The Right Opposition's institutional anchor in Moscow
19 October 1928. At the joint plenum of the Moscow Committee and Moscow Control Commission, Stalin personally delivered the keynote report on the 'right danger.' Uglanov was removed as Moscow first secretary the following month.
Born on 5 (17) December 1886 into a Russian peasant family in the village of Feodoritskoye, Yaroslavl Governorate. He worked in St Petersburg, took part in the 1905–07 revolution, joined the RSDLP as a Bolshevik in 1907, was conscripted again in 1914 and demobilized in 1916 after a wound. Leading the Moscow party organization from 1924 to 1928, he became one of the party's most powerful figures; as CC secretary and candidate Politburo member he worked with Ryutin to smash the Left Opposition in Moscow. In 1928 he became a leader of the Right Opposition against forced collectivization and breakneck industrialization, but was removed as Moscow first secretary that November and served as People's Commissar of Labour until 1930. Expelled in the 1932 Ryutin affair and arrested again on 23 August 1936, he was sentenced to death on 31 May 1937 and shot that day; he was rehabilitated in 1989.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1907Joins the RSDLP as a Bolshevik
- 1914–16Serves in the Tsarist army; wounded, returns to Petrograd
- 1917Participates in the February and October Revolutions; Petrograd Soviet deputy
- 1921–22Responsible secretary of the Petrograd party committee; helps suppress Kronstadt
- 1922–24Responsible secretary of the Nizhny Novgorod party committee
- 1924–28First secretary of the Moscow party committee; CC secretary
- 1926–29Candidate member of the Politburo
- 1928–30People's Commissar of Labour of the USSR
- 1932Expelled from the party in the Ryutin affair
- 1937Sentenced to death by the Military Collegium; shot the same day
The Soviet Politburo
- Candidate 1926.01–1929.04
1929.04 removed · Right Opposition; executed in 1937
Related historical events
- 1905–1907The Revolution of 1905Participant in the 1905 RevolutionWhile working in St Petersburg, he took part in the 1905–07 revolution.
- 1917.02–07The February RevolutionParticipant in the February Revolution, Petrograd Soviet deputy
- 1917.10–1918.01The October RevolutionOctober Revolution participant
- 1921.03The Kronstadt RebellionParty official who helped suppress the rebellionAs responsible secretary of the Petrograd party committee, he helped suppress Kronstadt.
- 1921–1928The New Economic Policy (NEP)as the organizational base of the Right Opposition, supported the continuation of NEP
- 1923–1927The Succession Struggle and the Left OppositionParty official who helped crush the Left OppositionWith Ryutin, he led efforts to crush the Left Opposition in Moscow.
- 1928–1937The Five-Year Plans and the Soviet TransformationOrganizational backbone of the Right OppositionAs Moscow party first secretary he gave the Right Opposition its institutional weight; during the 1928 grain crisis he opposed emergency measures and, alongside Bukharin and Rykov, resisted the crash industrialization and forced collectivization course.
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeTargetA Moscow party leader aligned with Bukharin, executed in 1937.
From revolution to the Right Opposition
Born on 5 (17) December 1886 into a Russian peasant family in the village of Feodoritskoye, Yaroslavl Governorate. He worked in St Petersburg, took part in the 1905–07 revolution, joined the RSDLP as a Bolshevik in 1907, was conscripted again in 1914 and demobilized in 1916 after a wound. Leading the Moscow party organization from 1924 to 1928, he became one of the party's most powerful figures; as CC secretary and candidate Politburo member he worked with Ryutin to smash the Left Opposition in Moscow. In 1928 he became a leader of the Right Opposition against forced collectivization and breakneck industrialization, but was removed as Moscow first secretary that November and served as People's Commissar of Labour until 1930. Expelled in the 1932 Ryutin affair and arrested again on 23 August 1936, he was sentenced to death on 31 May 1937 and shot that day; he was rehabilitated in 1989.
Master of the Moscow Party Machine
Uglanov entered the central political stage in autumn 1924 when he was appointed first secretary of the Moscow party organization. Over four years he built Moscow into the party's largest regional power base, staffing the district committees with loyalists. Together with Martemyan Ryutin of the Krasnaya Presnya district, the Moscow machine served as the battering ram that crushed the Left Opposition (Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev) in 1925–27, a service for which Uglanov was rewarded with candidate Politburo membership in 1926.
But when Stalin pivoted in 1928 toward forced grain requisitions and breakneck industrialization, Uglanov turned the very machine he had built against him. At the July 1928 Central Committee plenum, he delivered the most outspoken Rightist speech, demanding that the leadership clarify its intentions 'so that the peasants shall have no grounds for fearing that we are returning to War Communism.' The Moscow district secretaries joined in collective resistance.
Stalin responded by systematically dismantling Uglanov's base. On 19 October 1928, he personally mounted the podium at the joint plenum of the Moscow Committee and Moscow Control Commission to deliver the keynote speech on 'The Right Danger.' The organization Uglanov had laboriously constructed over four years overwhelmingly endorsed the Central Committee's condemnation of the 'Right deviation' that day. Within a month, Uglanov was removed as Moscow first secretary, and his district secretaries (Ryutin, Penkov, Yakovlev, Kulakov) were purged in succession. He had been abandoned by the very apparatus he had built.
Uglanov's fall became a textbook case of how Stalin neutralized and captured regional party machines. The Moscow organization was subsequently reconstituted under Stalin loyalists Molotov and Kaganovich, and the very notion of regional party autonomy began to vanish.