state should print more paper money to finance the revival of war-damaged industry, likening it to poisoning the system by injecting opium. More controversially, he warned that many factories were losing money and living off the state, and would have to pay their way by selling products in the new free market conditions of NEP.He became a candidate member of the Politburo of the Communist Party in May 1924. According to Boris Bajanov, as minister of finance Sokolnikov proved himself to be a capable administrator, accomplishing every task he was asked to do, such as creating the first stable Soviet currency. Bajanov also notes that despite Sokolnikov's past in the Red Army, he was not ruthless in his personality. Privately, Sokolnikov lost faith in the Soviet Union under Stalin and later described the Soviet economy as state capitalist. Family In 1925, Sokolnikov married the writer Galina Serebryakova. They had a daughter, Geliana, born in 1934. Opposition to Stalin On 5 September 1925, Sokolnikov signed the unpublished 'Platform of the Four', a joint protest by Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Lenin's widow, Nadezhda Krupskaya against Stalin's leadership. His decision seems to have been personal than political, because politically he was on the right of the party, whereas Zinoviev and Kamenev were about to join Trotsky in the United Opposition. He appears to have been motivated by mistrust of Stalin, and friendship with Kamenev. Even while publicly aligned with the opposition, he continued to argue that agricultural output had to be increased before industry could be expanded, and that consumer goods should be imported to give the peasants an incentive to take their produce to market. He was also openly dismissive of the figures produced by Gosplan, believing that 'state capitalism' properly managed would be more efficient that a centrally planned economy. In October 1926, the six principal leaders of the opposition, including Sokolnikov, signed a promise to follow the party line in future. He kept to this line, unlike the others but was removed from the Politburo nonetheless, in January 1926, while being allowed to retain his membership of the Central Committee. In the same month, he was removed from the post of People's Commissar for finance, and appointed Deputy Chairman of Gosplan, despite his well known scepticism about the value of central planning. In spring 1926, he was sent on a trade mission to the US, which aborted when he was denied