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

viii
PREFACE
Lenin after 1917 was undoubtedly genuine; and the points
of agreement between them were numerous and important.
Nevertheless, Trotsky blurred the sharp outlines and the importance
of his controversies with Lenin between 1903 and 1917, and
also of later differences. But another and much stranger consequence
of the fact that Trotsky made his apologia in terms of
the Lenin cult was that in some crucial points he belittled his
own role in comparison with Lenin's, a feat extremely rare
in autobiographical literature. This applies especially to the
account of the part he played in the October uprising and in
the creation of the Red Army, where he detracted from his own
merits in order not to appear as Lenin's detractor. Free from
loyalties to any cult, I have attempted to restore the historical
balance.
Finally, I have paid special attention to Trotsky the man of
letters, the pamphleteer, the military writer, and the journalist.
Most of Trotsky's literary work is now wrapt in oblivion and
inaccessible to a wider public. Yet this is the writer of whom
Bernard Shaw, who could judge Trotsky's literary qualities only
from poor translations, said that he 'surpassed Junius and
Burke'. 'Like Lessing', Shaw wrote of Trotsky, 'when he cuts
off his opponent's head, he holds it up to show that there are
no brains in it; but he spares his victim's private character ....
He leaves [his victim] without a rag of political credit; but he
leaves him with his honour intact.' 1 I can only regret that considerations
of space and composition have not allowed me to
show this side of Trotsky's personality in greater detail; but I
hope to return to it in The Prophet Unarmed.
I. D.
October 1952
1
The Nation, London, 7 Jan. 1922.