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

THE PROPHET ARMED
What followed has been described many times, but nowhere
as vividly as in Sukhanov's Notes on the Revolution:
As far as the eye could see, the crowd was raging. Around one
car, a group of sailors with quite ugly faces behaved in an exceptionally
rowdy manner. On a back seat in that car sat Chernov who
had quite visibly lost control of himself. The whole of Kronstadt
knew Trotsky and seemed to trust him. But the crowd failed to
calm down when Trotsky began his speech. If a provocative shot
had at this moment been fired anywhere in the neighbourhood, a
terrible bloodbath would have followed: they would have torn to
pieces all of us, including Trotsky. Excited, with difficulty finding
his words, ... Trotsky just managed to compel the attention of those
who stood nearest to him. f He began by extolling the revolutionary
virtues of Kronstadt in a manner which seemed to Sukhanov to
smack of unworthy flattery.] 'You have come here, you, red men of
Kronstadt, as soon as you heard about the danger threatening the
revolution .... Long live red Kronstadt, the glory and the pride of
the revolution!'
But they listened to Trotsky in a sullen mood. ·when he tried to
talk to them about Chernov, the people surrounding the car were
again in a fury.
'You have come here to state your will [Trotsky went on] and to
show the Soviet that the working class does not wish to see the bourgeoisie
in power. But why should you harm your own cause? Why
should you obscure and blot your record by mean violence over
random individuals? ... Every one of you has shown his devotion
to the revolution. Every one of you is prepared to lay down his head
for the revolution. I know this .... Give me your hand, comrade!
... Give me a hand, my brother ... .'
Trotsky stretched down his arm to a sailor who was violently protesting
against his words. The sailor grasped a rifle in one hand and
withdrew the other from Trotsky. It seemed to me that he must have
listened to Trotsky more than once at Kronstadt, and that he was now
really under the impression that Trotsky had betrayed the cause. 1
Finally, Trotsky defied the crowd and asked those who wanted
violence to be done to Chernov openly to raise their hands.
Not a hand went up. Amid silence, he took Chernov, half-
1
Sukhanov 1
op. cit., voI. i\', pp. 423-5. S«r al-;o V. Ch