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

THE PROPHET ARMED
the revolution clashed with the principle of self-determination;
and Trotsky could no longer evoke that principle with quite the
same clear conscience with which he had evoked it hitherto.
He returned to the attack with the question of Poland, and
asked why Poland was not yet represented at Brest. Kuhlmann
made the appearance of a Polish delegation dependent on
Russia's prior recognition of the existing Polish administration.
'We have been asked again', Trotsky said, 'whether or not we
acknowledge Poland's independence. . . . The question so
posed is ambiguous. Do we acknowledge Ireland's independence?
Our government docs ... but for the time being Ireland
is still occupied by the British. We recognize that every human
being has the right to food ... which is not the same as recognizing
the hungry man as sated.'' The recognition of Poland's
right to independence did not imply the admission that she was
independent under German-Austrian tutelage. Then Radek
came forward with a telling indictment of German-Austrian
domination of his native country: he sroke of the forced deportation
of hundreds of thousands of Polish labourers to Germany;
the appalling conditions in which this had taken place;
political oppression; the imprisonment or internment of Polish
political leaders of all parties, including the internment of
Radek's old adversary Pilsudski, then commander of a Polish
legion which had fought on Germany's and Austria's side, and
Poland's future dictator.
In the middle of these exchanges, on 2 1 January, Trotsky
received a message from Lenin about the downfall of the Rada
and proclamation of the Soviet government all over the Ukraine. 2
He himself got in touch with Kiev, checked the facts, and
notified the central powers that he no longer recognized the
Rada's right to be represented at the conference.
These were his last days at Brest. The mutual charges and
recriminations had reached a point where the negotiations became
barren and could not be much prolonged. In the intervals
between the sessions he refreshed himself by writing From
February to Brest Litovsk, one of his minor classics, a preliminary
sketch for the monumental History of the Russian Revolution which
he was to produce fifteen years later during his exile on Prinkipo
Island. At last he sent a letter to Lenin in which he wrote: 'We
1
Alirnye Ptrtgovory, p. 162.
2
Lenin, Sochinmya, vol. xxvi, p. 464.