THE DEATH OF LENIN. This important event marked the beginning of a struggle for power within the inner councils of the party and the government. The chief contestants were Trotsky and Stalin. The latter at first allied himself with Leo Kamenev (whose given name was Rosenfeld) and Gregory Zinoviev, but these two soon quarreled with Stalin and adhered to the opposition bloc of Trotsky. Open conflict of the factions broke out in 1926.
Great Britain recognized the Bolshevik regime, and was soon followed by most of the other European and some extra-European powers (Italy, Feb. 7; France, Oct. 28).
