‘Putting the Lid on Opposition’

Abstract

The congress which laid the foundations of the Russian communist party organization as it still remains in essentials today was the Tenth Party Congress, which met in Moscow on 8 March 1921. As the result of Zinoviev’s successful manœuvre, its membership reflected the election by ‘platforms’ put forward in the trade union discussions. Out of a total of six hundred and ninety-four delegates with a right to vote, the Workers’ Opposition was represented by some forty-five or at most fifty delegates.¹ The congress was the culminating moment of the dispute on the trade unions. Yet by the time it met this problem had been eclipsed by more important questions. The victory of the Platform of the Ten was a foregone conclusion.² There was not very much difference in substance between the two platforms put forward by members of the Central Committee, so far as future freedom of activity for the trade unions was concerned. But Trotsky’s name was, in the eyes of the rank and file, associated with militarization, Lenin’s was not. Many may have believed that the adoption of the Platform of Ten would assure some independence to the trade union Communists.