Lenin’s successor as premier, destroyed as the Right Opposition
'We leave the Central Committee at the moment of victory, at the moment when our party is dominant.' In November 1917, Rykov resigned alongside Kamenev, Zinoviev, and others, demanding a broad coalition of all socialist parties. He retracted nine days later.
Rykov became chairman of Sovnarkom after Lenin's death, leading the Soviet government for six years and embodying the administrative continuity of NEP. During the Civil War he had directed the wartime economy as chairman of VSNKh and overseen Red Army logistics. As premier he stood with Bukharin and Tomsky as the core of the party's 'Right,' championing the worker-peasant alliance, gradual socialist construction through the market, and balanced industrialization. He opposed Stalin's forced collectivization and breakneck industrialization during the 1928-29 grain crisis but was branded the 'Right Opposition,' removed as premier in 1930, and executed after the third Moscow trial of 1938.
Career Timeline
- 1924–1930Chairman of Sovnarkom
Related historical events
- 1917.10–1918.01The October RevolutionCommissar of Internal AffairsHe became the first Commissar of Internal Affairs, though he soon resigned for a time in demanding an all-socialist coalition government.
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionLeader in the Supreme Economic Council and government
- 1922.12Formation of the USSRLenin's personal emissary to GeorgiaDispatched to Georgia on Lenin's orders, he personally witnessed Ordzhonikidze strike Kabakhidze in Ordzhonikidze's Tbilisi apartment: the incident that became Lenin's decisive grounds for holding Stalin and Dzerzhinsky politically accountable.
- 1921–1928The New Economic Policy (NEP)Head of governmentAs chairman of Sovnarkom after Lenin's death, he was responsible for running the NEP economy.
- 1928–1937The Five-Year Plans and the Soviet TransformationHead of government, opponentAs chairman of Sovnarkom he warned against the excesses of the crash course and was removed in 1930.
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeTargetA former head of government executed after the 1938 Moscow Trial.
From Underground Revolutionary to Civil War Economic Chief
Rykov joined the RSDLP in 1899 (some sources say 1898) at age 18 and, while still a first-year law student at Kazan University, entered the local party committee and led workers' study circles. Arrested in 1901, he spent a total of five and a half years in prison and exile before the February Revolution of 1917, repeatedly escaping. He was elected a full member of the Central Committee at the III and IV Party Congresses and a candidate member at the V Congress. He served in the party leadership across multiple terms (1905–07, 1910–11 in French emigration, and beyond). In 1911 he was dispatched to Russia to prepare the Prague Party Conference but was arrested in Moscow and exiled to Pinega in Arkhangelsk province and later to the Narym region. Freed by the February Revolution, he was immediately elected deputy chairman of the Moscow Soviet. In October 1917 he became the first People's Commissar of Internal Affairs in the first Soviet government, signing the decree 'On the Workers' Militia.' However, insisting on a broad coalition of all socialist parties, he resigned from Sovnarkom and the Central Committee after only nine days (together with Zinoviev, Kamenev, and others), only to retract his resignation shortly afterward. During the Civil War he served as Chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh, 1918–1921) and concurrently as the extraordinary plenipotentiary of the Council of Labour and Defence for supply of the Red Army and Navy (chusosnabarm), effectively running Red Army logistics. He was also a member of the Republic's Revolutionary Military Council in 1919. He spoke out against the Red Terror in 1918. In 1923 he again became VSNKh chairman and, with Lenin gravely ill, directed the entire practical work of government before formally succeeding Lenin as premier in February 1924.
Lenin's Successor as Premier — Administrative Continuity of NEP
Rykov became chairman of Sovnarkom (premier) after Lenin's death in 1924, embodying the administrative continuity of NEP. He was a central figure of the 'Right' tendency, advocating the worker-peasant alliance, gradual adjustment of market mechanisms, and balanced industrialization. During the grain procurement crisis of 1928-29 he opposed Stalin's forced collectivization and rapid industrialization line, and was branded part of the 'Right Opposition' alongside Bukharin and Tomsky. Dismissed as premier in 1930, he was politically annihilated and executed in 1938 at the third Moscow trial as a member of the alleged 'anti-Soviet bloc.'