Paul Gregory, "Boxing and Power Struggle: Bukharin Versus Stalin."

This paper is a draft of the concluding chapter of a book on the Soviet power struggle as seen from the vantage point of Nikolai Bukharin and his wife, Anna Larina. The book is based on archival research. Its most important scholarly contribution is the analysis of Politburo transcripts of the 1920s and 1930s, recently published in three volumes, and of the “uncorrected” transcripts of Central Committee plenums from the late 1920s to February-March 1937. This chapter attempts to provide a framework for assessing the power struggle and the inevitability of Stalin’s victory.