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

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THE PROPHET ARMED
bitterness which caused the protagonists to approach one another
with petulance and growing suspicion.' Martov, Trotsky, and
others angrily assailed Lenin for his rudeness and lust for
power, while Lenin could not see why this abuse should be
heaped on him when all he had done was to suggest a workable
and self-explanatory plan for Iskra's overhaul. Each side began
to scent intrigue and machination in every move made by the
other. Each side was on the look-out for the traps that the other
was laying for it. Each began to rehash old and half-forgotten
differences; and although these had seemed puny only yesterday,
they now appeared meaningful and portentous. In this
mood the antagonists faced one another when the congrt>ss
moved on to examine the statutes. There could be no question
now of patching up the different formulas and submitting only
one draft. On the contrary, the author of each draft was brnt
on bringing out the most deeply hidden implications of his
clause, on making them as explicit as possible, on impressing
the bewildered delegates with the gulf, the unbridgeable gulf,
between the alternatives; and on emphasizing and overemphasizing
the practical consequences that the adoption of the
one clause or the other would entail. Martov and Lenin, the
two friends and comrades, confronted each other as enemies.
Each spoke as ifin a trance; each wondered at his own strange
behaviour; each was surprised and bewildered by it; yet neither
was capable of pausing and retracing his steps. 2
The mood of the chief protagonists communicated itself to
the delegates. The congress was split. Instead of founding one
party it gave birth to two. At this moment, Plekhanov, the
future irreconcilable enemy of the Bolshevik revolution, was
Lenin's closest ally; while Trotsky was one of Lenin's most vocal
opponents. He charged Lenin with the attempt to build up a
closed organization of conspirators, not a party of the working
1
The bkra men held their closed sessions outside the congress. At one of these,
when the division first became apparent, Trotsky presided because the opponents
could not agree on any other chairman. Trotsky, Moya