Bolshevik revolutionary and metalworker from Lugansk, a leader of the Workers' Opposition
As one of the leaders of the Workers' Opposition in 1920–1921 he defended collegial management of industry and workers' interests, was defeated by Lenin at the 10th Party Congress, and, disillusioned with the NEP and the bureaucratization of the party, shot himself on 7 May 1924.
Born in 1887 in Lugansk, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, into a peasant family, he worked from childhood as a metal turner at the Lugansk cartridge factory. He joined the RSDLP in 1904, was exiled to Arkhangelsk and Yakutsk provinces and escaped twice, and during the reaction of 1907–1910 belonged to the SR party before returning to the Bolsheviks. In March 1917 he became a member of the Lugansk Bolshevik committee, in August was elected chairman of the metalworkers' union board, and in November was elected to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. In March 1918 he headed the SNK of the Lugansk region and then became deputy chairman of the SNK of the Donets-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, and after the civil war he served on the VTsSPS presidium and as chairman of the Union of Communications Workers.
Also known as: Ivan
Activities and affiliations
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1904–1924
Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
Social movements and organizing -
1920
Social movements and organizing
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All-Russian Metalworkers' UnionMember of the Central CommitteeMain
Social movements and organizing
Career Timeline
- 1904Joined the RSDLP
- 1917Chairman of the Lugansk Metalworkers' Union and member of the Lugansk RSDLP(b) committee
- 1917.12Chairman of the Donets-Krivoy Rog regional trade-union committee
- 1918.03Chairman of the SNK of Lugansk Oblast
- 1918.04Deputy chairman of the SNK of the Donets-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic
- 1918.07.12–10.17Member of the CC of the CP(b)U
- 1919.01.25–1921.05.17Member of the VTsSPS presidium
- 1919.12.10–1920.12.31Secretary of the VTsIK
- 1921–1922Deputy trade representative of the RSFSR in Germany
- 1921.01.05–12.29Secretary of the VTsIK
- 1922.09.22–1924.05.07Member of the VTsSPS presidium and chairman of the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Workers and Employees of Communications
Related historical events
The trade-union debate and the Workers' Opposition
At the Ninth Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in March 1920, Lutovinov presented Alexander Shlyapnikov’s theses on trade unions. He opposed one-man management in industry and advocated collegial management, but differed from Shlyapnikov’s emphasis on immediately realizing workers’ control through trade unions: he held that certain preconditions had to be met before workers could control industry. At the Ninth Party Conference in September, he became a leading spokesman for the Workers’ Opposition and called for broader workers’ democracy, abolition of appointments, and a rigorous party purge. The proposal failed to win support, and the conference decided to establish a control commission to prevent factional struggle. In autumn 1920 he served on a party committee on trade unions and intervened in the debate by writing to members of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine. Although he did not sign the Workers’ Opposition platform in December, he continued to criticize party policy on trade unions, workers, and the economy, and helped the opposition in the election of delegates to the Congress of Soviets.
By late January 1921, Lutovinov asked to resign from the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions, citing sharp disagreement with its majority over the trade-union question. The leadership agreed to remove him from administrative trade-union work but rejected his request to return to factory work. In March he was sent to Berlin to investigate the financial management of the Soviet embassy; from there, he sent a letter supporting the violent suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion. Alongside his opposition activity within the party, this record shows that his advocacy of workers’ rights and trade-union autonomy did not amount to uniform opposition to party policy or state coercion.