Left Opposition
[3] Members represented the most internationalist elements of the party and held offices at the highest responsibility with Christian Rakovsky, Adolph Joffe, and Nikolay Krestinsky holding ambassadorial posts in London, Paris, Tokyo, and Berlin.
The platform called for the state to adopt a programme for mass industrialisation and to encourage the mechanization and collectivisation of agriculture, thereby developing the means of production and helping the Soviet Union move towards parity with Western capitalist countries, which would also increase the proportion of the economy which was part of the socialised sector of the economy and definitively shift the Soviet Union towards a socialist mode of production.
Another confrontation took place from October to December 1924, during the so-called "Literary Discussion" and criticism of Trotsky's permanent revolution policy as Stalin proposed socialism in one country.
Soon after the April 1925 Conference, Zinoviev and Kamenev formed the New Opposition, but they were defeated by Stalin, who was again supported by Bukharin and Rykov, at the XIVth Party Congress in December 1925.
After their expulsion by the XVth Congress, Zinoviev, Kamenev, and their supporters immediately surrendered to Stalin, "admitted their mistakes" and were readmitted to the Communist Party in 1928, although they never regained their former influence and eventually perished in the Great Purge.
[13] Trotsky maintained that the disproportions and imbalances which became characteristic of Stalinist planning in the 1930s such as the underdeveloped consumer base along with the priority focus on heavy industry were due to a number of avoidable problems.
Concurrently, Daniels believed that the practical differences in their international policy with other factions had been exaggerated and he contended that Trotsky was no more prepared than other Bolshevik figures to risk war or the loss of trade opportunities despite his support for world revolution.
[18] At the same time, Stalin approved the appointmnet of Amayak Nazaretian, the head of his personal secretariat, who would later falsify voting results of party meetings which were then reported to Pravda magazine.
Although, Weissman acknowledged the heterogenous views of the Left Opposition and described one of their members, Victor Serge, as a consistent defender of a multi-party system and favoured a coalition government to bureaucratic rule.
[20] Other figures such as Isaac Deutscher and Ernest Mandel maintain that the intra-party reforms proposed by the Left Opposition from 1923-1926 would have revitalised party democratization, mass participation, worker's self-management and eventually a multi-party socialist democracy.
[23] Party histories and documents such as the "Great Soviet Encyclopedia" recorded varying levels of support for the Left Opposition across the membership base.
At a meeting of workers' cells, 9,843 voters were cast for the Central Committee (CC) which was controlled by Zinioviev, Kamenev, and Stalin at the time whereas 2,223 voted for the Opposition.
[24] Internationally, Trotsky's opposition and criticism of the ruling troika received support from several Central Committee members of foreign communist parties.
