Chapter 1 - Building a Workers’ Party

Summary

The following pages will consider the content of the post-Civil War controversies and provide a sketch of the ideological and practical motivations behind the early institutional development of the Soviet polity and the role of the communist party therein. The account will proceed in three parts: first, an outline of the policy debates of the Tenth Congress and their context; second, an examination of the concrete implementation by the Party leadership of the policy directives issued and, third, an overview of the first major crisis experienced by the emerging political system, namely the launching of Leon Trotsky’s Left Opposition.