The Moscow workers' movement in 1921 and the role of non-partyism

Abstract

THE THEME OF THIS ARTICLE is the upsurge of the workers' movement in Russia in 1921 following the end of the civil war, with specific reference to Moscow. There were two main aspects to this movement: first, the wave of protests triggered in February 1921 by supply shortages, and second, the resurgence of working-class political activity in March-April 1921, during the Moscow soviet elections that immediately followed the tenth Communist Party congress and the adoption of measures that formed the basis of the new economic policy (NEP). The article will argue, first, that the protests over supply were less political, and less united against the Bolshevik government, than has been presumed, and that, in terms of the resurgence of working-class politics, the soviet election campaign was more significant. Second, it will argue that the principal form this political resurgence took was not support for the Mensheviks and SRs but the development of a non-partyist tendency among workers that has received less attention than it deserves. This non-partyist tendency included elements close to SR and Menshevik ideas, but also egalitarian and workerist strands that in October 1917 had sided with the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks' refusal to co-operate with this tendency was an important blow against post-civil war hopes of reviving participatory democracy and reversing progress towards a one-party state.