USSR WI: No Ban on Factions

[Cyclone]

The year is 1921. The Bolsheviks are beginning to truly reestablish control over Russia, but there are many problems. As the need for a "united front" and silent consent dissipates amongst members of the Communist Party while the Whites are ground into the dust, left-wing uprisings against Bolshevik rule and famine begins to create dissent amongst members of the Russian Communist Party.

As a consequence of these conditions, Lenin bans factionalism and creates the New Economic Policy in March.

What if only the latter happened?

Assuming that it lasts a while, legal factionalism would have a huge effect on Soviet power structures and power struggles. If Stalin couldn't kick people out of the Party for not kowtowing to him, he might never have attained power.

 

[Smilin' Dave]

If Stalin couldn't kick people out of the Party for not kowtowing to him, he might never have attained power.

Stalin could have done everything he did in OTL with legal factions, and in some respects it might have made it easier. It's not like dirty tricks are alien to democracy, specially in its infancy, so its believable that such would remain in a more democratic Soviet Union. So Stalin can still rig things to suit him if necessary.

It's also easy to underestimate Stalin's popularity with the rank and file. He might not have been the best speaker, but he came across as being straightforward, and his policies were (in the 1920s at least) fairly moderate.

Net result is Stalin still gets party approval to throw people out. He'll just have to find a better excuse. Maybe he goes to the 'agents of foreign powers' shtick sooner?

Generally, the biggest result of legal factionalism in the USSR would have been the threat of deadlock. Allowing factions legitimises the idea of talking out differences first, and then holding people accountable while the policy is being implemented. The Central Committee etc. had all the potential to become a talk shop.