Fun fact: Trotsky, when he was still there, also voted against allowing Stalin to resign
"Comrade Stalin, it's 3 PM! Time for the daily flattening of Nazis!"
"Yes, comrades..."
I mean, tbf, even if he was testing loyalty (a la Tsar), he was very old at the time, and I'm pretty sure such a pressuring political job like being main face of the country would lead to a slightly earlier grave....
How do you refute the claim that Stalin asked to resign to "test the loyalty of MPs"
I think I would say that unless they can prove the claim, it's not on you to prove bullshit 😁
Exactly! That sounds like an unfalsifiable argument, so it's up to them to show proof, not us.
Ok, so they're not "loyal" and let him resign. Then what's he gonna do, throw an unemployed fit of rage? Toss out an uno reverse card and tell all the Central Committee cadres that actually they're the ones who are resigning?
your power is not your post. deng xiaoping lead china without having any official position as such
Point taken, but would Deng have had the power he did given only little support in the Central Committee or People's Congresses? Would he have even been elected to the official offices he did hold?
I feel like what you're asking is just tautologically true. yes, deng would not have been as powerful and influential if he didn't have as much support. in the case of stalin I have no doubt he would have been able to effectively rule in the case where he did retire. it seems naive to assume he wouldn't be able to
well, was the re-selection really unanimous? what actually happened to the detractors?
Besides all that others have said, this is a very risky gambit to pull off. You need to be certain that you have a lot of support already, or they can just take you on your word and let you resign, and there's not much you can do.
One good example of this backfiring is when Brazilian President Jânio Quadros renounced, which is generally believed to have been a power-grab move with the military, but was accepted by the Congress without much hesitation.
This triggered a political crisis (in particular due to the leftier leanings of the vice-president), but restoring Jânio was never an option.
So even if Stalin was testing his support, the support still had to exist and be reliable in the first place.
It’s 4PM, time for your Nazi flattening
yes honey
