REVISIONISM IN RUSSIA TROTSKY AGAINST THE BOLSHEVIKS - 1902 - 1903
Compass1902 - 1903: Trotsky Becomes an Iskra-ist
Trotsky arrived in London in October 1902 and Lenin found him lodgings. He began to contribute to "Iskra" in November 1902 and soon became known as a brilliant writer and orator.
From time to time he visited Prance, Switzerland and Belgium, and it was on a visit to Paris that he met his second "wife" (he was never formally divorced from Aleksandra Sokolovskaya), a Russian revolutionary of noble birth, Natalya Sedova,who was studying the history of art at the Sorbonne.
1903: The Struggle at the Second Congress
The Second congress Of the Russian Social-Democratic Party attended by 43 delegates, was held in July/August 1903, first in Brussels, and then in London. The main business on its' agenda was to adopt a programme and rules. Trotsky attended as a delegate from the Siberian Social-Democratic Workers' Union.
The sharpest controversy at the congress arose around the first clause of the rules, defining what was meant by the term "member of the party". In accordance with the principles he had been putting forward for some time in "Iskra", Lenin proposed the following wording for Clause 1: "A member of the R.S.D.L.P. is one who recognises its programme and supports the Party materially as well as by personal participation in one of the organisations of the Party".
Yuli Martov moved to substitute for the words underlined:
"Working under the control and guidance of one of the organisations of the Party".
Lenin's case against Martov's formulation was that:
1) It would in practice be impossible to maintain effective "control and guidance" over Party members who did not personally participate in one of the organisations of the Party;
2) It reflected the outlook, not of the working class, which is not shy of organisation and discipline, but of the petty bourgeois intelligentsia, who tend to be individualistic and shy of organisation and discipline;
3) It would widen Party membership to include supporters of the Party, and so would abolish the essential dividing line between the working class and its organised, disciplined vanguard; it would, therefore, have the effect of dissolving the vanguard in the working class as a whole and so would serve the interests of the class enemies of the working class.
Trotsky sided with Martov, whose formulation was adopted by 28 votes to 22 with 1 abstention.
Later, the withdrawal of seven opponents of Lenin from the congress altered the balance of forces in favour of Lenin and his supporters, Lenin then proposed that the editorial board of "Iskra" (which consisted of six members) should be replaced by one of three members. Trotsky countered this manoeuvre with a motion confirming the old editorial board in office, but this was defeated by a majority of 2 votes; thereupon the anti-Leninists abstained from further voting. In the elections which followed three anti-Leninists (Axelrod, Potresov and Vera Zasulich) were dropped from the board, leaving Lenin, Plekhanov and Martov. Furthermore, three supporters of Lenin were elected to form the Central Committee.
Thus, at its Second Congress the Party showed itself to be divided into two factions. From that time those Party members who supported Lenin's political line were known as Bolsheviks (from "bolshinstvo", majority) while those who opposed Lenin's political line were known as Mensheviks (from "menshinstvo" minority) .
The Bolshevik trend was a Marxist trend, representing the interests of the working class within the labour movement;
TheMenshevik trend was a revisionist trend representing the interests of the capitalist class within the labour movement.
The "Report of the Siberian Delegation"
Later Trotsky admitted his error in having opposed Lenin at the 2nd. Congress on the question of Party organisation. Speaking of Lenin's attitude at the Congress, Trotsky says in his autobiography:"His behaviour seemed unpardonable to me, both horrible and outrageous. And yet, politically, it was right and necessary, from the point of view of organisation.
My break with Lenin occurred on what might be considered "moral" or even personal grounds. But this was merely on the surface. At bottom, the separation was of a political nature and merely expressed itself in the realm of organisational methods.
I thought of myself as a centralist. But there is no doubt that at that at that time I did not fully realise what an intense and imperious centralism the revolutionary party would need to lead millions of people in a war against the old order . . At the time of the London Congress in 1903, revolution was still largely a theoretical abstraction to me. Independently I still could not see Lenin's centralism as the logical conclusion of a clear revolutionary concept".
(L.Trotsky: "My Life"; New York; 1971; p. 162)
His immediate reaction to the congress, however, was to write "Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. (Report of the Siberian Delegation" which was published in Geneva in 1903.
In this he defended his, and his delegation's opposition to Lenin and his supporters at the congress:"Behind Lenin stood the new compact majority of the 'hard' 'Iskra' men, opposed to the 'soft' 'Iskra' men. We, the delegates of the Siberian Union, joined the 'soft' ones, and . . we do not think that we have thereby blotted our revolutionary record".
(L.Trotsky: "Vtoroi Syezd R.S.D.R.P. (Otchet Sibirskoi Delegatskii)" (Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. (Report of the Siberian Delegation); Geneva: 1903; p.21.)
At the Congress, declared Trotsky, Lenin had:"..With the energy and talent peculiar to him, assumed the role of the party's disorganiser".
(L.Trotsky: ibid.;. p.11),
and, like a new Robespierre, was trying to:"..transform the modest Council of the Party into an omnipotent Committee of Public Safety",
(L. Trotsky: ibid.; p.21),
so preparing the ground for the:"Thermidorians of Socialist opportunism".
(L. Trotsky: ibid; p.30).
He added in a postscript that Lenin resembled Robespierre, however, only as
"a vulgar farce resembles historic tragedy"...
(L.Trotsky: ibid.; p.33).
The 1903 Menshevik Conference
After the Congress, the Mensheviks -- including Trotsky boycotted "Iskra" and refused to contribute to it.
In September 1903 they held a factional conference in Geneva to decide on future action. A shadow "central committee" was set up, consisting of Pavel Axelrod, Pedor Dan, Yuli Martov, Aleksandr Potresov and Trotsky, to direct the struggle against the Bolsheviks.
In Trotsky's view the immediate aim of the campaign should be to force the Bolsheviks to restore the ousted Mensheviks to their former positions of influence, both in the Central Committee and the editorial board. A resolution, drafted by Martov and Trotsky, was adopted by the conference:
"We consider it our moral and political duty to conduct . . the struggle by all means, without placing ourselves outside the Party and without bringing discredit upon the party and the idea of its central institutions, to bring about a change in the composition of the leading bodies, which will secure to the Party the possibility of working freely towards its own enlightenment".
(P.B. Axelrod &. Y. 0. Martov: "Pisma P.B. Axelroda i.Yu Martova" (Letters of P.B. Axelrod and Y.0.Martv); Berlin; l924; p.94).
The "New" Iskra
Soon after the Second Congress of the Party, Plekhanov gave way to the attacks of the Mensheviks. In violation of the decisions taken at the Party congress, he claimed and exercised the right as joint editor to co-opt to the editorial board of "Iskra" the Menshevik former editors. Lenin strongly objected to this step, and resigned from the board.
The new editorial board transformed "Iskra" into a Menshevik organ, which waged unremitting struggle against Lenin and his supporters and against the Bolshevik Central Committee of the Party. Thus, from its 52nd. issue "Iskra" became known in the Party as the "new" "Iskra", in contrast to the "old" Leninist "Iskra". It continued publication until October l905.
Trotsky became a prominent contributor to the "new Iskra" and issued a pamphlet setting forth the Menshevik political line. Lenin commented:
"A new pamphlet by Trotsky came out recently, under the editorship of 'Iskra', as was announced. This makes it the 'Credo', as it were, of the new 'Iskra'. The pamphlet is a pack of brazen lies, a distortion of the facts. . . The Second Congress was, in his words, a reactionary attempt to consolidate sectarian methods of organisation, etc."
(V.1. Lenin: Letter to Yelena Stasova, F.V. Lengnik, and others, 0ctober 1904, in: "Collected Works", Volume 43; Moscow; 1969; p. 129).
l904: The Russo - Japanese War
In February 1904 the Russo-Japanese War began with a Japanese attack on the Russian fortress of Port Arthur. The Russian Army suffered defeat and almost the entire Russian Navy was destroyed in the Straits of Tsushima, forcing the Tsarist government to conclude an ignominious peace treaty in September 1905.
l904: "Our Political Tasks".
Between February and May l904, Lenin was engaged on writing the book "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back". In this he expounded at length the principles of party organisation he had put forward at the Second Congress and analysed the character of the Menshevik opposition.
In August l904 Trotsky's reply to Lenin's book was published in Geneva under the title "Our Political Tasks" . It was dedicated to "My dear teacher Pavel B.Axelrod".
In "Our Political Tasks" - Trotsky developed his attack upon "Maximillien Lenin"; whom he described as:".an adroit statistician and a slovenly attorney" (L. Trotsky: 'ashi Politicheskie Zadachi' (Our Political Tasks) Geneva; l904; p. 95), with a " . . hideous, dissolute and demagogical . " (L.Trotsky : ibid. ; p. 75), style, whose"Evil-minded and morally repulsive suspiciousness, a shallow caricature of tragic Jacobinist intolerance, must be liquidated now at all costs, otherwise the Party is threatened with moral and theoretical decay";
(L. Trotsky: ibid. ; p. 95).
He developed his attack upon Lenin's principles of Party organisation, claiming that they would lead to the establishment, not of the dictatorship of the working class but of a dictatorship over the working class (a dictatorship that would eventually be one of a single individual), which the working class would find intolerable:
"Lenin's methods lead to this: the Party organisation at first substitutes itself for the Party as a whole; then the Central Committee substitutes itself for the organisation; and finally a single 'dictator' substitutes himself for the Central Committee. A proletariat capable of exercising its dictatorship over society will not tolerate any dictatorship over itself".
(L. Trotsky. Ibid.; p. 54, l05)
and declaring that Lenin's organisational principles would, in any case, be unworkable since any serious faction would defy Party discipline:
"Is it so difficult to see that any group of serious size and importance, if faced with the alternative of silently destroying itself or of fighting for its survival regardless of all discipline, would undoubtedly choose the latter course?"
(L. Trotsky: ibid; p. 72).
Meanwhile, readers of the "new" "Iskra" in Russia had been complaining strongly about Trotsky's virulent attacks on Lenin in the columns of the paper, and in April l904, on the demand of Plekhanov, he was forced to resign from it.
The Campaign for The Holding Of a Party Congress
In July l904, two members of the Central Committee of the Party, Krassin and Noskov, broke with the Bolsheviks, giving the Mensheviks a majority on the committee. The Bolsheviks then began a campaign within the Party for the holding of a new congress.
In August l904 Lenin guided the conference of twenty-two prominent Bolsheviks which took place in Switzerland and which issued an appeal to the Party calling for the convocation of the Third Congress. At the same time a number of conference of Bolsheviks took place in Russia, out of which in December l904 came the Bureau of the Majority Committees which became the organising centre for the campaign for a new congress.
During the autumn of l904, the Bolsheviks organised their own publishing house and at the end of the year established their own newspaper "Vperyod" (Forward), the first issue of which appeared on January l904.
Next 1904 - 1905
Next 1904 - 1905
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