Central directive demands a harsher grain procurement campaign

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...

Stalin traveled to Siberia and directed local officials to use emergency measures to obtain grain, including arrests and pressure on wealthier peasants. The campaign marked a sharp retreat from...

The joint plenum of the Central Committee and Central Control Commission met from 6 to 11 April, discussing the grain procurement crisis and the Shakhty case. Its resolutions called for forceful...

The Shakhty trial began with charges that engineers and technical specialists had sabotaged coal production. The highly publicized proceedings portrayed technical failures as political conspiracy...

The Central Committee plenum met from 4 to 12 July to review grain procurement and the broader economic situation. Its resolution called for restoring peasant confidence and stopping a return to...

Five defendants convicted in the Shakhty case were executed, while other death sentences were commuted. The punishment signaled the costs of being classified as an enemy of industrialization and...