Leon Trotsky et al: Letter to the Joint Plenum of the CC and the CCC

of the AUCP(B)

A Statement on Molotov’s Speech

August 4, 1927

[Leon Trotsky, The Challenge of the Left Opposition (1926-1927), New York 1980, p. 265-269, title: “The Opposition’s 'Insurrectionism'"]

To the Joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the CCC of the AUCP(B):

The speech of Comrade Molotov on Saturday gave us to understand what the narrow faction of Stalin aims at and where it is going. In answering the slander of defeatism or conditional defensism we have declared in the past, and we declare again here, that the Opposition does not pose conditions for defense to anybody, but struggles and will continue to struggle for the creation of the conditions for victory.

Comrade Molotov has declared here — and this was the sole purpose of his whole speech — that the line of the Opposition, like the line of the Left Social Revolutionaries in 1918, leads to insurrectionism against the party and Soviet power. These words characterize in an absolutely precise and clear manner the line, not of the Opposition, but of the central group of Stalin.

The Left SRs constituted a separate party, which was in a temporary bloc with our party. The Left SRs disagreed especially sharply with our party over the question of whether to fight the Germans or sign a peace treaty. Finding themselves a minority in the Congress of Soviets, the Left SRs rose in armed revolt against Soviet power. Fortunately for the revolution, we crushed them completely.

The Left Communists came out against the Brest-Litovsk treaty at the same time as the Left SRs did. They conducted their struggle with the harshest methods, methods that were often totally impermissible, talked themselves into a position of conditional defense in relation to the socialist homeland, and threatened the party with a split in the middle of civil war and external danger. Nevertheless, things not only never reached the point of “insurrectionism”; they did not even go as far as a split There was not even a single expulsion from the party. The explanation for this is that the CC of our party under Lenin’s leadership not only did not try to exacerbate differences but despite the open insurrection of the Left SRs, with whom the Left Communists had a partial rapprochement (voting together several times) — our leadership never once permitted itself even slightly provocative or suspicious comments regarding “insurrectionism.” In this alone the radical difference between Stalinism and the profound party spirit and methods of Leninism is evident.

Molotov’s words about the “insurrectionism” of the present Opposition section of the united party are not accidental. They are part of a carefully elaborated plan arrived at a long time ago. Many of you comrades have already carried out bits or pieces of this plan, without seeing or knowing the plan as a whole. In July of last year we warned you about the first stage of this plan — a radical change in the leadership of the party (in the Supplementary Declaration to the Declaration of the Thirteen, July 1926). Today, with the first stage of this plan nearing completion, Molotov’s speech confronts us with the second stage, the concluding phase. By using the term “insurrectionism” in reference to the Opposition, the core of the Stalin faction intends to accustom the party to the idea of the destruction of the Opposition.

We consider it necessary to warn the CC and the CCC about this as clearly as possible.

It is not true that the Opposition holds the viewpoint of “conditional defensism.” On the other hand it is absolutely true that the Stalin faction is trying to drive a wedge, in the area of military defense as elsewhere, between the Opposition and the remainder of the party, in shipping off the most prominent party personnel in the military to Khabarovsk, Japan, Afghanistan, etc., in the midst of a growing threat of war, and in this way is weakening the defense of the country.

It is not true that the Opposition is making preparations to form a second party. On the other hand it is absolutely true that the Stalin faction wishes to subordinate the party to itself once and for all not only with measures of a party character hut also by using the state apparatus.

It is not true that the Opposition believes that the revolution has entered a period of Thermidor or that our party is Thermidorian. The party has been stifled and its capacity for resistance has been weakened. And Thermidorian elements are present in the country and are sticking their noses into party business with impunity. When that extremely vicious enemy of communism, Ustryalov, insistently calls on Stalin to destroy the Opposition completely, that is the plain and unambiguous language of Thermidor. And when Stalin makes the crushing of the left wing of the party the main focus of his work, he thereby lends weight to Ustryalov and Company; whether he intends to or not, he strengthens them and weakens the positions of the proletariat.

It is not true that the path of the Opposition leads to insurrection against the party and Soviet power. On the contrary it is an incontestable fact that the Stalin faction has cold-bloodedly planned to carry out our physical destruction in order to attain its goals. On the part of the Opposition there is not even a hint of a threat of insurrectionism. But on the part of the Stalin faction there is a real threat of further usurpation of the sovereign rights of the party. Through the mouth of Molotov this threat has been pronounced openly. While in fact paving the way, step by step, for the destruction of the Opposition on the pretext of its “insurrectionism,” the top Stalinist leaders verbally soothe the hesitating members of the CC and the CCC with assurances that matters will never go that far, that it is merely necessary to frighten the Opposition. In this way the Stalin group gradually draws broader circles into its orbit and accustoms them to a plan which in its pure form would inevitably frighten them away even today.

In view of this we consider it necessary to say here what should be self-evident already: The Opposition is not going to be intimidated either by slander or by threats of physical destruction. Vacillating individuals will leave the Opposition but dozens and hundreds of rank-and-file party members, convinced by events, are joining us. You cannot intimidate the Opposition with threats. You cannot break the Opposition with repression. What we consider correct we will fight for to the end. We have confidence in the proletarian core of the party. We know that events are working in favor of the Leninist line, that is, for the Opposition. We are confident that the line of the party can be corrected — in peacetime and in war time — not only without “insurrectionism” or “two parties” but also without upheavals or repression in general.

The Opposition cannot be intimidated. But the revolutionary unity of the party must be defended against the increasingly dangerous tendencies toward usurpationism. The Opposition reserves the right to patiently and insistently explain its views, basing itself on objective events. But against further tramplings upon the party rules, against usurpation of the rights of the party congress, against the seizure of all control over party discussion and the party press by an artificially selected faction of Stalinists, against the forced closing of the Opposition’s mouth by the state apparatus, against the doctrine that the leading Stalinist nucleus is irreplaceable, against the theory and practice of usurpationism, the Opposition will fight uncompromisingly by all means consistent with the revolutionary unity of the party and the lasting stability of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Opposition will not allow the fundamental questions of the proletarian revolution to be decided behind closed doors by the Stalin faction. The party must decide, and it will. We are thoroughly and completely for the revolutionary unity of the party and the Comintern.

At the same time we declare again that we are ready to accept every proposal that can ameliorate the internal relations, allay the internal struggle, facilitate for the party and the CC a more efficient utilization of all the forces — in any work — -for the needs of the party and the Soviet state, so as to create ultimately the conditions that will assure a general examination of the real differences by the party and the elaboration of a correct line at the Fifteenth Party Congress.

Kamenev

Zinoviev

Pyatakov

Smilga

Muralov

Trotsky

Bakaev

Peterson

Rakovsky

Yevdokimov

Lizdin

Solovyov

Avdeev