The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification
Leon Trotsky's
The Stalin School of Falsification
Transcribed for the Trotsky Internet Archive, now a sub-archive of the Marxist writers' Internet Archive
by David Walters in 1997
The Lost Document
WE PUBLISH herewith the minutes of the historic session of the Petrograd Committee of the Bolsheviks
held November 1 (14),[36] 1917. The conquest of power had already been achieved, at any rate, in the
most important centers in the country. Within the party, however, the struggle over the question of power
had far from terminated. It had merely passed into a new phase. Prior to October 25, the representatives
of the Right wing (Zinoviev, Kamenev, Rykov, Kalinin, Lunacharsky and others) argued that the
uprising was pre mature and could lead only to defeat. After the victorious insurrection, they proceeded
to argue that the Bolshevik party would be unable to maintain itself in power unless the Bolsheviks
entered into a coalition with the other Socialist parties, i.e., the Social Revolutionists and the
Mensheviks. During this new phase, the struggle of the Rights became exceptionally acute, and
terminated with the resignation of the representatives of the Right wing from the Council of People's
Commissars and from the Central Committee of the party. It should be borne in mind that this crisis
occurred only a few days after the conquest of power.
How did the present Centrists and, above all, Stalin, con duct themselves on this question? In the nature
of things, Stalin was a Centrist even at that time. He occupied a Centrist position whenever he had to take
an independent stand or to express his personal opinion. But this Centrist stood in fear of Lenin. It is for
this reason that there is virtually no political trace of Stalin during the most critical moments of the
ideological struggle -- from April 4, 1917, up to the time Lenin fell ill.
As these minutes prove, the revolutionary line of the party was defended jointly by Lenin and Trotsky.
That is precisely why the minutes we publish were not included in the collection of the minutes of the
Petrograd Committee, issued under the title: The First Legal Petrograd Committee of the Bolsheviks in
1917 (State Publishers, 1927). We must pause to correct ourselves. The minutes of the November 1
session were originally included in the book. They were set in type and the proofs were carefully read.
As evidence of this, we present a facsimile reproduction of a section of these proof-sheets. But the
minutes of this historical session were in flagrant and virtually intolerable contradiction with the
falsification of the history of October, executed under the unenlightened but zealous supervision of
Yaroslavsky. What was there left to do? Leningrad phoned Moscow; the Central Istpart phoned the
Secretariat of the Central Committee, and the latter issued its instructions: That the minutes be expunged
from the book, in such a manner as would leave no traces behind. The table of contents was hastily reset
and the pages renumbered. Nevertheless, a tell-tale trace re mains in the body of the book itself. The
session of October 29 concludes by setting Wednesday (November 1) as the date for the next session.
Meanwhile, according to the book the "next" session takes place on Thursday, November 2. But a much
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