The Moscow Committee and the Left, 1925–7

Abstract

The Bolshevik ‘Left’ was not one but several different political groups with varying priorities. Before the introduction of the NEP in 1921, there were two main tendencies, one anxious to assert the rights of the working class, mainly through the vehicle of the trade unions, and the other concerned to reverse the wider erosion of democracy. The banning of factions in 1921 made it more difficult for these groups to operate, but formal dissent in the party nonetheless persisted, and the early 1920s saw a succession of ‘platforms’ and open letters setting out alternative views on current issues. The question of democracy, now seen in terms of a struggle against the ‘bureaucracy’, continued to feature in the Left’s critique.¹⁸ But increasingly the debate centred around the economy. The Left oppositions of the period after 1921 were consistent in their criticism of the concessions offered to the peasants, calling repeatedly for more rapid rates of industrialisation and better conditions for the working class. In addition they were impatient with current trends in foreign policy, arguing first for the export of revolution and later against the new slogan, introduced in 1924, of ‘socialism in one country’.¹⁹