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 Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the early 1920s.

The Group was formed in March 1919 at the 8th Party Congress. It was composed mostly of Bolshevik intellectuals who criticised the leadership of the Communist Party and Vladimir Lenin for excessive centralisation of political power in the party, removal of local party initiative, and rigid control from above within the industry, Party and local administration. They believed that the democratic aspect of democratic centralism had been degraded. Rather than the dictatorship of the Party which existed, the Group advocated a return to dictatorship of the proletariat.

The group's original leaders were Old Bolsheviks Valerian Obolensky-Ossinsky, Vladimir Smirnov, Timofei Sapronov, V. N. Maximovsky, M. S. Boguslavsky, A. Z. Kamensky and Raphail. Their influence within the Party, always limited, peaked at the 9th Party Congress in March–April 1920 when they were given partial support on some issues by senior Communists like Mikhail Tomsky and Konstantin Yurenev. Nonetheless, their proposals were voted down. They were active during the intra-Party "trade union discussion" in late 1920-early 1921 when the Party split into numerous factions, but didn't gather much support and the faction became moribund after the 10th Party Congress in March 1921.

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