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

THE PROPHET ARMED
opponents, were puzzled by his ruthlessness in the revolution
and in the civil war.
During this spell in the Moscow prison, in the spring or
summer of 1goo; he married Alexandra Sokolovskaya. A Jewish
chaplain conducted the wedding in the cell; and the bridegroom
borrowed a wedding ring from one of his jailors. The
story of this marriage is a little obscure. Quite often political
deportees arranged fictitious marriages, because a married
couple were entitled to be deported to the same place and
could thus escape complete isolation. The fictitious connexions
often developed into real ones. It is not clear how Bronstein and
Sokolovskaya at first viewed their marriage. In My Life he
devoted to this only one curiously detached and cool phrase,
suggesting that it was meant to be a sham. 'Common work', he
says, 'had bound us closely together, and so, to avoid s~paration,
we marri .. d ... .' 1 The eye-witness account denies the
prosaic characte~ cf the connexion. It describes how the ambivalent
feeling between the former antagonists had given place to
love, how in the prison and en route from Moscow to Siberia
Bronstein was full of affection, and how, during the journey
under military escort which lasted nearly a fortnight, he was so
absorbed in that affection that he completely neglected his
friends and discussions. This eye-witness account seems, on internal
evidence, truthful. The marriage, incidentally, was not
easily concluded. Bronstein first thought of it in the Kherson
prison, but not having yet come of age he had to get parental
permission. His father objected: he would not allow his son to
marry a girl so much older, a girl who-the old Bronstein had
no doubt about this-had led his son on to the evil path. 'Lyova
raged and thundered' writes Ziv, 'and fought with all the energy
and stubbornness of which he was capable. But the old man was
no less stubborn, and having the advantage of being on the
other side of the prison bar, he won.' In Moscow Lyova renewed
his efforts and this time he succeeded. He would perhaps
not have 'raged and thundered' so much for the sake of a
fictitious wedding.
The journey from Moscow to the place of exile, interrupted
by short stops in various transfer prisons, lasted from the summer
till the late autumn. The whole party of deportees travelled by
1
Trotsky, op. cit., vol. i, p. 148.