The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification -- Chapter 10
Paragraph 13 of your theses is entirely devoted to this twaddle. So far as the Opposition as a whole is
concerned, it can in no way be held accountable for my former differences with Lenin, differences
which, upon these questions, were altogether secondary in character. So far as I am personally
concerned, I can make here a brief reply to the silly insinuations. Back in the time of the imperialist war,
the appeals to the international proletariat-all of them dealing with war and the struggle against war-were
written by me in the name of the first Council of People's Commissars and in the name of the Central
Committee of the party. I wrote the war section of our party program, the main resolution of the Eighth
Party Congress and the resolution of a number of Soviet Congresses, the manifesto of the First World
Congress of the Comintern, a considerable portion of which is devoted to war, and the programmatic
manifesto of the Second World Congress of the Comintern which devotes considerable space to the
evaluation of war, its consequences and future perspectives. I wrote the theses of the Third World
Congress of the Comintern on the question of the international situation and the perspectives of war and
revolution. At the Fourth World Congress I was assigned by the C.C. of the party to give the report on
the perspectives of the international revolution and war. At the Fifth World Congress (1924) I wrote the
manifesto on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the imperialist war. There were no disputes
whatever in the Central Committee over these documents, and they were adopted not only without any
controversy, but virtually without any corrections. I ask: How is it that my "deviation" failed to manifest
itself throughout my entire long and rather intensive activity in the Communist International?
Now it suddenly appears, after my rejection of "economic defeatism" in 1926 -- an absurd and illiterate
slogan advanced by Molotov for the English workers -- that I had presumably parted company with
Leninism. Why then did Molotov hide his silly slogan in his back-pocket after my criticism of it?
MOLOTOV: There was no slogan at all.
TROTSKY: That's what I say. There was nonsense, but no slogan. That's just what I say. [Laughter.]
Why then was it deemed necessary to exaggerate rudely old differences which, moreover, were
liquidated long ago? For what purpose? For the purpose of covering up and camouflaging the actual
palpable and current differences. Is it possible to pose seriously the question of a revolutionary struggle
against war and of the genuine defense of the U.S.S.R. while at the same time orienting toward the
Anglo-Russian Committee? Is it possible to orient the working class masses toward a general strike and
an armed insurrection in the course of a war while simultaneously orienting towards a bloc with Purcell,
Hicks and other traitors? I ask: Will our defensism be Bolshevik or trade unionist' That is the crux of the
question!
Let me first of all remind you of what the present leader- ship has taught the Moscow proletariat during
the whole of the last year. Everything centers round this point. I read you the verbatim directives of the
Moscow Committee: "The Anglo-Russian Committee can, must and undoubtedly will play a tremendous
role in the struggle against all types of intervention directed at the U.S.S.R. It [the Anglo-Russian
Committee!] will become the organizing center for the inter national forces of the proletariat in the
struggle against all attempts of the international bourgeoisie to start a new war."
Molotov has made here the remark that "through the Anglo-Russian Committee we disintegrated
Amsterdam." It is as clear as noon-day that even now he has grasped nothing. We disintegrated the
Moscow workers together with the workers of the entire world, deceiving them as to where their enemies
were, and where their friends.
SKRYPNIK: What a tone!
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1937-st2/sf10.htm (2 of 10) [06/06/2002 15:07:07]