United Opposition
Encyclopedia
The United Opposition (sometimes also called the Joint Opposition) was a group formed in the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1926 by Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

, Lev Kamenev
Lev Kamenev
Lev Borisovich Kamenev , born Rozenfeld , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician. He was briefly head of state of the new republic in 1917, and from 1923-24 the acting Premier in the last year of Lenin's life....

 and Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...

 in opposition to Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

. It demanded, among other things, greater freedom of expression within the Party (in effect, lifting the Ban on Factions
Ban on Factions
1920 brought about varying splits in the Communist party, angering Lenin. For example, The Democratic Centralists and Workers' Opposition led by Alexander Shlyapnikov. Lenin regarded these as distractions within the party when unity was needed in order to neutralise the major crises of 1921, such...

 imposed by Lenin as a temporary measure in 1921) and less bureaucracy. By this time, Stalin's supporters had already voted Trotsky out from the Politburo
Politburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...

.

The grouping was proposed by the Group of 15
Group of Democratic Centralism
The Group of Democratic Centralism, sometimes called the Group of 15, the Decists, or the Decemists, was a dissenting faction within the Soviet Communist Party in the early 1920s.The Group was formed in March 1919 at the 8th Party Congress...

, a small faction around Vladimir Smirnov which claimed that the Soviet Union was no longer a workers' state. They brought together Trotsky's Left Opposition
Left Opposition
The Left Opposition was a faction within the Bolshevik Party from 1923 to 1927, headed de facto by Leon Trotsky. The Left Opposition formed as part of the power struggle within the party leadership that began with the Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin's illness and intensified with his death in January...

 and Zinoviev's Opposition of 1925. Many former supporters of the Workers Opposition also joined.

Smirnov's group soon left, over differences between themselves and Kamenev and Zinoviev's supporters. Many from Kamenev and Zinoviev's group, as well as most from the Workers Opposition grouping had left by mid-1927, espousing support for Stalin.

In November 1927, the United Opposition held a demonstration in Red Square
Red Square
Red Square is a city square in Moscow, Russia. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod...

, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, along with Lenin's widow Krupskaya. However, the Opposition was unable to gain the support of more than a small minority of the party, and were expelled in December 1927 for constituting a faction
Political faction
A political faction is a grouping of individuals, such as a political party, a trade union, or other group with a political purpose. A faction or political party may include fragmented sub-factions, “parties within a party," which may be referred to as power blocs, or voting blocs. The individuals...

. Trotsky formed the International Left Opposition with his remaining supporters, and the Group of 15 also continued its opposition. Supporters of these groups were soon exiled or imprisoned, and by 1940, most former supporters of the United Opposition, whether or not they had repudiated it, had been executed on Stalin's orders.

Despite various attempts at rapprochement, the International Left Opposition and the Group of 15 were unable to agree on a further platform.
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