Workers' Opposition

Workers' Opposition
LeaderAlexander Shliapnikov
SpokespersonAlexandra Kollontai
FoundedFebruary 1920 (1920-02)
DissolvedMarch 1921 (1921-03)
Preceded byLeft Communists
Succeeded byWorkers' Group
IdeologyLeft communism
Political positionFar-left
National affiliationRussian Communist Party
Trade union affiliationVarious trade unions

The Workers' Opposition (Russian: Рабочая оппозиция, romanizedRabochaya oppozitsiya) was a faction of the Russian Communist Party that emerged in 1920 as a response to the perceived over-bureaucratisation that was occurring in Soviet Russia. They advocated for the transfer of national economic management to trade unions. The group was led by Alexander Shlyapnikov, Sergei Medvedev, Alexandra Kollontai and Yuri Lutovinov. It officially existed until March 1921 when it was forced to dissolve by the 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), and semi-clandestinely until the subsequent 11th Congress in 1922, where its main exponents teetered dangerously on the verge of being purged for fractionist activity. In some aspects, it was close with the German council communist movement, although there is no information about direct contacts between these groups.[1]

  1. ^ At the end of August 1921 and in March 1922 Shlyapnikov rejected invitations from within the leftist Communist Workers' Party of Germany for the Workers' Opposition to participate in the founding of a new International. Also fearing they could be provocations by the Cheka, he replied twice that the Workers' Opposition no longer existed after the 10th Party Congress and that he personally frowned upon any split of the Third International (Allen, Alexander Shlyapnikov, pp. 214 and 241).