Leon
Trotsky: Letter to the Politburo
January
4, 1932
[Writing
of Leon Trotsky, Vol. 4, 1932, New York 1973, p. 18-20]
Absolutely
Secret
To
the Politburo of the All-Union Communist Party (B)
To
the Presidium of the Central Control Commission
History
has again arrived at one of its great turning points. In Germany the
fate of the German proletariat, of the Comintern, and of the USSR is
being determined. The policies of the Comintern are steering the
German revolution toward destruction just as inevitably as they did
the Chinese revolution, although this time it is being done from the
opposite direction, is Everything it was necessary to say in this
regard, I have said elsewhere. There is no point repeating it here.
Perhaps two or three months — and that in the very best of cases
— remain in which to reverse a ruinous policy, the responsibility
for which lies completely with Stalin.
I
do not speak of the Central Committee because it has in effect been
dismissed. The Soviet papers, including those of the party, speak of
"Stalin's leadership," "Stalin's six conditions,"19
"Stalin's forecasts," and "Stalin's general line,"
ignoring the Central Committee altogether. The party of the
dictatorship has been brought to such a state of degradation that the
ignorance, organic opportunism, and lack of loyalty of a single
individual can leave their mark on great historical events. Having
blundered hopelessly in China, England, Germany, in every country of
the world, and first of all in the USSR, Stalin, struggling for the
salvation of his inflated personal prestige, supports a policy in
Germany that automatically will lead to disaster on a scale as yet
unknown in history.
In
order not to create difficulties for Stalin, the "party"
press, reduced to slave status, remains generally silent about
Germany. Instead it talks a great deal about "Trotskyism."
Entire pages are again filled up with "Trotskyism." The
problem is to make people believe that "Trotskyism" is a
"counterrevolutionary" tendency, the "vanguard of the
world bourgeoisie." Under this sign the Seventeenth Party
Conference has been called. It is quite clear that this crude
"agitation" is not meant to pursue any ideological goals,
but rather to promote very definite, practical — or more precisely,
personal — aims. A concise formulation of these would be stated as
follows: the time has come for the Turkulization
of policy toward representatives of the Left Opposition.
Through
the official Communist press in the West, Stalin has allowed
revelations to be made concerning the schemes and designs of a White
Guard terrorist organization, hiding these facts all the while from
the workers of the USSR. Stalin's aim in having these revelations
published abroad is quite clear: to provide himself with an alibi
in his joint labors with General Turkul. The names of Gorky and
Litvinov were added in all likelihood for purposes of camouflage.
The
question of terrorist reprisals against the author of this letter was
posed by Stalin long before Turkul: in 1924-25 at an intimate
gathering Stalin weighed the pro's and con's. The pro's were obvious
and clear. The chief consideration against
was that there were too many selfless young Trotskyists who might
reply with counter-terrorist actions.
There
came the time that I was informed about this by Zinoviev and Kamenev,
when they had come over to the Opposition; moreover, the
circumstances were such and the details provided were such as to
dispel any doubts whatsoever about the veracity of the report.
Zinoviev and Kamenev, as I hope you have not forgotten, belonged
jointly with Stalin to the ruling "triumvirate" which stood
above the Central Committee: they were privy to things that were
quite inaccessible to rank-and-file members of the Central Committee.
If Stalin should now force Zinoviev and Kamenev to renounce their
testimony of that time, no one will be taken in.
The
question was dropped in 1925; as the present events show, it was
merely held over for later consideration.
Stalin
has come to the conclusion that it was a mistake to have exiled
Trotsky from the Soviet Union. He had hoped, as is known from his
statement in the Politburo at that time — which is on record —
that Trotsky, deprived of a "secretariat," and without
resources, would become a helpless victim of the worldwide
bureaucratic slander campaign. This apparatus man miscalculated.
Contrary to his expectations it turned out that ideas have a power of
their own, even without an apparatus and without resources. The
Comintern is a grandiose structure, that has been left a hollow shell
both theoretically and politically. The future of revolutionary
Marxism, which is to say of Leninism as well, is inseparably bound up
from now on with the international cadres of the Left Opposition. No
amount of falsification can change that. The basic works of the
Opposition have been, are being, or will be published in every
language. Opposition cadres, as yet not very numerous but nonetheless
indomitable, are to be found in every country. Stalin understands
perfectly well what a grave danger the ideological irreconcilability
and persistent growth of the International Left Opposition represent
to him personally,
to his fake "authority," to his Bonapartist almightiness.
It
is Stalin's calculation that the mistake needs rectification. His
plan runs along three channels: first, information obtained by the
GPU is made public concerning a terrorist plot against Trotsky being
prepared by General Turkul (under maximum favorable conditions,
created for him by Stalin); second, an international "ideological"
campaign is opened up which will surely culminate in a resolution by
the party conference and one by the Comintern — such a resolution
being necessary for Stalin as a kind of political mandate for
collaboration with Turkul; third, through the services of the GPU
Stalin singles out and purges with truly brute ferocity everything
that is suspect, unreliable, or questionable, in order to assure
himself against counter-blows
I
of course have not been let in on the technical details of the
undertaking — whether Turkul will try to attribute the work of his
hands to Stalin or whether Stalin will hide behind Turkul. This I do
not know, but some Yagoda, playing the role of middleman, with the
undoubted assistance of the celebrated "Wrangel officer,"
surely knows quite well.
Needless
to say, Stalin's schemes and designs cannot affect the politics of
the Left Opposition or mine individually, not in any way or from any
angle. The political fate of Stalin, corrupter of the party,
gravedigger of the Chinese revolution, destroyer of the Comintern,
candidate for gravedigger of the German revolution, is foreordained.
His political crash will be one of the most terrible in history. It
is not a question of Stalin but of saving the Comintern, the
proletarian dictatorship, the heritage of the October Revolution, of
bringing the party of Lenin back to life. The majority of office
holding bureaucrats on whom Stalin bases himself both in the USSR and
in all the Comintern sections will flee at the first roll of thunder.
The Left Opposition will remain true to the banner of Marx and Lenin
to the end!
The
present document will be preserved in a limited but fully sufficient
number of copies by reliable hands in several countries. Thus you
have been notified in advance!