The Defeat of the Left and the Right

Trotsky’s failure with his campaign soon meant he could not persuade the Politburo or the Central Committee to vote for his proposals. Stalin could use his massive influence to ‘deliver the votes’ in the crucial decisions. Trotsky soon lost his position as Commissar for War. Kamenev and Zinoviev the chairmen of Moscow and Leningrad (Petrograd), were key people behind this.

One Trotsky was ousted from his position, Stalin now realised that they were a threat to the leadership, and looked to get rid of them too. They actually trapped themselves, as worried by the USSR’s economic backwardness stated that it would need a world revolution for Russia to achieve socialism. They called for the NEP to be abandoned and to go back to War Communism, as they only saw the industrial side of the NEP as only slowly being successful. Their opposition or ‘New Opposition’ was very familiar to Trotsky’s previous complaints, and it was unsurprising when he joined them in a opposition bloc. Stalin, as quick as ever, used the right Bolsheviks who were for the NEP to outvote the bloc and their proposal. Kamenev and Zinoviev were replaced by Stalin’s two biggest supporters, Molotov and Kirov. Trotsky was soon expelled from the Politburo and Central Committee.

Trotsky tried to mount support to directly challenge Stalin, but even fewer stood next to him to support. He was then exiled. Stalin simply won because Trotsky lacked a powerbase.

The defeat of the Right soon followed, and it was the end of any serious limit upon his power, and from this point on he became increasingly dictatorial. The main Right Bolsheviks were Rykov, Bukharin and Tomsky, who had no means of challenging Stalin, and Stalin moved against them because they began to stand in the way of industrial and agricultural schemes in 1928.

Stalin answered the problems with his ideas of collectivisation and industrialisation, which was simply using the left’s policies. The right saw that it was unnecessary to force the pace of industrialisation (as the NEP had just been taking effect) and that the peasants should not be oppressed as they would produce less. Bukharin of the right argued that grain procurements (enforced collections) was simply counter productive, that Stalin was no different from Trotsky.

In response, Stalin exploited a number of weaknesses in their ideas, organisation and their support.
- Their ideas seemed timid and unrealistic due to the invasion fears, playing a soft line with the peasants did not go with the party’s needs and that the right underestimated the crisis facing the Soviet Union. Stalin understood that the majority would see the success of a hard line policy, similar to how they got through the civil war, and would not support the right’s timid approach.

- Organisation; the right had the difficultly that Stalin was the powerful organiser of the party, and Bukharin wanted to remain good party mean, fearful of factionalism they started to become outspoken, Stalin could easily of called them weak.

- The right’s only support lay in trade unions, and stalin acted quickly against them and purged suspected trade unions. The Right could do nothing.

Stalin was now in a position to take power.


SUMMARY
LEFT- Trotsky outlawed as War Commissar.
- Stalin turns on Kam/Zin who form united opposition.
- United opposition is joined by Trotsky who agrees with policies
- Stalin outvotes using the Right in 1926 congress.
- Left are defeated, trotsky attempts to fight on but is expelled.

RIGHT- Main members, Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky
- They supported the NEP
- Peasants not to be forced
- Industrialisation should go at its own pace
Faced Weakness
- Ideas seemed timid, needed the hardline for a majority
- Poorly organised, didnt want to be accused of factionalism
- Leaders often outspoken and trade unions purged
Stalin outmanouevres all three.