Joseph Stalin was elected as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU in April 1922 during the 11th Congress of the Party. Between then and until his death, he asked to be relieved of his duties as General Secretary a total of four times — all of which were rejected.
On Lenin’s motion, the Plenum of the Central Committee, on April 3, 1922, elected Stalin … [as the] General Secretary of the Central Committee, a post at which he has remained ever since.
Alexandrov, G. F. Joseph Stalin; a Short Biography. Moscow: FLPH, 1947, p. 74
Stalin’s first attempt at resignation (likely in 1925) from the post of General Secretary was at a meeting of the Central Committee after the 13th Congress (held in May 1924). This was rejected unanimously by all the delegations, including Trotsky. Stalin remarked on this later in 1927 in a speech at a meeting of the Central Committee:
It is said that in that “will” Comrade Lenin suggested to the congress that in view of Stalin’s “rudeness” it should consider the question of putting another comrade in Stalin’s place as General Secretary. That is quite true.
Yes, comrades, I am rude to those who grossly and perfidiously wreck and split the Party. I have never concealed this and do not conceal it now. Perhaps some mildness is needed in the treatment of splitters, but I am a bad hand at that.
At the very first meeting of the plenum of the Central Committee after the Thirteenth Congress I asked the plenum of the Central Committee to release me from my duties as General Secretary. The congress itself discussed this question. It was discussed by each delegation separately, and all the delegations unanimously, including Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev, obliged Stalin to remain at his post.
What could I do? Desert my post? That is not in my nature; I have never deserted any post, and I have no right to do so, for that would be desertion. As I have already said before, I am not a free agent, and when the Party imposes an obligation upon me, I must obey.
A year later I again put in a request to the plenum to release me, but I was again obliged to remain at my post. What else could I do?
The next two attempts to resign from the post of General Secretary was a year after in 1926 and later in 1927. The British historian Robert Service who specialized in Russian history wrote about this in his biography of Stalin:
On 27 December 1926, he wrote to Sovnarkom Chairman Alexei Rykov saying: ‘I ask you to release me from the post of Central Committee General Secretary. I affirm that I can no longer work at this post, that I’m in no condition to work any longer at this post.’ He made a similar attempt at resignation on 19 December 1927.
All three of these previous attempts were rejected. The last attempt to resign was in 1952, about five months before Stalin’s death, during a meeting of the Central Committee where he urged the Central Committee to relieve him of his duties. This too was rejected.
In a speech given by him to the Central Committee that mainly criticized Molotov for some of his decisions, he was interrupted near the end of the speech by someone from the floor.
VOICE FROM THE FLOOR – We need to elect comrade Stalin as the General Secretary of the CC CPSU and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
STALIN – No! I am asking that you relieve me of the two posts!
MALENKOV – coming to the tribune: Comrades! We should all unanimously ask comrade Stalin, our leader and our teacher, to be again the General Secretary of the CC CPSU.
Socialist Musings 
Possibly, the requests to leave were anxiously interpreted as a way to expose opposition, hence the unanimous votes of approval…?
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Reblogged this on kk16085 and commented:
Stalin: It is said that in that “will” Comrade Lenin suggested to the congress that in view of Stalin’s “rudeness” it should consider the question of putting another comrade in Stalin’s place as General Secretary. That is quite true.
Yes, comrades, I am rude to those who grossly and perfidiously wreck and split the Party. I have never concealed this and do not conceal it now. Perhaps some mildness is needed in the treatment of splitters, but I am a bad hand at that.
At the very first meeting of the plenum of the Central Committee after the Thirteenth Congress I asked the plenum of the Central Committee to release me from my duties as General Secretary. The congress itself discussed this question. It was discussed by each delegation separately, and all the delegations unanimously, including Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev, obliged Stalin to remain at his post.
What could I do? Desert my post? That is not in my nature; I have never deserted any post, and I have no right to do so, for that would be desertion. As I have already said before, I am not a free agent, and when the Party imposes an obligation upon me, I must obey.
A year later I again put in a request to the plenum to release me, but I was again obliged to remain at my post. What else could I do?”
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I find no reasons to why this would be falsified, nor why it would be a tactic to see who would oppose Stalin in the current position of General Secretary, unless he was unanimously viewed as a efficient leader, which is what this literary structure seems to impose upon the question. And besides even if Stalin was a power hungry dictator( as he is portrayed by Capitalist media and propaganda), then he could have been well challenged by many others, as he was week in the time close to his death. Thus this seems to be a legitimate document if the process that was not undertaken is to be accepted.
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It was the greatness of Comrade Stalin,he was the leader,teacher and mass worker of the communist party,He was not ambitious and power hungry like so many other leaders.Stalin was a close collaborator with Lenin.
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We must learn lesson from it, the party role must be to empower workers to become rulers, manage the affairs of the state themselves. Party role is to guide and realize the final aims of the classless society and contiguously raise the level of consciousness and political level of the workers
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How can the Wizard of Oz quit his post?
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I notice Robert Service is selectively quoted. This is what he wrote in context before and after the quote given: “Yet the strain of constant polemics took took its toll on him. Free in his accusations against the United Opposition, he was hurt by the tirade of personal abuse he himself had to endure. He was an extremely sensitive bully. When the situation got too much for him, he followed his pattern in the early years after October 1917 and sought to resign. . . Of course he wanted to be persuaded to withdraw such statements of intent – and indeed his associates did as he wished.”
Likewise his fourth “attempt” at resigning was amid deteriorating relations between himself and certain members of the Politburo, particularly Mikoyan and Molotov. As the latter later put it in the book Molotov Remembers, “I think that if he had remained alive another year [i.e. 1954], I would not have survived.”
So in all four cases there were clear political motives for Stalin to present his resignation in order to get all or at least the bulk of his associates to reaffirm their support of him.
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Porfirio Diaz claimed his own retirement several times, and each time his party nominated him he would “bow under pressure.” It helped that he didn’t groom any likely successors.
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