Lenin’s death released hardened factional alignments within the Soviet Politburo
Evidence
- During the first decade after the Russian Revolution, the crises confronting the Soviet Union and the world Communist movement were dramatized by leadership struggles in Russia and in the Comintern’s national parties. In Russia, Lenin’s long and increasingly incapacitating illness, and finally his death (1924) released the brake: “Although factions had existed in Lenin’s lifetime, these had been transitory and their members had frequently changed sides. [By 1925] the emerging alignment represented hardened positions based on conflicting programs and slogans and was unresponsive to compromise or individual maneuver… . Above all, the sharp division among Russian leaders stemmed from the policy decisions, on socialism in one country and the interpretation and implementation of NEP… . Within the Politburo Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Trotsky assumed the left position Bukharin, Aleksei Rykov, and Mikhail Tomsky, the right; and Stalin, the center, although he invariably allied himself with the right.” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2212
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Stalin’s death triggered an authentic but incomplete detotalitarization process — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 37; Failed assassination attempts trigger disproportionate factional political violence — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2249
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Stalin’s death triggered an authentic but incomplete detotalitarization process — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 37; Failed assassination attempts trigger disproportionate factional political violence — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2249