Formed in April 1926, the United Opposition was an alliance between Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev, and Grigory Zinoviev. These former foes headed a loose association of several thousand anti-Stalinists, including remnants of other opposition groups, as well as Vladimir Lenin's widow, Nadezhda Krupskaya. The United Opposition's main goal was to offset support for Josef Stalin among rank-and-file party members.
In July 1926, United Oppositionists openly clashed with Stalin at a Central Committee plenum. Chief among their many complaints was the failure of state industry to keep pace with economic development, thus perpetuating a shortage of goods. They advocated a program of intensified industrial production and the collectivization of agriculture, the same program that Stalin would adopt two years later. The Central Committee responded by charging Zinoviev with violating the Party's ban on factions and removed him from the Politburo.
Thus blocked in the Central Committee, the United Opposition took its case directly to the factories by staging public demonstrations in late September. Within a month, under fire from Stalin's supporters, Trotsky, Kamenev, and Zinoviev capitulated and publicly recanted. Trotsky was removed from the Politburo, and Kamenev lost his standing as a candidate member. Further machinations and conflicts resulted in the expulsion of the trio from the Central Committee in October 1927. The following month Trotsky and Zinoviev were purged from the party altogether, followed by Kamenev's removal from the party in December 1927. The defeat of the United Opposition set the stage for Stalin to move against what he labeled the Right Opposition, thereby consolidating his power.
Bibliography
Carr, E. H., and Davies, R. W. (1971). Foundations of a Planned Economy, 1926 - 1929. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan.
Deutscher, Isaac. (1963). The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky, 1921 - 1929. London: Oxford University Press.
—KATE TRANSCHEL
