Leon Trotsky: What is of "long duration" and what of "short duration”

[My own translation from the German translation in „The Social Democrat. Organ of the Independent Social Democracy and the Communist Party of Württemberg“¹, November 20, 1920, corrections by English native speakers would be extremely welcome]

[This article was written before the conclusion of the preliminary peace with Poland. However, it has not lost any of its topicality {- The editor}].

Piłsudski, who has still not lost hope of undermining the closing of ranks between Poland and Soviet Russia, told journalists a few days ago that such a peace would not be “of long duration” anyway, since the Soviet government is not “of long duration” either. Millerand and other supporters of the war with Russia have recently expressed the same view. "The Soviet power is not of long duration" was what the imperialist brigands were trying to convince Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia when they concluded that peace with the workers' and peasants' state was a necessity. But the peripheral states were tired of waiting for the promised fall of Soviet power and made peace with it one by one.

"Soviet power is not of long duration," said the German diplomats in the Imperial Reichstag at the time of the Brest Litovsk peace. Through this prophecy the servants of the Hohenzollern hoped to justify their negotiations with the revolutionary government. Their calculation was: The Soviet power will soon fall! The advantageous peace concluded with it will also be binding on the other governments. But things turned out differently, the Brest-Litovsk peace fell, and Soviet power remained.

One of the Bulgarian ministers who grandstand as a Stambulinski told me in a so-called "private conversation" during the Brest negotiations: "You understand that the central powers cannot be convinced of the permanence of the peace treaty, because revolutionary governments are never of long duration.” Meanwhile, the German government was overthrown and Austria-Hungary disintegrated into small pieces, burying under its rubble the monarchy, bureaucracy and diplomacy. The young Turkish party that ruled Turkey and negotiated with us in Brest-Litovsk in the tone of the victor turned into an organisation of insurgents, now seeking help from Soviet Russia against the Entente. In Bulgaria, finally, Tsar Ferdinand has long since left the scene of his government.

So it is the governments that belonged to the German alliance that have been reduced to dust during the three years of Soviet power. But the revolutionary power of the workers and peasants, which was predicted to be of short duration, is alive.

In France, during the last years of the war, the dictatorship of Clemenceau, the "Tiger", the French usurer, was in power. Clemenceau swore to put an end to Bolshevik Russia. After defeating Germany and signing the Peace of Versailles, he set out to become President of France with purely monarchist right wingers. But Clemenceau failed the elections and even the reactionary representatives of capital in the French parliament feared that the imperialist "tiger" could plunge France into disaster. Deschanel was elected president, who could not fail politically because he fell out of the window of a railway train and smashed himself. He was replaced by Millerand. Whether this person also falls out of the window or is simply thrown out by the French working class is irrelevant; the reign of Millerand, the friend and protector of Wrangel, cannot be of long duration.

In the United States during the war, President Wilson's star was on the rise. His power in the United States surpassed that of crowned monarchs. Wilson had firmly decided to put an end to Soviet power and sent Kolchak against us. He unceasingly supported every meanness and crime against the workers' and peasants' republic. In the end, all that remained of Wilson's power were meagre traces. The bloated popularity has turned into contempt and hatred for this malicious disloyal hypocrite. In five months' time his presidency will expire.² Neither in America nor in Europe is there anyone who doubts that Wilson will be replaced by Harding, a supporter of an understanding with Soviet Russia. [The presidential elections have now confirmed this view. The editor].

The English government of Lloyd George is more tenacious than the governments of other countries. But in return, its ground is undermined and threatens to collapse at any moment. The unprecedented intensification of the labour movement, the uprisings and rallies, the creation of the Action Committee are practically bringing the question of a workers' government more and more to the fore. Ireland is in a state of uninterrupted victorious uprising against London. The English colonies in Asia and Africa have at last entered the epoch of revolutionary ferment of the many millions of people who threaten to overthrow the whole edifice of British imperialism. Soon the passionate gamblers will refuse to put their stakes on the card of the long duration of Lloyd George's government.

In Italy the situation is even more acute. Since the war, crisis follows after crisis and governments alternate like shadows of photographs. Prime Minister Giolitti, the most outstanding figure of the bourgeoisie, is forced to admit that Italy has entered the era of socialist transformation.

Should I speak of the little ones? Of Yugoslavia, of Romania, of Czechoslovakia and finally of Poland?

Poland, tied at the hands and feet by France, has no inner strength, exists only by the will and alms of the Entente, fights and makes peace when it is ordered, lives as long as it is allowed to live. Its political life presents a chaotic struggle, where the interests of the classes, the intrigues of the parties, the cabals of the Polish politicians and the machinations of the Entente diplomats interweave to form an enormous net from which the working class tries with great effort to free itself. What is contemporary Poland? Where are its borders? Where is its administrative apparatus? Where is the coherence of its parts, of which it is composed? What is the programme of its government? What is the situation tomorrow? No one knows. Arbitrariness, bribery and adventurism in the service of the foreign will, that is the current Polish regime.

"It is not worth making peace with Soviet Russia, because the Soviet government is not of long duration", there is no proud content behind these proud words. In reality, the ruling groups of all bourgeois countries feel their lack of resistance power and fear that any peace they make will not be of long duration. Through Piłsudski's mouth, the imperialists say: "The Soviet power is counting on the further development of the international revolution which will overthrow and sweep away not only the Riga Treaty but also the Versailles Treaty, which will overthrow not only the diplomatic treaties but also the governments which concluded them and which will overthrow the capitalist regime. In this case, is it worth making peace? Is it not better to continue the devastating war against the workers' and peasants' revolution in Russia and throughout the world?"

While they repeat the words about our short duration – stupid phrases which nobody believes any more – the present rulers of Poland, like their great-power masters themselves, are tormented by foreboding of death and do not know which end to prefer: death in peace or death in war.

We sincerely and honestly want peace, because only in this way we can avoid the winter campaign and reduce the suffering of the toiling masses of Russia, Ukraine and Poland. We have no interest in violating the peace treaties, neither those already signed nor those we are about to conclude, and we cannot have any interest in doing so. We firmly believe that the forces of history are working for us. The long duration of bourgeois regimes and governments has become a reminder of times past. This regime is doomed to collapse and the hour of its collapse is drawing nearer. The property-owning classes feel this visibly. They are therefore raging with fury. In their feverish fantasies, in which fear mixes with hatred, they murmur of a short duration of our existence. Pathetic in their lies, vile in their hatred, they are incapable of deceiving anyone. We, the international league of Communism, are called to be the gravediggers of the capitalist regime. We will fulfil this task. Only we are of long duration and unshakable – In war as well as in peace.