Leon
Trotsky et al: Letter to the PB and the Presidium of the CCC
November
9, 1927
[Leon
Trotsky, The Challenge of the Left Opposition (1926-1927), New York
1980, p. 467-469, title: “For
an Inquiry into the Attacks on Oppositionists”]
To
the Politburo and the Presidium of the CCC:
We
formally demand an immediate and rigorous investigation, and the
calling to account of the guilty, in connection with the numerous
irregularities, brutalities, and pogromist actions committed during
the anniversary demonstration of November 7, 1927.
1.
We have already written to you about the fact that a group consisting
primarily of military personnel — and not just rank-and-file Red
Army men — burst into the apartment of a member of the Central
Committee of the AUCP(B), Comrade Smilga, after breaking down the
door, and forcibly removed a red banner with portraits of Lenin,
Zinoviev, and Trotsky.
At
the same time attempts were made from the roof, by using a rake, a
plank, etc., to tear down a placard with the slogan “Carry Out the
Testament of Lenin.” Glass in the window was broken in the process.
Before
the doors of the apartment were broken down, GPU agents and other
individuals repeatedly knocked and demanded to be let in to take down
the placards. The owner of the apartment, Comrade Smilga’s wife,
was forced to take her children to another apartment. The
housebreakers stationed themselves at all the doorways and
staircases, checked the papers of all people entering or leaving, and
assumed authority over them. It would not be difficult to establish
the identity of all those guilty of breaking into Comrade Smilga’s
apartment. One of the organizers of the assault, according to
evidence in our possession, was a certain Lashuk, head of the
military school of the CEC. We can indicate a large number of
witnesses who saw, and could easily identify, the {housebreakers,
several of whose names are known even now.
2.
A second attack was organized against the balcony of the Hotel Paris.
Several comrades were standing on that balcony, including Smilga,
Preobrazhensky, Griunshtein, and Alsky. Here the organizer of the
fascist group was the not unknown Boris Volin, whose moral profile
needs no commentary. After bombarding the balcony with potatoes,
pieces of ice, etc., the attackers burst into the adjacent room,
forced the above-named comrades off the balcony with blows and kicks,
and then detained them, that is, held them in effect under arrest in
one of the rooms of the Hotel Paris for several hours. A number of
Oppositionists were beaten. Comrade Trotskaya was knocked down. The
blows were accompanied by ugly swearing that was all the uglier
because some of the attackers were drunk,
3.
As the automobile carrying Comrades Kamenev, Muralov, and Trotsky was
going down Semyonov Street, an enigmatic incident occurred which
could be investigated without much effort if there were a will to do
so. As the automobile passed the rows of demonstrators it was greeted
by the shouts and applause of the majority, accompanied by whistles
of insult from an insignificant minority. Coming toward that
automobile, along the same path beside the demonstrators, was an
automobile carrying Comrades Budenny, Tsikhon, and others. Quite
obviously each of these automobiles had the same right to be there.
After the automobile with Comrades Kamenev, Muralov, and Trotsky had
left the column of demonstrators behind, four shots overtook it —
they could be heard one after the other. Gunshots during the
anniversary demonstration were so unexpected that those in the
automobile supposed at first that these sounds had some other origin
(blowouts, firecrackers, etc.). But several figures could be seen
chasing after the automobile. The driver slowed down. Onto the
running board on one side jumped a fireman (a chief) and on the other
side, two suspicious types who immediately grabbed at the wheel. The
fireman burst out swearing in gutter language. Several others came
running to back him up, and they tried to carry matters to the point
of physical violence. Only the group of demonstrators who had by then
reached the automobile restrained them. Between his teeth the fire
chief had a whistle made of horn, the kind used by the gangs of
fascist whistlers. The whistle was snatched away from the fireman by
one of those in the automobile and can be presented as evidence in an
investigation of the affair. In the crowd it was said that police had
fired the shots. However, none of the police came over to the
automobile, nor did they make any inquiries of us. There should be no
difficulty in establishing the identity of those who fired and those
who pursued the automobile (in plain sight of Budenny and Tsikhon).
4.
In various parts of the procession Oppositionists were jumped and
beaten. Most often such attacks were accompanied by Black Hundredist
shouts, more specifically, shouts of an anti-Semitic nature —
regardless of the nationality of the person being beaten. In a
point-by-point repetition of what was seen in July 1917, when
Bolsheviks were beaten on the streets of Leningrad, the most
energetic and determined behavior was shown by the most Black
Hundredist elements. A large number of Communists who suffered such
beatings are known to us. On the basis of their testimony and the
testimony of witnesses it should be possible to identify the guilty
parties without difficulty. There was nothing in these actions that
had the slightest resemblance to violence on the part of the crowd.
On the contrary, all these acts were committed behind the backs of
the crowd, when there were only a few onlookers, and the forces used
were small groups, the leading part being played by official or
semiofficial persons who, as we have said, should not be hard to
find.
We
must ask, Do you intend to conduct a formal, open, and impartial
investigation into these hoodlum attacks against Oppositionists or
those suspected of being Oppositionists, some of which we have
described, although there were many more we have not mentioned? There
is no need to explain the importance of this question for our
country’s further internal development. In the event that we
receive no reply from you we will take such measures to shed light on
this whole affair as follow from the interests of our party, our
revolution, and the international working class movement