Bolsheviks Against Stalinism 1928-1933: Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition

by Vadim Z. Rogovin

This is the second in a seven-volume series by the Russian Marxist historian, Vadim Rogovin, on the history of the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1940. Rogovin traces the inner-party struggles of 1928-1933, utilizing contemporaneous official documents; speeches and articles; Soviet archival material; memoirs of participants in political life; and documents by oppositionists in groups that were unknown to Soviet readers for many decades.
The Left Opposition, led by Leon Trotsky, offered the most principled Marxist opposition to Stalinism, even as its members were being hounded into exile and imprisonment. Less known opposition groups, such as the Riutin group, are systematically presented. Rogovin analyzes the devastating impact of Stalinism on the Comintern. The alternative to Stalinism offered by the Left Opposition is presented chapter by chapter in this richly illustrated work.

Genres: History

566 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Russian Trotskyist Historian.

He is most known for "Was There An Alternative?" a 7-volume study of Stalin era between 1923 and 1940, with an emphasis on the Trotskyist opposition.

He was considered the leading one among Trotskyist Soviet historians emerging after Perestroika.

Reviews

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enormous masterpiece of historical research and writing about the opposition to Stalin within the Soviet Union. Contrary to those who continue to promulgate the false narrative that the only possible outcome of the Russian Revolution was Stalinist repression and dictatorship, Vadim Rogovin provides the evidence that there were a number of movements against Stalin, particularly in the years 1928-1933 (the year Hitler came to power in Germany). The most well-known was the Left Opposition, led by Leon Trotsky, whose publication Bulletin of the Opposition, was published first in Berlin and then in Paris. But there were others, many unknown to me previously, like the Riutin Group.

Rogovin details how Stalin's reckless and ego-driven programs of forced collectivization in agriculture, and unrealistic demands on industrial production--at the expense of the proletariat--contributed to the opposition movements. Also described is the deadly result of Stalin's notion of "social fascism" directed against any collaboration with social democracy in Germany to stop the rise of Hitler.

This history deserves as wide an audience as possible to correct the lies and falsifications about this period in the USSR--both the falsifications of the capitalist governments of the west AND the falsifications by Stalin himself in his attempt to cast himself as the infallible heir to Lenin, and his unremitting war against Trotsky, ending in the show trials of 1936-37 and the murder of Trotsky in Mexico in 1940.

It is my opinion that this history must be made known widely and taught in schools in order to counteract the false and prejudiced history about the Soviet Union that has until now held reign.

[Denis Knezovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amid the ever-growing crises of capitalism, many people are yearning for an alternative to it. When we ask ourselves whether such an alternative exists, the question that always arises is if there was an alternative to brutal Stalinism in the Soviet Union. In this book, Mr. Rogovin really shines a light on especially the most principled of groups standing against Stalinism, the Left Opposition led by Leon Trotsky. In this masterpiece, Rogovin also looks at other Marxist oppositions within the USSR and makes clear that principled Bolsheviks opposed Stalinist tyranny. Neither the bureaucratic cliques that ruled the Soviet Union from Lenin's death to the restoration of capitalism nor the Stalinist satellite states in Eastern Europe and parts of Asia had much in common with actual Marxist ideology. That is why Rogovin states that any future Marxists will need to deal with the legacy of Stalinism. For that task, this book is an indispensable tool. Five stars!

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very important book.