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

THE PROPHET ARMED
that while you arc consolidating the present of the revolution,
we prepare its future for you.' 1 At this stage, Lenin no longer
granted his adversaries the credit Trotsky still gave them,
although he agreed with Trotsky that a 'Ministry of twelve
Peshekhonovs' would be an advance upon the present coalition.
These debates were exacerbated by the 'Grimm incident'.
Grimm was a Swiss parliamentarian, a Socialist, and a pacifist,
who had taken part in the Zimmcrwald conference. There he
had belonged to the 'centre' and disagreed with Lenin's revolutionary
tactics. Later he helped to arrange Lenin's journey from
Switzerland to Russia, via Germany. In May Grimm conveyed
to leaders of the ruling parties in Pctrograd a message from the
German government sounding Russia on the possibility of peace.
The Russian government expelled him as a German agent, but
it did not reveal its reasons.
Grimm was not, strictly speaking, a German agent. As a
pacifist of not much sophistication, he found it quite natural to
convey a peace feeler. Not well versed in the intricacies of
Russian revolutionary politics, he could not see why Russian
Socialists, whether those who, like the Bolsheviks and Trotsky,
clamoured for peace or those who, like the Mensheviks, merely
kept on promising an early peace, should object to his action. 2
Lenin and Trotsky were not informed about his doings. The
fact, however, that the government had denounced Grimm
as a German agent was at once used to discredit the Russian
participants of the Zimmerwald movement. Miliukov made a
speech in which he was reported to have branded Lenin and
Trotsky, too, as German agents. Trotsky rose in Congress to
defend Grimm. He did not believe that the government was
right in expelling Grimm, and he saw in the incident Miliukov's
sinister intrigue. Referring to Miliukov's charges against himself
and Lenin, he said, turning to the journalists' bench: 'From this
platform of revolutionary democracy, I am appealing ·to the
honest Russian press with the request that they should reproduce
my words: As long as Miliukov docs not withdraw his
charges, he is branded as a dishonest slandcrer.' 3
· 'Trotsky's statement', so Gorky's paper reported the scene,
'made with e!an and dignity, met with the unanimous applause
1
Pervyi Vseros. Sye:t:.d Sovietov, vol. i, p. 149.
' Pervyi Vs