Leon Trotsky: The Turkish Revolution and the Tasks of the Proletariat

[Pravda No. 2, December 17 (30), 1908, The Balkan Wars. New York-Sydney 1980, p. 3-7]

I

The Russian revolution [of 1905] has called forth echoes in places far from the borders of Russia. In Western Europe it has produced a stormy upsurge of the proletarian movement. At the same time it has drawn the peoples of Asia into political life. In Persia, bordering on Caucasia^* and under the direct influence of the events there, a revolutionary struggle has begun which with varying success has already lasted for over two years. In China, in India, everywhere, the masses are rising against their own tyrants and against the European despoilers (capitalists, missionaries, etc.) who not only exploit the European proletariat but also plunder the peoples of Asia. The most recent echo of the Russian revolution is the revolution that occurred in Turkey this summer.

Turkey is situated in the Balkan Peninsula, in the southeastern corner of Europe. From time immemorial this country has been a byword for stagnation, lifelessness, and despotism. The sultan in Constantinople was in no way inferior to his brother in St Petersburg, and in many ways surpassed him. Peoples of different race or religion (Slavs, Armenians, Greeks) were subjected to diabolical persecutions. But the sultan’s own people — the Muslim Turks — did not live happily, either. The peasants were enslaved to the officials and the landlords, and were poor, ignorant, and prey to superstition. There were few schools. The setting up of factories was hindered in all sorts of ways by the sultan’s government, owing to its fear of the development of a proletariat. There were spies everywhere. The embezzlement and waste indulged in by the sultan’s bureaucracy (just like the tsar’s) was boundless. All this led to the complete decay of the state. The capitalist governments of the European countries were gathering round like so many hungry dogs, each trying to bite off a bit for itself. And Sultan Abdul Hamid went on incurring debts, the repayment of which was bleeding his subjects white. The people’s discontent had been accumulating for a long time, and under the impact of the events in Russia and Persia it has now broken out into the open.

In Russia it was the proletariat that came forward as the chief fighter for the revolution. In Turkey, however, as I have already mentioned, industry exists only in embryonic form, and so the proletariat is small in numbers and weak. The most highly educated elements of the Turkish intelligentsia, such as teachers, engineers, and so on, being able to find little scope for their talents in schools or factories, have become army officers. Many of them have studied in West European countries and become familiar with the regime that exists there — only, on their return home, to come up against the ignorance and poverty of the Turkish soldier and the debased conditions of the state. This has filled them with bitterness; and so the officer corps has become the focus of discontent and rebelliousness.

When the revolt broke out in July of this year [1908], the sultan found himself at once practically without an army. Corps after corps went over to the revolution. The ignorant soldiers certainly did not understand the aims of the movement, but discontent with their conditions caused them to follow their officers, who called peremptorily for a constitution, threatened that otherwise they would overthrow the sultan. There was nothing left for Abdul Hamid but to resort to concessions: He “granted” a constitution (sultans always make such “grants” when there is a knife at their throat), summoned to power a ministry of liberals, and took steps to hold elections for parliament.

The country at once sprang to life. An endless round of meetings began. Many new newspapers appeared. The young proletariat of Turkey woke up as though at a thunderclap. Strikes broke out.

Workers’ organizations arose. In Smyrna the first socialist newspaper began publication.

Now, as I write these lines, the Turkish parliament has already met, with a majority of Young Turk reformers. The near future will show what is to be the fate of this Turkish “Duma.”

II

The helpless Turkey of the old order was torn to pieces by the capitalist states. Austria cut two provinces for herself from Turkey thirty years ago — Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are inhabited mainly by Serbs. In the thieves’ jargon of the diplomats this act of plunder is called an “occupation,” that is, a sort of temporary takeover, of the provinces in question. However, Austria has remained in unimpeded possession of them for three decades.

When Turkey shook off the sultan’s despotism and the people themselves took the country’s affairs into their own hands, the European sharks became uneasy. Perhaps the Turks, having strengthened their state, would start asking for something to be returned to them. Austria hastened to proclaim her occupation to be an “annexation” — a definitive acquisition of the territory concerned. Essentially this changed nothing, since Bosnia and Herzegovina were in Austrian hands anyhow. Nevertheless, the Turks protested, demanding compensation. Negotiations are at present going on between the Turkish and Austrian governments about this matter.

What interests us now, however, is not these negotiations in themselves, but the shouting and screaming that the Austrian annexation has provoked among the Russian bourgeois parties, with the Cadets at their head. “Bosnia is inhabited by Serbs, and Serbs, being Slavs, are our brothers. Therefore the Russian government must immediately take steps to liberate Bosnia from Austrian captivity!” This is the howl set up by the Cadets all over the place, in newspapers and at meetings.

We Social Democrats must decisively oppose this absurd and harmful agitation. After all, just think — the liberals are proposing that the tsar’s government undertake to free the Slavs of the Balkan Peninsula. But aren’t there some Slavs nearer home who need to be liberated from tsarist rule? The Poles are “Slavs,” too.

Yet their situation under the heel of the autocracy is incomparably worse than that of the Serbs under Austria.

Poles and Ukrainians, Belorussians and Jews, Armenians and Georgians, Slavs and non-Slavs — we all wade up to our knees in blood that is shed every day by the tsarist gang. And the liberals call upon this government, the most guilty of them all, to free the Serbs from the grip of Austria. What for? So that the tsar may seize them in his own, even dirtier and bloodier grip!

The proletariat of Russia cannot call upon Romanov to fight Austria, for Austria is not our enemy and Romanov is not our friend. Inside Austria we, like the Serbian people, have a true and reliable ally, the Austrian proletariat, which is waging a struggle to the death against its own government. On our part we must not strengthen the tsarist government for struggle against Austria, we must not supply it with recruits, must not vote for its budget and loans, as do the Cadet traitors in the Duma, but, on the contrary, we must weaken it in every way, until we can deal it the ultimate deathblow.

The Russian autocracy is the sworn enemy of free people throughout the world. Not long ago the tsarist Colonel Lyakhov personally dissolved the Persian Majles (parliament), and at the first favorable opportunity the tsarist government will undoubtedly try to strike at the new Turkey.

This is why our fight against tsarism has worldwide significance. We shall render our best service to the Serbs of Bosnia, as to all oppressed peoples in general, when we dash the crown from the head of Nicholas II. We cannot give any sort of support to tsarist bayonets — bayonets smeared with our own blood!