CHRONICLE OF A
RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONARY:
LEON TROTSKY AND THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION
And the trees,
themselves white as specters,
Come out on the road jostling and thronging,
Just as if they were waving their farewells
To the white night which has witnessed so very many
things.(1)
The white nights(2) of 1917 in Russia's capital city, Petrograd, were indeed witness to many things. The desire for change, for revolution, was a growing, living thing, difficult to control and impossible to predict. This desire had first come to the surface in 1905 on "bloody Sunday" when troops fired on a group of peaceful demonstrators. The ensuing civil disorders were eventually quelled, and Tsar Nicholas II maintained a tenuous hold upon his country.(3) The coming of World War I, in 1914, and the resulting hardships caused an increase in Russian social unrest, which eventually brought about the 1917 Russian Revolution.(4) One of the primary players in the 1917 drama was Leon Trotsky. Trotsky did not acquire the same type of fame as his fellow Bolsheviks, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Joseph Stalin, but his role in perpetrating and organizing the events of 1917 was of supreme importance to the outcome.
To look at a picture of Leon Trotsky of this period is to see, personified, the very intensity which brought on the Russian Revolution. The wild disarray of his dark hair and moustache were indicative of the passion of his personality. The burning, magnetic eyes and expression were those of a truly dedicated revolutionary.
Trotsky's real name was Lev Davidovich Bronstein. He was a Russian Jew born, in 1879, into an upper middle class farming family, living near the Black Sea. By the age of eighteen he had chosen to live his life as a professional revolutionary.(5) Trotsky's original decision to follow the revolutionary path was based on, as Trotsky himself put it, "sympathy for the down-trodden and indignation over injustice."(6) He allied himself with the rising worker's movements and became something of a leader among them.(7) His activities soon led him to arrest and jail but he escaped and in his flight he assumed the name of his former jailor, Leon Trotsky. He never expected that this name was to go with him through the rest of his life.(8)
While imprisoned in 1899, Trotsky began to read and write in the Socialist vein. He read, in particular, the work of V. I. Lenin. Upon his escape in 1902, he fled to the home of Lenin, who was then residing in London.(9) It was here that Lenin and Trotsky first became allies but the alliance was not without problems. Trotsky attacked the ideology of Lenin as early as 1903, asserting, "Lenin's methods lead to this: the party as a whole; then the Central Committee substitutes itself for the organization; and finally a single 'dictator' substitutes himself for the Central Committee."(10) Trotsky later repudiated these views, insisting that he had been wrong. Ever the outspoken orator and author, Trotsky's words often came back to haunt him.
In 1905 Trotsky, back in Russia, was elected chairman of the Soviet of Worker's Delegates. When the 1905 uprising was over Trotsky was imprisoned and sentenced to a life term in Siberia. Once more the determined young revolutionary escaped, this time while enroute to Siberia.(11)
The next several years were spent in travel and working for the Socialist cause. When 1917 came, bringing with it revolution again in Russia, Trotsky was in the United States, giving speeches on socialism in New York. The February-March Revolution, which ended the Tsarist regime, was one of the most leaderless, spontaneous, anonymous revolutions of all time."(12)
The Provisional Government, which took over following the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty, was made up of members of the bourgeoisie and the official class. The three groups of revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Social Revolutionaries and Bolsheviks, were unsure of how to proceed. Initially, they were undecided as to the role they should play in the post-revolutionary government.(13)
Prince Georgii Lvov was the official Prime Minister of the new government. Prince Lvov has been described as, "placid and inoffensive."(14) It was generally accepted that the Foreign Minister, Pavel Milyukov, was in command of the Provisional Government. Milyukov, a professor and historian, was the leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party (Cadets). His job was not an easy one as the rule of the day seemed to be confusion and indecision within, compounded by the problems presented by the war with the Germans.(15)
In March, Trotsky and his family left New York bound for Russia. Trotsky was, at this time, married to his second wife, Natalya Sedova, who was, like himself, a revolutionary. Although separated often, due to their revolutionary activities, they were always reunited and Natalya remained with Trotsky for the rest of his life. He was never legally divorced from his first wife, Alexandra Sokolovskaya, but this did not seem to be a problem. Sokolovskaya was also a revolutionary and the end of their marriage, forced by Trotsky's exile, was accepted as a sacrifice for their cause. When Trotsky, Natalya, and their two sons met Sokolovskaya and Trotsky's two daughters in Russia, there was no suggestion of animosity or jealousy; such was the life of the revolutionary.(16)
The trip from New York was not uneventful. In Halifax, England, Trotsky was accused by British military authorities, who inspected his travel papers, of being a socialist who was "dangerous to the Allies in general."(17) Trotsky was arrested and taken to a prison camp where German war prisoners were being held. Here he occupied his time making speeches to his fellow prisoners which were so well-received that when an order was issued prohibiting the speeches the prisoners signed a protest against the order. Natalya and the two boys, then nine and eleven years old, were lodged in the home of an Anglo-Russian police agent.(18)
Natalya, Leon and their children were finally allowed to depart for Russia on April 29th. When Trotsky arrived in Petrograd on May 4, he was greeted by a cheering crowd of supporters. Upon his call for a new revolution they lifted him onto their shoulders, caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment.(19)
Trotsky was well known for his ability to stir people with his speeches, yet he was more than a mere orator. His mind was sharp beneath the passionate exterior. Here is how one observer described him: "vehement . . . he swayed the assembly as a strong wind stirs the long grass. No other man creates such an uproar, such hatred at the slightest utterance, uses such stinging words and yet underneath it all carries such a cool head."(20)
Lenin had arrived just ahead of Trotsky. According to Winston Churchill, the Germans, "transported Lenin in a sealed truck like a plague bacillus from Switzerland into Russia."(21) The reason for Churchill's sarcastic statement was the fact that Lenin and the revolutionaries were strongly opposed to the continuation of the war with Germany. The Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and Social Revolutionaries, who made up the Soviets, were also opposed to the bourgeois power of the current government. Lenin and Trotsky were united in Petrograd and became the foundation of the Bolshevik wing of the Soviets.(22)
The more moderate element of the Soviets, the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries, believed that the time was not right for them to control the government. According to their interpretation of Marxist theory, the Soviets were to be a sort of watch dog organization to keep the bourgeois government in line until the proper point in time. In putting off their bid for complete domination of the government they hoped to avoid the mere substitution of one political power group for another. They hoped the coalition of parties could govern over an extended period of time. The final outcome of revolution would be, "prepared by long years of political propaganda, organization, education, and would be realized directly and consciously by the interested masses themselves."(23)
Lenin, on the other hand, had more radical ideas. His desire was to establish a controlled revolutionary organization under the title of Communism and take over the government. As Lenin himself wrote, the question of government hinged upon "whether the working class is to lead the peasants forward to socialism or whether the liberal bourgeoisie is to drag them back into a compromise with capitalism."(24)
Trotsky had much the same views as the Mensheviks in 1903 when he warned against Lenin's doctrine. He had subsequently, however, changed his beliefs to coincide with Lenin in the desire to immediately continue the revolution. The book written by Trotsky in 1906, Results and Prospects, became a basis for much of the doctrine of revolution of the 1917 Bolsheviks. Trotsky, like Lenin, insisted that the revolution must continue and that it should become a world revolution.(25)
The Mensheviks thought Lenin and Trotsky insane. Most of the Bolsheviks, in the beginning, felt the two leaders were out of touch with reality. Lenin eventually won most of the Bolsheviks over and the party began to consolidate power. Their slogans, printed on red banners, were "Peace, Bread, Land" and "All Power to the Soviets."(26)
The Bolshevik Party headquarters was in an art nouveau mansion belonging to the ballerina, Mathilde Kshesinskaya.(27) In spite of the extravagance of the exterior appearance of their headquarters, Trotsky and Lenin lived very modestly. Natalya would later recall the meals her family ate as "indifferent cabbage or fish soup, kasha [buckwheat porridge], stewed fruit and tea."(28) They lived in a single room but Trotsky was so involved in the work of the party that he did not spend much time at home. He ate, slept and worked, day and night, in his sparsely furnished office.(29)
In late April-early May(30) the dissatisfaction of the masses over the continuation of the war caused an upheaval in the Provisional Government. General Lavr Kornilov, in charge of the armed forces in Petrograd, used a show of force in the uprising and there were some deaths as a result. Milyukov resigned and the Provisional Government became a coalition government, with the addition of Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries. A man who was to play an important role in future events, Alexander, Kerensky, rose from the position of Minister of Justice to Minister of War.(31)' Kerensky was a popular figure with the general public, at this time, but not with most of the revolutionary leaders. They seemed to think of Kerensky as a man of much talk and little action.(32)
During these days, Trotsky became wrapped up in a massive whirlwind of speech making. As a Menshevik leader, Nikolai Sukhanov, said of Trotsky, he "spoke everywhere simultaneously."(33) Most often he spoke to huge crowds gathered in Petrograd. In his autobiography Trotsky wrote a moving account of these days:
Lenin's original intention was to whip the street demonstrations into a power play which would result in a Bolshevik take-over.(35) Lenin could not, however, claim power in the name of the Bolsheviks. They simply did not have enough popularity, since they were the minority group of the Soviets. What Lenin did was call for power for the Soviets, thereby gaining popular support from all three groups. Lenin felt that once they gained control of the government in the name of the Soviets, it would be relatively easy to wrest power from the Menshevik and Social Revolutionary leaders.(36)
Another central factor in Lenin's strategy was the necessity and desirability of the use of arms and militarization. Here, perhaps, was a key element to the success of the Bolsheviks. Lenin's assertion was, "An oppressed class which does not strive to learn to use arms, to obtain arms, deserves to be treated as slaves."(37)
The July days accompanied by the white July nights came too soon, as revolutionary fervor exploded again. Some have said the insurrection was a mistake; a misjudgment made by Lenin in pushing the revolution too fast.(38) The events of July have also been described as another spontaneous uprising, undesired by Lenin and Trotsky. At any rate, the population of Petrograd began to defiantly demand the end of the Provisional Government. At one point during the crisis, Minister of Agriculture, Chernov made an appearance outside the headquarters of the Provisional Government, and was seized by a group of Kronstadt sailors. At the height of confusion Trotsky stepped into the situation. The raging crowd failed to respond to Trotsky's words. Finally, in desperation, he made the request that all those who were in favor of doing harm to Chernov should raise their hands. No hands went up and in the ensuing uncertainty Trotsky hustled Chernov back into the Palace.(39)
The July insurrection was finally suppressed and blamed on the Bolsheviks. This result forced Lenin into hiding to avoid arrest, while Trotsky was included among those arrested for involvement in the disturbance.(40) These activities were closely followed by a right-wing reaction led by General Kornilov, which also failed. The significant aspect of the Kornilov coup attempt was that the Bolsheviks gained favor with the government by aiding in putting down this adventure.(41)
In jail, Trotsky had spent some anxious days entertaining dire thoughts of the possible results of a Kornilov take-over. When this right-wing attempt failed, he found himself released from captivity. He went immediately to the headquarters of the Soviets, the Smolny Institute building, which had formerly been a finishing school for girls of the nobility. Trotsky found that the aftermath of Kornilov's defeated coup attempt was a splintering of the already divided coalition government.(42) Prince Lvov had resigned his position as Prime Minister early in July and Kerensky had been given the position.(43) Following the Kornilov affair, the Cadet ministers resigned and the Socialist members withdrew. The result was a tremendous windfall of political fortune for the Bolsheviks.(44)
On September 23, the Petrograd Soviet elected Trotsky as President. During these days Trotsky also assumed leadership of the Bolsheviks, called by one observer their "soul of steel."(45) With Lenin temporarily behind the scenes and Trotsky in the lead, the Bolsheviks moved rapidly towards October and revolution.
In October the call was made from the demoralized war front to bring up troops from Petrograd for the purpose of "helping to defend the front" so the "brothers in the trenches would not be destroyed."(46) Trotsky drew up a resolution accusing the Kerensky government of leading the country upon a course of action which would result in the fall of Petrograd itself to Germany. Trotsky further propounded the view that only through peace and consolidation of the government with the Soviets could Russia survive.(47)
Trotsky also called for the establishment of a "revolutionary defense committee." The formation of the Military Revolutionary Committee was approved by the Petrograd Soviet on October 9, 1917.(48) With the formation of this committee, preparation for the actual take-over had begun in earnest. During October, in Trotsky's own words, "the Smolny was . . . transformed into a fortress."(49) The Bolsheviks were now in virtual control of the Smolny and the Soviets.
As events moved towards a confrontation, the Petropavlovsk fortress became a source of concern. The garrison there was anti-Bolshevik and was reported to be in possession of 100,000 rifles. Trotsky, entering the fortress alone, convinced the soldiers to support the Bolshevik cause and the rifles were given up.(50)
Trotsky also spoke once more to the masses. Nikolai Sukhanov, who was present, recorded the scene:
In the early morning hours of October twenty-fifth, the final Russian Revolution of 1917 was in motion. John Reed, an American reporter, was on the scene. He described the sights and sounds in this way, "Far over the still roofs westward came the sound of scattered rifle fire, where the yunkers(52) were trying to open the bridges over the Neva, to prevent the factory workers and soldiers of the Viborg quarter from joining the Soviet forces in the centre of the city; and the Kronstadt sailors were closing them again . . . . Behind us great Smolny, bright with lights, hummed like a gigantic hive."(53)
The take-over of the Provisional Government was surprisingly easy for the Bolsheviks. When news came from the Northern Front, the victory, at least for the moment, seemed to be complete. Reed again was present to record the events: "The Twelfth Army sends greetings to the Congress of Soviets, announcing the formation of a Military Revolutionary Committee which has taken over the command of the Northern Front! Pandemonium, men weeping, embracing each other . . . the Petrograd Soviet had overthrown the Provisional Government."(54) At one o'clock on the afternoon of October twenty-fifth, Trotsky made the official announcement to the Petrograd Soviet. He declared the fall of the Provisional Government and updated those in attendance on the occupation of strategic points throughout the city. Initial reactions of the members of the Soviet were somewhat subdued. Trotsky had the thought that they were "feeling intensely and waiting."(55)
Later that evening Lenin and Trotsky tried to rest, but sleep was elusive. The two comrades lay on the floor of a darkened room next to Smolny's great hall (formerly a ballroom) where the Congress of the Soviets would soon meet.(56) They were both aware that although the initial victory was theirs, the struggle was not over.
When the Congress of Soviets met, the subdued atmosphere was gone. In a stormy session the Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks made an attempt to salvage a role in the new government. Julian Martov, their spokesman, condemned the Bolshevik power play and called for a democratic government. He also warned of the prospect of bloodshed and civil war to come and urged an attempt to appease all the factions in order to prevent this outcome. In response, Trotsky took center stage, proclaiming, in a voice which was cold and hard:
Nikolai Sukhanov related a conversation he had with Trotsky at a later date. The Menshevik leader reminded Trotsky of a pledge he had made. Upon his election to the presidency of the Soviet, Trotsky had pledged not to be guilty of the suppression of minorities. Sukhanov recorded that "Trotsky lapsed into silence, reflected for a while, and then said wistfully: 'Those were good days.'"(58)
In the Russian Civil War (1918-21), those opposed to the Bolsheviks formed the white army. Trotsky organized and led the victorious Red Army. This victory established the Bolsheviks firmly in control of the country. Trotsky was proclaimed the "father of victory" by his comrades.(59)
The great tragedy of
the life of Leon Trotsky was that the high ideals and noble
ambitions of young Lev Davidovich Bronstein ended in leading
Russia into the hands of Joseph Stalin and years of suppression
and hardships far worse than any endured under Tsar Nicholas II.
Ideals often fall prey to the realities of situations and
circumstances. As a revolutionary and as leader of the Red Army,
Trotsky was supremely successful. His abilities were not, however,
so easily channeled into the everyday politics of leadership.
Stalin came forward, challenging Trotsky's call for world
revolution with his plan for "state socialism"(60) or socialism in one country. Stalin, who was in the
background during the days of the 1917 revolution, proved to be
the leader ambitious and ruthless enough to succeed Lenin. In
1929, Trotsky was forced into exile again. In 1940 he was
murdered by an agent of the Russian secret police, while living
with Natalya in Mexico.(61)
ENDNOTES
1. Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago (New York: Pantheon Books, Inc., 1958), 436.
2. The white nights are the hours of almost continuous daylight which occur in the northern latitudes during the Summer Solstice, caused by the inclination of the earth's axis.
3. Jonathan Sanders, Russia 1917; The Unpublished Revolution (New York: Abbeville Press, 1989), 21-25.
4. Peter I. Lyashchenko, "Economic and Social Consequences of the War," in The Russian Revolution and Bolshevik Victory, ed. Arthur E. Adams (Boston: D. C. Heath, 1960), 15-22.
5. Irving Howe, Leon Trotsky (New York: Viking Press, 1978), 2-6.
6. Leon Trotsky, My Life (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1930; reprint, Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1970), 96.
7. E. Victor Wolfenstein, The Revolutionary Personality: Lenin, Trotsky, Gandhi (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), 127-129.
8. Trotsky, My Life, 134.
9. Isaac Deutscher, The Prophet Armed: Trotsky, 1879-1921 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954), 57.
10. Howe, Leon Trotsky, 15.
11. Ibid., 19.
12. William H. Chamberlin, "The March Revolution was Spontaneous," in The Russian Revolution and Bolshevik Victory, ed. Arthur E. Adams (Boston: D.C. Heath, 1960), 23-28.
13. Edward Hallett Carr The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1923, vol. I (London: Macmillan and Company, LTD, 1950), 1:70.
14. Richard Pipes, The Russian Revolution (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990), 406.
15. Robert V. Daniels, Red October (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1967), 6; and Alan Moorehead, The Russian Revolution (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), 163.
16. Deutscher Prophet Armed, 70-71.
17. Trotsky, My Life, 279-280.
18. Ibid., 281-283.
19. ----
20. Louise Bryant, "Democracy's Last Gasps," in Russia in Revolution: Selected Readings in Russian Domestic History Since 1855, ed. Stanley W. Page (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1965), 139.
21. Winston Churchill The World Crisis , quoted in Moorehead, Russian Revolution, 173.
22. Deutscher, Prophet Armed, 254-256.
23. Julian Martov, "Dictatorship of the Minority," in Essential Works of Socialism, ed. Irving Howe (New York: Bantam, 1971), 259.
24. Carr, Bolshevik Revolution, 1:79-81.
25. Daniels, Red October, 23-24.
26. Sanders, Unpublished Revolution, 198.
27. lbid., 166.
28. Victor Serge and Natalya Sedova Trotsky, The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky (New York, 1975), 52-53, quoted in Joseph T. Fuhrmann, "Lenin and Privilege," The Historian 51(Spring 1989): 382.
29. Louise Bryant, Six Red Months in Russia (New York, 1918), 48, 145, quoted in Joseph T. Fuhrmann, "Lenin and Privilege," 382.
30. There is some confusion over dates in this period of Russian history due to the fact that the Russians still used the old Julian calendar. Events on their April 18 would have been the modern May 1.
31. Daniels, Red October, 33.
32. Trotsky, My Life, 289.
33. Howe, Leon Trotsky, 40.
34. Trotsky, My Life, 295-296.
35. Pines, Russian Revolution, 385.
36. Ibid., 395.
37. Bertram David Wolfe, Three Who Made a Revolution (New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1964), 371.
38. Pipes, Russian Revolution, 419.
39. Deutscher, Prophet Armed, 272-273.
40. Adam B. Ulam, The Bolsheviks: The Intellectual and Political History of the Triumph of Communism in Russia (New York: Macmillan, 1965), 350.
41. Howe, Leon Trotsky, 41-42.
42. Trotsky, My Life, 318-319.
43. Alexander Rabinowitch, The Bolsheviks Come to Power (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1976), 21.
44. Deutscher, Prophet Armed, 282.
45. Jacques Sadoul, "Notes sur la Revolution," quoted in Deutscher, Prophet Armed, 288.
46. Rabinowitch, Bolsheviks to Power, 229.
47. Ibid., 231.
48. Ibid., 232.
49. Trotsky, My Life, 321.
50. Ulam, The Bolsheviks, 367.
51. Nikolai Sukhanov, "Zapiski o revoliutsii," vol. 7, (Petersburg: Z.I. Grzhebin, 1923), 7:90-91, quoted in Rabinowitch, Bolsheviks to Power, 243.
52. The yunkers were the military students in Petrograd, who supported the Provisional government.
53. John Reed, Ten Days That Shook the World (Dallas, Pennsylvania: Offset Paperback Mfrs., Inc., 1977), 87.
54. Ibid., 116.
55. Trotsky, My Life, 326-327.
56. Ibid., 327-328.
57. F. Butenko and D. A. Chugaev, eds. "Vtoroi vserossiiskii s"ezd sovetov rabochikh i soldatskikh deputatov: Shornik dokumentov" (Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1957), 43-44, quoted in Rabinowitch, Bolsheviks to Power, 296.
58. Nikolai Sukhanov, "Zapiski o revoliutsii," vol. 6, (Petersburg: Z. I. Grzhebin, 1923), 6:190, quoted in Deutscher, Prophet Armed, 287.
59. Deutscher, Prophet Armed, 446.
60. Leon Trotsky, "Stalinism and Bolshevism," in Essential Works of Socialism, ed. Irving Howe (New York: Bantam, 1971), 364.
61. Irving Howe, ed., Essential Works of Socialism (New York: Bantam, 1971), 329.