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

HOME AND SCHOOL 21
viewed it before bourgeois liberalism, seen at close quarters,
disillusioned him. In later years Lyova, too, would, as a Socialist,
grow aware of the limitations of liberal Europe and turn
against .it: but something of his youthful enthusiasm for the
'West' was to survive and colour his thoughts to the end.
This, then, was the frame of mind in which he left Odessa,
'the most police-ridden city in police-ridden Russia'. His only
vivid political memory of the city was that of a street scene
dominated by Odessa's Governor, Admiral Zdenoy, a man who
exercised 'absolute power with an uncurbed temper'. 'I saw him
but once and then only his back. But that was enough for me.
The Governor was standing in his carriage, fully erect, and was
cursing in his hoarse voice across the street, shaking his fist.
Policemen, with their hands at attention, and janitors, caps in
hand, marched past him in review, and behind curtained windows
frightened faces peeped out. I adjusted my school bag and
hurried home.''
The spark of rebellion had not yet been kindled in the young
man who watched the satrap-he merely shrank in horror from
the ruling power and went his way, as ifin a mood ofTolstoyan
non-resistance.
' L. Trotsky, Moya .(hi~n, vol. i, p. 79.