Trotskys opposition won 4000 votes of the membership while the Central Committee (Stalins platform) won 724,000 votes in 1927

At the Fifteenth Party Conference, Trotsky and Zinoviev finally destroyed themselves politically. Trotsky made a lengthy speech and had to ask repeatedly for more time. He was interrupted con­stantly by ridicule and laughter. Zinoviev grovelled and begged for­ giveness for his errors. He, too, was heckled and ridiculed. Both had been arrogant in power and now they were humiliated and defeated. It was left to Bukharin to make the final savage attack on them; the delegates, thirsting for blood, applauded loudly.

The main discussion at the conference was not on the opposi­tion, but on Stalin’s new theory of “socialism in one country.” It bore the stamp of his mind and outlook, and it marked the begin­ ning of the Stalinist era. The Russian revolutionary drive had been losing momentum since the end of the Civil War and the process had accelerated after Lenin’s death. A new policy was needed that would inspire the Russian people to undertake the superhuman task of carrying their country on from the October Revolution towards socialism and communism. That policy was “socialism in one country.” Its emotional appeal was overwhelm­ ing. It aroused a new fervor in the party, and pride in the revolu­ tion spread beyond the party ranks. It was a declaration of inde­ pendence from the West and of faith in the capacity of their country to forge ahead, creating its own future alone and unsup­ ported. Backward Russia, for so long treated as lagging on the outskirts of Western civilization, would show herself to be ad­ vanced and at the center of civilization in the coming millennium.

-Ian Grey, Stalin, p. 215

Sounds really popular