isaac-deutscher-the-prophet-armed-trotsky-1879-1921

116 THE PROPHET ARMED
traditions of a clandestine movement; a broad view; courageous
initiative; the ability to evaluate situations; and once again,
courageous initiative'.
Between the lines of these writings one can still feel the fever
that consumed the author. He was burning with impatience to
return to Russia and to plunge into the vortex. Not for him the
stale air of the emigrc colonies, where he was at cross-purposes
with almost everybody. Not for him an exile from which the
revolution could be only dimly watched as a storm on the high
seas is watched from a remote shore. The return to Russia was
bound up with grave risks. A fugitive from Siberia, if caught
by the police, was automatically treated as an outlaw and
deported for hard labour, even if his original sentence had not
provided for this. All the same, he made up his mind to return.
Sedova went ahead of him to prepare secret lodgings. In
February 1905 he himself was on his way back. He stopped
in Vienna and called on Victor Adler, the Austrian leader, in
whose home he shaved off his moustache and beard to make it
difficult for the Russian police to recognize him.
It was at Adler's home that he had first called for help while
he was on his way from Siberia to England. Only two and a
half years had passed since, but how crowded and full of portent
those years were.