Trotsky Read online

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  Copyright © 1996 by The Estate of Dmitri Volkogonov

  Translation copyright © 1996 by The Estate of Dmitri Volkogonov

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  THE FREE PRESS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

  Volkogonov, Dmitriï Antonovich

  [Trotskiï. English]

  Trotsky: the eternal revolutionary / Dmitri Volkogonov; translated and edited by Harold Shukman

  p. cm.

  Includes index.

  eISBN 978-1-43910-573-3 (hardcover: alk paper)

  1. Trotsky, Leon, 1879-1940. 2. Revolutionaries—Soviet Union—Biography. 3. Soviet Union—Politics and government—1917-1936. I. Shukman, Harold. II. Title.

  DK254.T6V6513 1996

  947.084′092—dc20

  [B] 95-42315

  CIP

  Contents

  List of Illustrations

  Map: The USSR in 1920

  Chronological Table

  Editor’s Preface

  Introduction

  1 At the Turn of the Century

  The Bronshsteins

  The Path of Revolution

  European Bivouac

  The Paradox of Trotsky

  Ensign Arbuzov

  The Viennese Chapter

  In Ahasueras’s Footsteps

  2 The Madness of Revolution

  The Revolutionary Flood

  The Power of Myths

  The Oracle of the Revolution

  Alongside Lenin

  The Brest-Litovsk Formula

  On the Bloody Divide

  3 The Ninth Wave of the Vendée

  The ‘Laws’ of Revolution

  Head of the Revolutionary War Council

  The White Movement

  Within the Noose

  Trotsky’s Special Train

  The Dictatorship and Terror

  Anatomy of War

  4 The Hypnosis of Revolution

  Permanent Revolution

  ‘The World Soviet Federation’

  Terrorism and Communism

  Culture and Revolution

  Personality and Revolution

  5 The Outcast Revolutionary

  The Stalinist Ring

  ‘The New Course’

  The Duel of ‘Outstanding Leaders’

  The Thinning Ranks of Supporters

  The Defeat of 1927

  Exile and Deportation

  6 The Wanderer Without a Visa

  Prinkipo Island and the Planet

  The One-Author Journal

  Family Tragedy

  The Moscow Trials

  The Loneliness of Coyoacan

  The Illusion of the International

  7 Outcast of the Era

  The Prophet and his Prophecies

  The Portraitist’s Brush

  Chronicler of the Revolution

  Forty-Three Months in Mexico

  August 1940

  Obelisk in a Foreign Country

  Epilogue

  Notes

  Illustrations

  (Unless otherwise indicated, all photographs are from the David King Collection, 90 St Paul’s Road, London N1 2QP)

  Lev Davidovich Bronshtein—Trotsky—at the age of nine, in 1888.

  Trotsky in 1897.

  Trotsky’s father, David Leontievich Bronshtein.

  Anna Bronshtein, Trotsky’s mother.

  Trotsky at the time of his first arrest and imprisonment in Nikolaev, 1898.

  Trotsky’s first exile, Verkholensk, eastern Siberia, 1900.

  Trotsky with his first wife, Alexandra Sokolovskaya.

  Trotsky with his daughter Zinaida in 1906.

  The 1905 revolution. Demonstration of Social Democrats in St Petersburg.

  Trial of the St Petersburg Soviet.

  Trotsky with Alexander Helphand and Lev Deutsch at the time of their arrest in St Petersburg in December 1905.

  Trotsky reading his newly-founded Pravda in Vienna in 1910.

  Trotsky arrives in St Petersburg, 17 May 1917.

  The St Petersburg Soviet meeting in the Tauride Palace, February 1917.

  Trotsky’s second wife, Natalya Ivanovna Sedova.

  Trotsky with Soviet delegates Admiral Altfater and Lev Kamenev at the Brest-Litovsk peace talks in January 1918.

  Trotsky on the Eastern Front with his armoured train, 1918. (Author’s collection)

  Trotsky visiting the Western Front during the Civil War.

  Trotsky talking to a young Red Army recruit.

  Trotsky with his deputy Sklyansky and chief of staff S. S. Kamenev, August 1921.

  Recruiting poster for the Red Army.

  Red Army men in 1918.

  The Red Army captures Kazan, September 1918.

  Trotsky’s armoured train at Tsaritsyn, 1918.

  Sketch of Trotsky by F. Malyavin, 1920. (Author’s collection)

  The Red Army advancing over the frozen Baltic to suppress the sailors and soldiers of the Kronstadt garrison, March 1921.

  Interrogation of a sailor by government forces at Kronstadt. (Author’s collection)

  Lenin, Trotsky and Voroshilov among Red Army men after the suppression of the Kronstadt revolt.

  The Praesidium of the Second Congress of Comintern, Moscow, 1920.

  Trotsky inspects the Red Army at a parade honouring the Third Congress of Comintern, 1921.

  Polish caricature of Trotsky during the Civil War.

  White caricature of Trotsky during the Civil War.

  Trotsky slaying the counter-revolutionary dragon: poster by Deni.

  Lenin’s funeral, Red Square, 27 January 1924.

  On Lenin’s tomb, 7 November 1924: Voroshilov, Trotsky, Kalinin, Frunze, Budenny and Clara Zetkin.

  Trotsky and Stalin carrying Dzerzhinsky’s coffin, July 1926.

  Trotsky with Oppositionists expelled from the Party in 1928.

  Trotsky’s last holiday in the Soviet Union, at Sukhumi on the Black Sea, probably 1927.

  Trotsky with his wife Natalya and his son Lev Sedov in Alma-Ata, 1928.

  Trotsky on Prinkipo, 1929.

  Trotsky depicted on a propaganda float in Leningrad, 1930.

  One of the Moscow trials in progress.

  Anti-Trotskyist Soviet propaganda by Deni, 1930.

  State Prosecutor Andrei Vyshinsky at the Moscow trials.

  Workers demonstrating their support for the Moscow trials.

  Trotsky’s elder son, Lev Sedov.

  Trotsky’s younger son, Sergei Sedov.

  Olga Kameneva, Trotsky’s sister and Kamenev’s wife.

  Trotsky in Mexico, 1938, with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Natalya, Reba Hansen, André Breton and Jean van Heijenoort.

  Trotsky dictating to one of his secretaries in the 1930s.

  At the Dewey Commission’s hearings in Mexico City, April 1937: Jean van Heijenoort, Albert Goldman, Trotsky, Natalya, Jan Frankel.

  Trotsky with two of his security guards in Mexico.

  Trotsky with Natalya on a cactus-collecting expedition, Mexico 1940.

  Trotsky feeding his rabbits, 1940.

  Trotsky’s study after Ramon Mercader’s attack, 20 August 1940.

  Mercader after his arrest.

  Mercader re-enacting his attack during the investigation.

  Trotsky on his death-bed.

  Trotsky’s funeral procession, Mexico City, 22 August 1940.

  Trotsky’s grandson, Esteban Volkov, at his grandfather’s grave in Mexico City in 1989. (Author’s collection)

&
nbsp; Map

  Chronological Table

  (Dates according to New Style or Western Calendar)

  1879

  7 November Lev Davidovich Bronshtein (Trotsky) born at Yanovka, near Yelizavetgrad (Kirovograd) in Ukraine.

  21 December Josef Stalin born at Gori, Georgia.

  1886

  Trotsky begins primary school.

  1888

  Enters St Paul’s High School, Odessa.

  1896

  Completes secondary education in Nikolaev.

  1896-97

  Joins Social Democratic revolutionary group in Nikolaev.

  1898

  March Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) formed in Minsk. Trotsky arrested and exiled to Siberia for two years.

  1899

  Trotsky marries Alexandra Sokolovskaya in prison.

  1900

  Birth of Trotsky’s first daughter, Zinaida. Lenin and Martov start their newspaper Iskra (The Spark).

  1902

  Birth of Trotsky’s second daughter, Nina. Trotsky escapes from exile, adopts the name of Trotsky and leaves the country illegally. Meets Lenin for the first time in London.

  1903

  RSDLP splits at its Second Congress in London into Bolsheviks, led by Lenin,

  and Mensheviks, led by a group including Martov and Trotsky. Trotsky marries Natalya Sedova.

  1904-06

  Russo-Japanese War.

  1905

  Trotsky returns to Russia and takes active part in first Russian revolution.

  October Tsar concedes political reform, including a legislative assembly, the State Duma.

  December Trotsky elected President of St Petersburg Soviet.

  1906

  Trial of Trotsky and other members of St Petersburg Soviet. Birth of Trotsky’s first son, Lev.

  1907

  Trotsky exiled to Western Siberia. Escapes abroad. First meeting with Stalin at Fifth Party Congress in London.

  1908

  Birth of Trotsky’s second son, Sergei.

  1910

  Death of Trotsky’s mother, Anna Bronshtein. Trotsky establishes his independent newspaper Pravda, which fails for lack of funds.

  1912-14

  Trotsky works as war correspondent in the Balkans and reporter in Paris for the newspaper Kievskaya mysl’.

  1914

  Trotsky leaves Vienna for Zurich and later Paris.

  August Russia enters First World War.

  1915-16

  Trotsky collaborates with Menshevik Internationalists in Paris on newspaper Nashe slovo.

  1916

  Trotsky expelled from France to Spain, where he is arrested.

  1917

  Arrives in New York.

  March Tsar abdicates. Provisional Government formed in Petrograd.

  March-May Trotsky leaves for Russia. Arrested in Halifax, Canada. Arrives in Petrograd.

  August Trotsky enters Bolshevik Party at Sixth Party

  Congress and becomes member of Central Committee.

  August-September Trotsky and other Bolsheviks arrested on charges of working for Germany. Soon released.

  September Trotsky becomes chairman of Petrograd Soviet.

  October Military Revolutionary Committee created with Trotsky as chairman. Trotsky appointed People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs in first Soviet government.

  December The Cheka, the Soviet political police, formed. Bolshevik-German armistice.

  1918

  January Soviet-German peace talks at Brest-Litovsk. Trotsky heads Soviet delegation. Constituent Assembly dispersed by Bolsheviks after one session.

  February Chicherin replaces Trotsky as People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs and head of Brest-Litovsk delegation.

  March Brest-Litovsk peace treaty signed with Germany. Trotsky appointed People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. Red Army founded.

  April Civil war begins in Russia.

  July Tsar and family executed in Yekaterinburg.

  September Trotsky appointed chairman of the Military Revolutionary Council of the Republic.

  November Allied-German armistice.

  1919

  March Third Communist International (Comintern) founded in Moscow. Trotsky elected member of Comintern Executive Committee (ECCI).

  1920

  April Poles invade Soviet Ukraine. October Armistice with Poland.

  November Civil war ends with defeat and evacuation of White armies in Crimea.

  1921

  March Anti-Bolshevik uprising of Kronstadt

  garrison. Tenth Party Congress adopts Lenin’s New Economic Policy and bans the formation of factions in the Party.

  1922

  February Cheka renamed GPU. Trotsky’s father, David Bronshtein, dies of typhus.

  April Stalin elected General Secretary of the Party.

  May Lenin’s first stroke.

  December Lenin’s second stroke. Formation of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

  1923

  March Lenin’s third stroke.

  April Twelfth Party Congress.

  October Trotsky writes to Central Committee and Central Control Commission. Statement of forty-six of Trotsky’s supporters to the Politburo.

  1924

  January Lenin dies. Trotsky, convalescing in the Caucasus, is absent from his funeral.

  May Thirteenth Party Congress. Recognition of USSR from Austria, Britain, China, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Norway and Sweden. Death of Trotsky’s eldest sister Elizabeth.

  1925

  January Trotsky removed as chairman of Revolutionary Military Council and as People’s Commissar for Military Affairs.

  May Trotsky appointed chairman of the Chief Concessions Committee.

  December Fourteenth Party Congress.

  1926

  March Trotsky travels to Berlin for medical treatment.

  July ‘Statement of the 13’ and ‘Platform of the 83’. Zinoviev expelled from Poliburo and leadership of Comintern.

  October Oppositional statement by sixteen of Trotsky’s supporters. Trotsky and Kamenev removed from Politburo.

  1927

  September Trotsky expelled from Executive Committee of Comintern.

  of Comintern.

  October Trotsky removed from Central Committee.

  November Trotsky and Zinoviev expelled from Party.

  December Fifteenth Party Congress.

  1928

  January Trotsky banished to Alma Ata, Kazakhstan.

  June Death of Trotsky’s younger daughter, Nina Nevelson, from tubercolosis.

  1929

  February Trotsky deported from USSR to Turkey.

  April First Five-Year Plan adopted by Sixteenth Party Congress.

  July Trotsky’s Bulletin of the Opposition launched.

  November Bukharin expelled from Politburo.

  December Stalin proclaims end of NEP and start of collectivization.

  1930

  Trotsky’s autobiography, My Life, published in Berlin.

  1931

  Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution published in Berlin. Soviet rewriting of history begins under Stalin’s guidance.

  1932

  Trotsky’s book The Stalinist School of Falsification published in Berlin.

  February Trotsky, with his wife Natalya and son Lev, deprived of Soviet citizenship.

  November Trotsky briefly visits Copenhagen to give lectures.

  December Identity cards issued to urban population in USSR. Collective farmers denied right to leave their villages.

  1933

  January Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. Trotsky’s elder daughter Zinaida Volkova commits suicide in Berlin after deep depression.

  July Trotsky and Natalya leave Turkey for France.

  November Diplomatic and trade relations established between USSR and USA.

  1934

  January Seventeenth Party Congress, the Seventeenth Party Congress, the ‘Congress
of Victors’. Trotsky prepares the founding

  Begins work on his biography of Lenin, which is to remain unfinished.

  September USSR joins League of Nations.

  December Sergei Kirov assassinated in Leningrad.

  1935

  June Trotsky moves to Norway. His first wife, Alexandra Sokolovskaya, is exiled to Siberia where she dies after a few years. Part of Trotsky’s correspondence is sold by his son Lev to the Institute of Social History in Amsterdam.

  1936

  Trotsky’s nephews, Alexander and Yuri Kamenev, arrested and shot. Trotsky completes his book The Revolution Betrayed. Trial and execution of Zinoviev, Kamenev and fourteen others. Trial of seventeen, including Radek and Pyatakov; thirteen executed. Execution of Red Army leadership.

  November Part of Trotsky’s archive is stolen by the NKVD from the Institute of Historical Research in Paris.

  December Trotsky and Natalya deported from Norway to Mexico.

  1937

  January Trotsky arrives in Mexico and is given political asylum. Takes part in international commission intended to establish faked character of political trials in Moscow. Begins book on Stalin which is to remain unfinished. Younger son, Sergei, arrested in USSR and executed. Nephew, Boris Bronshtein, executed.