AnarchismBolshevismBourgeoisieBujarinCentrismCivil WarCominternDemocracyFascismKaganóvichKamenevLeninLeninismMarxismPrivate PropertySovietStalinStalinismStrikeTrotskyURSSVoroshílovWorking ClassZinoviev

Page THE MILITANT February 1, 1929.
February 1, 1929.
THE MILITANT Page ON THE SITUATION IN RUSSIA. Letter to a Comrade. by TROTSKY OI continually for: we must of we the it even our colors, out of a 1929 in. in Moscow for the the illegal publikation of Right, count way there from the jest.
om a Rykov it the cording those com comrades Moscow to a to two rate the differ own vieta Kamenev of me.
with the on the extreme and the adAlma Ata, October 21, 1928. of the apparatus. This explains the publication of revolution can jump over one or another step.
Dear Comrades: a certain article by Bucharin, Observations of an In a Thermidorian, and still more in a completely The July plenum was the most important mo APPLYING THE OPPOSITION PLATFORM be only half bad, or they would unwittingly help ment in the retreat of the Centrists. But it would am writing to you in advance of the October Economist. That was the courage of despair. It Bonapartist overthrow, the army plays a great role plenary session, or at least before the news of the is possible that Rykov and Tomsky sent Bucharin in the second case, the decisive role. For this reabe stupid to think that this is the last stage of the struggle is above all a question of mobilizing the which would be much worse. The policy of the The question of introducing the masses into the the enemy to break the neck of the Revolution, session has reached Alma Ata. have nothing new out as a scouting party. The article is not only a son, we must follow with the greatest attention the to tell you, merely wish to summarize what predvodio precien caye akines but also addin. com: processes that are taking place in the army.
and that henceforward the Right cnjoys a position working class in all spheres of the domestic and in last five years has created ancw in the working THE THREAT OF BONAPARTISM which to judge the impending session. Right nothing but harm. The genuine Right dictions in the struggle, the revolution also will most pressing problems. In a series of letters we ulated, partly already formulated that is. directed The Jacks a plat. toward private property Thuvity of the masses to carry the struggle outside the the Moscow conference of Party workers, the Right determined to We must not forget that in the June report to inexorably break through and play no small role in form on the labor question. What does this must be so mobilized that It the history of the Party.
the From that is absurd. Centrism weakened itselí politically will rob you!
political point of view boun New proprietors, unite; or mcan exactly? Is our platform obsolete? The ferentiation.
or the Socialists anti Soviet voices which are especialBut from this one can by no means infer that the labor section of our platform was drawn up with ward. To the se by the October compromise. The right and the left fore in the struggle against the barpposition, but then army wil malice Such appeals have been heard bes undertake any more extraordinary measures, the. conscious, malicious, That is wings made a gain. But the development of the ap they sounded somewhat contemptibly ambiguous. half threat.
a very significant formulation half prophecy and rely upon the Opposition. The Centrists fear the that the application of it is simply being forgotten. react much more sensitively and decisively than the paratus has its own logic, which so far has not coin. But the Right, in order to oppose itself clearly, to threat. But who is making the threat? The new Centrists struggle with the Right, but steal from platform. They do not apply it, they do not seek satisfaction we must first of all unmask the Mencided with the general shifts of and the working class, and is culower in the Party the Center, had to howl this out with full throats, property holders through the commanding appara their program. To say that a bloc with one or counsel in it, and for that reason are always de sheviks, the Social Revolutionaries, the Anarchists, even contrary to it.
like the Black Hundreds, like Thermidorians. But of the army. The apparatus through Klim. Here By surrendering his political position Stalin split for this Bucharin still lacks the strength. He has you have also, so to speak, the Bonapartist candidate in so far as they have put their oar in. We can the right wing. He broke loose from it (tem put his toe into the cold water, but he is afraid to Klim. It would be extremely naive to object that Foreword alculous doctrinairism. Many of the present mapply it. Every act of a Bolshevik Leninist and must react to such attempts of the agents of and in no circumstances the possible could never ma ding new documents. You must study want platform; if bourgeoisie porarily) Kalinin and Voroshilov, who are whole plunge in. He stands and shivers with a direct appeal to the workers.
heartedly for the new proprietors and the new order, And Rykov and Tomsky watch from afar, to see have been different Bonapartes. There was. with fear. he would make a Centrists will still move to the left. What anyone rate quotations which apply on the posibil cueron We need not doubt that with the growth of our e a very diminutive Bonaparte. There had told us in 1924 that would form a a bloc with must be adduced. Theses over over no matter what but who hitherto have been afraid of being left face what will happen, in order at the proper moment not only Napoleon I, but also Napoleon 111, comrade by Trotsky Puchappened that the struggle of the Leningrad quotation from the platform. This document was and even our class enemies, to snuggle up to us and activity our influence upon the left wing The letter written to a the Zinoviev people, few would have believed it. question of the day, little or big, must begin with a working class, the attempts of elements alien to us, leaders.
clothe themselves in will grow more The situation from the point of view of the ap stage.
necessary, they will make, to ventrists of the were accurately thought out frequent. We must be on our guard, and denounce use a Stalinist paratus is bad enough for the Right. Stalin attacks One may say that all this is not very important snipe. Yes, events can develop in such a way that bases for which one hundredsiem to a bloc with us, and to the adoption of our expression, prince platform. Similar zig zags are not impossible with and discussed. The application of the platform to organizationally, after he has retreated politically But that would be false. Naturally, if the classes Klim (one of these Klims) may spring forth as a and fifty Bolshevik fighters the ruling Centrists of today, if the class regime all questions will have a great influence in the dire necessary that we steer, upon all issues, a perfectly wote that Molotov candidacy for the post of actual should speak out loud, if the proletariat should pass prince. That will be a third kind of Bonaparte. were arrested on January compels them to break openly and definitely at stands to reason that gaps can appear in the plat we are and where we are not.
and assured himself of his majority. It suffices to with tion of discipline, especially among the youth. It accurate course, so that the masses can know where But that would not prevent him from and if circumstances chairman destroying make them obedient.
oun Such historical apparatus actors would lose nine tenidis no shiter plea to from a Right position to the Right Center, and is is already regarded 23 possibilities are of the Comintern (in place of Bucharin) over to a political attack, the disposition of these he revolution. They say that Klim has gone over ter revolutionary documents They can become steps on the hot to be excluded. form, obsolete sentences or erroneous particulars we once jokingly as a serious question. Yes, yes, ing, and the other. But we are considering here supporting the master. But such combinations dishonor of the revolution just as did the bloc with the Zinoviev people. But pletions clearly and accurately, and thus act upon looked upon the question of Democratic Centralism would suggested that Stalin would put shift of a further de which need changing, correcting, or completing cratic Centralists. You will remember the Demo position sharply Puc one side or vere individual comrades who Comintern. The our ranks It is our misfortune and the velopment and strengthening of the Bolshevik line, But we must formulate these corrections and comMechlis in as chairman of the Beganovich must. not yet completed epoch, the end reality is not of the omni at the top are formed and can be torn apart in dishonor of lehe replace The application of the platform in every given good fortimental standpoint Some of them did. They are pretty Uglanov, against whom charg potence of the apparatus with a growing dual power twenty four hours by an impetus.
out. ary movemere that the writ. it would be losing one head entirely to steer a the platform itself.
charges are pends in the the Central Control Committee. Incitement ing in e country. Stalin and.
TCC the be tone which comprbe some of the as they now are, instead of systematically, uncom see. of a youth comrade against Stalin. But the real government. And the government is not play do The master says: These cadres can only Marxist Leninist writings of the proletarian nucleus of the Party. In the long upon the order of the day) has naturally always its wo yesterday were still proposing a complete union in our political line.
keenest It is worth situation of remarking that and most brilliant promisingly, implacably opposing to the Centrists stance the wage scale campaign which now stands Right appears a.
in the fact that ac the disposition of the bureaucratic players more by swept away by a civil war. Klim adds: If you our time, must be secretly run these precisely Kameney and promising to obliterate tendencies much, remember that a great circulated in the Soviet ence between the will down the hack. cow story Bucharin is running closely, but from the standpoint of class rather than workers growl too Both these statements are Union, and that for their dis position and it overwhelming majority of the Op participation of the comrades on the spot; in the the conciliatory wing, and rave and shout against swar own difficulties, which can be solved only with the with the Democratic Centralists, stand today upon Stalin and Molotov into from that of the apparatus.
for power stands behind in the Democratic Centralism in our own ranks, often small minority which is given to factory and in the various trades. Our most of course would declare himself elements of THE POSITION OF THE RIGHT WING ready for this operation, but he understands that the Party state. which considers itself kers are being persecuted.
lphide first case speaks tribution revflutionary wor dreaming how beautiful it would be if a nice portant guiding idea, the decisive criterion in this understanding by Democratic Centralism the develHow can the Right danger bloc should be formed with the thoughtful Centrists, field, is the increase of real wages. As to the ex opment of our principle line. Although it is anthane bis. economic prognoses. Out of sheer inse. That is an election of great importance. The main second case speaks the Military apparatus, which which were de diminish the difficulties and the Party State.
were given a But alas, the too experience of the past testifies de managers, with the Soviet, Party and trade must nevertheless occupy ourselves a litte with these Pooh bah, would not run to the men who were ex outside of the Party. The Right Wing is more its place.
pelled from the Party only yesterday, while he is but in contrast to the Centrists it has a solid clac Centrists over the Right would not do away with known place: Such an ab, this course are shipping into Centrism itself to measure but absolutely not an illegal, anti Party or Democratic Centralism whom we have until organs. strike is, as the resolution of the Democratic cele. In order to be clear as to the secret trial, found guilty, and that such a supposedly more economical course will Eleventh Party Congress declared, bloodless victory of the Party apparatus of the Sectarian weakly represented in the apparatus than the Center, of their policy really afraid of his own shadow.
imprisoned to un cost much more, and that those who summon us to founded on it. Since the leaders of the The anti Soviet Thermidorian Bonapartist perspective, but solu The. measure. participation of the BolWhat is Stalin thinking? It is not difficult to support in the 1eft now left to themselves (and guess: 11 get out of these difficulties by means of of the Right Wuntry. But how can the strength would only change and postpone it. An independent solutely unta rd of proced. bureaucratic apparatus struggle of the Centrists shevik Leninists in strikes, and in the leadership of have talked themselves out to the end, they have in that we have been right. nevertheless actually material centrist ators. Deasures, then will call the Right capitu ze. In other words, how can the new proprietors victory of the Centrists without the Opposition. Wre in the So let Union will with the Right can be employed starting point strikes. may be indicated as the Party duty of Bol given us good weapons against themselves. We will masses, can only succeed through an of the revolu on. Not even a only strengthen the enemies for a.
for a thorough going Party power? At first glance, it seems reassuring without orm, only if there is shevik Leninists, when all other means for a decisive interference of the a cuarding the and drop them a peg or two lower in the that the political parties of the possessing class are of the mass basis of Centrism, through a further lutionary Social Revolution since the Opposition is politically independent of theses of the masses have been exhausted. How fahel. away the best elements from them with the legal, that is the organization. If. on the other hand, the situation shattered, ther narrowing the genuinel the actually realizable position can organize this interference of the masses. demands of their own documents, especially with the gets worse, then will steer to the Right myself, the new proprietors the that is, will weaken the Right faction by actual realizations can go, may be determined letters of Smirnov. We must not neglect even th of the Centrist faction with the ap aries in 1922 the smallest wound: otherwise poison threatens the 1.
the and. Will to cannot decide to rely openly upon the new pro the commanding apparatus of the army, in which iets, Savinkot the Sov. this independence is able to make use of every stage the workers representative hears the explanation with a courageous and determined policy in the enemy of the Sov whole organism. We will take away the workers vented the disagreements, that they are trying to prietors. Naturally, this is all an advantage that emitted to hold other opinions there than those class of Russia was permitted THE ADVICE OF THE CAPITULATORS disatisfactise negotiations. That depends upon the campaign of clarification on the other.
split the Party, and thus put them a peg lower. If were given of the struggle between them.
and also actually examines the books. Who shall weightiest questions, upon the one side, and with a Party life long ago extinct, since no one is secret trials. The working These Right measures do not work, will make my we inherit from the past, but it is by no means an absolute guarantee. The conditions necessary for a wh which Bubnov is ordered to propagate. As a result to Right allies responsible for the failure, will again materialization of the Thermidor can develop in a eventually mount the will the master himself Bolshevik prosecutors were and counsel of our new friend Kamenev (in the will demand the election of steer a course to the Left by giving Kamenev consolidations, participate because the and arise, the Bolshevik Leninists THE SLOGAN OF THE SECRET BALLOT few words, in this connection, upon the advice Whent actor and the attacking power of the worker.
Zinoviev a little longer leash since they are waitcomparatively short time.
white horse, or will he be found able to pillory them as coun above mentioned conversation. ing docilely like whipped dogs. And then we We have already more than once called attentis lying under Klim horse? From the class stand ter revolutionaries. Kamenev, you delegations to conduct the negotiations with the slogan of the secret vote in the Party and the trade point that is a quite unimportant question.
That is Stalin scheme. Its strength to the fact that the victorious bourgeois counterIn the know, finds that should hand in a document trade union, with the Party Committee of the unions can and must be issued. Self criticism has lies in the apparatus. Its mortal weakness, that it revolution must take the form of Fascism or Bond, of the Right would lead directly along the Therm to conduct a secret, hurried zether. But is a self willed man. etc. papers, and, when all else fails, the highest authori. cation. That is clear to everyone. We must in But without the host, without the classes. partism, but absolutely cannot take the form of idorian Bonapartist road, a victory of the Cen trial because they feared ect. Kamenev is really not so naively good natured ties. With written declarations and an accurate re our transitional slogans our partial slogans, so to as long as the classes are silent, Stalin scheme bourgeois democracy of which the soft headed Men trists would lead zig zag along the same road. Is the resentment of the word and of course does not himself believe in what he port upon the workers complaints, they should ap speak give expression to the mood of the workers sheviks dream. Kamenev has never understood that there any real difference? In the final historic con kers. He knows perfectly well that such a declara pear before the factory meetings. The mood of the and their not vet very audible wish to get rid of is visible from afar, they are certainly clear to the comrades, Kameneve described the situation in the sequence there difference. Centrism presents tion The letter of comrade would such as to not alter the legal position of the Oppo workers demand upon our side the pressure from above Why didn Right. That is why the Rights are so very much country as if after a certain period Kerensky only a variety of conciliation in the given case, Trotsky exposes with knife. sition, it would merely give it a political blow which greatest determination and activity. We alone can ballot, it would have been different. That is to. If there had been a secret with excited. They do not want to admit that they are would stand at the threshold. Decidely not. If one ciety, which is attempting to form itself anew the struggle in the Soviet Union amnesty which denies them all moll life what of the masses, due to many causes, testifies in the new proprietors, with the bourgeois so like sharpneskes the factors would lower it to the level of the Zinoviev oeople. Sead the suppressed disatisfaction into the The latter have won themselves a dise but and forces in the cople. Sovint and Partv channels. The present pasitikt be heard ever already partly defeated. But they are very much must mention Kerensky, then it would be better to this only as the final historic consequence. At thy and the Party and lays bare, from us. Kamenev understands this very well. His selves, since many of the old ways and means have shorter way. jumning over certain stages, is present My Whether it will the afraid that if they attack, Stalin will wipe them say that right now, under the Centrist regime, the secret ballot or wheout at one blow. however, country is compelled to pass through a Kerensky larger scale the broad strata of the superior wor further, the reasons for the Centrism reflects on a much thanks ever. And this, only to their breaking away to a wavering and indecisiveness of the masses them ther intolerable contradictions will be solved in some THE METHOD OF STALIN period upside down.
kers. The Right has its roots in the new, and Stalin method was very clear during the congress. The number of hours Bucharin spoke at the sisted in this: that on its back the power of the crude peasant, proprictorship. It would chief reactionary hysteria of Stalin conversations and his coquetry have only one goal disappointed, and new ones have not yet been found. special question. But for the given moment, the The function of the historic Kerensky period con ly the peasa of the secret ballot be a very and the progress of the Len to frighten Stalin, who is already maltreating a THE MASSES AT THE CROSS ROADS a life question in the little too contemptuously his future allies.
and the trade unions, struggle between them. inist Oppositicn. Ed.
This standing at the cross roads can naturally fact of bureaucratic pressure, that is, since it congress was in inverse ratio to his influence, which bourgeoisie passed over to the proletariat. The The Centrists do not want to break openly with gives to the Kamenev wants to raise his own price, in order not last long. new crystallization process must upon the workers through the apparatus, a general pressure is declining from day to day. In the first place, the historic role of the Stalin period consists in this: the Right policy of the is distasteful to the that upon its back the power is gliding over from the Right, which above all does not want to offend at a new opportunity to betrav us again, but under take nlace in the masses, and it may under certain expression. The slogan of the secret ballot is at the conditions more favorable for himself. In the end, conditions go forward with dizzying speed. And foreign party bureaucrats in however, only complete dough heads could yield to around what pole will this process take nlace the now beginning against the dual power. The open present stage the best expression for struggle tion the masses and the view of the radicaliza the proletariat to the bourgeoisie; in general the the property holders. Just this relation between the the pressure of the Opposi post Lenin leadership is unwinding the October upper levels of the working class and the new protion. In the second place intern the religion is this same Kerensky period moving toward the no matter how confusing the cross currents in the is his blandishment. Among us there will be no two bureaucratic? No, that is impossible. If we are ballot was introduced Stalin period prietors is the basis of the grouping in the apparatus, the of Stalin, and in the opinions upon this. Esnecially noticeable is Kamenot around which everything turns weaker ner sorrow over my frequent and harsh atturns in this could not vote against in its time so that the enem nrocess, then it tacks unon his canitulation. Peonle must work to Revolutionaries, the Anarchists. And that will mean hrousht it about that the workers cannot vote for be the Mensheviks, the Social The The element of dual power in the country has During the the greatest revolution the bourgeois order cannot posabsent Stalin took threeficulties between personalities sether. We should not revive old quarrels. It that the October Revolution is finally crushed. the dictatorship. through fear before fourths if not nine tenths of the assem!
and is too bad that a split has arisen.
the atus men away from Bucharin. It was not neces for the maintenance sary for Stalin to be present. He had nothing to must have a supreme and purely military concen the struggle, in order to understand the meaning tenance of this victory, the bourgeoisie groupings in order to follow the separate stages of Kamenev sinas well with coloratura. That he olution against this, since they boldly go to the That is the gist of the matter. The anparatus man say. The bargaining was done for him by the im tration of power, lifting itself above the classes. but of the struggle and its limitations. This struggle sings without fear of Yaroslavskv. testifies to the masses, and where it is necessary overthrow the stands on the tribine and watches the hands of the personal mechanism of power. It is evident that having as its immediate point of support the Kulak. has of itself no great significance, but it breaks the weakening hold of the apparatus and to the growing boundaries which the bureaucrats have set up. voters, or the worker wife nulls him by the sleeve: the Rights, whether they wish to or not, are forced That is Bonapartism. The Thermidor is only a bureaucratic fetters, brings the hidden to light, imchances of the Opposition. We put this in our books Going to the masses does not mean remaining Better not vote. In these circumstances. to say to jump into the cold water that is, they must stage on the road to Bonapartism. This stage does pels the masses to think, and widens the arena of on the credit side. But only one inference can be passive before their spontaneous power as the Demo that the secret ballot supports passivity and unde endeavor to carry their fight against Stalin outside not have to be realized completely. The countertheir activities.
made from it: we must strike twice as hard, three cratic Centralists plan to do. They would break cisiveness, is a surrender to idealistic doctrinarism.
times, ten times as hard, against the capitulators. their necks with their Putsch policy, which would Continued on page come without the safeOnly the Opmasses.
Sare suppressed, consolidation revo that in veterate these opportunities arise shall see a toof counts will work.
says.
sam you vote can against it?
everywhere.
a mistake to ignore this Party class the role enemy hands of the apparatus is no of in no the conarece sibly assume a Bucharin pressure