet Union entirely by 1929. The very warning Lenin left about Stalin's dangerous accumulation of power went unheeded because Stalin controlled who got to read it.
How we know
The Hoover Institution's account of Lenin's death and the succession fight documents the date of his final stroke and traces how Stalin outmaneuvered Trotsky for control of the party in the years that followed.
Sources
- Hoover Institution. Lenin's Death and Stalin's Schemes · Reputable sourcehoover.org · The domain "hoover.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Hoover Institution. Lenin's Death and Stalin's Schemes · Reputable sourcehoover.org · The domain "hoover.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- The Cold War → · The one-party state Lenin left behind became the superpower of the Cold War.