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

THE PROPHET ARMED
present state of Germany's food stocks. The central powers
tended to base the peace not 'on agreement between the peoples,
but on the so-called war map. This tendency is equally pernicious
to .the German and to the Russian peoples, because the
war maps change and the peoples remain.' Yet-'we stay here,
at Brest Litovsk, in order not to leave unexplored a single chance
of peace ... in order to learn, here at the headquarters of the
eastern front, clearly and precisely whether a peace ... is now
possible without violence towards the Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians,
Estonians, Armenians, and other peoples, to whom the
Russian revolution has guaranteed the full right of self-determination'.
But the conference could continue on one condition
only, namely that the negotiations should be held in public
throughout; and Trotsky refused to engage in private talks, for
which Kuhlmann had asked, believing that Trotsky's defiant
statement was merely meant as face-saving. 1
Two days later the delegations discussed a German draft of
the peace treaty. At the outset a little incident seemed to transfer
the sedate diplomats of the central powers into the atmosphere
of a Shavian comedy. A preamble to the treaty contained
the respectable cliche that the contracting parties desired to
live in peace and friendship. The authors of the draft could not
expect this to give rise to objections. They were mistaken.
'I would take the liberty', Trotsky said, 'to propose that the
second phrase [about friendship between the contracting powers]
be deided. I ts thoroughly conventional, ornamental style
does not correspond, so it seems, to the dry business-like sense
of the document." Half-amused and half-scandalized, the professional
diplomats could not see the point: Was Trotsky
speaking seriously? And how could he dismiss so lofty a statement
as ornamental and conventional? 'But such declarations',
Trotsky pertly went on, 'copied from one diplomatic document
into another, have never yet characterized the real relations
between states'; he could only hope that more serious factors
would shape these relations in the future. For a moment the
diplomats felt as if they had been told that their emperors arid
they themselves were naked. What were those 'more serious
factors'? And what formula would Trotsky propose? He could
give them his formula, Trotsky said, but they would not accept
1
Alirnyt Pertgooory, pp. 52-·60. ' Ibid., p. 66.