Acknowledgements
My thanks are due to Sebastian Budgen and the other editors of the Historical Materialism Series for their interest in publishing the collected documents of the Workers’ Opposition. While I gathered the documents in this book, my research was supported by the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), the U.S. Department of Education, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the U.S. State Department, and La Salle University. Aleksandr Shliapnikov’s daughter Irina facilitated my access to archival collections about her father’s life and the Workers’ Opposition. The interlibrary loan staff at Connelly Library of La Salle University offered invaluable assistance. My PhD adviser at Indiana University Bloomington, Alexander Rabinowitch, and undergraduate adviser at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Donald J. Raleigh, have been inspiring mentors. More people than I can name have offered advice that improved this collection, but most of all, Simon Pirani carefully read the collection and offered detailed suggestions. Danny Hayward’s meticulous copyediting vastly enhanced the manuscript. I am grateful to Brill for agreeing to permit me to use parts of my biography of Aleksandr Shliapnikov as a basis for the introductory essays in this volume, which I have updated through research into the library collection at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Last but not least, I owe much appreciation to Jennifer Obdam and Bart Nijsten at Brill and the typesetting team for their patience and close attention to the manuscript.