accusing them of political factionalism (Bullock 182ff). Once installed as head of state (general party secretary), he made a project of consolidating power in himself, cloaking it in an effort to recruit the largely illiterate Russian masses that had benefited from the revolution and civil war into the communist party. These so-called "local party workers" (Bullock 176) identified with Stalin as the common man and appear to have been only too willing to acquiesce in Stalin's class-warfare rhetoric, which entailed denouncing one's neighbor and collaborating in implementation of collectivization of all industry and agriculture in the service of the communist state.
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