Trotsky joins the United Opposition

His preface to a collection of writings revisited the October insurrection and criticized rivals’ hesitation. The book intensified the succession struggle and demonstrates how competing...

Lenin’s death accelerated a struggle over party leadership, economic policy, and the meaning of revolutionary internationalism. Trotsky was a leading contender but faced an increasingly consolidated...

Trotsky’s retrospective argued that revolutionary parties must learn from the strategic disputes of 1917. Its account emphasized his own role and criticized other leaders, prompting a campaign over...

After losing influence in the leadership, Trotsky left the military commissariat. His departure marked a shift in the balance of power within the party and the state, not a sudden break with the...

In debate over the Chinese revolution, Trotsky argued that communist independence from the nationalist Kuomintang was necessary for workers’ and peasants’ self-organization. This was a significant...

Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev, and Lev Kamenev joined in an opposition platform calling for party democracy and a more planned industrial policy. The coalition was temporary and politically heterogeneous;...

Trotsky argued that subordinating the Chinese Communist Party to the nationalist Kuomintang left workers and peasants exposed to repression, especially after the Shanghai massacre. His critique...

Oppositionists marched separately after being denied space in the official celebration. The confrontation marked the shrinking space for dissent within the party-state and preceded Trotsky’s...

The ruling party expelled Trotsky and Zinoviev after the opposition’s public challenge to Stalin’s leadership. Expulsion, censorship, and imprisonment increasingly replaced internal debate, while...

The government sent Trotsky into internal exile far from Moscow. The location made visible the Soviet center’s use of Central Asian territory as a space of political removal, within a region...