Trotsky was strongly supportive of the socialist ideas, and became good friends with Lenin. After Lenin died, his seat of power was open, and Trotsky was the most popular vote. Sadly Stalin wanted this seat of power too, and he was willing to use force to get it. Right before Lenin died he appointed Stalin to serve on the First Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, and three years later in 1917 the Bolsheviks came to power. Lenin was the leader of the newly formed Soviet Union, and Stalin slowly rose to power to become the secretary general which he used to put his allies in powerful positions. Once Lenin died Stalin out maneuvered his rivals and won the power struggle for control of the communist party. By the 1820's he became the dictator of the Soviet Union.
One of the things Stalin did was Stalinism, which he claimed was Marxism, but was far from that. Marxism was the idea that the working force of people should be raised up and made level with everyone. Meanwhile Stalin was doing the exact opposite, raising himself up by pushing the working force down. Stalin used thousands of dollars to try to get an industrial revolution to happen, but all it did was bring poverty on the people. Stalin was the supreme ruler of Russia, and he was not about to share it with the working class.
Another one of the unbelievable things the Stalin did was cut off its contact with the film industry in the west. He was afraid that the westernized films exposed audiences to Capitalist ideas. This started the booming of the Soviet film industry. Movies came out in the 1920's like "Forward Soviet!" and "The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty". "The Battleship Potemkin" was world acclaimed for its metaphorical quality and innovative montage.
Before this entire time Russia's main religion was the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1914 there was 55,173 Russian Orthodox Churches and 29,593 chapels. Both of these together had 112,629 Priests and deacons, 550 monasteries, and 475 converts. In total it had 95,259 monks and nuns. Sadly then when the Bolsheviks rose to power they declared the separation of church and state, finding the Russian Orthodox Church without government support for once.
During this time Russia's relationship with the world was varied. Russia's relationship with Japan was quiet, they allowed the Japanese to fish on their water borders, and the Japanese quietly withdrew forces from their lands. They gave up their influence in China, and Iran, getting sympathy for the Bolsheviks throughout the world. They then took Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, making the British Government upset. Russia did not really care about other countries, but only the improvement of themselves.
On the left is a photo of Trotsky, on the right Stalin.
A map of Russia's territories from 1917-1947
