Soviet Union and Persia sign a treaty of guarantee and neutrality

Kuomintang forces under Chiang Kai-shek attacked Communists and labor activists in Shanghai, ending the alliance that had structured the first united front. Soviet and Comintern policy had sought to...

British police raided the Soviet trade delegation and the All-Russian Cooperative Society (ARCOS), alleging that they had been used to obtain military information. The USSR denounced the raid as a...

The British government terminated diplomatic relations after the ARCOS raid and a wider dispute over Soviet activity. The break disrupted trade and increased fears of military isolation in Moscow....

Chinese Communist forces launched an uprising in Nanchang after the collapse of the united front with the Kuomintang. The revolt marked a turn toward independent armed struggle, influenced by...

At an emergency conference, Chinese Communist leaders repudiated the previous alliance strategy and adopted a line emphasizing armed struggle and agrarian revolution. The shift reflected the party’s...

Supporters of Trotsky, Zinoviev and other opposition figures demonstrated during the tenth anniversary celebrations of the October Revolution. The party leadership treated the action as factional...

The party leadership expelled Leon Trotsky and Grigory Zinoviev after the opposition demonstrations and prolonged disputes over policy and internal democracy. Their removal from the party narrowed...

The Fifteenth Congress opened amid the defeat of the Left and United Opposition. Delegates debated agricultural procurement, industrialization and the future of NEP. The Congress became a turning...

The Congress concluded after expelling the opposition and adopting a course toward expanded collectivization and industrial development. It did not itself complete collectivization; implementation...

By the end of 1927, state grain procurement had fallen short as peasants withheld grain they considered underpriced. The crisis exposed a central tension of NEP: the state wanted cheap food and...