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

CHAPTER II
In Search of an Ideal
IT was a casual influence that first set the young Bronstein on
his revolutionary road. In the summer of 1896 he arrived at
Nikolaycv to complete his secondary education. He was lodging
with a family whose sons had already been touched by Socialist
ideas. They drew him into argument and tried to impress their
views on him. For several months they seemed to make no headway.
He superciliously dismissed their 'Socialist Utopia'. Assailed
with arguments, he would adopt the posture of a somewhat
conservative young man, not devoid of sympathy w: th the people
but distrusting 'mob ideology' and 'mob rule'. His passion was
for pure mathematics and he had no time or taste for politics.
His hostess, apprehensive because of her sons' dangerous views,
was delighted by this good sense and tried to induce them to
imitate him. All this did not last long. The talks about prevailing
social injustice and about the need to change the country's
whole way of life had already started a ferment in his thoughts.
The Socialists' arguments brought out and focused the scenes
of poverty and exploitation that had since childhood been stored
in his mind; they made him feel how stifling was the air he had
breathed; and they captivated him by their novelty and bold
high-mindedness. Y ct he continued to resist. The stronger the
pull of the new ideas the more desperately he clung to his
assumed conservatism and indifference to politics. His spirit of
contradiction and his eagerness to excel in argument did not
easily allow him to yield. But his defences and vanity had to
give way. In the middle of the school year he suddenly acknowledged
his 'defeat', and at once began to argue for socialism
with an ardour and acuteness which took aback those who had
converted him. 1
Again and again we shall sec this psychological mechanism
at work in him: He is confronted with a new idea to which up
to a point he is conditioned to respond; yet he resists at first with
stubborn haughtiness; his resistance grows with the attraction;
and he subdues incipient doubt and hesitation. Then his inner
1
Trotsky, op. cit., vol. i, p. 120.