OPPOSITIONAL MOVEMENTS DURING THE NEP

Precursors to NEP

•Effects of Russian Civil War and War Communism (1917-1920)

–Decline of industry and agriculture
–Leveling of society
–Gains by peasants – obtained all the land
–Suffering by workers
–Assumption of full control by Bolsheviks

1920-1: Disputes within the Bolsheviks

•1920 - Democratic opposition

–Workers demand democracy within the party
–Demand control of the workplace

•1921- Kronstadt uprising

–Free elections
–Freedoms for workers and peasants
–Soviets without Bolsheviks

1921: NEP begins

•1921 – Abandon war communism

–Free trade in grain - tax in kind rather than expropriation)
–Industry - encourage small-scale private enterprise

Effects on industry

•Private enterprise accounts for more than 50% of national income
•Persistent high unemployment
•Social class distinctions in the cities

–The NEPman
–Skilled received much higher wages than unskilled
–Wealth in the midst of poverty

Effects on agriculture

•Little government control
•Peasants remain isolated, farming remains primitive
•Some class distinctions (Bolsheviks exaggerate)
•Kulaks disliked ideologically (like the NEPmen)

–Kulaks feared for their potential political power

Changes in Justice

•War Communism – "revolutionary justice"
•Criminal Code of 1922

–Heaviest penalties for "counter-revolutionary" rather than ordinary crimes
–Concept of "wrecking"

Political issues

•Primacy of the Party

–Other organs (e.g., Soviets) lose significance
–Central party machinery grows very powerful

•Fundamental conflicts

–Interests of the peasants and workers

•Repression of dissident views

–1920 Menshevik trial
–1922 Trial of Social Revolutionaries

1922: Struggle for Succession

•1922 - Lenin incapacitated (dies in 1924)
•Stalin

–Commissar for Nationalities
–1922 – Chairman of Central Committee
–Excellent politician, coalition builder
–Established early "triumvirate" with Zinoviev and Kamenev

Trotsky

•War hero, popular with lower levels
•Jewish
•Praised by Radek
•Abrasive, doctrinaire, impractical
•Intent on world revolution

1923: Left Opposition to Stalin ("Trotskyists")

•Medvedev, Chap. 2
•1923 - Letter of the 46

–Signed by Trotsky, Serebryakov, Piatakov, Smirnov…
–Attacks bureaucratization, lack of democracy, top-down decisionmaking
–Claims regime farther away from "worker's democracy" than during War Communism

Left Opposition falters (1923-4)

•December 1923 letter, articles - Trotsky calls for purge of bureaucrats

–Hostile reception by triumvirate and others: is Trotsky splitting the Party?

•1924 – 13^th. Party Conference – Left Opposition condemned

–Trotsky weakly defends, insists that no split intended
–Trotsky attacked by Stalin and Zinoviev

Left Opposition persists (1924-5)

•Trotsky argues against Stalin's "Socialism in one country."
•Contradicts NEP

–Demands more pressure on "kulaks" and "capitalists"
–Endorses forced industrialization
–Criticizes Zinoviev's and Kamenev's acts in 1917
–Left Oppositon censured, Trotsky relieved as commissar of war

NEP - Stalin and Bukharin

•1924 - Full members of Politburo: Stalin, Bukharin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Rykov, Tomsky, Trotsky
•Bukharin allies with Stalin
•Bukharin, an economist, becomes chief promoter of NEP

–Urges relaxation of attitudes to middle peasants and Kulaks
–Allied with Rykov

1924-5: New Opposition ("Zinovievists")

•Zinoviev and Kamenev create a "New Opposition" against Stalin, Bukharin, Rykov

–Accept Trotsky's concerns about Party democracy
–Criticize "Kulakization" as a retreat by the "proletarian state"
–Endorse concept of world revolution

•1925: Party Congress repudiates the opposition

–Kamenev reduced to candidate member of Politburo
–Stalin brings in more supporters

1925-7: United Opposition (Trotskyists + Zinovievists)

•Kamenev and Zinoviev ally with Trotsky.

–Also – Muralov, Pyatakov, Bakayev…

•UO defeated

–1927: Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev expelled from Party CC
–They attempt a demonstration – supporters arrested

The Party Reacts (1927-8)

•December 1927, 15^th. Party Congress

–Trotsky, Zinoviev expelled
–Recommended for expulsion: Kamenev, Pyatakov, Radek, Smirnov…

•Zinovievists capitulate

–Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bakayev readmitted, later gain Party posts

•Trotskyists do not

–Trotsky gets internal exile, then deported in 1929
–Radek exiled, capitulates in 1929

Right Opposition (1928-9)

•1928: Peasants hoard grain, demand better prices

–Stalin changes course to the Left
•Demands expropriations
•Endorses forced collectivization and rapid industrialization

•Bukharin, supported by Rykov and Tomsky, oppose

–Warn of rupture between peasants and workers
–Emphasize incentives rather than coercion
–Strive to expand and improve NEP

Stalin triumphs (1929-1930)

•1929:  Bukharin, Tomsky and Rykov publish the "platform of the three"

–Criticize Stalin, offer alternative economic and political program
–Accuse Stalin of "military-feudal exploitation of the peasantry"

•Stalin and supporters criticize Right Deviation as defenders of capitalism

–1930-31 political campaign against the Rightists
–They capitulate, lose influence

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