Saturday, April 26, 1930 THE MILITANT Page The Autobiography of Leon Trotsky MY LIFE, by Leon Trotsky, Chas Seribner this life work makes his book read like a new school of what, for lack of a more ap related figures of the time, all the events, Son. 600 pages. On Sale by the Militant romance of adventure. At the age of 18, propriate designation, is called the Stalinist all the discounected threads of men and for 00 per copy.
he had already plunged up to his ears in historian, bought and paid for to writo things, and puts them together in their The profoundest contributiou the averthe arliest revolutionary organizations, in history as it never happened for the pur proper place. The result is in completely age bourgeois thinkor has niade to analyzOdessa, where he immediately occupied an pose of weaving a monstrously inexact le woven frabric, distinct in every intertwining the struggle between the principal curactive and prominent place. At 19, follow gend about the equally monstrous figure of ing of its cords, that enables the reade: to rents in the modern revolutionary moveing a czarist raid, he was given his first Stalin. It is as though all the labors of understand and follow that horrible enormment which have clashed most violently taste of prison life. From prison he was these dark figures were brought together ity that has been tho beginning and end of in the Soviet republic has been that it is sent into his first Siberian exile, tie first into one inisshapen form and crushed under wisdom in the official Communist movement of three, from two of which he escaped, the concentrated truth of Trotsky book. since Lonin died: the campaign against a a struggle between Trotsky and Stalin for and from the last of which he was de It is in this connection that Trotsky runs socalled Trotskyism. Not every lie can be power. Particularly is this the concepported to Turkey by the usurpers who are to questions that have frequently been replied to: that wculd require a Britannica; tion of the petty bourgeois and his intel lectual off spring, that hopeless section of so cruelly squandering the glorious her posed by revolutionary workers: To pre but the new ones and the old ones served modern society which constantly seeks salitage of the Russian revolution, cisely what extent is the struggle between up with a new sauce which are important vation from the hammer and anvil by the In his first exile abroad he made the the Marxist wins and the bureaucratic ap or iaracteristic are destroyed with a sure intervention of somo great man who has no acquaintance of the leaders of the then paratus a personal struggle, one of in gical efficiency and completeness. It la united Russian social democracy, also in relation to the classes and stands above dividuals. and why is it that the Oppo much less defense than an atta sk.
them. It may be added that this idea hay exile: Lenin, Plechanov, Martov, Deutsch, takes the men and less than men who are sition, the leaders and foremost fighters not failed to find nourishment in the hide Zusulitch and others. He had come before for the revolution, was defeated in the in today high places. It tells us who a crucial moment in the history of the Party which was in the best sense of the ous propaganda against the Russian Marxthey are, how and why they got there, ists conducted for almost seven years now Russian movement, the split between the word its own? The answer is not too We are startied by thing we formerly majority (Bolsheviks) and the minority difficult to find.
by the ruling apparatus, especially in tho only suspected or never knew. We lep. rn whispering campaign of the earlier periods (Mensheviks. a split that involved his first period of social convulsions and for the first time for instance that secres of the fight in which slanders were circu break with Lenin which the record forgers surge, a period of revolutionary advance, upon scores of those self labelled old have so monstrously exaggerated and misbrings into the foreground tho great indilated agninst Trotsky that nobody at least 14. 1sheviks. who, we had been taught for in those days. dared to say or write represented in recent times. On the eve viduals of the advancing class. Eit for a 1, had beon loyal disciples of Tenta publicly.
of the 1905 revolution, he was back again period of stagnation, or for a periud of 12 Bolshevism for anywhere from 20 to Such a notion is not a new one. It in St. Petersburg under an assumed name, action, men of colorless talents are re 30 year. the while Trotsky was a scoundAnd when the uprising occurred, he was quired hot a period of counter revolution, did not arise for the first tine in connection relly Menshevik, conclllator or what you with the fight of the Opposition against the named the president of the Petersburg it is clear for that also requires men who will. were in cold reality (before the revobacksiiding apparatus. Similar profound Soviet of Workers Deputies after the un are in a certain sense great men, but of lution, and some afterwards as well. not strugglos have been explained in this way missed disappearance of its first chalrman, a period of peaceful reaction, so to speak. only in the camp of Menshirsm, but even the democratic lawyer, Khrustalyor. The in a conversation with Trotsky, his further to the right.
by philistines and small minds: one need Detween 1905 and leader and spokesman of this dawn of the friend Skylansky said: You know, it is but refer to the seas of ink expended in 1917, many of these two for a penny Old showing that the First International was more lasting revolution to come more than amazing how, during this last period, the Bolsheviks were at best revolutionary demwrocked on the reel of personal antagonism a decade later, he was arrested after its mean, the self satisfied mediocrity is push ocrats, or else had quit the movement endefeat together with the other deputies and ing itself into every sphere.
and place seeking between Marx and BaAnd all of tirely and retired to a quiet bourgeois life kunin. The same shabby criterion will un following a sensational trial, exiled once it finds in Stalin its leader. Where does We begin here to learn something about doubtedly be applied in future social battles inore to the Siberian wastes, only to esit allocome from?
these sturdy Old Dolsheviks like Cussev capo abroad again. This is the reaction after the great where outstanding personallties or outstandwho left the movement for ten years in tha ing mediocrities occupy a large place on social and psychological strain of the first hard dnys of the reaction and turned up in the canvas of events. And that is so perTrotsky Activity in Exile years of revolution, Trotsky replied. 1925 in the United States to each us that haps because there cannot yet be estab For years in the teeming life of the victorious counter revolution nay develop the essence of Bolshevism in this country lished, in the weltor of ideas that inake up emigrated and exiled Russian social demits great men. But its first stage, th: Ther consisted in the cabled manucture of Bocial thought, a law against stupidity and orracy, he was head over heels absorbed in midor, deinands mediocrities who can see Lovestone, Popper and Ruthenberg as the the struggles of the two principal factions farther than their noses. Their strength ignorance.
consecrated Leninistic leaders of the Amer(Bolsheviks and Mencheviks. denounced lies in their political blindness, like the The Role of the Individual in History ican Party. Trotaky mentions many others now by the one, now by the other, but at mill horso that thinks that bo is moving This does not mean to dony, but rather like Gussev to one extent or another, Yarall times energetically laboring to assemble up when really he is only pusling down tho to affirm, that individuals play an enoroslavsky, Ordjonikize, Petrovsky of the Ukan armory for the inevitable second Rusbelt wheel. horse that sees is incapable mous role and often a decisive one in the raine for instance, and their heroic deeds sian revolution. True internationalist, he of doing the work.
development or retardation of historical of the past. Had Trotsky been guilty at did not confine his activities to the Rus. How Mediocrites Like ail: Arle any time of half of their colossal blunders processes. It is on the reverse side of the philistine bliud adoration for all sufficien sian movement. He was found at the in Tho period of reaction that set in in and conceptions that had not even a hatcy and omnipotence of great men that ternational congress, at conventions of the Russia after the tragic defeats of the rer. tipping acquaintance with Marxism, Stalin he frequently marks his mystle awe be then imposing German social democracy, in olutions in Germany and Bulgaria ia 1923 would undoubtedly have dared to exile him fore the course of social forces which he in 1924 instead of waiting four years tongAustria, in the Balkans, making life long and the subsequent retardation of the revdoes not understand and is incapable of political and personal acquaintanceships in olutionary movement in Europe the only er! It is precisely such people who find influencing or guiding forward an inab one place, as with Rakovsky, or venomous real salvation for an isolated Russian Soa place in the present period; in the first Ility which he sometimes erects into a and implacable foos in another Trotsky is cialist state. produced its Stalin with the five years of the revolution the movement universal law. Man does not make history hardly noted for any gentleness or hypo same inexorablenes tha: it required the went forward without eve suspecting teir existence it never makered.
out of the whole cloth, said Marx; but critical softness in his relations with polit. organizational beheading of the revolutionnevertheless he makes it. And great men ical opponents!
ary section of the Party. It required the Great Political Document make great history. They are produced by After the fearful collapse of the Se campaign against the pestiferous Trotsky. or them all, naturally, Stalin emerges social convulsions and conflicts and in cond International under the earthquake of ists and their internal din and bustle, their the worst. The full length portrait Trotturn they influence their production. There the imperialist war, the fighter is again sectarian insistence upon the permansky draws of him is a murderous one for in lles the inter connection between the in the front ranks, raking the German social ent revolution. their contempt for the Stalin. No man can live long as a political conflict and harmony of outstanding men traitors with the same ferocity as the sweot Tulling music of socialism in one figure of any consequence with so deadly and outstanding events, of individuals and French Defonders of the Fatherland. and country, their constant prodding ot the an epitaph written for him, one may say, the social struggle. And therein Ites the condemned alike not only by them but also soft and self contented, the revolutionist of in advance. In regard to the history of the great value, the permanent significance of by their warring masters: In contumaclum yesterday who had become a golia Soviet campaign against Trotskylam. the facts, comrade Trotsky autobiography. It is by the German Junkers and by expulsion citizen, who had made the revolution in events and persons involved, the book as much vital contribution to the con from France. Expulsion also from Spain. the sweat of his brow and was anxious to stands as a challenge to every serious flict and harmonies we have mentioned as Then voyage to the new world his only settle down quietly to enjoy the fruits of it revolutionist. It is no platitude, but it is their product. It could only be writ trip to the United States. In this country, without being Interrupted by the clamorprofound truth, to say that he who dares ten as a result of a social war on a huge an editor of the Russian Marxist Journal ou requirements of the international rev.
read it, enemy though he may be at the scale. In itself it is a battle fought and Novy Mir, and a foundation layer with em olution. Only a period of social and politcommencement, must end by being at the won.
igrated Russians, with Lore, with Fraina Ical reaction could to continue with inadvery least, tremendously fafluenced by TrotThat it is, as the reviewers everywhere and others of the movement which took oquate personal similies and analogiessky point of vlew. We hope that every have remarked, a work of extraordinary lit form in the Socialist Propaganda League, accomplish the monstrous historical perrobel worker, aud particularly every work erary qualities. It is one of the greatest and later tormed ono of the elements that versions, these sielght of hand tricks by er in the official Communist Party will acIlterary works of our time. that it is un organized the necessary spilt of the corrupt which a Lenin and a Trotsly are changed cept the challenge.
commonly absorbing reading aside from all Socialist Party and formed the Communist for a Stalin or a. Molotov, the rebel Engother considerations, that the book has a The conclusion of the book where movement in America. En route back to Ifsh miner for a Purcell, the Chinese coolle Trotsky so splendidly castigates the dembrilliant arresting style, an unusual power Russia with the first news of the Korensky for a Chiang Kal Shok, the Russian facooratie illusionists of the whole world on of aarrative, that warm sense of humor, revolution, he is interned in a Canadian tory workers for the omice bureaucrat, tho the subject of his application to the right the wealth of imagery and color which has concentration camp, doportod, and then the poor peasant for the smug kulak who will of asylum shows him at once oblivtous to placed him in the front ranks of the mo arrival in Petrograd to be, with Lenin, the grow into socialism. No other answer to any personal tragedy and quletly condern writers all this only enhances its organizer and leader of the great victory. the two questions, which are one question, fident of the future. Anybody who has worth, but does not determine it The Truth Confounds the Stalinist Lars can find a place in the mosaic of rocent been fortunate enough to be with him oven The Making of a Revolutionist His activities in and after the revoevents.
for a few days on the deserted Islet of PrinA review of a book is obviously not the lution itself, in the best years of the young The Stalinist Intrigue against the Bolshevik kipo and seen hiin at work with the same book. In this case it can only be a quite dictatorship aud of the Communist InterRevolationists energy, devotion and self assurance that insufficient comment on some of its most national are rich and indelible, and not all But for such an enormous displace. marked him when he led the victorious Red interesting sections, a comment which grays the oceans of mud, not all the befogging ment of things, for such a turning of values Army, will know immediately that what he before the vividness of its subject.
clouds of Official propaganda can succeed upon their head, a most latricate and clab says about the future is not pretty literaTrotsky life has of course been in in concealing them 20w for any length of orate mechanism is needed, for processes ture but a natural conviction, the certainty timately bound up with the development of time or for any substantial amount of in social life are not entirely realized by that the course of events, Interrupted and the most important event of our age, the people. History was too deeply engraved themselves. It is with an examination of diverted from their proper line of march Russian proletarian revolution, sluce the in that period to be recarved today or the mechanics of the change, and not only though they may be for the moment, must end of the last century. Fifty years of erased by filling the tracings with the im with its dynamics, that a good section othe eventually vindicate the foreseeings and age, by far the greater part of his lite permanent putty official fraud factories. biography is occupied. With an uncommon foretellings of revolutionary Marxism. The been unchangingly devoted to the accom The simple re telling of the events which meticulousness and respect for facte, Trot work of the Communist Opposition is a plishment and furtherance of the prolet really took place are sufficient to bring sky traces every intrigue against the revo contribution to this vindication. Tho autoarian revolution and its ini.
out the original precisłon of those carvinge lutionary wing of the Party, and against blography of comrado Trotsky is another The breath taking variety of the cir in highest rolle. The fow hundred DAEOS himselt, in particular, as its most notable It is a battle fought and won.
cumstances under which he has pursued of the book aro a mortal blow to the whote exponent. Ho takes all the otherwise un MAX SHACHTUAN