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

THE PROPHET ARMED
This transformation of the boy, who only the year before
seemed a rich man's worldly son, into the founder of a clandestine
organization, volunteering to take the revolutionary's
thorny path, was startlingly rapid. He had evidently been overflowing
with an inborn exuberant energy and with an ardour
and imagination for which conventional pursuits provided little
or no outlet. He needed a cause to serve, a cause exacting
sacrifice; and when he found it, his youthful and passionate
temperament came into the open. Both his friends and his
enemies agree that he was the moving spirit, the mouthpiece,
the organizer, and also the most energetic and devoted worker
of the Union. 'Our group was the first social democratic organization
at Nikolayev', says Ziv in reminiscences coloured by retrospective
hostility. '\\'e were so excited by our success that we
were in a state ... of chronic enthusiasm. For the major part
of these successes we were undoubtedly indebted to Bronstein,
whose energy was inexhaustible and whose many-sided inventiveness
and untiring drive knew no bounds.' The organization,
Ziv goes on, many years afterwards looked back with pride
to its hey-day when it was led by the eighteen-year-old boy, who
by his faith, eloquence, and personal example cast a spell upon
its members and induced them to forget all their private attachments
and preoccupations and wholly devote to the cause themselves,
their thoughts, energies, and time. After Bronstein's departure
the nerve of the organization snapped. The Union could
not recapture the ardour of its beginnings.'
The Union was, of course, a tiny group compared with any
normal party or organization. In relation to the power against
which it set itself it was like a microbe assailing a huge and decaying
body; it was in fact one of a score or so of the microbes of
revolution that were just going into action.
The groups set up in the docks and factories circulated leaflets
and a sheet called Nashe Delo (Our Cause). The leaflets commented
on matters of local interest, conditions in factories and
shipyards, and abuses by employers and officials. The exposures
mack .an impression; those exposed were compelled to reply;
and the Union fought back with new leaflets. 'What satisfaction
I had when I received the information from factories and workshops
that the workers avidly read the mysterious leaflets
1 A. G. Ziv., op. cit., p. ~ 1 and passim.