Leon
Trotsky: In Memory of A. A. Joffe
November
19, 1927
[Leon
Trotsky, The Challenge of the Left Opposition (1926-1927), New York
1980, p. 470-472]
Comrades,
Adolf Abramovich has become part of the history of the last decade
above all as a diplomatic representative of the first workers’
state in history. It has been said here — and in the press — that
he was an outstanding diplomat. That is correct. He was a diplomat —
that is, he served at the post to which he was assigned by the
revolution and the workers’ government. But he was a great diplomat
because he was a revolutionist through and through.
By
social origin, Adolf Abramovich was the product of a bourgeois
environment — more precisely, of a wealthy bourgeois family. But as
we know, there have been cases in history when the products of this
sort of environment have made such a sharp break with their
background — a break that goes to the very marrow of their bones —
that from then on, there is no danger of their ever being won over to
petty-bourgeois ideas. Adolf Abramovich was and remained a
revolutionist to the end.
Speakers
here today have referred — and rightly so — to the high level of
his cultural attainments. As a diplomat he was forced to move in
enemy circles, among cunning, sharp-eyed, and venomous foes. He knew
this world, its customs and habits, and he assumed the ways of this
world with subtlety and skill; but for him this was like putting on a
uniform required by his post of duty. Adolf Abramovich never wore a
uniform on his soul. It has been said here — and said correctly —
that he was a stranger to routine or stereotyped attitudes on any
question whatsoever. He approached every problem as a revolutionist.
He held posts of responsibility but he was never a bureaucrat.
Bureaucratism was alien to him. He looked at every problem from the
point of view of the working class, which had raised itself from the
depths of the underground to the heights of state power. He
approached every problem from the point of view of the international
proletariat and the international revolution. And this was the source
of his strength, a strength he called on constantly to combat his own
physical weakness. His strength of mind and his ability to exert its
power remained with him to the very last moment, when the bullet left
the dark stain that we can see here today upon his right temple.
Comrades,
you might say that he withdrew from life by his own choice. And the
revolution permits none of us to withdraw on our own initiative. But
let no one presume to judge Adolf Abramovich. For he withdrew at a
point when, in his own thinking, he had nothing left to give the
revolution but his death. Then, firmly and courageously, as he had
lived life, he left it.
Difficult
times never frightened him. He remained on the same even keel in
October 1917 when he was a member, and later chairman, of the
Military Revolutionary Committee in Petrograd; the same on the
battleground outside the city as the shells from Yudenich’s cannon
burst all around; and the same at the diplomatic table in
Brest-Litovsk, and later in so many capitals of Europe and Asia.
Difficulties did not distress him. What impelled him to abandon life
was the consciousness that it was impossible for him to combat those
difficulties.
Comrades,
let me say this — and it is a consideration I believe corresponds
in full to Adolf Abramovich’s last thoughts and last testament —
such an action, withdrawing from life by one’s own decision, has a
contagious power. Let no one presume to follow the example of this
old fighter in his death. No. Follow him in his life.
Those
of us who were his close friends, who not only fought side by side
but lived side by side with him for decades, are forced now to tear
ourselves away from the vivid image of this exceptional person and
friend who remains in our hearts. There was a gentle and steady glow
about Adolf Abramovich that gave warmth to all around him. He was a
focal point around whom others gathered — in the emigre circles, in
the penal colonies, and in prison. He came, as I have already said,
from a well-to-do family, but the means at his disposal in his
younger years were not just his own property. They became the
resources of the revolution. He helped comrades with a generous hand,
not waiting to be asked — as a brother, as a true friend.
Here
in this coffin we bring the mortal remains of this exceptional
person, at whose side it was so easy and pleasant for us to live and
fight. Let us take our leave of him in the same spirit that he lived
and fought: he took his stand under the banner of Marx and Lenin;
under that banner he died. And we vow to you, Adolf Abramovich, we
will carry your banner through to the end!