Alexander Shlyapnikov, 1885–1937: Life of an Old Bolshevik

440 Pages·2015·7.19 MB·English

by  Barbara C. Allen

Alexander Shlyapnikov, 1885–1937
Historical Materialism
Book Series
Editorial Board
Sébastien Budgen (Paris)
Steve Edwards (London)
Marcel van der Linden (Amsterdam)
Peter Thomas (London)
volume 90
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hm
Alexander Shlyapnikov,
1885–1937
Life of an Old Bolshevik
By
Barbara C. Allen
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Allen, Barbara C. (Barbara Carol), 1967–
 Alexander Shlyapnikov, 1885–1937 : life of an old Bolshevik / by Barbara C. Allen.
  pages cm. — (Historical materialism book series ; volume 90)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-24853-3 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-24854-0 (e-book) 1. Shliapnikov, A. G.
(Aleksandr Gavrilovich), 1884–1943. 2. Communists—Russia—Biography. 3. Communists—Soviet Union—
Biography. 4. Communism—Russia—History. 5. Communism—Soviet Union—History. 6. Soviet Union—
History—1917–1936. I. Title.
 HX312.S48674A45 2015
 331.88’6092—dc23
 [B]
2014042324
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issn 1570-1522
isbn 978-90-04-24853-3 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-24854-0 (e-book)
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To my son, Nicholas Syrgabaev, and to my parents,
Leonard R. and Ethelene M. Allen
∵

Contents
Acknowledgements  ix
List of Illustrations  xi
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms  xiii
Introduction  1
1 From the Old Belief to Socialism  7
2 Emigration and the Revolutionary Underground  36
3 Organising Workers in the Revolutionary Year 1917  76
4 Labour Commissar  103
5 Defending Soviet Power and Unions in the Civil War  122
6 The Workers’ Opposition and the Trade-Union Debate  157
7 Early NEP and the Trade Unions  191
8 Appeal of the 22 to the Communist International  227
9 Factional Politics in the NEP Era  253
10 Late NEP, Industrialisation and Renewed Repression   283
11 Purged from the Party  309
12 Exile, Arrest and Prison  331
Epilogue: Retribution Upon the Family and Rehabilitation  366
Conclusion  369
Bibliography  379
Index  403

Acknowledgements
Many people in Russia, the United States and other countries have encouraged
and helped me to complete this biography. At the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, Donald J. Raleigh guided me in a readings course about early
Soviet political history, near the end of my undergraduate studies in Russian
language, literature and history. As portrayed in books by Robert V. Daniels
and Jay B. Sorenson, Alexander Shlyapnikov’s dry wit and the challenge he
posed to Bolshevik Party leaders made me curious to learn more about him.
Don Raleigh encouraged me to pursue a Ph.D. in Russian and Soviet history
and to propose a biography of Shlyapnikov as a dissertation topic. At Indiana
University Bloomington, my dissertation supervisor, Alexander Rabinowitch,
as well as dissertation committee members David Ransel, Hiroaki Kuromiya
and Michael Alexeev strongly supported this project and gave valuable advice.
While working as a research assistant for Indiana University Ph.D. candi-
date Suzanne Ament in Russia in 1990–1, I met Shlyapnikov’s daughter Irina
and conducted preliminary research in party and state archives. In 1995, I
returned to Moscow for a full year of dissertation research, sponsored by the
International Research and Exchanges Board (irex) and the Fulbright-Hays
Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad programme. My thanks are due to the
staff of Russian archives and libraries used in my research: the Russian State
Archive of Socio-Political History, the Central Archive of the Federal Security
Service, the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the Russian State Archive
of the Economy, the Central Archive of Social Movements of Moscow and
the Russian State Library. La Salle University, the Indiana University Russian
and East European Institute and the International Institute of Social History
in Amsterdam subsidised presentation of my work at conferences. La Salle
awarded me summer grants that allowed me to conduct research in New York
in 2009 and Moscow in 2012. The Slavic Reference Service at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign libraries offered quick and informative
answers to questions. Shlyapnikov’s children Yuri, Irina and Alexander gener-
ously allowed me access to restricted archival files on their father and shared
their memories, photographs and documents. Irina Medvedeva permitted me
to see restricted materials on her father, Sergei Medvedev. Vladimir and Ritta
Kollontai shared family stories and a photograph of Shlyapnikov with French
workers.
Sebastian Budgen first contacted me about Shlyapnikov just months before
I successfully defended my dissertation in 2001, consistently encouraging me
to complete the biography. I am grateful for his, David Broder’s, and Danny
x acknowledgements
Hayward’s guidance on style, as well as for Ben Lewis’s attention to copy-
editing the manuscript. Simon Pirani read the manuscript several times and
offered extensive, detailed and very helpful suggestions for improvements.
Barbara Evans Clements, Rex Wade and Janet Rabinowitch read the entire
manuscript and their advice improved it. I also appreciate having received con-
structive criticism from many others, including Thomas Allsen, Clayton Black,
Sally Boniece, David Brandenberger, Beatrice Farnsworth, Donald Filtzer,
Wendy Goldman, Malte Griesse, Anthony Heywood, Larry E. Holmes, Lisa
Kirschenbaum, Anna Krylova, Lars T. Lih, Max Okenfuss, Alexis Pogorelskin,
Roy Robson, Yngvild Sørbye, Lynne Viola, Robert Weinberg, Charters Wynn
and La Salle University students in my spring 2013 ‘Stalin’s Russia’ course, all
of whom read parts of the biography in various forms. Editors of the follow-
ing journals gave permission to include in this book material published in
article form: Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Cahiers du Monde Russe,
Revolutionary Russia, The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review and The nep Era: Soviet
Russia, 1921–1928; anonymous reviewers for these and other journals offered
vital advice for polishing the material. Other sections were previously pub-
lished in Russia’s Century of Revolutions: Parties, People, Places1 and A Dream
Deferred: New Studies in Russian and Soviet Labor History.2 Joseph S. McCarthy’s
good humour carried me through later stages of this project. My sister, Patricia
Rogers, offered invaluable assistance and support at home while I was away for
research in Russia and at conferences. Any errors are my responsibility alone.
1 Melancon and Raleigh (eds.) 2012.
2 Filtzer, Kessler and Pirani (eds.) 2008.