The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification -- Chapter 11
the Red Army was based, and inspired behind the scenes the so-called "military opposition" against
Lenin and Trotsky. The facts that pertain to this are in part dealt with in Trotsky's auto biography. (My
Life, "The Military Opposition," Ch. XXXVI. See also Markin's article in this volume.)
22. At the time when Lenin was ill and Trotsky away on a leave of absence, Stalin carried through in the
Central Committee, under the influence of Sokolnikov, a decision undermining the monopoly of foreign
trade. Owing to the decisive attack of Lenin and Trotsky this decision was revoked. (See "Letter to the
Istpart.")
23. During the same period, Stalin assumed a position on the national question which Lenin condemned
for its bureaucratic and chauvinistic tendencies. Stalin on his part accused Lenin of national liberalism.
(See "Letter to the Istpart.")
24. What was Stalin's conduct on the question of the German Revolution in 1923? He was here once
again compelled, as in March 1917, to orient himself independently on a major question. Lenin was ill, a
struggle was being waged against Trotsky. Here is what Stalin wrote to Zinoviev and Bukharin in August
1923 on the situation in Germany.
"Should the Communists strive (at the given stage) to seize power without the Social Democrats? Have
they sufficiently matured for that? -- that's the question as I see it. Upon our taking power, we had in
Russia such reserves as (a) peace; (b) land to the peasants; (c) the support of the vast majority of the
working class; (d) the sympathy of the peasants. The German Communists have at present nothing of the
sort. They have, of course, contiguous to them the land of the Soviets, which we did not have, but what
can we give them at the present moment? Should the power in Germany, so to speak, drop now, and
should the Communists catch it up, they'll fall through with a crash. That's 'at best.' But if it comes to the
worst-they will be smashed to pieces and beaten back. The gist of the matter does not lie in Brandler's
desire to 'teach the masses'; the gist of the matter is that the bourgeoisie plus the Right Social Demo crats
would surely convert the practice-demonstration into a general battle (they still have all the odds on their
side for that) and would crush them. The Fascists, of course, are not napping, but it is to our advantage to
let the Fascists attack first: this will fuse the entire working class around the Communists (Germany is
not Bulgaria). Moreover, the Fascists, according to all reports, are weak in Germany. In my opinion the
Germans should be restrained and not encouraged."
Thus, in August 1928, when the German Revolution was knocking at all doors, Stalin reckoned that
Brandler must be restrained and not encouraged. Stalin bears the main responsibility for lctting slip the
revolutionary situation in Germany. He supportcd and encouraged the weaklings, the skeptics and the
temporizers in Germany. He did not acci dentally assume an opportunist opposition on this question of
world-historic importance: he was in essence only continu ing the policy that he had followed in Russia
in March 1917.
25. After the revolutionary situation had been doomed by passivity and irresolution, Stalin for a long
time defended against Trotsky the Brandlerite C.C., thereby defending himself. In so doing Stalin
brought, of course, the argument from "exceptionalism." Thus, December 17, 1924 -- a year after the
shipwreck in Germany-Stalin wrote:
"One must not forget for an instant this peculiarity. It must especially be borne in mind in analyzing the
German events in the Autumn of 1923. It must especially be borne in mind by comrade Trotsky, who
draws a wholesale [! ] analogy [!! ] between the October Revolution and the revolution in Germany and
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