In the autumn and winter months of 1923, a political drama took place in the Russian Communist Party, the consequences of which not only predetermined the tragic outcome in the personal fate of many of its participants but also, to a considerable extent, stipulated the character and orientation of the later events in the Party and the country as a whole. As Lenin lay dying, the once-powerful Bolsheviks were splitting into hostile groups. The "direct" and "indirect" heirs to power were moving into the light of history, each having his own identity and peculiar features, ambitions and purposes.

This present collection of the archival materials is the first attempt to give more or less integral, scientific and documental presentation of the struggle at that stage. It is the aim of the author that these documents (mainly unknown or little-known, even in Russia) will enrich the source study store of the researchers dealing with the history of the Russian Communist Party of the 1920s, and will allow the introduction of certain corrections in historical concepts of that period.