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Trotskyism and Fascism
By P. LANGSOCIALISM COMES OUT OPENLY—THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION HIDES ITS FACE
Our class enemies admitted, as “the incarnation of the program of the Communist International”. Truly Leninist-Stalinist mettle and firm and unshakable principles were required in order, in a fearless struggle at a fascist trial, to break through the barbed wire of cynical arbitrariness, and to transform the prisoners’ dock into a revolutionary tribune from which to proclaim the principles and tactics of Communism to the whole world.
Only by heroic preparedness to make any sacrifice for the triumph of Communism, and by the Bolshevik ability to utilize the slightest illegal as well as legal possibilities, was it possible, over the head of the executioners’ court, to proclaim the program of the Communist International in such a way that it reached not only the numerically small Communist vanguard as a prospect for the future, but the broad masses of the workers who eagerly grasped at every word uttered by Comrade Dimitroff as an inspiring and mighty call for the mobilization of all forces for the fight against fascism today.
But what program could the agents of the interests of the routed exploiting classes in the Soviet Union proclaim from the prisoners’ dock at the Moscow trial?
The Trotsky-Zinoviev bandits raised their criminal hands against Comrade Stalin because he is the great leader and organizer of the victories of socialism, because for the whole of mankind he is the symbol of socialism which is victorious on one- sixth of the globe. They killed Comrade Kirov, the passionate fighter in the cause of the emancipation of the working class, in the cause of socialism. They resorted to the most despicable methods of fighting against Comrade Stalin and his closest comrades because the victories of socialist construction in the U.S.S.R., the cultural and economic growth of the land of socialism, the joy and happiness of the Soviet people, roused in them the malicious passion to avenge themselves on the Soviet people for their own shameful bankruptcy.
Placing all their hopes on the failure of socialist construction, the gang of Trotskyites and Zinovievites could only have a program which would lead to the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union. This, in fact, was their program of home politics. Realizing that they were absolutely impotent to overthrow the Soviet power, the mad Trotsky-Zinoviev dogs banked on the defeat of the Soviet Union in the event of an attack upon it by the fascist states. Counter-revolutionary defeatism—such was their program in foreign politics.
Summing up his counter-revolutionary struggle against the Soviet people and against socialism, Evdokimov, in his last plea, stated:
“Fascism openly and frankly inscribed on its banner: ‘Death to Communism’. On our lips we had all the time ‘Long live Communism’, whereas by our deeds we were fighting socialism which was victorious in the U.S.S.R. In words—‘Long live the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’. In deeds—preparation for the assassination of the members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Party, one of whom we did kill. In words—‘Down with Imperialism’, in deeds—banking on the defeat of the U.S.S.R. in the struggle against international imperialism.” (Ibid., p. 166.)
Another of the accused, Reingold, relating the aim of the Trotsky-Zinoviev gang and of its collaboration with the Gestapo, ended his speech with the following words:
“I and the whole of the terrorist Trotskyite-Zinovievite organization sitting here have been exposed by this trial as the shock troop, as a White- Guard, fascist shock troop, of the international counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie.” {Ibid., p. 167.)
Even Kamenev, in his final plea, could no longer conceal the actual program of the Trotsky-Zinoviev center. He concluded his speech with the following words:
“Thus we served fascism, thus we organized counter-revolution against socialism; prepared, paved the way for the interventionists. Such was the path we took, and such was the pit of contemptible treachery and all that is loathesome into which we have fallen.” {Ibid., p. 170.)
This is the platform upon which the Trotskyite-Zinovievite
counter-revolutionaries joined with the fascists. That is why international reaction, in its furious campaign against the verdict of the Soviet Court, continues to render Trotsky active support.
But in the prisoners’ dock in the Supreme Court the exposed miscreants preferred to say that they fought for power without a program and without principles rather than display to the world their program of treachery toward the great gains of the socialist revolution.
In Leipzig, Comrade Dimitroff addressed the fascist court as the spokesman of all the workers. All the machinations of the Gestapo to isolate him completely from the outside world, all the tortures of solitary confinement in the fascist jail failed to shake his conviction that he was championing the cause of the whole of the international proletariat, that he was expressing the deep sentiments of the millions of workers of Germany and throughout the world in the fight against fascism. Ruthlessly as Comrade Dimitroff was cooped up in the prison, deeply as the fascist terror drove the German Communist Party, and all the other working class parties in Germany, underground they felt that they were together. Casual meetings in prison with those who had been arrested for uttering the truth about the Leipzig trial, a cartoon in a fascist newspaper of a workers’ demonstration in Paris, and above all, the fact that, in spite of all the horrors and torture which they inflicted, the fascists were unable to bring a single false witness from among the arrested workers—all this appeared to Comrade Dimitroff as the rays of proletarian solidarity breaking through the fascist prison walls, proving that he had the support of millions and tens of millions, that he enjoyed the sympathy of the best of humanity.
Deep Leninist-Stalinist faith in the creative power of the proletariat and in the revolutionary soundness of its class instinct permeated the whole position taken up by Comrade Dimitroff in the enemies’ camp. Inspired by the consciousness of his vital and growing contacts with the masses, he entered into single combat with the monstrous fascist machine of provocation, terror and lies. He showed that his strength lay in the masses. “Mass work, mass struggle, mass resistance, the united front, no adventures—
such is the alpha and omega of Communist tactics”—was the challenge Comrade Dimitroff openly hurled at the fascist court.
But in the Soviet Court the prisoners’ dock was occupied by a gang of murderers despised and execrated by the people of the Soviet Union, to whom they dared not reveal their aims and strivings. The leaders of this gang started their open struggle against the building of socialism in the U.S.S.R. on the hypocritical pretext that it was impossible, that attempts to build socialism would lead to disaster and destruction. The working class of the Soviet Union cast them aside with anger and contempt.
When, however, in spite of all their predictions and counterrevolutionary work, the victory of socialism was achieved on all fronts and the cultural and material level of the toilers began to rise rapidly, the traitors realized that with the liquidation of the exploiting classes they were losing all hope of finding sup port, or even of establishing any sort of connection with the masses in the Land of Soviets. And then, for the sake of their selfish, sordid interests, in order to seize power for themselves, they went against the whole people.
They cynically tried to trample upon its will, they wanted to insult its best and most noble sentiments, its loyalty to the cause of socialism, its preparedness to make any sacrifice for the defense of its socialist motherland, its devoted love for the great organizer of the socialist victories, Comrade Stalin, and his closest comrades. At the trial Kamenev stated:
“I became convinced that the policy of the Party, the policy of its leadership, had been victorious in the only sense in which the political victory in the land of socialism is possible, that this policy was recognized by the masses of the toilers. ... It was no use counting on any kind of serious internal difficulties to secure the overthrow of the leadership which had guided the country through extremely difficult stages, through industrialization and collectivization. Two paths remained: either honestly and completely to put a stop to the struggle against the Party, or to continue this struggle, but without any hope of obtaining any mass support whatsoever, without a political platform, without a banner, that is to say, by means of individual terror. We chose the second path. In this we were guided by our boundless hatred of the leaders of the Party and the country, and by a thirst for power with which we were once so closely associated and from which we were cast aside by the course of historical development.” (Ibid., p. 65.)
Having become irreconcilable enemies of the Soviet people, concealing from the latter their real program, which could only lead to the restoration of capitalism in the Land of Soviets and to its conversion into a colony of the imperialist pirates, the Trotskyite-Zinovievite renegades dared not show their real bandit face to the people of other countries. They fled from the masses, they feared the gaze of the people, they sought safety in the gloom of the counter-revolutionary underground, where they entered into a pact with the agents of the Gestapo. It was here that the stern hand of Soviet justice caught the scoundrels.
NEXT - INDIVIDUAL TERROR—THE WEAPON OF FASCISMWHILE in the fascist dungeon, Comrade Dimitroff, smashing ” Hitler’s provocative charge against the Communist Party of Germany, loudly and categorically expressed the Communists’ opposition to individual terror. In his very first written statement to the police authorities, and later, in his first speech at the trial he, as a follower of the teachings of Marx and Engels, Lenin and Stalin, declared himself to be emphatically opposed to individual terror and putschist adventures. Such tactics are incompatible with the fundamental Communist principles and methods of class struggle, wTith the economic and political mass struggle; they merely injure the movement for the emancipation of the proletariat and the cause of Communism.
At the Seventh Congress of the Communist International, Comrade Dimitroff, with all the ardor of a fighter for Communism, attacked all those, and primarily the German fascists, who resort to individual terror as a political weapon for the achievement of their designs against the people.
The Trotsky-Zinoviev gang, however, smashed to atoms in the open class struggle, and standing no chance whatever of extricating itself from its counter-revolutionary underground, in its desperation and hatred clutched at the most despicable method of struggle against the Soviet government and the leaders of the Communist Party, the method of political assassination.
What arguments did the contemptible chiefs of the Trotsky- Zinoviev bloc put before their henchmen in support of the necessity of resorting to individual terror? This question was answered by the accused Reingold, who, in his evidence, said the following:
“In 1932, Zinoviev, at Kamenev’s apartment, in the presence of a number of members of the united Trotskyite-Zinovievite Center, argued in favor of resorting to terror as follows: Although terror is incompatible with Marxism, at the present moment these considerations must be abandoned. There are no other methods available of fighting the leaders of the Party and the government at the present time. Stalin combines in himself all the strength and firmness of the present Party leadership. Therefore Stalin must be put out of the way in the first place. Kamenev enlarged on this theory and said that the former methods of fighting, namely, attempts to win the masses, combinations with the leaders of the Rightists, and banking on economic difficulties, have failed. That is why the only method of struggle available is terroristic acts against Stalin and his closest comrades-in-arms, Kirov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Orjonikidze, Postyshev, Kossior, and the others.” {Ibid., p. 55; italics ours.)
Particularly furious activity in organizing terroristic acts against Comrade Stalin and his comrades was organized abroad by the scoundrel Trotsky. The following are a few facts established at the trial:
The summer of 1931. Smirnov went to Berlin and, as we have seen above, brought back an instruction from Trotsky, received through his son, Sedov, couched in the following words: “Until we put Stalin out of the way, we shall not be able to come back to power.” In fulfillment of his instruction Trotsky’s center instructed Mrachkovsky and Dreitzer to choose “reliable” people to form terrorist groups. In his evidence Mrachkovsky said: “That period, 1931 and 1932, was spent in inducing and preparing people to commit terroristic acts.” {Ibid., p. 41.)
Beginning of 1932. Nathan Lurye received from Trotsky, through Moissei Lurye, instructions to go to the U.S.S.R. and there to carry on terroristic work. In his evidence at the trial Nathan Lurye said: “This instruction did not come as a surprise to me. It logically followed from all the preceding work.” {Ibid., p. 102.) And Mrachkovsky said: “For this purpose I recruited Yatsek and Yudin. Dreitzer recruited another group of people including Schmidt, Kuzmichev and some others whom I don’t remember.” {Ibid., p. 41.)
The summer of 1932. Trotsky asked Holtzmann, a representative of the Trotskyist terrorist center who had gone from Moscow to Berlin for instructions, to visit him in Copenhagen. There Trotsky asked Holtzmann to convey the categorical demand that individual terror against the leaders of the Communist Party and the Soviet government be made the principal method of the Trot- skyite struggle.
Autumn, 1932. Receiving from Smirnov a request to express an opinion on the expediency of amalgamating with the Zinoviev- ites, Trotsky replied through his agent Gaven that such an amalgamation must without fail have for its basis the employment of terror, and he emphasized that it was necessary in the first place to kill Stalin, Voroshilov and Kirov.
End of November, 1932. The Berlin Trotskyite, Berman-Yurin, after negotiations with Sedov in Berlin, was called to Copenhagen, was met at the station by Grishevich and taken to meet Trotsky. Dealing with this meeting with Trotsky in his evidence at the trial, Berman-Yurin stated:
“Trotsky said: The principal question is the question of Stalin. Stalin must be physically destroyed. He said that other methods of struggle were now ineffective.” {Ibid., p. 94.)
After Berman-Yurin had agreed to go to the U.S.S.R. for terroristic purposes, Trotsky gave him detailed instructions concerning the circumstances under which he considered it necessary to kill Comrade Stalin.
Autumn, 1932. At about the same time, Trotsky invited Fritz David to meet him in Copenhagen. In his evidence on the nature of the conversation he had with Trotsky at that time, Fritz David stated that Trotsky had said that the only way by which the Trotskyites could come into power in the U.S.S.R. was the physical destruction of Stalin.
One of the prospects that Trotsky held out was to take a defeatist attitude in the event of war, but he stressed the point that “there is a closer prospect of the Trotskyites coming to power— the prospect of the physical removal of Stalin”. {Ibid., p. 113.)
In accordance with Trotsky’s instructions, Fritz David went to Moscow in March, 1933, and established contact with Berman- Yurin in conjunction with whom he made preparations to kill Comrade Stalin at the Seventh Congress of the Comintern. After the Seventh Congress messengers arrived from Sedov, Trotsky’s son, on two occasions and, in Sedov’s name, accused the terrorists of being insufficiently active and urged them to expedite the terroristic acts in accordance with Trotsky’s instructions.
End of March, 1933. On Trotsky’s instructions, Sedov sent Valentine Olberg to the Soviet Union for the purpose of organ- izing terroristic acts. In his evidence at the trial Olberg said on this point:
“The first time Sedov spoke to me about my journey was after Trotsky’s message in connection with Trotsky’s being deprived of citizenship of the U.S.S.R. In this message Trotsky developed the idea that it was necessary to assassinate Stalin. This idea was expressed in the following words: ‘Stalin must be removed’.” (Ibid., p. 87.)
Before leaving for the Soviet Union, Olberg intended to visit Trotsky in Copenhagen together with Sedov. This journey did not take place, but Sedov’s wife, Suzanna, was sent to Copenhagen instead. On her return she brought a letter from Trotsky addressed to Sedov in which Trotsky gave his consent to Olberg’s journey to the U.S.S.R. and expressed the hope that Olberg would succeed in carrying out his mission. Sedov showed this letter to Olberg.
March, 1933. At about the same time, M. Lurye received an instruction from Trotsky through Ruth Fischer and Maslov to go to Moscow and to convey to Zinoviev Trotsky’s instruction on the necessity of expediting the organization of terroristic acts, primarily against Stalin.
October, 1934. Dreitzer’s sister brought him from Warsaw a German cinema magazine given to her for Dreitzer by an agent of Sedov. In this magazine Dreitzer had no difficulty in finding a message in Trotsky’s own handwriting, written in invisible ink —this method of communication had been arranged with Sedov in Berlin beforehand. The message was an instruction immediately to prepare for and carry out terroristic acts against Stalin and Voroshilov. Dreitzer immediately passed this message on to Mrachkovsky. At the trial Mrachkovsky admitted that in December, 1934, while in Kazakhstan, he received from Dreitzer Trotsky’s message written in invisible ink, couched approximately in the following terms:
“Dear friend, the task that confronts us today is to accelerate the assassination of Stalin and Voroshilov. In the event of war, it is necessary to adopt a defeatist position and take advantage of the confusion. Nuclei must be organized in the Red Army.” (Ibid., p. 43.)
The latter was signed “Starik” (old man).
Mrachkovsky emphasized that he knew Trotsky’s handwriting
very well and had not the slightest doubt that the letter had actually been written by Trotsky.
The whole of the work of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite gang in the Soviet Union and abroad, all its attention and all its efforts were concentrated on “killing . . . killing as quickly as possible”. Terror was everything, all the rest was mere scribbling, repentance, speeches, declarations—all camouflage.
“Remove Stalin” is the slogan which Trotsky hurls forth openly, in the press, considering himself safe beyond the reach of Soviet justice. “Heads are peculiar in that they do not grow on again”, [ibid., p. 16) is the aphorism which the scoundrel Kamenev, surrounded by his gang, utters in response to Trotsky’s call for the murder of Comrade Stalin. The more socialism flourishes in the Soviet Union, the more furious becomes the rage of the despicable terrorists against the Soviet government and the Soviet people, the more desperate are the attempts of the Trotskyite fascist murderers to strike their blow against the great leader of the people, Stalin, against his comrades-in-arms, against the Central Committee of the Leninist-Stalinist Party. Thus they aimed at the very existence of the Soviet state, at the life of the Soviet people, at the fate of socialism in the Land of Soviets and throughout the world.
THE HEROISM OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PROLETARIAT AND THE SERVILITY TO FASCISM OF TROTSKY AND COMPANY