USSR

The Soviet Union was the first totalitarian state to establish itself after World War One. In 1917, Vladimir Lenin seized power in the Russian Revolution, establishing a single-party dictatorship under the Bolsheviks. After suffering a series of strokes, Lenin died on January 21, 1924, with no clear path of succession. The obvious choice, to many, was Leon Trotsky, who had headed the Military Revolutionary Committee that had carried out the Bolshevik Revolution. He had been a high-ranking member of the party throughout Lenin's time in power, and was considered by many to be the Communist Party's foremost Marxist theorist, but was also considered aloof and cold by many party members.