Editing Leon Trotsky (section)

=== After Lenin's death (1924) ===
[[File:Trotsky Leon.jpg|thumb|Trotsky in his Moscow office, 1920s]]
Throughout most of 1924, there was little overt political disagreement within the Soviet leadership. Publicly, Trotsky remained a prominent Bolshevik leader, though his "mistakes" were often alluded to by ''troika'' partisans. Behind the scenes, he was cut off from decision-making. Politburo meetings were formalities; key decisions were made beforehand by the ''troika'' and its supporters. Trotsky's control over the military was undermined by reassigning his deputy, [[Ephraim Sklyansky]], and appointing [[Mikhail Frunze]], groomed to replace him.

At the [[13th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)|XIIIth Party Congress]] in May, Trotsky delivered a conciliatory speech:<ref>Chapter VIII of Boris Souvarine's [http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/souvar/works/stalin/ch08.htm ''Stalin: A Critical Survey of Bolshevism''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060430065533/http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/souvar/works/stalin/ch08.htm |date=30 April 2006}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|None of us desires or is able to dispute the will of the Party. Clearly, the Party is always right... We can only be right with and by the Party, for history has provided no other way of being in the right. The English have a saying, "My country, right or wrong"... We have much better historical justification in saying whether it is right or wrong in certain individual concrete cases, it is my party... And if the Party adopts a decision which one or other of us thinks unjust, he will say, just or unjust, it is my party, and I shall support the consequences of the decision to the end.<ref>Leon Trotsky, "Speech to the Thirteenth Party Congress on May 26, 1924" contained in ''The Challenge of the Left Opposition: 1923–1925'', pp. 161–62.</ref>}}
[[File:Leon Trotsky attends The October Revolution parade 1924.jpg|thumb|[[Andrei Bubnov]], [[Kliment Voroshilov]], Leon Trotsky, [[Mikhail Kalinin]], and [[Mikhail Frunze]] attend the [[October Revolution]] parade in [[Red Square]], 7 November 1924]]
Meanwhile, the Left Opposition, which had formed somewhat unexpectedly in late 1923 and lacked a definite platform beyond general dissatisfaction with the intra-Party "regime," began to crystallise. It lost some less dedicated members due to ''troika'' harassment but started formulating a program. Economically, the Left Opposition opposed capitalist elements in the Soviet economy and advocated accelerated industrialization through state-led policies,<ref>Preobrazhensky, Yevgeni. ''The New Economics''. Oxford University Press, 1965.</ref> putting them at odds with Bukharin and Rykov (the "Right" wing) who supported the ''troika''. On world revolution, Trotsky and Karl Radek saw stability in Europe, while Stalin and Zinoviev predicted an "acceleration" of revolution in Western Europe in 1924. Theoretically, Trotsky remained committed to the idea that the Soviet Union could not create a true socialist society without world revolution, while Stalin gradually developed the policy of "socialism in one country". These ideological divisions formed the basis of the political divide.

At the XIIIth Congress, Kamenev and Zinoviev helped Stalin defuse Lenin's Testament, which had belatedly surfaced. Shortly after, the ''troika'', an alliance of convenience, showed signs of weakness. Stalin began making veiled accusations against Zinoviev and Kamenev. In October 1924, Trotsky published ''[[Lessons of October]],''<ref>Leon Trotsky "Lessons of October" contained in ''Challenge of the Left Opposition: 1923–1925'', pp. 199–258.</ref> a summary of the 1917 revolution. He described Zinoviev and Kamenev's opposition to the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, something they preferred left unmentioned. This started a new intra-party struggle, the ''Literary Discussion'', with Zinoviev and Kamenev again allied with Stalin against Trotsky. Their criticism of Trotsky focused on:
* Trotsky's pre-1917 disagreements with Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
* Trotsky's alleged distortion of 1917 events to emphasize his role and diminish others'.
* Trotsky's harsh treatment of subordinates and other alleged Civil War mistakes.
Trotsky, ill again, was unable to respond while his opponents mobilized to denounce him. They damaged his military reputation enough to force his resignation as People's Commissar of Army and Fleet Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council on 6 January 1925. Zinoviev demanded Trotsky's expulsion from the Party, but Stalin, playing the moderate, refused. Trotsky kept his Politburo seat but was effectively on probation.