RYKOV, ALEXEI IVANOVICH

(1881–1938), Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician, one of the leaders of the Right opposition.

Born in Saratov province, the son of a tradesman, Alexei Rykov joined the Social Democratic Party in 1898 and supported the Bolsheviks after their split with the Mensheviks. He played an active part in the 1905 revolution. In 1907, however, he began to work for reconciliation between the two wings of the party. In exile in Paris for two years, he returned to Russia in 1911 but was soon arrested and exiled to Siberia.

Returning to Moscow after the revolution of February 1917, Rykov became a member of the Moscow and Petrograd soviets and participated in the October revolution. He became commissar for internal affairs in the first Bolshevik government, but resigned because of his support for a coalition government. In April 1918, however, he accepted the post of chairperson of the Supreme Council of the National Economy, and in February 1921 he became deputy chairman of Sovnarkom. After Lenin's death in January 1924 he became chairman. He was also a member of the Politburo from 1922 until 1930.

Rykov was a leading supporter of the New Economic Policy, and allied with Stalin in his struggle with Leon Davidovich Trotsky, Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev, and Lev Borisovich Kamenev, which lasted from 1926 to 1928. When Stalin lashed out against the Right Opposition, of which Rykov was one of the leaders, he was defeated, discredited, and ultimately dismissed from his senior positions by 1930. Rykov was arrested in February 1937. With Nikolai Alexandrovich Bukharin and Genrikh Grigorevich Yagoda, Rykov was one of the leading defendants at the third show trial, and was executed in March 1938.

See also: bolshevism; february revolution; mensheviks; new economic policy; october revolution; politburo; right opposition; social democratic workers party; sovnarkom

Derek Watson