The face of Soviet trade unions, the third man of the Right Opposition
"They accuse us abroad of a one-party regime. Not true. We have many parties. Only one is in power, and the rest are in prison." At the 11th Party Congress in 1922, the hall answered Tomsky with a storm of applause.
The unwavering leader of Soviet trade unionism and the only genuine worker in the Politburo. As VTsSPS chairman and Politburo member under Lenin, he defended union autonomy against Trotsky's militarization program in the 1920–1921 trade union debate. When Stalin moved to scrap NEP, he formed the 'Right Opposition' with Bukharin and Rykov and was ousted in 1929, his fall marking the end of an independent labour movement. In August 1936, when his name surfaced at the Zinoviev–Kamenev trial, he shot himself at his dacha rather than await arrest.
Career Timeline
- 1904–1905Joins Bolsheviks; organises Reval (Tallinn) Soviet
- 1907–1916Delegate to London Congress; hard labour and exile
- 1917Petrograd Committee; liaison during Moscow October uprising
- 1918–1929Chairman of VTsSPS, the all-union trade-union council
- 1922–1930Politburo member
- 1929Falls with Bukharin and Rykov as the 'Right Deviation'
- 1929–1932Chairman, All-Union Chemical Association; Deputy Chairman, VSNKh
- 1932–1936Head of OGIZ, the unified state publishing house
Related historical events
- 1905–1907The Revolution of 1905Organizer of the Revel (Tallinn) SovietHe organized the Soviet of Workers' Deputies and led the general strike in Revel (Tallinn), Estonia, in 1905 and was arrested and exiled after the revolution.
- 1917.10–1918.01The October Revolutionliaison for the Moscow armed uprising
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionMember of the Military Revolutionary Committee and trade union leader
- 1921–1928The New Economic Policy (NEP)Trade union leaderHe led the trade unions through the NEP years, representing workers under market conditions.
- 1928–1937The Five-Year Plans and the Soviet TransformationTrade union leader, opponentAs head of the trade unions he opposed the forced course alongside Bukharin and Rykov, and was removed from the union leadership in 1929.
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeTargetThe trade-union leader who took his own life in 1936 as arrest approached.
The Printer in the Politburo, Chief of the Trade Unions
Mikhail Tomsky was the one genuine worker in the party's top leadership. Born in Kolpino outside St Petersburg, he worked as a lithographer, led the soviet in Revel (Tallinn) in 1905, and passed through the familiar cycle of arrests and exile. Prison was his school and the strike his university.
From 1918 he headed the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions, and in 1922 he entered the Politburo. In the trade union controversy of 1920–1921 he stood against Trotsky's program of militarizing the unions, defending their autonomy and their function of protecting workers, and won alongside Lenin's platform. Representing an organization of millions, he was the living link between the party and the factory floor.
22 August 1936, the Dacha at Bolshevo
Facing the grain crisis of 1928, Tomsky joined Bukharin and Rykov in opposing emergency measures against the peasantry and the breakneck tempo of industrialization. Branded the "Right deviation", he was removed from the trade union leadership in 1929 and, after recanting, shunted off to run the state publishing association (OGIZ). The gradualist line the worker-leader had voiced was defeated.
In August 1936 his name was called out at the Zinoviev-Kamenev trial as an alleged conspirator. On 22 August, the day the press announced that an investigation had been opened against him, Tomsky shot himself at his dacha in Bolshevo, leaving a letter addressed to Stalin. Refusing both trial and confession, this death was the last act of self-determination left to the old workers' leader. His sons did not escape repression, and his name was fully cleared only in 1988.