The first week of the O exams are over. I'm left with physics, biology, higher chinese and social studies, as well as paper ones for all the sciences, and paper 2 for maths. I guess its a "thaw" period like the one during the cold war.


Your choices, not your chances, determine your destiny.

The exams are next week. I feel that my preparations are going well. But I've been doing so much A maths and Chemistry that I feel that I may have neglected some other subjects. History is doing fine. I just finished memorising most of Stalin. I wrote out his rise essay and gave myself 12.5 marks upon marking it with accordance to my notes. Most of the facts are there except minute details which I might have missed out. I have to finish all of Stalin by today.


Then I shall go on to china, then to Japan, then to Germany, then to Khrushchev then to Gorbachev then to league then to UN then to treaties then to detente and then to WW2 ... So many countries and people to visit...


Here's the Stalin Rise Essay that I did.

Stalin’s Rise/ Power Struggle

1) Stalin built his power base in the Communist Party.

2) Through various portfolios held, he gained invaluable skills, power and experience.
Ø He was the commissar for Nationalities and State Council
Ø He came to virtually control the whole government

3) Membership in the Politburo
Ø Allowed him access to supreme decision making

4) Membership in the Orgburo
Ø Gave him access to power to appoint personnel to implement decisions

5) Being the General Secretary
Ø Allowed him to control flow of information
Ø Set agendas
Ø Make appointments to gain support for winning debates
Ø Gave him control of party mechanism from high to low levels

6) Being a member of all 3 councils in the Communist Party, Stalin had immense power and potential for manipulation

7) Lenin died in 1924
Ø He had rose to power as a leader of the party and led the revolution
Ø There was no automatic successor after his death as leadership was not based on party position
Ø Power vested in party organs, not individuals via the collective principle

Stalin took center stage in Lenin’s funeral
Ø He led the mourning in the forefront
Ø Lied to Trotsky about the funeral date
Ø He was the chief mourner and gave the eulogy
Ø He portrayed himself as Lenin’s keenest follower
Ø He gave the impression that he was the next most important person after Lenin, by leading the procession
Ø Trotsky was discredited for missing the funeral


8) Stalin survived Lenin’s testament with the aid of the Troika
Ø Lenin’s testament contained ideas for the future and opinions about members in the Politburo
Ø Stalin’s career would have been marred by Lenin’s unpleasant comments like
- His intolerable attitude
- His unlimited authority as Party Secretary

Ø Stalin would then be removed by power by Lenin’s testament
Ø Kamenev and Zinoviev helped Stalin as they were afraid of Trotsky claiming power
Ø Stalin’s ability to deliver votes in congress made him a valuable ally against Trotsky
Ø They argued that the testament was groundless
Ø Majority agreed as many criticisms were hurled to them in the testament
Ø Trotsky did not intervene when the testament was not read out
Ø Hence Stalin’s political career was saved and Trotsky lost his chance of claiming power

9) Stalin came out with the cult of Leninism,
Ø Turning respect and affection towards Lenin into a religion
Ø Places of pilgrimage were made
Ø He promoted himself as the one true heir of Lenin
Ø Heresies, which were disagreements with Lenin, were seen as deviations and became a political crime
Ø Heresies were used against Trotsky when he criticized Lenin and the increasing power of the Party Secretary.
Ø Trotsky was discredited as being disloyal to Lenin as he had often made public arguments with Lenin and was an ex-Menshevik.
Ø Stalin was able to portray himself as a true Leninist, showing that Trotsky was disloyal to memories and ideals of Lenin.
Ø With the help of the troika, Stalin easily defeated Trotsky at the 13th Congress in 1924.

10) There was disagreement on the socialist path of development between Stalin’s “socialism in one country” and Trotsky’s “Permanent Revolution”.
Ø Trotsky and the left wanted “permanent revolution” as Russia could not fully develop into a socialist state without revolutions in Europe.
Ø Stalin felt Russia needed to industrialize to develop into socialist state, and this became more popular with the right wing as it seemed to fit in with the New Economic Policy


11)As a result,
Ø Zinoviev and Kamenev had doubts about Stalin’s growing power and questioned his economic policies
Ø Zinoviev and Kamenev forged an alliance with Trotsky
Ø Stalin could communicate his ideas clearly and simply
Ø Trotsky was an intellectual whose ideas would plunge Russia in to constant strife and waging of wars
Ø At the 14th congress, Stalin got the support of the party rank and file, and his views were adopted as the official ideology
Ø Kamenev, Zinoview and Trotsky made a direct appeal to party masses and workers, and tried staging demonstrations in Moscow
Ø This was a fatal error as Stalin accused them of factionalism
Ø He replaced Zinoview and Kamenev’s supporters in the Moscow and Petrograd organization
Ø Trotsky was removed as commissar of war in 1925
Ø Kamenev and Zinoviev were removed from their party positions and the Politburo
Ø Trotsky lost his politburo position in 1926 and was expelled from the party as a traitor
Ø Kamenev and Zinoviev were expelled as traitors in 1927
Ø Trotsky was sent to exile in Alma Ata in 1928 and foreign exile in 1929
Ø He was later assassinated in Mexico in 1940

12)Stalin turned against the right in 1928

Ø He now advocated the use of force against peasants and rapid industrialization, the very same policies the left wanted
Ø Bukharin mounted strong defence of the New Economic Policy but was outvoted by Stalin’s supporters and leftists supporting the anti-NEP line
Ø Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky were removed from power

13)Stalin emerged as the supreme leader after eliminating both the right and left factions.

Appreciation is a perfect gift for any occasion.

I'm finished with my preparation of history notes. I just have to start memorising soon. Or perhaps I should do an essay or two on the WW2 timeline. I'll do that sometime next week. I've decided to study everything on Stalin, most things about Khrushchev and Gorbachev, all of China since 1919 to 1990 and Japan's aggression and economic recovery. I'm afraid of the Section A questions. Sometimes they tend to be a bit unpredictable. Especially the part 2s.


I'm starting chemistry revision and physics revision. I need to squeeze information into my head. So sad. And I've even resorted to memorising chinese essays and phrases. Omg the nerdiness is making my head spin. I only need to endure this for 4 more weeks. I can do it. Dekiru imasu! Plus there are temptations everywhere. The new Fall Anime Season is out with a whole new bunch of anime series and sequels to my past anime series. The whole is full of addictions ~ I wish studying was an addiction now. And I have 2 emails now. And the daily maths papers made my printer run out of ink.


When faced with a seemingly insurmountable difficulty, close your eyes and picture it as a boulder in your path. Then picture God's hands rolling it out of the way. What's impossible for us is nothing for him.

I can't access my hotmail emails for some unknown reason. I have over 23 unopened emails inside there. This is so troublesome. Anyway I changed my email address to Google Mail. It's less fanciful but its works anyhow. Please divert all mails to HeavenlyRhapsody@gmail.com

Nature declares God's love to us. No time ... have to do a lot of things. 5 more weeks ...

*(I rectified the problem thanks to some help. I don't know how it worked but it works now. Now I have 2 email addresses... )

Secondary School Education has ended forever. Yesterday's Paralithurgy and farewell assembly went well. We wrote our thanks, prayers and aspirations on multi-colored stars that were later strung up around the aerial parts of the hall, where will be sitting for our exams in less than a month's time.


Life is gonna be more hectic. My friend told me to look forward to when the exams end. I'm referring to it as the exams to give the other letters of the full name of the exam less emphasis. We have lots of email sent to us daily. Most of them are online assignments. Now have more maths papers to do and I can't finish, 4 papers daily is insane. It will take at least 5 hours to clear all the 4 papers daily at top speed. I also have to do revision for other subjects.


Just saying bye to everyone. I'm be blogging less often. No one reads much about the stuff posted here anyway. Saying bye and thanks to comfort my computer who has always been with me and my previous self who was addicted to this computer.


Thinking only of one's own needs can make someone petty and small-minded. Thinking of others, praying for them, giving to them, and helping them, makes someone great!