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

288 THE PROPHET ARMED
passed between his release and the October insurrection, his
name became not merely identified with Bolshevism, but to the
outside world it came to symbolize the aspirations of Bolshevism
even more strongly than did the name of Lenin, who had withdrawn
from the public eye. 1 These were weeks so charged with
history that they crowded from men's minds the events of
preceding months and years. Trotsky's feud with Lenin for
nearly fifteen years seemed insignificant in comparison with
the things he would do in fifteen minutes for the Bolshevik party
nowadays. Yet in the inner circle of the party there were,
naturally, men from whose memories nothing could efface the
past feud. They viewed his sudden ascendancy in the party with
well-concealed pique. They had to acknowledge the proud
courage with which he had stood by their party in recent
adversity, when he was not yet a member of it. Nor could they
deny that in Lenin's absence none of them could speak for the
party with Trotsky's firmness, clarity, and authority; and that
not even LPnin rould act as its mouthpiece with comparable
brilliance.
Trotsky's ascendancy in the party was therefore undisputed.
But it is enough to scan the records of the Central Committee
to glimpse the feelings below the surface. Earlier in the year
Lenin had tried in vain to prevail upon his colleagues to accord
Trotsky a prominent role in tlw direction of the Bolshevik press.
As late as 4 August the Central Committee elected a chief
editorial board for Bolshevik newspapers. The board consisted
of Stalin, Sokolnikov, and ~Iiliutin. A proposal that Trotsky,
when released from prison, should join the board was defeated
by eleven votes to ten. 2 On 6 September, however, two days
after his release, when he first appeared at the Central Committee,
he was appointed unopposed as one of the party's chief
cditors. 3 The Central Committee was now composed of twentyonc
regular and eight deputy members. Some of these had been
familiar figures in the cmigre colonies, and some had come from
the Inter-Horough Organization. Others, like Miliutin, Nogin,
Rykov, Svcrdlov, Stalin, and Shaumian were home-bred com-
1
Jacques Sadoul, later an ardent Stalinist, wrote at the time: 'Trotsky dominates
the insurrection, being its soul of stcd, while Lenin remains rather its theoretician.'
Nous sur la Rtz:olution, p. 76.
' Protokoly Tunlrabwvo Komiteta, p. 5.
3
Ibid., p. 56.