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Grigory Zinoviev et al 19271210 Statement to the Fifteenth Congress

Grigory Zinoviev et al: Statement to the Fifteenth Congress

December 10, 1927

[Leon Trotsky, The Challenge of the Left Opposition (1926-1927), New York 1980, p. 485 f., title: “Two Statements to the Fifteenth Congress”]

The resolution of the congress on the Central Committee report declares that adherence to the Trotskyist Opposition and propagation of its views are incompatible with continued membership in the ranks of the Bolshevik Party. The Fifteenth Congress in this way has not only rejected our views but banned the propagation of those views. At the congress, in defending our principled positions, of whose correctness we are convinced, we at the same time emphasized in our statements to the congress that we considered it obligatory to abide by the decisions of the congress no matter how onerous they might be for us.

The question of a second party is posed by the entire situation. In principle we reject the road of a second party for ourselves under the conditions of the proletarian dictatorship. In view of that and in abiding by the resolution of the congress, we state the following:

1. The Opposition faction should cease to exist; and

2. The decision of the congress to ban the propagation of its views is accepted for implementation by all of us.

We urge all our co-thinkers to draw the same conclusions for themselves from the decisions of the congress.

Each of us should remain at whatever post the party assigns us and carry out its decisions with full energy in everyday practical work, helping the party move] toward the goals set by Lenin.

Comrades expelled from the party for Opposition activity have already appealed to the congress for reinstatement in the party. We second this appeal and support it, regarding as self-evident the absolute necessity for the release of comrades arrested in connection with their Oppositional activity.

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