At the end of 1925 Trotsky had avoided a direct commitment either to Zinoviev or Stalin, hoping that Stalin's favourable attitude towards industry would cause him to see the threat in Bukharin's isolationism. Instead, Stalin reacted to the failure of the export plan by enthroning Russia's projected self-sufficiency in party dogma. For some time before the Fourteenth Congress the implications of the 1925 goods famine had already been apparent. Early in December Rykov told a party meeting in Moscow that Gosplan's targets would be reduced. At the congress Rykov struck a note of limited optimism, but in February 1926 Dzerzhinsky explained in some detail the need to retrench. While Dzerzhinsky foresaw orderly cutbacks throughout industry, he specified that the most severe impact would be felt in light industry. To Trotsky, having witnessed Stalin's debate with Sokol'nikov and fearing a worsening of the goods famine, it seemed that the kulak had thwarted the planners and raised the prospect of a genuine ‘snail's pace’.

The economic crisis inevitably acted as a political catalyst and encouraged Trotsky to make the decision he had attempted to sidestep. The league with Kamenev and Zinoviev resulted. Although the coalition brought together an impressive collection of Bolshevik notables, its heterogeneity worked against its survival. For Zinoviev Stalin's defeat meant one thing – a return to power. Trotsky believed a change in party leadership was necessary in order to reorient Soviet thinking over the long run. By his criticism of Russia's isolation, however, Trotsky only reinforced his own.