Leon
Trotsky: Answers to Questions from the USSR
March
1930
[Writing
of Leon Trotsky, Vol. 2, 1930, New York 1975, p. 130-134]
Here
are some brief replies to a number of interesting letters and
questions.
1.
At the time of the Tenth Congress, Vladimir Ilyich had a very
pessimistic view of the situation, admitting that we were close to
disaster. Nevertheless, he felt it was necessary to conduct a
resolute struggle against the syndicalist tendencies of the Workers'
Opposition: "If we are to perish, it is paramount that we
preserve the ideological line and provide a lesson for our
successors." This we must never
forget, even in hopeless
circumstances. Moreover, the present situation is by no means
hopeless.
2.
Whoever says, "There is no longer any way out, no matter what,
except through complete collectivization and the administrative
liquidation of classes," is developing a philosophy of despair
and suggesting that we rush headlong into the abyss with our eyes
closed. We cannot take this course.
3.
Our fundamental slogan, encompassing all
our immediate tasks — economic, political, for the party, and for
the Comintern — is this: "Timely and orderly retreat from
adventurist positions." This means:
A.
In
agriculture:
To delay further collectivization, explaining to the peasants the
limitations of our resources. To shift from complete
collectivization to selective
collectivization, concentrating our efforts and resources on the most
viable and promising collective farms. To
call a halt to de-kulakization. To
substitute for it a tough system of contracts with the kulaks (the
development and generalization of our idea of compulsory grain
loans). (The kulak has been sufficiently panic-stricken politically
to insure the meeting of contracts for a year or two.)
B.
In
industry:
To call a halt to the racetrack-gallop approach to industrialization.
To discard the slogan "five-year plan in four years.” To
revise the distribution of resources between consumption and
accumulation, for the purpose of seriously improving the living
standards of the working masses. To stop, in deed and not just in
words, turning out quantity at the expense of quality (here a
catastrophe threatens).
C.
In
finances:
The strictest fiscal discipline. Discontinuation of all excessive
expenditures, even at the cost of suspending many projects that have
been started. The aim: to avert a general crisis and stabilize the
ruble
D.
In
foreign trade:
To make the most of the menacing rise in unemployment, especially in
Germany and Britain, to obtain credits and make planned
orders
for agricultural equipment, machinery, etc., in exchange for the
future products of collectivized agriculture. This kind of
"international contracting" will help to fertilize with
technology the collective farms that were created by administrative
fiat, and it will ease the excessive burden placed on the five-year
plan, especially in the area of agricultural machinery (recent
decisions).
E.
In
the Comintern:
To bring a quick end to the adventurist ballyhoo about "red
days." To put forth transitional demands, centering first and
foremost on the fight against unemployment To work out a variant of
the five-year plan aiming at the broadest possible collaboration with
the industries of Germany and Britain, where unemployment is
particularly high and where reformists are in power; and to mobilize
on this basis the unemployed and the working class in general against
[German] Social Democratic and [British] Labour governments on the
basis of the united-front policy.
F.
In
the internal regime in the party:
To stop the dissolution of the party into the class in the USSR. To
condemn Stalinist "self-criticism" as a totally degenerate
form of Bonapartist plebiscite technique within the party. To open a
free discussion in the party of the "general line," going
back to 1923; and on this basis to prepare for the party's Sixteenth
Congress. Only in this way can the party, which in essence has been
liquidated, be revived and rendered capable of meeting the crises
whose onset has been hastened by the policies of the last seven
years. Otherwise the main danger can turn out to come from the party
itself.
G.
In
the area of theory:
To discard the theory of socialism in one country. This theory is the
basis for the policies of complete collectivization and the
racetrack-gallop approach to industrialization. The same theory
reduces the Comintern to acting as a frontier guard for the USSR
(alas, a bad one at that).
These
are the most general ideas which need to be elaborated upon with
serious effort. In our present situation — being illegal,
dispersed, etc. — the Opposition can hardly accomplish this work of
elaboration in
detail
Therefore it is most important to emphasize the general direction of
our line. Its theoretical basis has been presented in a pamphlet
which is now being completed.
Do
we "support" or "not support" the centrists? This
question should not be posed scholastically. We now cry out to the
leadership for all to hear: "Stop before it is too late!"
That is what we support! If we do not ourselves take the initiative
for an orderly retreat from the positions of adventurism, tomorrow
that retreat will take on a panicky and catastrophic character. It
will then roll right over the heads of the right-wingers (who,
however, have already decapitated themselves). There is no need to
say that in the event of civil war or foreign intervention we will
stand in the same ranks as the centrist bureaucracy against our
common enemies. We refer, of course, to that part of the centrist
bureaucracy that does not itself go over to the enemy.
Some
comrades try to present a complete theoretical formula for centrism
and dogmatically define its social base; on this ground the
possibility of centrism "shifting to the left" is denied.
This is a misunderstanding. The "essence" of centrism* if
it can be said to have an essence, is its constant movement back and
forth between the proletarian line and petty-bourgeois reformism with
its corresponding ideological line. Centrism is always
either moving to the left or moving to the right. It is never "just
itself." Without having to abandon its organized proletarian
base, thanks to the apparatus, Stalinist centrism sought a support in
the middle peasantry in the struggle against us. But the middle
peasantry is not a base since it is also always moving between the
proletariat and the kulak. "Complete" collectivization is
not only an adventurist stage of left centrism but, within certain
limits, an impulsive, spontaneous move on the part of the middle
peasantry frightened by the reprisals against the kulaks.
We
cannot forget even for a minute that the Opposition represents an
international
current. Over the course of the last year Europe, America, and China
had the chance for virtually the first time to become acquainted with
the living ideas and slogans of the Bolshevik-Leninists in the
persons of certain advanced elements of communist circles. Thanks to
this, a very serious regroupment has taken place on the basis of
ideological differentiation. The Opposition has gotten on its feet
ideologically on an international scale. The political fruits
produced by this year's labor will show themselves more and more
plainly in the near future. The "quality" that has been won
will be converted into "quantity."
The
French Opposition, which is marching in the vanguard, has a serious
militant weekly and a serious theoretical monthly magazine. They are
serving as a basis for a regroupment of forces. La
Vérité
(the weekly) is even to a certain extent fulfilling the role of an
international organ of the Opposition.
In
Spain
the Opposition has had very great success. The majority of the
Oppositionist exiles have returned to their homeland.
The
emigre Bordigists are publishing the biweekly newspaper Prometeo.
In
Germany
the Marxist Left Opposition has finally dissolved its ties with the
Urbahns faction through a split in the Leninbund. Within the next few
days, its Marxist wing is expected to unite once and for all with the
Wedding group (a platform for unity has been worked out), and to
undertake the publication of a weekly.
The
Czechoslovak
group, which came into existence several months ago, is working with
great energy; the first issue of its publication should be out very
soon.
In
Belgium
developments are being held back by internal disputes. An excellent
workers' organization in Charleroi bases itself on La
Vérité.
In
Austria
there are two Opposition publications. Talks are presently under way
on the question of uniting the three Opposition groups around a
common platform.
Hungarian,
Spanish, Jewish,
and other emigre groups have united around La
Vérité.
In
America
a good weekly newspaper, The
Militant,
is coming out, published by its own press, which is also proceeding
to put out pamphlets and books. The Opposition in the United States
and Canada is united around The
Militant.
In
Mexico
a lithographed bulletin is coming out.
In
Argentina
a recently formed group has published pamphlets and is raising funds
for its own periodical.
There
are groups in other South American countries as well.
In
China
two Left Opposition groups are functioning. They have unfailingly
published all the most important works of the Russian Opposition in
Chinese.
In
Britain
valuable contacts have recently been made.
In
Paris issue number 6 of the International Bulletin will come out in
the next few days. Its task is to prepare for the international
conference.
The
slogan of the moment is found there too: "For the most rapid
retreat, as orderly as possible, from the positions of adventurism to
those of revolutionary Bolshevik realism."