Ban on Factions (1921 Tenth Party Congress)
파벌 금지 (1921년 제10차 당대회 결의)
The ban on internal factions imposed by the resolution 'On Party Unity', adopted on 16 March 1921 by the 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). The resolution ordered the immediate dissolution of all groups formed around any platform and made non-compliance grounds for unconditional expulsion, while granting the Central Committee power to demote or expel even its own members for factional activity. Clause 7 of the resolution, authorising the expulsion of Central Committee members, was kept secret until 1924.
In depth
Background
Amid the crises of 1921, with the Kronstadt rebellion and famine coinciding and opposition groups such as the Workers' Opposition (Shliapnikov) and the Democratic Centralists taking shape, Lenin argued that party unity was the precondition for the survival of the proletarian dictatorship. He presented the ban as a temporary measure and even criticised Riazanov's proposed amendment forbidding elections by platform as 'excessive and impracticable'.
The core of the resolution
The resolution rested on three pillars. First, the immediate dissolution of all groups formed around any platform, with non-compliance entailing unconditional expulsion. Second, a requirement that criticism be directed through party-wide discussion and 'discussion pamphlets' rather than factional channels. Third, the grant of full powers to the Central Committee, including the power to demote or expel its own members (on a two-thirds vote of a plenum). This last clause (Clause 7) was kept secret from the membership until it was published in 1924.
Aftermath
Presented as temporary, the ban was made permanent under Stalin. It served as the legal basis for the expulsion of Trotsky and Zinoviev in 1927 and for the liquidation of every opposition group in the purges of the 1930s. Historians such as Vadim Rogovin note that the original resolution did not ban intra-party discussion as such, yet in practice, since whoever held power defined 'factionalism', the clause became a cornerstone of the one-party dictatorship.
Related historical events
Sources
- Marxists Internet Archive full text of the resolution On Party Unity (16 March 1921): immediate dissolution of all platform-based groups, expulsion for non-compliance, and CC power to expel its own members (Clause 6); kept secret until 1924.
- Wikipedia (EN) background (Kronstadt, Workers' Opposition, Democratic Centralists), the ban being presented as temporary, Lenin's opposition to a permanent ban as 'excessive and impracticable', and its later use against Trotsky/Zinoviev in 1927.