Trotsky
THE FREE PRESS
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Copyright © 1996 by The Estate of Dmitri Volkogonov
Translation copyright © 1996 by The Estate of Dmitri Volkogonov
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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.