This is wrong. Lenin never wanted Trotsky, in fact he used Stalin deliberately to block Trotsky. And he empowered many of Trotsky enemies. Trotsky was a late comer to the Bolsheviks and because of his popularity in the civil war he was a danger to Lenin.
Lenin create the General Secretary position as a position of huge amount of power, 2nd only to himself as Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR. And Lenin gave this position to Stalin explicitly.
The authorship of Lenin "Testimony" (only called that later by Trosky supporters) has been put into question to a significant degree by recent scholarship. I suspect Lenin would be spinning in his grave when people suggest he would have wanted Trosky to be his successor.
Lenin is the reason Stalin reached the positions of power he did. Trotsky had little to do with it.
> The authorship of Lenin "Testimony" (only called that later by Trosky supporters) has been put into question to a significant degree by recent scholarship. I suspect Lenin would be spinning in his grave when people suggest he would have wanted Trosky to be his successor.
Recent scholarship meaning Kotkin. His is still a minority viewpoint, but he makes a solid case for it here (interesting throughout):
More broadly speaking, his historical project is dispelling the notion that Stalin was some amoral psychopath who deviated from Lenin and the original Party and betrayed the organic development of the revolution (the viewpoint of most Trotskyists), so he's coming from a particular angle.
But what he goes against is the typical historical narrative driven by exiled Soviets and sympothatic Western professors who wanted to believe in the 'Revolution Betayed' narrative.
And I dont remember the texts in detail but it doesnt directly call for Troskey to be his successer anyway.
Lenin create the General Secretary position as a position of huge amount of power, 2nd only to himself as Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR. And Lenin gave this position to Stalin explicitly.
The authorship of Lenin "Testimony" (only called that later by Trosky supporters) has been put into question to a significant degree by recent scholarship. I suspect Lenin would be spinning in his grave when people suggest he would have wanted Trosky to be his successor.
Lenin is the reason Stalin reached the positions of power he did. Trotsky had little to do with it.