[Google AI Overview at the query, signed out and incognito (operator defaults of 2026-10-01 and 2026-10-14). The paste is the Overview expanded (the 'AI Mode Conversation' view).] The 'You said' line carries the query twice, run together, and is given once here. Inline links are Google redirect URLs, kept as pasted. [QUERENT] ban on factions 1921 [SYSTEM] The ban on factions was introduced in March 1921 at the [Tenth Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)](https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESbwHrOzAV8cQYYZ2R8yPak8UKto1FHAlhjfCuKD9NNxkA1xPboisgzzZ_cVf6exLLXiTbu4gaj71DGUj3nE77hyFYBsCXyTytDxJDiyiyneOaXlm4iInj6CjOWiv20VwrwQFXxvZn7tHcmCFbGp_qxw) through the resolution "On Party Unity", proposed by Vladimir Lenin. [[1], [2], [3]] Key Details of the Ban * The Resolution: Officially titled "On Party Unity", the decree ordered the immediate dissolution of all organized groups and factions within the party that tended to weaken its unity. [1] * The Penalty: It authorized the Central Committee to use expulsion from the party as an extreme measure against any members, including its own, who engaged in factional activity. [1] * Immediate Targets: It was primarily aimed at suppressing internal opposition groups like the Workers' Opposition (led by figures such as Alexander Shliapnikov and Alexandra Kollontai), who wanted economic control handed over to trade unions rather than the state, as well as the Democratic Centralists. [[1], [2], [3]] * Context & Motivation: The ban was passed amid deep economic and political crisis—including the Russian famine, the Kronstadt rebellion, and widespread worker/peasant unrest. Lenin argued that internal dissent and public criticism provided ammunition to foreign and counter-revolutionary enemies. [[1], [2], [3], [4]] Consequences * End of Internal Debate: It effectively dismantled the Bolshevik tradition of open internal debate, platform voting, and free discussion before reaching a party decision. [[1], [2]] * Path to Stalinism: While conceived by Lenin as an emergency temporary measure, the ban established a precedent. It later provided Joseph Stalin with the institutional mechanism to purge rival political blocs—such as Trotsky's Left Opposition and Bukharin's Right Opposition—under the label of "factionalism". [[1], [2]] You can read the original text and context of the resolution via the [Marxists Internet Archive](https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESfAHrOzAVg8GhcMLBYLV6JIUKbLCU4Um_hJhdWIe4SPyBFz07-R3qteNEk1tB-CtwaT4bCvf-G97mTS2cLoPt4mxUUiQ8eeY_jNB2ByafsVgjnNf458gct0Vc-YHS2_jYuhn93j2TLORdQuWFli8eSbfr1IE3DXp_AqVGpKE). [1] Wikipedia