Abstract: This article is devoted to the confrontation between the Stalinist "revolution from above" and the "Bukharin alternative" through the prism of the functioning of the collective rule of the Bolshevik party. The subject of this research is the influence of the traditions and mechanisms of the collective rule on the intraparty struggle, as well as the evolution of the informal relations and balance of forces within the "steering group" of the Bolshevik party under the conditions of the intraparty struggle during the period from 1928 to early 1929. Understanding these aspects of the intraparty struggle is a necessary condition for obtaining a full answer to the questions of how real the "Bukharin alternative" was to Stalinism and how inevitable was the final destruction of the collective rule and the beginning of the formation of Stalin’s dictatorship? The methodological basis of the study is the historical-genetic method, which allows to reveal the cause-and-effect relations and regularities of the evolving confrontation between Stalin and "Bukharin’s group". The scientific novelty of this research lies in it presenting the issue of the intraparty struggle of the late 1920s with a new perspective and attracting new archival materials, fully revealing the essence of the informal ("shadow") side of the intraparty struggle. The author comes to the conclusion that the balance of forces that existed in the upper echelon of the Bolshevik party in 1928 conditioned the significant influence of the traditions and mechanisms of the collective rule on the intraparty struggle. In fact, the defeat of the "Bukharin alternative" and the final destruction of the collective rule became possible only after Stalin, taking advantage of the gross political mistake made by Bukharin, rallied around him the majority of the "steering group" of the party.