Trotsky by Robert Service

Author:Robert Service [Service, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780330522687
Publisher: Pan Books

32. THE LEFT OPPOSITION

Practically nobody in mid-1923, not even his friends, appreciated that Trotsky lacked a firm desire to be the leader. With Lenin he was routinely mentioned as the co-leader of the October Revolution, and he enjoyed the description. This was different from aspiring to the position of single paramount leader. His self-restraint did not mean that he did not want to lead. If he had the choice, he would handle the process as Lenin had done. There was no need for a special title: Lenin, after all, had never had one. Trotsky liked to think up schemes and take them to the party. His goal, which was doubtless an unconscious one, was to drag the Revolution along with whatever new policy he espoused at any given moment. Whenever he felt like withdrawing from the daily political routine and doing some writing, he did so. He hated days when every hour was filled with meetings. His idea of running the People’s Commissariat for Military Affairs was to read reports, give orders and get on with his other interests. He was not lacking in earnestness or self-application but he would operate only on his own terms. Such had always been his way and he never considered changing it.

Not that this stopped the rest of the leadership from regarding him with suspicion. In fact his health had deteriorated again in July and he would scarcely have been able to campaign for supreme power even if he had aspired to it. Natalya was in a still worse condition; she had contracted malaria and had a temperature above 40°. The doctors were worried about both of them, and Trotsky – like Lenin in the previous year – was banned from engaging in ‘internal party conversations’. He welcomed his old friend Dmitri Sverchkov for a brief stroll around town and a friendly chat strictly on condition that they did not infringe the medical regime: the leadership had decreed that he should take an ‘absolute rest’.1

Political pressure continued to be applied to Trotsky. The word was put about that he and Lenin had disagreed about Gosplan. Trotsky replied that he could produce the December 1922 letter from Lenin offering a compromise on state economic planning.2 Meanwhile the rivalries inside the leadership were in flux. Stalin’s dictatorial propensities, rather than the threat from Trotsky, had started to alarm Zinoviev. After several untoward incidents, Zinoviev wrote to Kamenev calling for counter-measures. He was not simply parroting Lenin’s testament. Zinoviev objected to Stalin taking decisions without consulting his main comrades.3 When the leaders dispersed for their holidays, Zinoviev met up in Kislovodsk with Bukharin, Voroshilov, Lashevich and Grigori Yevdokimov and put the case for reining Stalin back.4 Lashevich and Yevdokimov were Zinoviev’s supporters; Bukharin was aligned with nobody, and Voroshilov was consulted despite being close to Stalin. Evidently Zinoviev was trying to fire a shot across the General Secretary’s bows. Zinoviev complained that both he and Trotsky, who was no political friend of his, had been unfairly left out of decision-making in the central leadership.

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