Nikolai Bukharin

Lore & Background

Bukharin joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1906, and studied economics at Moscow Imperial University. In 1910, he was arrested and internally exiled to Onega, but the following year he escaped abroad, where he met Lenin and Leon Trotsky and built his reputation with works such as Imperialism and World Economy (1915). After the February Revolution of 1917, Bukharin returned to Moscow and became a leading figure in the party, and after the October Revolution became editor of its newspaper, Pravda. He led the Left Communist faction in 1918, and during the civil war wrote The ABC of Communism (1920; with Yevgeni Preobrazhensky) and Historical Materialism: A System of Sociology (1921), among other works. Bukharin was initially a proponent of war communism, but in 1921 supported the introduction of the New Economic Policy (NEP) and became its chief theorist and advocate, supporting the party leadership against Trotsky and the Left Opposition. By late 1924, this stance had positioned Bukharin favourably as Joseph Stalin's chief ally, with Bukharin soon elaborating Stalin's theory of "socialism in one country". From 1926 to 1929, Bukharin served as General Secretary of the Comintern's executive committee. Following Stalin's decision to proceed with agricultural collectivisation in the Great Break, Bukharin was labelled as the leader of the Right Opposition and was removed from Pravda, the Comintern, and the party leadership in 1929. After a period in lower positions, in 1934 Bukharin was reelected to the Central Committee and became editor of the newspaper Izvestia. He was a principal architect of the 1936 Soviet Constitution. During the Great Purge, Bukharin was accused of treason in February 1937 and executed after a show trial in 1938.

Reader's Guide

Nikolai Bukharin was born on 27 September (9 October, new style), 1888, in Moscow. He was the second son of two schoolteachers, Ivan Gavrilovich Bukharin and Liubov Ivanovna Bukharina. His political life began at age sixteen with Ilya Ehrenburg, participating in student activities related to the 1905 Revolution. He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1906, becoming a member of its Bolshevik faction. With Grigori Sokolnikov, he convened the 1907 national youth conference, later considered the founding of Komsomol. By age twenty, he was a member of the Moscow Committee of the party. He was exiled to Onega in 1911 but soon escaped to Hanover, later visiting Kraków in 1912 to meet Lenin. In October 1916, while based in New York City, he edited the newspaper Novy Mir with Leon Trotsky and Alexandra Kollontai. After the February Revolution, he returned to Russia via Japan, arriving in Moscow in early May 1917. On 10 October 1917, he was elected to the Central Committee. During the October Revolution, he drafted, introduced, and defended the revolutionary decrees of the Moscow Soviet. He became editor of Pravda after the revolution. He emerged as leader of the Left Communists in opposition to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. In March 1919, he became a member of the Comintern's executive committee and a candidate member of the Politburo.

Did You Know?

• Bukharin was described by Lenin as a 'most valuable and major theorist' of the Communist Party.
• He wrote the popular primer The ABC of Communism with Yevgeni Preobrazhensky in 1920.
• Bukharin was a principal architect of the 1936 Soviet Constitution.
• He was executed after a show trial on 15 March 1938.