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The Right Opposition (, ''Pravaya oppozitsiya'') or Right Tendency (, ''Praviy uklon'') in the
All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...
was a conditional label formulated by Joseph Stalin in fall of 1928 in regards the opposition against certain measures included within the first five-year plan by
Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory. ...
,
Alexei Rykov Alexei Ivanovich Rykov (25 February 188115 March 1938) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician and statesman, most prominent as premier of Russia and the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1929 and 1924 to 1930 respectively. He wa ...
, Mikhail Tomsky and their supporters within the Soviet Union that did not follow the so called " general line of the party". It is also the name given to "right-wing" critics within the Communist movement internationally, particularly those who coalesced in the International Communist Opposition, regardless of whether they identified with Bukharin and Rykov.


Emergence

The struggle for power in the Soviet Union after the death of Vladimir Lenin saw the development of three major tendencies within the Communist Party. These were described by Leon Trotsky as left, right and centre tendencies, each based on a specific class or caste. Trotsky argued that his tendency, the Left Opposition, represented the internationalist traditions of the working class. The tendency led by Joseph Stalin was described as being in the centre, based on the state and party bureaucracy, tending to shift alliances between the left and the right. The right tendency was identified with the supporters of Nikolai Bukharin and Rykov. It was asserted that they represented the influence of the peasantry and the danger of capitalist restoration. Their policy was closely identified with the New Economic Policy (NEP), with former left communist Bukharin slowly moving to the right of the Bolshevik Party and becoming a strong supporter of the NEP starting in 1921. Right Opposition policies encouraging kulaks and NEPmen to "get rich" were seen by Right Opposition supporters as encouraging kulaks and NEPmen to "grow into" socialism. Alexander has questioned whether the various Right Oppositions could be described as a single international tendency, since they were usually concerned only with the issues relevant for their own countries and their own Communist Parties. Therefore, the Right Opposition was far more fragmented than the Left Opposition. Nevertheless, the various Right Opposition groups did come together to form an International Communist Opposition (ICO). Unlike the Left Opposition, they did not tend to form separate parties as they considered themselves loyal to the Comintern.


Fate of the Russian Right Opposition

Stalin and his "centre" faction were allied with Bukharin and the Right Opposition from late 1924, with Bukharin elaborating Stalin's theory of Socialism in One Country. Together, they expelled Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev and the
United Opposition United Opposition may refer to: *United Opposition (Greece) *United Opposition (Hungary, 1930s) *United Opposition (Philippines) *United Opposition (Soviet Union) * United Opposition of Serbia See also *Opposition (politics) *United for Hungary ...
from the Communist Party in December 1927. However, once Trotsky was out of the way and the Left Opposition had been illegalized, Stalin soon became alarmed at the danger posed to the Soviet state by the rising power of the capitalistic Kulaks and NEPmen, who had become emboldened by the Left Opposition's illegalization. Sensing this danger, Stalin then turned on his Right Opposition allies. Bukharin and the Right Opposition were, in their turn, sidelined and removed from important positions within the Communist Party and the Soviet government from 1928-1930, with Stalin ditching the NEP and beginning the first Five-year plan. One of the last attempts of the Rightists to resist Stalin was the Ryutin Affair in 1932, where a manifesto against the soviet policy of collectivization and Stalin was circulated. It openly called for "The Liquidation of the dictatorship of Stalin and his clique". Later, some rightists joined a secret bloc with Leon Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev in order to oppose Stalin. Historian Pierre Broué stated that it dissolved in early 1933.Bukharin was isolated from his allies abroad, and, in the face of increasing Stalinist repression, was unable to mount a sustained struggle against Stalin. Unlike Trotsky, who built an anti-Stalinist movement, Bukharin and his allies capitulated to Stalin and admitted their "ideological errors". They were temporarily rehabilitated, though they were allowed only minor posts and did not return to their former prominence. Bukharin and his allies were later executed during the Great Purge trials.


Foundation of the International Communist Opposition

The various right oppositional groups loosely aligned with Bukharin within the
Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
were forced to form their own organisations when they were, in their turn, purged from the national sections of the Comintern. In Europe, the most important and substantial of these new organisations was the Communist Party Opposition (KPO) in Germany, led by Heinrich Brandler. In the United States, Jay Lovestone, Bertram Wolfe and their supporters founded the
Communist Party (Opposition) The Lovestoneites, led by former General Secretary of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) Jay Lovestone, were a small American oppositionist communist movement of the 1930s. The organization emerged from a factional fight in the CPUSA in 1929 and unsu ...
and published the newspaper ''Workers Age''. In Canada, the Marxian Educational League was formed as part of Lovestone's CP(O), and it became affiliated with the
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; french: Fédération du Commonwealth Coopératif, FCC); from 1955 the Social Democratic Party of Canada (''french: Parti social démocratique du Canada''), was a federal democratic socialism, democra ...
. However, by the end of 1939, both the Toronto and Montreal groups of this organization had ceased to function. In a few places, communist groups affiliated with the ICO achieved more success than the Comintern-affiliated organizations. For example, in Sweden, the Socialist Party of Karl Kilbom, affiliated with the ICO, received 5.7% of the vote in the 1932 elections to the
Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...
, outpolling the Comintern section which received 3.9%. In Spain, the ICO-affiliated ''Bloque Obrero y Campesino'' (BOC), led by Joaquin Maurin, was for a time larger and more important than the official Spanish Communist Party. Later, the BOC merged with Andrés Nin's ''Izquierda Comunista'' in 1935 to form the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( POUM) which was to be a major party backing the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War. Maurin became
general secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
of the POUM but was arrested early in the Civil War. As a result, Nin, a former Trotskyist, became the POUM's new leader. In all, the ICO had member parties in fifteen countries during the 1930s. However, the ICO and its affiliates did not consider themselves a new international, but a "faction" that was involuntarily excluded from the Comintern and that was anxious to return to it if only the Comintern would change its policies and allow ICO members the freedom to advocate their positions. Despite being identified with Bukharin, the ICO generally supported Stalin's economic policies (which Bukharin opposed), such as the Five Year Plans to achieve rapid industrialization, and the collectivization of agriculture. Furthermore, they even supported the early
Moscow Trials The Moscow trials were a series of show trials held by the Soviet Union between 1936 and 1938 at the instigation of Joseph Stalin. They were nominally directed against "Trotskyists" and members of "Right Opposition" of the Communist Party of th ...
. Their main difference with Stalin and the Comintern was over the issue of democracy within the Communist International and the influence of the CPSU in the Comintern and its sections, and over Stalin's international policy, particularly the Third Period and the subsequent Popular Front policies. In addition, as the Moscow Trials entered their second phase and turned against Bukharin and his supporters, disputes broke out within the ICO regarding whether there was any point in continuing with the concept of being an opposition within the Communist movement rather than openly create a new international rival to the Comintern, as Trotsky did with his Fourth International.


End of the Right Opposition

The ICO began to disintegrate in 1933. With the coming to power of the Nazis, the German party had to go underground and establish an exile branch in Paris. Paris was also the new home of the international ICO headquarters, which became dominated by the Germans. The Norwegian and Swedish groups left later that year to join the new "centrist" International Buro for Revolutionary Socialist Unity (or London Bureau) established in Paris that August. The Czechoslovak affiliate was weakened by the defection of its Czech members in December, making the party a largely
Sudeten German German Bohemians (german: Deutschböhmen und Deutschmährer, i.e. German Bohemians and German Moravians), later known as Sudeten Germans, were ethnic Germans living in the Czech lands of the Bohemian Crown, which later became an integral part ...
group at a time when that community was becoming increasingly attracted to the Nazis. The Austrian group had to go underground after the Dollfus putsch of March 1934, and the majority of the Alsatian section was expelled that summer for its pro-Nazi sympathies. The Swiss affiliate went over to the Social Democrats in 1936, and M.N. Roy took his Indian group out in 1937. Furthermore, the suppression of POUM in May 1937 and the execution of Bukharin and other "rights" in the Soviet Union had convinced many that the Communist International could not be reformed and the idea of being an "opposition" within it was untenable. At a conference in February 1938, the International Communist Opposition affiliated with the London Bureau. This led to some confusion as to whether affiliates of the ICO were also affiliates of the London Bureau as organizations themselves. To straighten out this overlapping another conference was held in Paris in April 1939 which dissolved both entities into a new organization, the International Revolutionary Marxist Centre, to be headquartered in Paris. Membership in the new group was quickly ratified by the ILLA, the KPO, POUM, PSOP, the ILP and the Archaio-Marxists. It ceased to exist after the fall of France. A few groups continue the tradition of this current today. Th
Gruppe Arbeiterpolitik
in Germany is one such group.


Meetings

*The first gathering of the opposition Communists was held in Berlin March 17–19, 1930. It was attended by the oppositions of Germany, Czechoslovakia, Sweden and by M. N. Roy. The meeting decided to set up an information center in Berlin to co-ordinate international activities and publish a bulletin, ''International Information of the Communist Opposition'', which had previously been published by the KPO. *The first official conference of the ICO was held in Berlin in December 1930. It was attended by representatives from Germany, Alsace, Sweden, the United States, Switzerland, and Norway, with letters from sympathizers in Austria, Finland, Italy and Canada. Adopts the "Platform of the International Communist Opposition" *the second official congress was held in Berlin, July 2–5, 1932, attended by representatives from Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Spain and the US. *An "enlarged session of the Bureau" was held in July 1933 to discuss the Nazi triumph in Germany and the Paris conference of "centrist" groups. Attended by representatives from Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the US. The Norwegians and Swedes did not attend, as they favored participation in the Paris conference. The ICO itself declined invitation to the conference. ICO headquarters moved to Paris.


Groups associated with the ICO


Germany

''See Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands - Opposition.'' The Gruppe Arbeiterpolitik, founded by Heinrich Brandler, is effectively a successor organisation.


Austria

The Communist Opposition of Austria was established in late 1929 when the politburo of the official Communist Party of Austria expelled Willi Schlamm,
A Reisinger A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''ae ...
,
Joseph Klein Joseph Klein (1886 - ?) was an American machinist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who served one term as a Socialist member of the Wisconsin State Assembly. Background Klein was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1886, and received his educatio ...
and
Richard Vovesny Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'str ...
. They had their own periodical, ''Der Neue Mahnruf'' until the Dolfuss dictatorship came to power in 1934. Jay Lovestone happened to be in Austria at the time of the anchluss in early March 1938 at the invitation of a group called Der Funke and was able to arrange eight fake passports for eight leaders of the Austrian opposition. They left Vienna on March 14, the day before Hitler arrived in the city. Schlamm later edited a paper for Austrian exiles in Prague, ''Weltbühne'', then emigrated to the US.


Czechoslovakia

A Czechoslovak Opposition was formed in 1928. At first it was quite large with about 6,000 members and control of the communist trade union,
Mezinárodní všeodborový svaz ''Mezinárodní všeodborový svaz'' '(International All-Trade Union League', abbreviated MVS, german: Internationalen Allgewerkschaftlichen Verband, abbreviated IAV) was a national trade union centre in Czechoslovakia. MVS was founded in Octobe ...
. However the group was faction prone along ethnic lines. The Czech element seceded in December 1933 to join the Social Democrats, and from then on the membership was largely confined to the ethnic German
Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...
. There they face tense competition with Konrad Henleins pro-Nazi Sudeten German Party. In the June 1938 elections the Oppositionists joined a coalition with the Social Democrats and Communists to oppose the SdP, but the Nazis won by wide margins. After the Sudetenland was annexed to Nazi Germany, the Oppositionists went into exile. The party's trade union centre, meanwhile, was hurt by the defection of CP loyalists who set up another trade union federation. In the mid-1930s the Mezinárodní všeodborový svazvoluntarily merged with the Social Democratic
Odborové sdružení československé Czechoslovak Trade Union Association ( cs, Odborové sdružení československé), abbreviated to OSČ, was a national trade union center, founded in 1897 in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. With the break-up of the empire, the OSČ emer ...
in order to advance labor unity.


Hungary

An Opposition group was established in Hungary in 1932. At that time the Hungarian Communist Party was already an underground movement, and the opposition claimed about 10% of its membership.


Poland

While never a formal organization, there was a tendency within the Polish Communist Party usually known as the "three Ws" after the leaders -- Adolf Warski,
Henryk Walecki Maksymilian Horwitz (pseudonym: ''Henryk Walecki''; 6 September 1877 – 20 September 1937) was a leader and theoretician of the Polish socialist and communist movement. Biography Maksymilian Horwitz was born to a Jewish family in Warsaw, the s ...
, Maria Koszutska (pseud. Wera Kostrzewa). As the Party was already underground in Poland, and the communists already weak the group decided not to create a formal organization, though they were often depicted as followers of Brandler and Thalheimer by the leadership. All three died in gulags.


Switzerland

In Switzerland, the official Communist Party's leader, Jules Humbert-Droz, was sympathetic to the Right Opposition, and because of that lost his powerful position in the Comintern. Later, he self-criticized and capitulated to the communist leadership only to be expelled in 1943. One cantonal section of the
Swiss Communist Party The Communist Party of Switzerland (german: Kommunistische Partei der Schweiz; KPS) or Swiss Communist Party (french: Parti communiste suisse; it, Partito Comunista Svizzero; PCS) was a communist party in Switzerland between 1921 and 1944. It wa ...
, in Schaffhausen, did secede and form a Communist opposition group. For a while, it was quite successful, dominating the local labor movement, especially among tool and watchmakers. In the Oct 20, 1933 election, the CPO elected 10 of the 30 local councilors and the CPOs leader,
Walther Bringolf Walther Bringolf (1 August 1895 – 24 March 1981) was a former President of the National Council of Switzerland (1961/1962). He was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland and was a long-time mayor of Schaffhausen (1933–1968). ...
, was chosen as mayor. The CPO joined the Swiss Socialist Party by 1936.


Italy

There was some resistance in the Italian Party to the new Third Period line. At first the two Italian ECCI members, Palmiro Togliatti and Angelo Tasca opposed the Cominterns actions with regard to the German party. However, at the Tenth Plenum in June 1929 Togliatti capitulated to Stalins wishes while Tasca was expelled. Later, at a May 1930 plenum of the Party, politburo members Pasquini and Santini were removed for opposing the Third Period and "organizational measures" were taken against lower cadres.


Spain

''See Bloque Obrero y Campesino/Bloc Obrer i Camperol''


Sweden

''See Socialist Party''


Finland

''See
Left Group of Finnish Workers Left Group of Finnish Workers ( fi, Suomen työväen vasemmistoryhmä) was a socialist political party in Finland. The party was active in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The group was founded by activists who had previously cooperated with the ...
''


Norway

''See
Mot Dag Mot Dag (, 'Towards Day') was a Norwegian political group. The group was active from the 1920s to the early 1930s and was first affiliated with the Labour Party. After World War II, many of its former members were leaders in Norwegian politics an ...
''


Denmark

A Danish Opposition group was founded in 1933. It lasted at least until February 1938 when its representative attended the ICO unity conference with the London Bureau.


France

In France the initial purge of the Communist Party in 1929 took mayors or city councilors from
Clichy Clichy may refer to: In Paris Region, France * Canton of Clichy, an administrative division of the Hauts-de-Seine department, in northern France * Clichy-sous-Bois, commune in the Seine-Saint-Denis ''département'' * Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, comm ...
, Auffay, Saint-Denis, Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, Villetaneuse and Paris. The party's general secretary and the editor of '' L'Humanité'' were also demoted. However, not all of the expelled necessarily adhered to the ICOs positions; the Parisian councilors, for instance, formed their own party, Workers and Peasants Party, which in turn joined the Party of Proletarian Unity in December 1930. The small national Opposition group joined the expelled Seine Federation of the SFIO in 1938 to form the Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party.


Alsace

A separate ICO party, the Opposition Communist Party of Alsace-Lorraine (KPO), was created in Alsace. The Alsatian KPO campaigned for autonomy for Alsace, and formed an alliance with clerical autonomist. The Alsatian KPO was led by Charles Hueber (mayor of
Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
1929–1935) and
Jean-Pierre Mourer Jean-Pierre Mourer (19 August 1897 in Wittring, Moselle – 10 June 1947 in Île Napoléon, Mulhouse) was an Alsatian politician. He was elected to the French National Assembly in 1928, 1932 and 1936.Mourer (Jean Pierre)' A railway employee, ...
(member of the
French National Assembly The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known a ...
). It ran a daily newspaper of its own, ''
Die Neue Welt ''Die Neue Welt'' ('The New World') was a newspaper issued from Alsace, France. It was founded in the end of January 1921 by Charles Hueber, a local leader of the French Communist Party in Alsace. The newspaper was merged into the ''l'Humanité d' ...
''. The Alsatian KPO gradually moved towards pro-Nazi positions, and was expelled from ICO in 1934. A small group remained loyal to the ICO and published a weekly, ''Arbeiter Politik'', but had little influence.


United Kingdom

During most of its history the right Opposition in the United Kingdom was represented principally within the Independent Labour Party. Oppositionists joined the Revolutionary Policy Committee, part of which represented their line within the ILP. An independent Opposition group was formed in 1935, but had little influence. By 1938 the line of the ICO had turned towards the "centrist" position of the ILP leadership under Fenner Brockway and the work of independent factions within the party became less tenable.


United States and Canada

:''See Lovestoneites''


India

The leading Indian Communist
Manabendra Nath Roy Manabendra Nath Roy (born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, better known as M. N. Roy; 21 March 1887 – 25 January 1954) was an Indian revolutionary, radical activist and political theorist, as well as a noted philosopher in the 20th century. Roy ...
was an early and outspoken supporter of the Right Opposition. While he never had more than a marginal following, he wielded extraordinary influence on the left wing of the Indian National Congress and played an instrumental role in the election of
Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945 * * * * * * * * *) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperia ...
to the leadership of Congress. However, after Bose split with Congress and formed the
All India Forward Bloc The All India Forward Bloc ( AIFB) is a left-wing nationalist political party in India. It emerged as a faction within the Indian National Congress in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The party re-established as an independent political party a ...
, Roy sharply diverged to the point where he even came to oppose the Congress-led
Quit India The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in ...
campaign. The split between Bose and Roy was in many ways analogous to the American split between Bertram Wolfe and Jay Lovestone.


Argentina

While never an official member of the ICO, a Right Oppositionist group split from the Communist Party of Argentina in 1928 led by
José Penelon The Labour Gathering Party ( es, Partido Concentración Obrera) was a political party in Argentina, led by José Penelon. It emerged from a dissident wing of the Communist Party of Argentina in the late 1920s. The party would exist for decades, ma ...
. Penelon formed the Partido Comunista de Region Argentina, which was later renamed the Partido Concentracion Obrera. It merged with the Social Democrats in 1971.


Mexico

The
Marxist Workers Bloc of Mexico The Marxist Workers Bloc of Mexico ( es, Bloque Obrero Marxista de México) was a communist political organization in Mexico. The organization was founded in 1937.Musacchio, Humberto. Milenios de México'. México: Hoja Casa Editorial, 1999. p. 164 ...
was founded in early 1937. It issued a paper called ''La Batalla'', after POUMs journal and announced its adherence to the ICO. It was never heard from again.Alexander, ''The Right Opposition'', p.275.


See also

*
Moscow Trials The Moscow trials were a series of show trials held by the Soviet Union between 1936 and 1938 at the instigation of Joseph Stalin. They were nominally directed against "Trotskyists" and members of "Right Opposition" of the Communist Party of th ...
* Capitalist roader


Further reading

There is little information available on the International Communist Opposition in English. The only book length study is Robert J Alexander's ''The Right Opposition; The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s'' (). Issues of ''Revolutionary History'' journal have reprinted a number of texts from members of Right Oppositional groups of the 1930s.


Notes


External links

* ''For unity of the world Communist movement : a letter to the Independent Labor Party of Great Britain from the Communist Party USA (Opposition)''
A webpage devoted to the American branch of the Right Opposition''What is the Communist Opposition?''
by Bertram Wolfe
''International Class Struggle Vol 1 #1 Summer 1936''''International Class Struggle Vol 1 #2 Winter 1936''''International Class Struggle Vol 1 #3 Spring 1937''
{{Authority control Anti-Stalinist left Communist parties in the Soviet Union Factions in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Left-wing internationals Organizations disestablished in 1940