Nikolai Bukharin

Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (, ; – 15 March 1938) was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and Marxist theorist. A prolific author on economic theory, Bukharin was a prominent Bolshevik and was active in the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1917 until his purge in the 1930s.

Born in Moscow to two schoolteachers, Bukharin joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1906. In 1910, he was arrested by tsarist authorities, but in 1911 escaped and fled abroad, where he worked with fellow exiles Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky and authored works of theory such as ''Imperialism and World Economy'' (1915). After the February Revolution of 1917, Bukharin returned to Moscow, where he became a leading figure in the party, and after the October Revolution became editor of its paper, ''Pravda''. He gained a high profile as a Left Communist, a position which included, in opposition to Lenin, a continuation of Russia's involvement in World War I. During the Russian Civil War, Bukharin wrote works including ''Economics of the Transition Period'' (1920) and ''The ABC of Communism'' (also 1920; with Yevgeni Preobrazhensky).

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 new theory and policy of "socialism in one country". From 1926 to 1929, Bukharin enjoyed power as General Secretary of the Comintern's executive committee. However, following Stalin's decision to proceed with agricultural collectivisation in the Great Break, Bukharin became the leader of the Right Opposition and was expelled from ''Pravda'' and the party leadership in 1929.

After a period in lower party positions, in 1934 Bukharin was reelected to the Central Committee and became editor of ''Izvestia''. He became a principal architect of the 1936 Soviet constitution. In February 1937, during the Stalinist Great Purge, Bukharin was accused of treason and executed after a show trial in 1938. Provided by Wikipedia