The life and death of Leon Trotsky

338 Pages·2015·5.969 MB·English

by  Serge, Victor, Trot︠s︡kai︠a︡, Natalii︠a︡ I.

The Life and Death of
LEON TROTSKY

The Life and Death of
LEON TROTSKY
VICTOR SERGE
AND
NATALIA SEDOVA TROTSKY
Translated by
ARNOLD J. POMERANS
Haymarket Books
Chicago, Illinois
© 1973 Arnold]. Pomerans
First published in 1973 by Basic Books
This edition published in 2015 by
Haymarket Books
P.O. Box 180165
Chicago, IL 60618
773-583-7884
www.haymarketbooks.org
[email protected]
ISBN: 978-1-60846-469-2
Trade distribution:
In the US, Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, www.cbsd.com
In Canada, Publishers Group Canada, www.pgcbooks.ca
In the UK, Turnaround Publisher Services, www.turnaround-uk.com
All other countries, Publishers Group Worldwide, www.pgw.com
This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation
and Wallace Action Fund.
Cover design by Samantha Farbman.
Printed in Canada by union labor.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
6,YJ,
RECYCLED
Paper made from
recycled material
~~s FSC" C103567
Contents
FOREWORD by Richard Greeman vu
INTRODUCTION TO THE 1973 EDITION by Vladimir Kibalchich 1
THE OLD MAN by Victor Serge 3
PREFACE by Victor Serge 7
ONE Youth 9
TWO Revolution 33
THREE Power 71
FOUR Opposition 111
FIVE Persecution 153
SIX Nightmare 195
SEVEN The Assassins 245
Further Details of Trotsky's Death 271
AFTERWORD by Richard Greeman 281
APPENDIX A In Memory of Leon Trotsky
by Victor Serge 291
APPENDIX B Unpublished Manuscript
on Trotsky's Their Morals and Ours
by Victor Serge 295
INDEX 307

Foreword
This book is an authentic historical document. It is the fruit of a col
laboration between two close political associates and eyewitnesses to
Trotsky's life: Victor Serge, the revolutionary novelist, and Trotsky's
widow, Natalia Sedova. It thus speaks with authority, in the literal sense
of the word. Written in Mexico in 1946-47 in the Coyoad.n house-for
tress where Trotsky was assassinated, its pages are haunted by the names
and memories of a constellation of dead comrades. Serge and Sedova, in
their precarious Mexican exile, were among the last surviving witnesses
to the triumph and then the tragedy of Russian Revolution. The authors
bear witness not just for Trotsky but for a whole generation of heroic
Russian revolutionaries exterminated by Stalin.
This biography, although clearly written from a Marxist perspective
by intimates of the subject, attempts to be rigorously objective. It pre
sents its protagonist integrated with the history of his times. Its three
hundred-odd pages sum up the greatness and decadence of the Russian
Revolution in which Trotsky' played one of the leading roles and of
which he was one of the main theoreticians and historical interpreters.
Narrated with remarkable concision and intellectual rigor, it expounds
Trotsky's theories and writings in the context of the unfolding of history
and his role in making it.
To be sure, later biographies - Isaac Deutscher's classic 'prophet tril
ogy' (1,500 pages) and Pierre Brom~'s magisterial tome (1,100 pages) -
have contributed greatly to our knowledge of the subject. Yet Serge and
Sedova's 300 pages, written in a rapid, lucid style, packed with facts, with
portraits taken from life, with documents and critical analyses, remain
the best initiation, not only to the life and thought of Trotsky, but also to
the revolutionary history of the twentieth century. One wonders why this
authentic, authoritative, accessible revolutionary classic has remained so
long in obscurity. Part of the answer lies in the story of the writing and
vu
V111 FOREWORD
afterlife of The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky, which is also the story of
the relations 1) between Serge and Trotsky, 2) between Serge and Sedova
and 3) between Serge, Sedova, and Trotsky's disciples. Readers interested
in this fascinating story should turn to my afterword at the end of this
volume.
Whatever the reasons for its long neglect, thanks to Haymarket
of
Books, The Life and Death Leon Trotsky has at last resurfaced, bringing
back to life the hopes and deeds of the heroic, doomed generation of
Russian revolutionaries for the benefit of a new generation that also hopes
that 'another world is possible.' According to French novelist Frans:ois
Maspero, who published Serge in Paris in the '60s and '70s, 'Serge's work
is indispensable to anyone who doesn't want to die an idiot from an
overdose of the "politically correct" rev.isions of history with which we
have been constantly bombarded in recent times.' Indispensable as well
for anyone eager to move history forward in the direction of greater
justice and humanity.
As for Leon Trotsky - whatever his faults, which were those of his
times - he remains one of the outstanding revolutionary figures of the
twentieth century. Unlike Stalin and later Mao, who held power and built
totalitarian empires on the ruins of genuine popular revolutions, Trotsky
remained true to his revolutionary socialist principles. His role in the
Russian Revolution, his struggle against Stalin's bureaucratic takeover of
the Soviets, his courage in exile, and the perspicacity of his analysis of
the rise of Fascism and of Stalinism rank him among history's greatest
revolutionary thinkers and actors. His words and deeds remain an
indispensable reference for those who wish to understand the struggle to
overcome capitalism's inevitable wars, depressions, and massacres as well
as for those seeking to build a new, more just, egalitarian, cooperative
society-an ideal thatTrotsky's generation equated with "communism."
of
The Life and Death Leon Trotsky is the best introduction to the tragic
history of this struggle.
RICHARD GREEMAN
Introduction
to the 1973 Edition
It was originally intended to publish this book as the Memoirs ofN atalia
Ivanovna Sedova. My father, Victor Serge, compiled it from notes taken
during conversations and corrected each chapter as it was completed.
The manuscript was revised by Leon Davidovich Trotsky's widow, as
may be seen from her many annotations as well as the notes appended
to the manuscript.
Victor Serge wanted the book to appear under Natalia Ivanovna's
name, but when the manuscript was completed, a few days before his
death, she insisted that it be published under his name, 'since the text
makes it perfectly clear which are my own words'.
Their attitudes were dictated by both modesty and delicacy. Victor
Serge felt that the book would carry more prestige and be more widely
read under the signature of Trotsky's widow; Natalia Ivanovna, for her
part, did not want to detract from Victor Serge's literary renown. Years
later, Natalia expressed her regret to me and to those close to her that
she had not put her name to the book. The work was finished in 1946. At
that time, the real identity ofTrotsky's assassin was not known, although
the authors were not unfamiliar with the name of Ramon Mercader, as
the first edition of Victor Serge's Carnets, published by Julliard, shows.
They preferred to keep silent until his identity was fully established.
I understood from my father that had the book been entirely his own,
he would have laid more stress on his own opinions, many of which did
not entirely coincide with Natalia Ivanovna Sedova's.
As an example of Victor Serge's own style, I have, by way of a preface,
included some lines he wrote shortly after his first visit to the house in
Coyoacan in 1942.
VLADIMIR KIBALTCHICH
Mexico 1971