Ban on factions in the Russian Communist Party

In 1921, factions were banned in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Since 1920 Lenin had become concerned about oppositionist groups within the Communist Party. For example, the Democratic Centralists had been set up in March 1919 and by 1921 Alexander Shlyapnikov had set up the Workers' Opposition. Lenin regarded these as distractions within the party when unity was needed in order to neutralise the major crises of 1921, such as the famines, and Kronstadt Rebellion. As Lenin stated:

"all members of the Russian Communist Party who are in the slightest degree suspicious or unreliable ... should be got rid of"

Factions were also commencing to criticize Lenin's leadership. Consequently, the 10th Party Congress passed a Resolution On Party Unity, a ban on factions to eliminate factionalism within the party in 1921. . The resolution stated as follows.

If accused of factionalism members would subsequently be expelled from the Party, such as Workers' Truth in December 1923. Big opposition factions again appeared after the end of the civil war, such as Leon Trotsky's Left Opposition, as well as oppositionist groups around Nikolai Bukharin and Grigory Zinoviev. These factions were tolerated for several years, leading some modern Marxists to claim that the ban on factions was intended to be temporary. When Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled on November 12, 1927, the ban on factions was however used to justify this, and there is no language in the discussion at the 10th Party Congress suggesting that it was intended to be temporary (Protokoly 523-548).

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