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

402 THE PROPHET ARMED
at; his friend Rakovsky, who at one time headed the delegation
negotiating with the Rada, had been threatened with bombs.
'You understand, comrades, that there can be no joking in such
matters. As the person at present responsible for the conduct of
the Red Army ... .'
At this moment, Kamkov interrupted him with the cry:
'Kerensky!' 'You think yourself the new l\apoleon', another
Left Social Revolutionary shouted. 'Kerensky!' Trotsky replied,
'Kerensky obeyed the bourgeois classes, and I here am responsible
to you, representatives or Russian workers and peasants. If
you pass censure upon me and adopt a different decision, one
with which I may or may not agree, then, as a soldier of the
revolution, I shall submit to your decision and carry it out.' He
thus made it clear that he was acting in solidarity with the
government of which he was a member rather than from fundamental
disagreement with the opposition. But he also warned
the opposition that at this stage the disruption of peace could
only benefit either the Entente or the cxtrnnc German militarists
who were not satisfied even with the Brest Diktat. Despite
their bitter attacks on him, he still addressed the Left Social
Revolutionaries with mild persuasiveness, not accusing them
yet of any responsibility for incitement to war. 1
\Vhen Spiridonova
scolded him for his 'militarist, Bonapartist style', he
replied half-apologetically: 'I myself, comrades, am by no
means a lover of military style. I have been accustomed to use
the publicist's language, which I prefer to any other style. But
every sort of activity has its consequences, even stylistic ones.
As the People's Commissar of War who has to stop hooligans
shooting our representatives, I am not a publicist, and I cannot
express myself in that lyrical tone in which comrade
Spiridonova has spoken here.'
By now Spiridonova, too, had abandoned the 'lyrical tone'.
The small, frail woman mounted the platform to accuse Lenin
and Trotsky of treason and to threaten them. 'I shall grasp in
my hanrl the rcvolvn and the bomb, as J once used to do', she
exclaimed. This was ad\·ancc notic!' of an insurrection which
1
Only towards the encl of the debate n he made it clear that his accusations \\'ere directed against
individuals, not against thf" party as a wholr. In truth, the party as a whole was
engaged in a desp