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

THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSAR 333
all Socialist in name; yet all that connected them now were
fading reminiscences of a common past.
The large and influential body of Bolshevik leaders who still
sought to bridge the gulf, was in part moved by these reminiscences.
Many of the Bolshevik conciliators also felt that their
party had driven into a blind alley and that to get out it ought
to grasp the helping hands of its adversaries. Kamenev, Rykov,
Zinoviev, and others argued in alarm that Petrograd was without
food supplies, that the Bolsheviks could not rule the country
if the railways were stopped, and that they had no chance of
surviving a protracted civil war. Lenin and Trotsky, ardently
supported by Sverdlov and Dzerzhinsky, did not deny the risks
and dangers; but they believed that they could hold their
ground if they acted with determination. To sue for coalition
was to show weakness; and, anyhow, the would-be partners had
stretched out hands not to help but to strangle.
On 2 November the issue was discussed by the Central Executive
of the Soviets; and the Bolshevik 'conciliators', together
with anti-Bolshevik members, voted against their own party.
This open split was most embarrassing; all the more so as the
'conciliators' were headed by Kamenev who, despite his recent
quarrel with the party, had been elected Chairman of the
Central Executi.ve of the Soviets, an office equivalent to that of
President of the republic. Briefly, the Bolshevik President openly
asked for the dismissal of the Bolshevik government and for its
replacement by a coalition. Kamenev had behind him most
important members of the government itself: Rykov, Commissar
of Interior; Miliutin, Commissar of Agriculture; 1'ogin, Commissar
of Industry and Trade; Lunacharsky, Commissar of
Education; Teodorovich, Commissar of Supplies; and outside
the government Zinoviev, Lozovsky, Ryazanov, and Yureniev,
to mention only the most influential.
There could be no graver crisis in both government and party.
The rule that the members of a party should act in office on the
party's instructions and be bound by its discipline was generally
accepted not only by the Bolsheviks but by most Russian and
indeed European parties, although the rule was more often
honoured in the breach than in the observance. Lenin and
Trotsky set out to enforce observance. They persuaded the
Central Committee to reaffirm its view: 'To yield to ultimatums