Leon Trotsky: A Bolshevik-Leninist Declaration on Comrade Trotsky's Journey

November 1932

[Writing of Leon Trotsky, Vol. 4, 1932, New York 1973, p. 335-339]

1. Journalists and politicians hostile to communism have tried to turn against the Left Opposition the fact that Comrade Trotsky used the visas of bourgeois and Social Democratic governments for his journey. By the same logic one could reproach a Communist for traveling on a capitalist ship.

2. Communism does not "deny" democracy as a principle; still less as a fact. All communism does is point out the limited historical role of bourgeois democracy. During one era, it facilitates the formation of proletarian organizations. But it is incapable of solving social problems. The single example of present-day Germany exhausts the question.

3. In all the old parliamentary countries, bourgeois democracy is using up what is left of its old capital. This applies particularly to the right of asylum: it exists in today's Europe only for refugee counterrevolutionaries, not for revolutionaries. The recent experience concerning the length of Trotsky's stay in Denmark reveals this with renewed force

4. The fact that the Left Opposition had to avail itself of the initiative of a Social Democratic student organization is explained by one circumstance and one alone: the Stalinist apparatus has, for the moment, made it impossible for authentic Bolshevik-Leninists to speak at official meetings of the Communist Party. There is no need to mention that Comrade Trotsky's speech from beginning to end was devoted to the defense of the October Revolution and of the Soviet Union.

5. The Social Democratic government, i.e., the leftmost wing of bourgeois democracy, authorized Trotsky's entry into Denmark only because it felt it would be awkward to deny the request made by its own students and young workers, and thus to reveal too crudely, over a minor question, not only its anti-socialist but its antidemocratic character as well.

As soon, however, as the question arose of a simple extension of the duration of the visa, this "democracy” showed that the difference between it and the White Russian emigres, who demanded that the visa be revoked, came down, all in all, to a matter of eight days.

6. Every regime must be judged first and foremost according to its own rules.

The regime of the proletarian dictatorship cannot and does not wish to hold back from infringing the principles and formal rules of democracy. It has to be judged from the standpoint of its capacity to ensure the transition to a new society.

The democratic regime, on the other hand, must be judged from the standpoint of the extent to which it allows the class struggle to develop within the framework of democracy.

7. The example of the Danish visa reveals the total insufficiency of contemporary democracy, even in secondary and minor matters. Under the pressure of world imperialist reaction, petty-bourgeois democracy, even in relatively "peaceful" Denmark, is shown to be incapable of maintaining its "reputation" by granting the right of asylum to a revolutionary, if only for a few weeks. Can one believe even for a moment, under these conditions, that democracy will be able to prevent civil war with its worn-out principles and formulas?

8. The Stalinist faction has taken up a shameful position in the struggle of class forces over the question of the visa. It acted with all its power, through its diplomatic agents, to prevent the issuing of the visa to Comrade Trotsky. Kobetsky in Denmark and Kollontai in Sweden threatened economic and other reprisals. As long as the Social Democracy still wavered on the question of the visa, the Stalinist agencies maintained an alliance with the bourgeois section of the coalition government, against the Social Democrats.

Aiding the imperialist bourgeoisie in the shattering of what was left of the right of asylum, the Stalinists ended up by directly and openly denouncing, to the capitalist governments and their police forces, the alleged holding of a "Trotskyist conference" in Copenhagen.

9. The furious campaign of vilification on the part of the Russian White emigres and the influential imperialist press, with a thinly disguised call for a terroristic attack against Comrade Trotsky; the perfidy of the Social Democratic leaders in relation to their own followers; and finally, the Stalinists' denouncing the Bolshevik-Leninists to the European police — all this blends into one inseparable whole. To complete the picture, one need only add that an important element in the opposition to the right of asylum was constituted by the Danish royal family and, linked with it, the remnants of the Russian royal family.

10. Before the world working class it has been shown once more with full clarity that the Bolshevik-Leninists, the vanguard of the vanguard, have been placed outside of the law by the rulers throughout the world.

11. The denunciation by the Stalinist bureaucracy through Tass is not only shameful politically but also wrong as far as the facts are concerned. There was no "Trotskyist conference" in Copenhagen. Anyone who follows the press of the Left Opposition and the course of the preparatory work it is engaged in knows that no conference can be held any sooner than two or three months from now.

12. Only this is true: Comrade Trotsky's friends and co-thinkers, alarmed by world reaction's furious vilification, despite material difficulties and obstacles, hastened to Copenhagen from countries neighboring Denmark to lend him their assistance. The strong internal bond among the Bolshevik-Leninists internationally was shown with remarkable force. But the international conference remains as before a task of the period ahead.