From Moscow uprising artillery commander to Left Communist and Democratic Centralist
Building socialism in pre-industrial Russia alone was 'a side turning off the main highway of European socialism' — foredoomed to failure.
A Moscow law student and Bolshevik from 1907, he formed a Marxist theorists' trio with Nikolai Bukharin and Valerian Osinsky. In October 1917 he commanded the heavy artillery that secured Bolshevik victory in Moscow, and served as People's Commissar of Trade and Industry in early 1918. A Left Communist opponent of Brest-Litovsk, he spent the next decade in successive oppositions (Democratic Centralist, signatory of the Declaration of 46, and United Opposition ally of Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev) consistently pressing for party democracy. From 1921–1927 he sat on the Gosplan Presidium, chaired the Vesenkha financial commission, served on the Council of Labor and Defense, and edited Pravda. He regarded Russian socialism in isolation as 'a side turning off the main highway of European socialism, foredoomed to failure,' and after expulsion declared the revolution dead under Stalin.
Career Timeline
- 1907Joined the Bolsheviks
- 1909–1914Law student at Moscow University, agitator for Moscow Committee
- 1914–1917Warrant officer, artillery, Russian Imperial Army, Western Front
- 1917Editor of Sotsial-Demokrat, member of Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee, commanded heavy artillery
- 1918.02–1918.04People's Commissar of Trade and Industry, RSFSR
- 1918–1921Left Communist, leader of the Military Opposition, worked in Vesenkha (VSNKh)
- 1920–1923Leader of the Democratic Centralists ('Decists')
- 1921–1927Presidium of Gosplan, board of Council of Labor and Defense, chair of Vesenkha financial commission, board of Central Statistical Administration
- 1923Signed the Declaration of 46
- 1924–1926Editorial board member of Pravda and Ekonomicheskaya Zhizn
- 1926–1927Formed the 'Group of 15' with Sapronov, joined the United Opposition
- 1927.12Expelled at 15th Party Congress, sentenced to 3 years exile in the Urals
- 1930–1937Repeated imprisonment and exile, transferred to Moscow from Suzdal special prison
- 1937.05.26Sentenced to death by Military Collegium, shot same day