 Rudzutaks was ousted from his position as Secretary during the All Russian Congress of Trade Unions, in May 1921, when he and the chairman, Mikhail Tomsky were blamed by Lenin and the Central Committee for failing to bloc a resolution put forward by the veteran Marxist, David Riazanov, that would have allowed union leaders to be elected by their own members rather than being selected by the party.In April, he was sent back to Tashkent, with Tomsky, to supervise the establishment of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Alexander Barmine, the Soviet official who greeted them on arrival, remembered Rudzutaks as "a tall fellow with spectacles and curly hair, his strong features set in a round face.