{"product_id":"the-workers-opposition-in-the-russian-communist-party-documents-1919-30-9781642597820","title":"The Workers' Opposition in the Russian Communist","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Russian Workers' Opposition in 1919-21 advocated trade union management of the Soviet economy and worker dominance of the Russian Communist Party's leading bodies. \u003cem\u003eThe Workers' Opposition in the Russian Communist Party: Documents, 1919-30\u003c\/em\u003e comprises the most complete set of articles, speeches, theses, memoranda, protocols, resolutions, letters, diary entries, and other documents pertaining to the activity of the Workers' Opposition group during its existence. It also includes materials from the Opposition's individual former members after the group itself dissolved and until its key members ceased their participation in dissenting political activities by 1930.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMost of the documents in this collection have never before been published in English and many have not been published in Russian. The material contained herein represents a major contribution to the documentary material of Soviet history. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Over eight hundred pages of translated archival documents and editorial comment—this is a work of truly Herculean scholarship. Allen shows in fascinating and at times terrifying detail how, even before Stalin became General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party, the worker activists of the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary years were seen as a threat to the Party’s apparatus and had to be marginalised. It is a magnificent and ground-breaking study.\"\u003cstrong\u003e—Geoffrey Swain, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProfessor Emeritus, University of Glasgow\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\"Barbara C. Allen, author of the excellent biography of Aleksandr Shliapnikov, a leader of the Workers’ Opposition, has with this book reinforced her status as our leading expert on that group. For this volume, Professor Allen has translated and edited almost one-hundred documents to include speeches, diary entries, minutes, and correspondence. Many of them are published here for the first time in English, still others for the first time in any language (among them items from the archive of Russia’s Federal Security Service). They demonstrate that the Workers’ Opposition as a movement and as an idea within the Bolshevik Party challenged dominant principles of Soviet governance. In an introduction and in essays that precede each of this collection’s four parts, Professor Allen skillfully analyzes the evolving positions of the Workers’ Opposition as a collective and of its prominent members as individuals. Specialists will find an expansive biographical glossary and index exceptionally useful. In these pages, a history of the Workers’ Opposition and of the Bolshevik Party emerges that is replete with creativity, courage, conviction, imprudence, deceit, and tragedy.\" \u003cstrong\u003e—Larry E. Holmes, author of \u003cem\u003eRevising the Revolution: The Unmaking of Russia's Official History of 1917\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\"This comprehensive, meticulously edited collection fills one of many gaps in published records of the bubbling cauldron of political debate in early Soviet Russia. Large parts of the Workers' Oppositionists' arguments—about the role that workers and their union organisations should play in a workers' state, and much more—have remained mostly inaccessible for a century, and now Barbara Allen has put that right. The collection extensively documents not only the group's brief legal existence in 1920-21, but also its adherents' critique of industrial and other policies throughout the 1920s.” \u003cstrong\u003e—Simon Pirani, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Russian Revolution in Retreat\u003c\/em\u003e and Honorary Professor at the University of Durham\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"\u003c\/strong\u003eBarbara C. Allen (La Salle University), l’auteure d’une remarquable biographie d’Aleksandr G. Shliapnikov parue en 2015, mérite de chaleureuses félicitations pour l’indéniable qualité de ses traductions du russe à l’anglais – un exercice qui requit une somme de travail absolument colossale et pour lequel étudiants et enseignants au niveau universitaire lui seront grandement redevables. Le plus grand mérite de cette collection de documents est de faire partager aux lecteurs les convictions, voire même la passion viscérale de ces opposants, en particulier leurs véritables cris du coeur en faveur de l’urgente nécessité de donner aux ouvriers un rôle prédominant dans les multiples comités du parti, d’introduire davantage de démocratie et de débats à l’intérieur d’un parti démoralisé et devenu languissant, de recentrer ce dernier sur l’essentiel – « We should conquer all difficulties only through the masses and together with them. All other paths lead to bankruptcy » (33 – A. G. Shliapnikov, 27 mars 1919) –, et de remplacer le plus tôt possible la nep en faveur d’une industrialisation à la fois rapide et menée sur une large échelle.\"\u003cstrong\u003e —\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cb\u003eJ.-Guy Lalande  in \u003ci\u003eLabour\/Le Travail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Documentary collections inclusive of the Workers’ Opposition have appeared before, but nobody previously has had  the determination, patience, and I dare say passion to put together a  volume such as this. ... It contains some ninety-seven documents tracked  down by Allen in six different archives, mostly  Moscow-based but also in Kyiv.\" \u003cb\u003e—Lewis Siegelbaum, \u003ci\u003eH-Russia\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcknowledgements\u003cbr\u003eExplanatory Notes\u003cbr\u003eAbbreviations and Acronyms\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1 Background to the Trade Union Debate, March 1919–Autumn 1920: The Workers’ Opposition in Formation\u003cbr\u003e 1  Economic section of RCP(b) programme, point 5, adopted at the Eighth Congress of the RCP(b), March 1919\u003cbr\u003e 2  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Specialists’\u003cbr\u003e 3  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Wages and Labour Productivity’\u003cbr\u003e 4  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Production and Productivity’\u003cbr\u003e 5  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Industrial Productivity’\u003cbr\u003e 6  A.G. Shliapnikov’s report to a meeting of the All-Russian Metalworkers’ Union (VSRM) central committee, the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions (VTsSPS), and other union personnel, Autumn 1919\u003cbr\u003e 7  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Tasks of the Russian Proletariat’s Economic Organisations’\u003cbr\u003e 8  A.M. Kollontai’s diary notes, January–February 1920\u003cbr\u003e 9  Speeches by Iu.Kh. Lutovinov and A.S. Kiselev at the Ninth Congress of the RCP(b), March–April 1920\u003cbr\u003e 10  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Relations between the Russian Communist Party, the Soviets, and Production Unions’\u003cbr\u003e 11  Speeches by Iu.Kh. Lutovinov, S.P. Medvedev, I.I. Kutuzov, and A.M. Kollontai at the Ninth Conference of the RCP(b), September 1920\u003cbr\u003e 12  Iu.Kh. Lutovinov’s proposals to the Ninth Conference of the RCP(b), September 1920\u003cbr\u003e 13  N. Kopylov, ‘That Which Needs to be Destroyed: “Higher-ups” and “Rank-and-File” ’\u003cbr\u003e 14  A.M. Kollontai’s diary notes, circa October 1920\u003cbr\u003e 15  Theses presented to some party cells and to the central committee of the All-Russian Metalworkers’ Union in the autumn of 1920\u003cbr\u003e 16  Iu.Kh. Lutovinov, Letter to Ukrainian Comrades, 23 October 1920\u003cbr\u003e 17  Remarks by I.N. Perepechko, Antonov, and G.E. Zinoviev at the Fifth Conference of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine (CP(b)U), 17–22 November 1920, Kharkov\u003cbr\u003e 18  Letter from G.E. Zinoviev to I.N. Perepechko, 26 November 1920, with excerpts from Perepechko’s letter to Zinoviev\u003cbr\u003e 19  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Tasks of Workers’ Unions’\u003cbr\u003e 20  Circular of the All-Russian Union of Metalworkers Communist Faction Bureau about organising party cells in the provinces, Moscow, 16 December 1920\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e2 The Trade Union Discussion, December 1920–March 1921: The Workers’ Opposition as a Fully-Formed Legal Faction\u003cbr\u003e 1  A.G. Shliapnikov’s speech at the Eighth Congress of Soviets, Moscow, 30 December 1920\u003cbr\u003e 2  Theses of the Workers’ Opposition: Tasks of Trade Unions\u003cbr\u003e 3  Iu.Kh. Lutovinov, Report to the All-Russian Trade Union Council (VTsSPS) on the work of the November–December 1920 trade union commission\u003cbr\u003e 4  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Economic Organisation and Unions’ Tasks: For Discussion’\u003cbr\u003e 5  A.M. Kollontai, ‘Time to Analyse’\u003cbr\u003e 6  A.M. Kollontai’s corrections to the Theses on Party Building\u003cbr\u003e 7  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Our Intraparty Disagreements’\u003cbr\u003e 8  A.G. Shliapnikov’s speeches to the Communist Faction of the Second All-Russian Congress of Mineworkers\u003cbr\u003e 9  N. Kopylov, ‘Mistake or Urgent Task?’\u003cbr\u003e 10  N.M. Tikhonravov, Supplement to the Theses of the Workers’ Opposition about the Tasks of Trade Unions\u003cbr\u003e 11  Polosatov’s and Kuznetsov’s speeches at the Fourth CP(b)U Conference of Donetsk gubernia, 16–18 February 1921\u003cbr\u003e 12  Documents from Samara about the debates over party building, culture, and the tasks of trade unions, February 1921\u003cbr\u003e 13  Iu.K. Milonov, ‘Theses: the Content of our Cultural Work’, Eighth Samara Gubernia RCP(b) Conference\u003cbr\u003e 14  Iu.K. Milonov, ‘Trade Unions and their Role in the Economic life of the Country: Theses of a Report to the Eighth Samara Gubernia Conference of the RCP(b)’\u003cbr\u003e 15  Speeches, Resolutions, Materials, and Declarations Relating to the Workers’ Opposition at the Tenth Party Congress, March 1921\u003cbr\u003e 16  Iu.K. Milonov, ‘Assembly of Former Underground Party Members during the Tenth Party Congress’\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e3 From the Ban on Factions through the Eleventh Party Congress, 1921–2: Former Worker Oppositionists Respond to the New Economic Policy and to Repression Against Them\u003cbr\u003e 1  A.M. Kollontai’s diary entries, March–April 1921\u003cbr\u003e 2  Appeals of the Worker-Peasant Socialist Party led by Vasily Paniushkin, early 1921\u003cbr\u003e 3  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘To the Fourth Congress of the All-Russian Metalworkers’ Union (VSRM)’\u003cbr\u003e 4  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Our Economic Policy and Practice’\u003cbr\u003e 5  Speeches protesting party appointment of Metalworkers’ Union leaders; protocols of the RCP CC’s commission, the bureau of the communist faction, and the communist faction of the congress; and other materials relating to the Fourth Congress of the Metalworkers’ Union in May 1921\u003cbr\u003e 6  A.M. Kollontai’s speech to the Third Comintern Congress, 5 June 1921\u003cbr\u003e 7  A.M. Kollontai’s diary entries, July–August 1921\u003cbr\u003e 8  Letter from A.G. Shliapnikov to S.P. Medvedev, 28 June 1921\u003cbr\u003e 9  Letter from A.G. Shliapnikov and S.P. Medvedev to the Politburo and VTsSPS, July 1921, protesting VSNKh decrees\u003cbr\u003e 10  Letter from [A.G. Shliapnikov] to comrade [N.S] Mamchenko, 6 July 1921\u003cbr\u003e 11  Letter from F.A. Mitin to S.P. Medvedev, summer 1921\u003cbr\u003e 12  Letter from A.G. Shliapnikov to F.A. Mitin\u003cbr\u003e 13  Protocol and resolution from a meeting of RCP(b) members who had belonged to the Workers’ Opposition, 8 July 1921\u003cbr\u003e 14  Resolution offered by Aleksei Sovetov to the delegates’ assembly of the Bauman district RCP(b) organisation, 29 July 1921\u003cbr\u003e 15  Letter received by Ukrainian comrades in 1921 from a former member of the Workers’ Opposition, perhaps Ivan Perepechko\u003cbr\u003e 16  Letter from Levit of the Kommunistische Arbeiter-Partei Deutschlands (KAPD) to A.G. Shliapnikov, 30 August 1921, and Shliapnikov’s signed response, 31 August 1921\u003cbr\u003e 17  Excerpts from speeches at the All-Russian Union of Metalworkers central committee plenum, 17–21 October 1921\u003cbr\u003e 18  Iu.Kh. Lutovinov’s speech to the Eleventh Party Conference, 19–22 December 1921, and related party documents\u003cbr\u003e 19  Undated minutes from a meeting of the Workers’ Opposition or the 22\u003cbr\u003e 20  A.G. Shliapnikov’s letter to the Politburo about the Genoa conference, February 1922\u003cbr\u003e 21  Protocol of a 10 February 1922 meeting of a group of 25 delegates to the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Metalworkers and other minutes from meetings of those who would sign the Letter of the 22\u003cbr\u003e 22  Letter of the 22 to the Comintern, signed by Shliapnikov, Kollontai, et al.\u003cbr\u003e 23  Comparison of those signing the Letter of the 22 and the theses of the Workers’ Opposition\u003cbr\u003e 24  Selected Speeches at the Meeting of the RCP(b) Faction of the Fifth Congress of the Metalworkers’ Union, 2–7 March 1922\u003cbr\u003e 25  Letter from Z.L. Shadurskaia to the Politburo, 8 March 1922\u003cbr\u003e 26  Letter from S.P. Medvedev to the Orgburo, 9 March 1922\u003cbr\u003e 27  A.G. Shliapnikov’s correspondence regarding the 22, March 1922\u003cbr\u003e 28  Party Central Control Commission (CCC) questioning of the 22, 17 March 1922\u003cbr\u003e 29  Letter from V.L. Paniushkin in support of Shliapnikov and Medvedev, on the eve of the Eleventh Party Congress\u003cbr\u003e 30  N. Kopylov, ‘For a United Party’\u003cbr\u003e 31  Eleventh Congress of the RCP(b), March–April 1922, Published Speeches at Open Sessions, Unpublished Speeches at 2 April 1922 Closed Session, Published Resolution and other Materials Relating to the Former Workers’ Opposition\u003cbr\u003e 32  A.M. Kollontai’s diary entries on the appeal of the 22 and on the Eleventh Party Congress\u003cbr\u003e 33  Letter from A.M. Kollontai to the Comintern Executive Committee, copying the Politburo\u003cbr\u003e 34  Letter from A.M. Kollontai to the editorial board of the ‘Communist Worker Newspaper’ of Germany, requesting that it cease publication of her brochure, Rabochaia Oppozitsiia, 22 September 1921\u003cbr\u003e 35  Iu.K. Milonov, ‘On the Way to a Worker Encyclopedia: Instead of a Preface’\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e4 Former Worker Oppositionists in the Debates of the NEP Era and During the First Five-Year Plan, 1922–30\u003cbr\u003e 1  Letter from S.P. Medvedev in Berlin to A.G. Shliapnikov in Moscow, 26 September 1922\u003cbr\u003e 2  Iu.Kh. Lutovinov’s speech at the Twelfth RCP(b) Congress, 17–25 April 1923\u003cbr\u003e 3  S.P. Medvedev’s notes from 6 December 1923, possibly from a private talk given in Moscow by an unidentified German communist\u003cbr\u003e 4  N.A. Kubiak’s speech to the Thirteenth Party Conference, 17 January 1924\u003cbr\u003e 5  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Our Differences’, Pravda, 18 January 1924\u003cbr\u003e 6  Resolution proposed by A.G. Shliapnikov and others from the former Workers’ Opposition, [January] 1924\u003cbr\u003e 7  A.G. Shliapnikov’s speeches at the Second Khamovniki District Party Conference, Moscow, 7–10 January 1924\u003cbr\u003e 8  S.P. Medvedev, ‘Letter to a Baku Comrade’, 1924\u003cbr\u003e 9  Letter from S.P. Medvedev in Moscow to A.G. Shliapnikov in France, written 27 December 1924, and A.G. Shliapnikov’s answering letter, dated 7 January 1925, written in Paris\u003cbr\u003e 10  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Features of the Current Moment: About Results of the Fourteenth Party Conference’, with S.P. Medvedev’s suggested changes, May 1925\u003cbr\u003e 11  A.M. Kollontai’s diary notes, February 1926 and November [1927]\u003cbr\u003e 12  Letter from I.I. Nikolaenko, Kiev [to A.G. Shliapnikov and S.P. Medvedev], circa 1926\u003cbr\u003e 13  Letter from A.G. Shliapnikov, Moscow, to [I.I. Nikolaenko], 12 May 1926\u003cbr\u003e 14  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘About a Demonstrative Attack and the Rightist Danger in the Party’\u003cbr\u003e 15  Letter from A.G. Shliapnikov and S.P. Medvedev to the CCC Presidium and the Politburo of the CC VKP(b), 17 September 1926\u003cbr\u003e 16  Letters from A.G. Shliapnikov and S.P. Medvedev to the Politburo, CC and CCC VKP(b), October 1926\u003cbr\u003e 17  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Letter to the Editor’\u003cbr\u003e 18  Undated letter from unknown person (perhaps Mariia Trifonova), to Shliapnikov replied in a 19 July 1927 letter\u003cbr\u003e 19  Letter from Aleksandr [Shliapnikov] to unknown person, 19 July 1927\u003cbr\u003e 20  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Lessons of Intraparty Struggle’\u003cbr\u003e 21  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘For Industrialisation and For Socialism’\u003cbr\u003e 22  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘Letter to the Editor’\u003cbr\u003e 23  A.G. Shliapnikov’s letter to the Bureau of the Omsk District (Okrug) Party Committee, 4 April 1930\u003cbr\u003e 24  A.G. Shliapnikov, ‘A Big Mistake by a Small Group in Omsk’, 28 February 1930\u003cbr\u003e 25  Letter from A.G. Shliapnikov and S.P. Medvedev to the CCC, 28 April 1930, with a copy to the Politburo\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBiographical Glossary\u003cbr\u003eBibliography\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Haymarket Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51359881232727,"sku":"9781642597820","price":52.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-workers-opposition-in-the-russian-communist-party-documents-1919-30-9781642597820","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}