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

CHAPTER VI
'Permanent Revolution'
THE liquidation of the Soviet was a political event of the first
magnitude; and the Soviet's chief spokesman was an important
prisoner of state. Political uncertainty still filled the air. In the
prisons, first in Kresty and then in the Peter-Paul fortress, the
members of the Soviet were accorded every privilege. Nominally
they were kept in isolation; but their cells not being locked,
they were free to meet one another, to take walks in the courtyard,
to receivr books, and under the slightest disguise to engage
in intensive political activity. 1
It was not clear at first whether in its coup against the Soviet
the government had not over-reached itself. Petersburg protested
through strikes, and Moscow through a general strike,
which led to ten days fighting at the barricades. Even after the
suppression of the rising in Moscow, the revolution seemed only
half defeated. Throughout December and January revolts were
flaring up in Siberia, in the Baltic provinces, in the Caucasus;
and punitive expeditions were busy quelling them. In
March the elections to the first Duma, boycotted by the
Socialists, brought a reverse to the government and striking
success to the Constitutional Democrats. It was still doubtful
whether the trial of the Soviet would take place at all. The
authorities, at any rate, were in no hurry to fix its date. Later
it was planned to open the trial on 12June 1906. In the summer,
however, the Tsar recovered confidence, dismissed the semi­
Liberal Witte, stopped the talks on the formation of a Constitutional
Democratic ministry which were in progress, dispersed
the Duma, and appointed Stolypin as Prime Minister. The trial
became the object of a tug-of-war in the administration; and
it was adjourned from month to month till the end of September.
The adherents of unmitigated autocracy planned to use the
case in order to demonstrate to the Tsar that Witte's weak
1
The usual prison di•ciplinc was so much rdaxrd that Rosa Luxemburg, herself
just released from a prison in \V arsaw, was able to pay a 'secret' visit to Parvus and
Deutsch in the Peter-Paul fortress. She does not seem to have met Trotsky on this
occa~ion.