ANALYSIS

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HELEN DAVIS

Wish Their Friends
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Foreign Correspondent

A

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Wishes Its
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Good Health, Prosperity
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For Passover

94

FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1990

Did Tirotsky Sacrifice
For Soviet Jewry?

leading Soviet
historian has
discovered the an-
swer to one 'of the most en-
during and closely guarded
secrets of the modern Com-
munist state: Why did Trot-
sky, the natural heir ap-
parent, not succeed Lenin
when the Soviet leader died
in 1923?
The answer, which will
appear in the History
Workshop Journal, to be
published in Britain later
this month by the Oxford
University Press, is almost
as intriguing as the question
itself:
Lev Davidovich Trotsky
declined Lenin's invitation
to inherit ultimate power in
the new Soviet state because
he was Jewish and feared
that his elevation to the post
would provide the spark for
an outbreak of anti-
Semitism.
The source of this extraor-
dinary revelation, one of the
juiciest fruits of glasnost,
was contained in a huge col-
lection of secret, previously
unpublished Communist
Party papers which has re-
cently been opened to a team
of 30 Soviet historians.
The most important essay
to emerge from the research
so far, entitled "We Are
Starting to Learn About
Trotsky," was written by
Victor Danilov and sheds
important new light on the
most controversial — and
vilified — figure of the Rus-
sian revolution.
Danilov quotes extensively
from an impassioned speech
which Trotsky made in his
own defense at a meeting of
the Communist Party Cen-
tral Committee on October
26, 1923, apparently called
by Stalin with the specific
aim of discrediting the for-
midable head of the Red
Army.
With Lenin's death immi-
nent, Stalin was determined
to eliminate any possible op-
position that might impede
his drive to consolidate his
grip on the party — and on
power.
At the meeting, delegates
freely accused Trotsky of
overweening ambition and
disloyalty to the party.
While the full text of the
resolution that was approv-
ed has still not been publish-
ed, the sole item on the
agenda was: "Comrade Trot-

sky's position in the party."
In his speech — a des-
perate, futile attempt to save
his political life in the face of
Stalin's open hostility —
Trotsky sought to persuade
his comrades of his selfless
devotion and personal
sacrifice to the greater good
of the Soviet Union.
While he had rarely re-
ferred to his Jewish origins
and was never a practicing
Jew, Trotsky frankly con-
fessed that the single over-
riding factor which had
prevented him from accep-
ting Lenin's offer was "my
Jewish origin."
He described two occasions
on which Lenin had attemp-
ted to persuade him to
become his heir.
The first, on the day of the
1917 October Revolution,
came as Lenin lay resting on
the floor of the Smolny In-
stitute in St Petersburg, now
Leningrad, just hours after
the Bolsheviks had seized
power.
Trotsky recalled the Soviet
leader telling him: "We
must make you People's
Commissar of the Interior,
Comrade Trotsky. You shall
crush the bourgeoisie and
the aristocracy!"
Trotsky declined. "The
fact is, comrades," he told
the Central Committee,
"there is one personal aspect
of my work, which although
playing no part in my day-to-
day existence, is nonetheless
of great political
significance. This is my Jew-
ish origin."
He told Lenin he could see
no point in "playing into the
hands of our enemies. 'It
would be far better,' I said;
`if there was not a single Jew
in the first Soviet revolu-
tionary government.' "
"Stuff and nonsense, that's
all rubbish," countered
Lenin.
Trotsky, however, believed
that the Soviet leader took
his point: "I was not ap-
pointed Commissar of the
Interior, but of foreign
policy," he told the Central
Committee, "although to be
honest, I was equally loath
to accept this post."
Five months later, when
he was appointed Com-
missar of War, he was, he
said, "even more opposed to
assuming the post."
"And I can say with con-
viction, comrades, that I was
right . . . Our enemies were
able to exploit the fact that
the Red Army was headed by

Lev Davidovich Trotsky:
Stalin triumphed.

a Jew. This was a great in-
convenience to us.
"I repeat again, comrades,
this has never played any
part whatsoever in my per-
sonal life; politically,
however, it has been very
important. And I have never
forgotten it. Vladimir Illich
(Lenin) considered it to be
merely a personal whim of
mine and frequently re-
ferred to it as such in con-
versations with me and
others."
In May 1922, Lenin
renewed his invitation,
offering Trotsky the post of
First Deputy Chairman of the
government, effectively the
No. 2 man in the Soviet
Union.
"I firmly turned down the
offer," Trotsky told the Cen-
tral Committee. "on the
grounds, as before, that we
should not give our enemies
the chance to say that our
country was being ruled by a
Jew.
"I think Vladimir Illich
agreed with me. Although
he again said, 'Stuff and
nonsense,' I felt that he said
it this time with less convic-
tion and that privately he
agreed with me."
Finally, Trotsky addressed
the central charges that had
been levelled against him.
He vigorously denied that he
had been disloyal to Lenin
and the party or that he had
been driven by personal am-
bition:
"Anyone who accuses me
of personal ambition and the
ludicrous desire to assume
single-handed this huge
responsibility [of leading the
Soviet Union], would rightly
consider me a double-dyed

