The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification
universe and, least of all, in the state apparatus. Back in 1871, Karl Marx said that a new class cannot
simply make use of the old apparatus.[47] This apparatus engenders its own interests and habits which we
must run up against. It must be smashed and replaced; only then will we be able to work.
If that were not so, if the old Czarist apparatus suited our new purposes, then the entire revolution would
not be worth an empty eggshell. We must create such an apparatus as would actually place the common
interests of the popular masses above the proper interests of the apparatus itself.
There are many in our midst who have cultivated a purely bookish attitude towards the question of the
classes and of the class struggle. The moment they got a whiff of the revolutionary reality, they began to
talk a different language (i.e., of conciliation and not struggle).
We are now living through the most profound social crisis. At present the proletariat is effecting the
demolition and the replacement of the state apparatus. The resistance on their part reflects the processes
of our growth. No words can moderate their hatred of us. We are told that their program is presumably
similar to ours. Give them a few seats and that will settle everything. But why do they give aid to
Kaledin, if they have the same program as we? No. The bourgeoisie is aligned against us by virtue of all
its class interests. And what will we achieve as against that by taking to the road of conciliation with the
Vikzhel? . . . We are confronted with armed violence which can be overcome only by means of violence
on our own part. Lunacharsky says that blood is flowing. What to do? Evidently we should never have
begun.
Then why don't you openly admit that the biggest mistake was committed not so much in October but
towards the end of February when we entered the arena of future civil war.
We are told that conciliation with the Vikzhel will help us against Kaledin. But why, then, do they fail to
support us now if they are closer to us? Because they understand that however bad the counter-revolution
may be for them, it will, nevertheless, give the tops of the Vikzhel more than the dictatorship of the
proletariat. For the moment they are pre serving a neutrality which is not friendly to us. They are letting
through the shock troops and Krasnov's Cossacks. The Vikzhel forbade me personally to communicate by
direct wire with Moscow in order to report that we are progressing in our struggle against Krasnov.
Because, if you please, this "might raise the morale there," and the members of the Vikzhel, mind you, are
neutral.
To conciliate with them is to continue the policies of Gotz, Dan and the rest. We are told we have no
calico and no petroleum, therefore we must have conciliation. But I ask for the thousand and first time:
Just how will conciliation with Gotz and Dan give us petroleum?
Why are all the Chernovs against us? They protest because they are bourgeois through and through in
their psychology. They are incapable of applying any serious measures against the bourgeoisie. They are
against us precisely because we are putting into effect drastic measures against the bourgeoisie. Nobody
can tell now what harsh measures we may yet be compelled to apply. The sum total of what the Chernovs
can contribute to our work is: vacillation. But vacillation in the struggle against our enemies will destroy
our authority among the masses.
What does conciliation with Chernov mean? It does not mean that we have a heart-to-heart talk with him
and the matter ends there. No. It means an alignment with Chernov. This would be treason. For that we
should all deserve to be shot immediately.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1937-st2/sf08.htm (8 of 13) [06/06/2002 15:06:45]