The Bolsheviks won the Civil War, but the country lay in ruins. There were many uprisings in the country. But one uprising that of course, Kronstadt marines, the core of the revolution, really changed Lenin's heart. These are the Kronstadt marines during the revolution. They were right at the center of it. But then they rose against the Soviet power, in March 1921. This is one of the Kronstadt marines questioned by the Cheka. The uprising was suppressed with enormous cruelty. 1,000 marines were killed, 2,000 were executed and more than 6,000 were arrested and otherwise punished. What is very difficult to comprehend was that, one of the leaders of this suppression was Pavel Dybenko, who himself was a Baltic marine, and he came from Kronstadt and was a Kronstadt marine himself. Now he was a big commander and he directed the troops against his former comrades. When some of his troops refused to shoot the marines, he organized the second line. And when these troops started to retreat, he ordered to shoot. But as I said, this uprising brought the change of heart and Lenin decided to introduce the New Economic Policy. What did it mean? It meant a partial return of the market. It meant that some enterprises, particularly smaller enterprises, were allowed. Big factories all remained in the property of the state as was the foreign trade. But most importantly, peasants got their relaxation. The food was now not requisitioned. What was introduced was the food tax at a stable price. The result of it was what you see in the pictures basically. This is new shops, some sort of order, food in the stores. So it was much, much easier during those years but not everybody liked it. For the Bolsheviks, it meant a retreat. And also, the unemployment was high. Stalin's attitude to this whole new policy was not clear. He just followed Lenin. But the story of his participation in the Civil War and his confrontation with Trotsky left him weakened. Lenin decided to restore balance because for him, Trotsky became too powerful. During the coming Tenth congress of the party, he organized things in such a way that Trotsky's supporters lost all their positions. The Tenth congress of the party was a momentous event. Not only because it marked Trotsky's retreat, but also because Lenin introduced a particular clause into the party constitution. It was a clause on party unity. What it meant was that, factions were banned in the party. So factions could not exist. And Stalin later on used this clause to the utmost in his struggle against the opposition. Well, here you can see Lenin with the delegates of the Tenth congress. But what was important also was that Stalin's influence in the party during the preparation of this congress grew because he was Lenin's right hand. He helped him to organize the congress, he supported every word that Lenin said. He was rewarded. In December 1922, Stalin became general secretary of the party. It was a new position and it seemed at first that it was quite technical. Stalin was responsible for formulating the agenda of the meetings of Politburo and the Central Committee. Possible for the personnel, personnel matters, who is appointed to what position. Perhaps more importantly, because of this position, he had a constant and permanent access to Lenin. He supported him but at the same time, with the deterioration of Lenin's health, he became a gatekeeper of this axis.