The official pronouncement from the Central Control Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the expulsion of leaders of the ‘United Opposition’ before the Fifteenth Party Congress in 1927.

‘The Expulsion of Trotzky and Zinoviev from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’ from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 7 No. 64. November 17, 1927.

Moscow, 15th November 1927.

The Central Control Commission and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union have adopted and published the following decision with regard to the anti-Party actions of the leaders of the Opposition:

In order to guarantee the correct and normal preparation of the XV. Party Congress of the C.P.S.U. for the whole Party, the C.C. of the C.P. S.U., according to the Party statutes, published more than a month before the Party Congress the theses of the C.C., and published in the discussion sheet the counter-theses of the Opposition immediately after they had been submitted, as well as the articles and speeches of the Opposition. The C.C. afforded the Opposition every possibility to defend their views, both in the press as also in Party meetings and Party nuclei. But neither Zinoviev nor Trotzky considered it necessary to appear at Party meetings, but continued to arrange illegal meetings without the participation of representatives of the Party.

In spite of this the Opposition has not only not abstained from a disruptive policy and violation of Party unity, but has increased its destructive work. The Opposition, which has been defeated in all the nuclei in which discussion took place and which could not even get one per cent of all the votes of Party members, continues to issue its illegal, anti-Party papers, in which the activity of the Party is slandered; it is printing its writings in secret printing works which were equipped with stolen type, paper etc. It is organising a number of anti-Party, illegal meetings, to which non-proletarian elements are attracted, elements which are alien to the Party and the working class. The Opposition is preparing an anti-Party demonstration in these anti-Party, illegal meetings; it is working out plans for the further fight against the Party; it attracts anti-Party, bourgeois elements to these conferences and thereby lets, loose those elements which are hostile to the proletariat and the Soviets. The Opposition arbitrarily occupies an auditorium of the Technical High School in Moscow in order to hold there an anti-Party meeting and forcibly attacks the representatives of the Party. The Opposition even goes so far as to arrange public meetings at which speeches are delivered directed against the C.P.S.U. and against the Soviet Power.

Instead of mounting the joint tribune of the Lenin Mausoleum on the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution and welcoming from there, together with the other comrades, the millions of workers of Moscow and Leningrad, the Opposition leaders withdraw to various small streets and side turnings, and attempt there to arrange demonstrations against the Party; they distribute and post up illegal, anti-Party leaflets, wherein they appeal to elements hostile to the Party and the Soviet Power, they occupy halls, whereby they remove the Soviet guard and set up their own armed guard. In this way they are transgressing the limits of Soviet legality and are openly becoming the mouth-piece of those forces which are hostile to the regime of the proletarian dictatorship.

The C.C.C. and the C.C. consider these actions altogether incompatible with membership of the Party, and all the more incompatible for members of the C.C. and’ the C.C.C. They therefore resolve:

The following members and candidates of the C.C. are expelled: From the C.C. and C.C.C.: Comrades Kamenev, Smilga, Jevdokimov, Rakovsky, Avdejev and the members of the C.C.C.: Muralov, Bakajev, Shklovsky, Peterson, Solovje, and Lisdin. It is considered necessary to remove the above mentioned comrades from leading functions in the Party and the Soviet organs.

With regard to Trotzky and Zinoviev, the chief leaders of this whole activity directed against the Party, an activity which goes over into an anti-Soviet activity, undermining the dictatorship of the proletariat, the C.C. and C.C.C. of the C.P.S.U. resolve:

In view of the fact that Zinoviev and Trotzky replied to the decisive demand submitted to them at the meeting of 11th November to cease immediately the organisation of illegal, anti-Party meetings and to refrain from carrying the inner-Party discussion into circles standing outside the Party, by demonstratively leaving the meeting of the Presidium of the C.C.C. and some hours later sent a written reply, dated 11th November, in which they rejected in essence these, for every Party member, most elementary obligations towards the Party, Trotzky and Zinoviev are expelled from the C.P.S.U.

Kamenev, SmiIga, Jevdokimov, Rakovsky, Avdejev, Radek, Muralov, Bakajev, Shklovsky, Peterson, SoIovjev and Lisdin are informed that the Presidium of the C.C.C. will submit for examination to the XV. Party Congress of the C.P.S.U. the question whether their fractional activity is compatible with their remaining within the ranks of the C.P.S.U.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecor” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecor’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecor, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly. The ECCI also published the magazine ‘Communist International’ edited by Zinoviev and Karl Radek from 1919 until 1926 monthly in German, French, Russian, and English. Unlike, Inprecor, CI contained long-form articles by the leading figures of the International as well as proceedings, statements, and notices of the Comintern. No complete run of Communist International is available in English. Both were largely published outside of Soviet territory, with Communist International printed in London, to facilitate distribution and both were major contributors to the Communist press in the U.S. Communist International and Inprecor are an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1927/v07n64-nov-17-1927-inprecor-op.pdf