Leon Trotsky: From the Editorial Board

January 20, 1930

[Writing of Leon Trotsky, Vol. 2, 1930, New York 1975, p. 75]

This issue comes out as a special number devoted almost entirely to a work by L.D. Trotsky on what is called the "third period" and the tactics of the Comintern. The work published here considers the problem almost exclusively in relation to present-day conditions in France. The author proposes to give in the near future an analysis of the situation in Germany from the point of view of the theory and practice of the "third period." However, the basic conclusions the author reaches in the example of France have, as the reader sees, not a national but an international character.

The problems of the Comintern receive no light whatsoever from the pages of the party press at the moment. There is much cause to think that in the USSR today the Left Opposition (Bolshevik-Leninists) also has been fairly seriously disoriented by the completely false official news which serves a definite bureaucratic purpose. All the more do we consider it necessary then to devote this number to an analysis of the present course of the Comintern in the light of facts and figures.

The next number, which in view of the abundant material we will try to put on sale in the next two weeks, will be devoted mainly to problems of the USSR and the Communist Party.

Once more we remind our friends of the need for very correct and energetic work for the comprehensive maintenance of the Biulleten.