Leon Trotsky, The Lessons of October - Platypus

A Brief Comment on This BookThe initial phase of the ”democratic” revolution extends from the Februaryrevolution to the crisis in April, and its solution on May 6 by the formationof a coalition government with the participation of the Mensheviks and theNarodniks. Throughout this initial phase, the writer did not participatedirectly, arriving in Petrograd only on May 5, on the very eve of the formationof the coalition government. The first stage of the revolution and therevolutionary prospects were dealt with by me in articles written in America.In my opinion, on all fundamental points these articles are in completeharmony with the analysis of the revolution given by Lenin in his ”Lettersfrom Afar.”From the very first day of my arrival in Petrograd my work was carriedon in complete coordination with the Central Committee of the Bolsheviks.Lenin’s course toward the conquest of power by the proletariat I naturallysupported in whole and in part. So far as the peasantry was concerned,there was not even a shade of disagreement between Lenin and myself. Leninat that time was completing the first stage of his struggle against theright Bolsheviks and their slogan, ”Democratic dictatorship of the proletariatand the peasantry.” Prior to my formal entry into the party, I participatedin drafting a number of resolutions and documents issued in thename of the party. The sole consideration which delayed my formal entryinto the party for three months was the desire to expedite the fusion ofthe best elements of the Mezhrayontsi organization, and of revolutionaryinternationalists in general, with the Bolsheviks. This policy was likewisecarried out by me in complete agreement with Lenin.The editors of this volume have drawn my attention to the fact that in one ofthe articles I wrote at that time in favor of unification, there is a reference tothe organizational ”clannishness” of the Bolsheviks. Some profound punditlike Comrade Sorin will, of course, lose no time in deducing this phrasedirectly and posthaste from the original differences on paragraph one of theparty statutes. I see ho necessity to engage in any discussion on this score,particularly in view of the fact that I have admitted both verbally and inaction my real and major organizational errors. A somewhat less perverse65