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

AT THE DOOR OF HISTORY 69
even Socialists held that Trotsky's polemics were too vehement
and that he ought to have written with more respect or warmth
about the executed Social Revolutionary.'
Only nine months were to elapse between his arrival in
London and the opening of the second congress of the Russian
Social Democratic party. In this short time his reputation was
established firmly enough to allow him, at the age of twentythree,
to play a leading role at the congress, in the momentous
split between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. This was perhaps due
more to his lecturing and speech-making than to his writing. No
sooner had he arrived in London than Lenin and Martov pitted
him in debate against venerable old Narodnik and anarchist
cmigres in Whitechapel. The novice was pleasantly surprised at
the ease with which he swept the floor with his grey-bearded
opponents. Afte~ that he toured the Russian colonies in western
Europe. Contemporaries have described the first sudden and
irresistible impact of his oratory, the Clan, the passion, the wit,
and the thunderous metallic voice, with which he roused audiences
and bore down upon opponents. This appears all the
more remarkable as only a few years before he could only
stammer in blushing perplexity before a tiny, homely audience
and as he had spent most of the time since in the solitude of
prison and exile. His oratory was quite untutored: he had
hardly yet heard a single speaker worthy of imitation. This is
one of those instances of latent unsuspected talent, bursting
forth in exuberant vitality to delight and amaze all who witness
it. His speech, even more than his writing, was distinguished by
a rare intensity of thought, imagination, emotion, and expression.
The rhetoric which often spoilt his writing made his
speaking all the more dramatic. He appeared, as it were, with
the drama in himself, with the sense of entering a conflict in
which the forces and actors engaged were more than life-size,
the battles Homeric, and the climaxes worthy of demi-gods. 2
1
In the summer of 1902, Miliukov, the future leader of the Constitutional
Democrats, paid a visit to Iskra's editors in London, praised Iskra but objected to
its campaign against terrorism. 'Why', he said, 'let there be another two or three
such attempts on the Tsar"s ministers and we arc going to get a constitution.' The
moderate constitutionalist often regarded the terrorist as a useful agent for exerting
pressure on the Tsar. N. Alcxcycv in Proletarskaya Reu