Chapter Six: The Interregnum¶
Core Argument¶
The defeat of October 1923 inaugurated a prolonged ebb in the revolutionary tide, crushing the Proletarian Hundreds while defensive formations like the Red League of Front Fighters and the Social Democratic Reichsbanner emerged. This stalemate provided temporary stabilisation for German capitalism and an interregnum for the Weimar Republic, but the consequences were international. In the Soviet Union, the defeat strengthened the bureaucracy and cut short Lenin's final struggle against it, undertaken in bloc with Trotsky. Lenin's death in January 1924 sharpened the struggle between Stalin's troika and the Left Opposition. The troika invented 'Trotskyism' to discredit their opponent, and in October 1924 Stalin abandoned the Leninist position that socialism required several advanced countries, advancing instead the theory of 'Socialism in One Country'—a reflection of the bureaucracy's desire for stability.
In Germany, a state of emergency was imposed, the Communist Party banned, and the eight-hour day abolished. The Rentenmark stabilised the currency, while the Dawes Plan secured American loans. By 1927, output reached 122 per cent of 1913 levels, but this 'borrowed prosperity' rested on foreign debt reaching half of national income—artificially sustained growth that would collapse with the Great Depression from 1930. Werner Sombart's Modern Capitalism (1928) dismissed Marx's prognoses, claiming capitalism would become "more calm, sedate, reasonable", appearing just before capitalism's greatest crash.
The Treaty of Rapallo (1922) normalised Soviet-German relations, secretly allowing Germany to evade Versailles restrictions: pilots trained in Russia, a joint tank factory operated near Kazan, and a German-run airfield at Lipetsk tested military plans. Despite the 1923 defeat, Zinoviev insisted insurrection remained on the agenda. The Fifth Comintern Congress (1924) blamed the German failure on Brandler's right deviation, prioritising 'Bolshevisation' and voting Trotsky and Radek off the ECCI. The German Lefts, Ruth Fischer and Arkadi Maslow, became KPD co-chairs, their ultra-leftism leading to mass communist expulsions from the ADGB. The ECCI's August 1925 'open letter' condemned them.
Stalin's policy in China led the Communist Party to dissolve into the Kuomintang, supporting the 'progressive bourgeoisie' until defeat by Chiang Kai-shek—made an honorary Comintern Executive member against Trotsky's sole opposing vote. The campaign against 'Trotskyism' caused expulsions, splits, and resignations. By 1928, Stalin had consolidated control, suppressing Lenin's Testament and transforming the Comintern into a foreign policy tool. The Sixth World Congress (1928) declared a new 'Third Period' of wars and revolutions, introducing the disastrous theory of 'social fascism', which denounced Social Democracy as fascism's twin. On May Day 1929, the KPD defied a ban on demonstrations; street battles left 25 dead and over 1,200 arrested. The 1929 Wall Street crash triggered severe depression as American loans were called in. By early 1933, unemployment reached six million; destitution soared. The Brüning Government ruled by emergency decree, a form of parliamentary Bonapartism. With capitalist backing, the Nazis won successive elections, deepening working-class division and paving the way for the Third Reich.