Leon Trotsky: 1905

Leon Trotsky: 1905: Preface to the First Edition
Having thus limited ourselves in space, we were compelled also to limit ourselves in time.
We have devoted most of the available space to the last three months of 1905 -- October, November, and
December -- the culminating period of the revolution, which began with the great all- Russian strike and
ended with the crushing of the December rising in Moscow.
As to the preceding preparatory period, we have extracted from it two moments which arc essential for
an understanding of the progress of events as a whole. In the first place, we have chosen to discuss the
brief "era" of Prince Svyatopolk-Mirsky, that honeymoon of rapprochement between the government and
"the public," when trust was the general watchword and when government announcements and liberal
leading articles alike were written with pens dipped in a sickening mixture of aniline and treacle.
Secondly, we discuss January 9, the Red Sunday unequalled in dramatic horror, when the atmosphere so
saturated with mutual confidence was suddenly pierced by the scream of bullets fired from guardsmen's
rifles and shattered forever by the curses of the proletarian masses. The comedy of the liberal spring had
come to an end. The tragedy of revolution was beginning.
We pass over in almost complete silence the eight months between January and October. Interesting
though that period was in itself, it does not add anything fundamentally new without which the history of
the three decisive months of 1905 might not be understood. The October strike was almost as much a
direct consequence of the January procession to the Winter Palace as the December rising was a
consequence of the October strike.
The final chapter of the historical part sums up the events of the revolutionary year, analyzes the method
of revolutionary struggle and gives a brief description of the political developments of the three years
that followed. The essential conclusion of this chapter can be expressed thus: La révolution est morte,
vive la révolution!
The chapter devoted to the October strike is dated November 1905. It was written during the final hours
of the great strike which drove the ruling clique into a blind alley and forced Nicholas II to sign with
trembling hand the manifesto of October 17. At the time, this chapter was published as an article in two
issues of the Petersburg social-democratic paper Nackalo; it is reproduced here almost without change,
not only because it draws the general picture of the strike with a degree of completeness sufficient for
our present purpose, but also because by its very mood and tone it Is, to some extent, characteristic of
the political texts that were published in that period.
* * *
The second part of the book represents an independent whole. It is the history of the court trial of the
Soviet of Workers' Deputies and, subsequently, of the author's exile to Siberia and his escape therefrom.
However, there is an inner link between the two parts of the book; not only because at the end of 1905
the Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies stood at the very center of revolutionary events, but also, and
above all, because its collective arrest marked the opening of the era of counter-revolution. One after the
other, all revolutionary organizations throughout the country fell victim to the counter-revolution.
Systematically, step by step, with ferocious determination and bloodthirsty vengefulness, the victors
eradicated every trace of the great movement. And the less they were aware of any immediate danger,
the more bloodthirsty became their contemptible vindictive ness. The Petersburg Soviet of Workers'
Deputies was brought before the court in 1906. The maximum sentence passed was privation of all civil
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