Leon Trotsky: Open Letter to Émile Vandervelde

December 5, 1932

[Writing of Leon Trotsky, Vol. 4, 1932, New York 1973, p. 340-342]

Citizen Vandervelde:

Some years ago you addressed an open letter to me concerning, if I am not mistaken, reprisals against the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries. You expressed yourself against the Bolsheviks in general and without exception — in the name of the principles of democracy. That is your right. If your criticism did not have the desired effect, it was because we Bolsheviks proceeded from the principles of revolutionary dictatorship.

The Russian Social Revolutionaries, your co-thinkers on the question of democracy, at one time had opened up a terrorist struggle against us. They had wounded Lenin and sought to blow up my military train. Brought before a Soviet court, they found in you one of their most ardent defenders. The government of which I was a member allowed you not only to enter Soviet Russia but also to act in court as attorney for those who had tried to assassinate the leaders of the first workers' state. In your defense plea, which we published in our press, you repeatedly invoked the principles of democracy. That was your right

On December 4, 1932, I and my companions stopped in transit at Antwerp harbor. I had no intention of propagandizing for the proletarian dictatorship there, or of acting as defense counsel for the Communists and strikers arrested by the Belgian government who, so far as I know, have made no attempts against the lives of the members of that government. Some of my companions, and my wife with them, wished to visit Antwerp. One of them needed to get in touch with a consulate in that city in connection with some travel matters. All of them were categorically forbidden to touch the soil of Belgium, even under guard. The part of the harbor where our ship was had been thoroughly cordoned off. On both sides of the ship — port and starboard — police boats were stationed. From our bridge we were able to review a parade of democracy's police agents, military as well as civil. It was an impressive spectacle.

The number of cops and screws — permit me these familiar terms for brevity's sake — exceeded that of seamen and longshoremen. Our ship looked like a temporary prison; the adjacent part of the harbor, like a prison courtyard. The police chief made photocopies of our papers, although we were not bound for Belgium and, as mentioned, had not been permitted to get off at Antwerp. He demanded an explanation of why my passport was made out in someone else's name. I declined to engage in any discussion with the Belgian police, since they had nothing to do with me, nor I with them.

The police officer tried to use threats: he declared that he had the right to arrest anybody whom the ship's sailing route happened to bring into Belgian waters. I must acknowledge, however, that there were no arrests.

I urge you not to read my remarks as a complaint of any kind. It would be ridiculous to complain about such trifles in the face of all that the toiling masses and especially the Communists are forced to suffer nowadays in all parts of the world. But the Antwerp episode seems to me a sufficient excuse to return to your old "Open Letter," to which I did not reply at the time.

I am not mistaken, am I, in counting Belgium among the democracies? The war which you carried on was the war for democracy, wasn't it? Since the war you have been at the head of Belgium as a minister and even as prime minister. What more is needed to bring democracy to full flower? On that score, I believe, we would have no argument. Why then does this democracy of yours still reek so of the old Prussian police spirit? And how could anyone suppose that a democracy which experiences such nervous convulsions when a Bolshevik happens to come near its borders would prove capable of neutralizing the class struggle and of guaranteeing the peaceful transformation of capitalism into socialism?

In reply you will undoubtedly remind me of the Cheka, the GPU, the internal exile of Rakovsky, and my own expulsion from the Soviet Union. That argument misses the point. The Soviet regime does not adorn itself with the peacock feathers of democracy. If the transition to socialism were possible within the state forms created by liberalism, revolutionary dictatorship would not be necessary. For the Soviet regime the question can and should be posed of whether it is capable of teaching the workers to struggle against capitalism. But it is absurd to demand that the proletarian dictatorship observe the forms and rites of liberal democracy. The dictatorship has its own methods and its own logic, a very rigorous one. Sometimes even proletarian revolutionists who helped establish the regime of dictatorship fall victim to this logic. Yes, in the development of the isolated workers' state, betrayed by the international Social Democracy, the bureaucratic apparatus has acquired power which is dangerous for the socialist revolution. There is no need i to remind me of this. But before the class enemy I assume full responsibility not only for the October Revolution which produced the dictatorship, but even for the Soviet republic as it is today, including its government which has exiled me and deprived me of my Soviet citizenship.

We destroyed democracy in order to settle matters with capitalism. You are defending capitalism allegedly in the name of democracy. But where is it?

Not in Antwerp harbor in' any case. There were cops and screws and gendarmes with rifles. But not even the shadow of the democratic right of asylum was to be found there.

For all that, I left the waters of Antwerp without the slightest pessimism. During the noon break, longshoremen gathered on the deck, emerging from the hold or coming over from the docks. There were two or three dozen of them, sturdy, serene Flemish proletarians, thickly covered with coal dust. A cordon of detectives separated them from us. The longshoremen viewed the scene in silence, taking the measure of everyone present. One sturdy docker winked at us, over the flatfeet with their hats on. Our bridge responded with smiles; a stirring passed among the workers. They had recognized their own kind. I do not say that the Antwerp longshoremen are Bolsheviks. But by sure instinct, they made clear where they stood. Going back to work, they all smiled at us in a friendly fashion and many put gnarled fingers to their caps by way of greeting. That is our democracy.

As our ship sailed down the Scheldt in the mist, past cranes paralyzed by the economic crisis, all along from the dock-sides the farewell cries of unknown but faithful friends kept ringing out.

Finishing these lines between Antwerp and Vlissingen, I send a fraternal greeting to the workers of Belgium.

Leon Trotsky