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

WAR AND THE INTERNATIONAL
as Trotsky advocated it, had little in common with its Wilsonian
interpretation. Its purpose was not to set up new nation-states­
Trotsky, we know, had long since considered the nation-state
an anachronism. The small and oppressed nations should be
enabled to obtain independence in order that they might, of
their free will, join in the building of an international Socialist
body politic. 'In the present historical conditions', he wrote,
'the proletariat is not interested in defending an anachronistic
national "Fatherland", which has become the main impediment
to economic advance, but in the creation of a new, more powerful
and stable fatherland, the republican United States of
Europe, as the foundation for the United States of the World.
To the imperialist blind alley of capitalism the proletariat can
oppose only the socialist organization of world economy as the
practical programme of the day.'' This bold conclusion seemed
unreal to many. Trotsky relates that Radek criticized it there
and then on the ground that the 'productive forces' of the world,
or even of Europe, had not developed sufficiently to allow of
their organization on an international Socialist basis. Lenin, on
his arrival in Switzerland, criticized the phrase 'the United
States of Europe', because it suggested to him that Trotsky
envisaged the Russian Revolution only as part of a simultaneous
Europe-wide insurrection. To this controversy we shall return.
In November 1914 the pamphlet was brought out in a German
translation and with the help of Swiss Socialists dispatched to
Germany. German anti-militarists who distributed it were
prosecuted, and Trotsky himself was indicted in absentia for
Lese majeste and sentenced to several months of prison by a
German court-he learned this from reports in French newspapers.
The German Social Democrats insinuated that he had
written his pamphlet in the interest of Russia and her allies.
But, as he had not hesitated to criticize the allied Socialists who
supported the war, they in their turn charged him with whitewashing
the German 'social-patriots' . 2
Late in November Trotsky left Switzerland for France.
Kieran Thought appointed him correspondent in Paris, and he
eagerly seized the opportunity of watching the war from this
1
War and the Inurnatianal was first published in Russ;an serially in the Parisian
Go/os, in :\'ovcmber 1!)14, beginning with no. 59.
2
Golos, no. 63, 25 November 1914.