Left-Right bloc
In the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union the Left-Right bloc was a failed attempt of vocal opposition to the politics of forced collectivization Joseph Stalin. Vissarion Lominadze and Sergey Syrtsov were recognized as its leaders.[1] The name is derived from the accusation in fractionism of the group created by joining of two groups: the one accused in "right opportunism" and allegedly headed by Syrtsov and another one accused of "lefism" and "half-Trotskyism" allegedly headed by Lominadze. In Western literature the case is known as the Syrtsov-Lominadze affair.[2]
The issue was part on the agenda of the November 4, 1930 joint session of the Bureau of the Moscow Committee of the RKP(b) and the Presidium of the Central Control Commission which considered the issue. “О фракционной работе тт. Сырцова, Ломинадзе, Шацкина и др.”[3] The resolution of the session declared, in part, that " (1) Syrtsov organized an underground fractional center which included Нусинов, Каврайский, Гальперин, Курс, and others", and (2) Lominadze headed a persevered fractional group which included Lazar Shatskin, Резник, and others".[4]
There are opinions that in fact that there was no such bloc, that while the dissenting views were public indeed, the whole affair was fabricated. E.g., Roy Medvedev expressed an opinion that Stalin learned some details of a conversation between Syrtsov and Lominadze. [2]
Robert Davies notes that the case was part of the overall 1930 campaign against dissent (actual or potential) within the party. Davies also notes a peculiarity that unlike many other cases of Soviet political suppression, the campaign against Syrtsov and Lominadze in press did not associate them with "wreckers", or "imperialist forces" abroad. [2]