Leon
Trotsky: Physical Attack, Slander, and Provocation
October
1930
[Writing
of Leon Trotsky, Vol. 2, 1930, New York 1975, p. 389-392]
The
situation of the Stalin faction in the USSR and the Comintern, which
is becoming more and more critical (its ideological base is
completely undermined and is shown to be so more clearly each day),
and the indubitable successes of the Communist Left Opposition are
forcing the Stalinists to continually sharpen their struggle against
us. This struggle takes on and will take on different forms, which
can be reduced to three principal kinds: (a) physical attack; (b)
slander; and (c) provocation.
Physical
attack
leads in the USSR to legal assassinations of Bolshevik-Leninists
(Blumkin, Silov, Rabinovich) by the GPU, that is, by the Agabekovs,
or the Yagodas, who differ not a whit from the Agabekovs. In China
and Greece the assassinations are perpetrated in ambush. In the other
countries they have not yet gone to the point of murder — they
content themselves in the meantime with raids and beatings (as, for
example, in Leipzig).
Slander
in its turn takes different forms, preserving invariably its vile
character. Thus Bluecher, on Stalin's order, spoke of two
"Trotskyists" who deserted the Red Army in the Far East.
The Soviet newspapers write about sabotage on the railroads by
"Trotskyists" and of the train wrecks they arranged. News
stories of this kind, fabricated under the immediate direction of
Stalin (in this field he is particularly skillful) are systematically
put into circulation. Their purpose is clear: to prepare new bloody
attacks against the committed revolutionaries who refuse to betray
the October Revolution.
In
Europe this slander takes on a more circumspect and general
character: "counterrevolutionary," "against the
defense of the USSR," "support of the social democracy,”
etc. Dividing, poisoning, and weakening the proletarian vanguard, the
Stalinists are trying to prevent a conciliation between the Left
Opposition and the proletarian base of the party, because such a
conciliation, which is essential for the success of communism, would
inflict a telling blow to the Stalinist apparatus. This once again
confirms the fact that the Stalin regime has become the principal
obstacle in the development of the USSR and the Comintern.
The
third form of the struggle — provocation
— is made much easier by the fact that it takes place among members
of the same party. The GPU floods Opposition cells, groups,
deportation colonies, etc., with its agents, who afterwards confess
or instigate confessions from others. These same GPU agents attribute
to the Opposition real or imagined "Wrangel officers,”
deserters, and railroad wreckers, thereby preparing the basis for the
bloody attacks.
Undoubtedly
as the International Opposition grows the methods of provocation will
be applied on an ever wider scale against the other national
sections; this is the source of gravest danger. Stalin has already
shown that in the struggle against the Left Opposition he will stop
at nothing — not even at a bloc with the bourgeois diplomats and
police. The conditions of Trotsky's expulsion to Turkey speak for
themselves. Stalin's and Thälmann's agreement with the Social
Democratic government barring Trotsky's entry into Germany, Cachin’s
conference with Bessedovsky and Dovgalevsky on the same subject,
Stalin's bloc with the German publisher of Kerensky's slanderous
book, the scandalous character of the expulsion of our friend Andres
Nin,
the leader of the Spanish communists, to reactionary Estonia — all
are but a small part of the many exploits of this sort.
The
Italian Stalinists revealed in the press the secret names of the
Oppositionists, thus exposing them to attack by the police. There is
no need to add that the Agabekovs, who swarm within the GPU, brought
up in the struggle against the Bolshevik-Leninists, are quite capable
of betraying the Oppositionists into the hands of the capitalist
police; at any rate, they will not be chastised by Stalin for doing
that.
The
Opposition is thus exposed more and more to the simultaneous and
sometimes joint blows of Stalin's agents and the bourgeois police,
and often it is not easy to distinguish who delivers the blow. For
example, quite recently two agents provocateurs, posing as
Oppositionists, tried to penetrate the central body of the
Opposition, and it is difficult to determine whether they are in the
pay of the Polish Okhrana, the French police, or Stalin's agency.
Similar cases are certain to multiply.
Our
Leipzig comrades showed remarkable discretion in refusing to give the
Social Democratic police, summoned by neighbors, the names of those
who attacked the house of Comrade Buchner. We look for a verdict on
the crimes of Stalin's agents, not from the Social Democratic police,
but from the Communist workers. But it is altogether evident that if
attacks and provocations become more frequent, they will, by the
inescapable logic of the struggle and independently of us, be
publicized, not to speak of the possibility that a new Agabekov,
deserting to the capitalist camp, may disclose to the press the
Stalinist plots against the Opposition, as Bessedovsky recounted his
negotiations with Cachin. It is unnecessary to point out what damage
is done in the end to the interests of the USSR and the prestige of
the Comintern by the poison that activities of this sort introduce
into the working-class movement.
What
ought to be the attitude of the Opposition in the face of physical
attack, slander, and provocation?
1.
We should be guided in our policy, not by blind revenge toward
Stalin's secret police, but by a political goal: to compromise
criminal methods and their authors in the eyes of the Communist
workers.
2.
We should carefully avoid all steps which could, even though by fault
of the Stalinists, introduce, directly or indirectly, prejudice
against the USSR or the Comintern. And not for one minute do we
identify either the USSR or the Comintern with the Stalinist faction.
3.
While we do everything in our power to prevent the Stalinist
atrocities from being used by the class enemy against the proletarian
revolution, it is indispensable, nevertheless, to communicate to the
Communist ranks, by word of mouth, by circular letters, and by
intervention at party meetings, all facts about attacks, slander, and
provocation that have been verified.
4.
After each new case capable of awakening the revolutionary conscience
of the Communist workers, it is indispensable to explain again and
again and to repeat that the Communist Left Opposition wishes only an
open and comradely ideological struggle in the interest of the
proletarian revolution, and that the Opposition tirelessly calls upon
the party members to establish honest methods of ideological
struggle, without which the education of true revolutionaries is
impossible.
5.
During the election of delegates to conferences, of members to local
and central bodies of the Opposition, of editors, etc., the
candidates' past performance must be carefully probed in order to
prevent the infiltration of agents provocateurs.
One
of the best forms of control is inquiry among the workers who have
been in prolonged contact with the given person.
6.
In cases where Opposition organizations learn of a new attack or
provocation prepared by an agent of Stalin, it will be necessary to
warn, in writing, the leading organs of the official Communist Party,
telling them that before the eyes of the Communist workers we hurl
back upon the leaders themselves the responsibility for the crimes
that are being prepared.
7.
All cases of the character mentioned above must be immediately
communicated to the International Secretariat, with exact information
of the circumstances, the names of the participants, etc. That will
permit us to conduct a campaign on an international scale.
We
have no doubt — and all the past experience of the revolutionary
movement proves it — that if all our sections show firmness,
perseverance, and vigilance in the struggle, all the poisonous
methods of Stalinism will be turned against Stalinism itself, and
will serve to strengthen the position of the Bolshevik-Leninists.