The Washington herald., 1920-07-13
TROTSKY BEMOANS
RUSSIAN LACK OF
TRANSPORTATION
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.


he has aged very much during the
last year. His great mass Of dark
hair has turned quite grey. He had
found a toy on krassin's table, a
little sandglass, an instrument of
torture for lcng-winded visitors
struggling to get through their
conversation before the last sand
has run.
He tapped the sandglass threat
eningly when asked him about the
obvious analogy between the sue
cessive defeats Of Koltchak, Yuden-
itch and Denikin. But that is old
history" he said. "and you will fnd
what you want to know about 1t
in my report to the last all-Russian
assembly"
Yes" ! said. T have read that
report. but there Is one thing miss
ing from IL. In all those defeats
there was an immediate breakup in
the rear following the first serious
setback on the front Yet when you
come to fight the Esthonians, and
they. too, were forced back. their
retirement was not followed by any
troubles in their rear. Do you be-
lieve that the same formula that
held good in the civil wars OF the
revolution, when Russians were
fighting Russians, will hold good
when, In the case OF an attack by
- Poland. Russians will be fighting
Poles, and nationalist feelings will
be Engaged quite apart from the
struggle between political IDEAS
which characterized the civil war;"
Good Formula Needed.
At this point, becoming interested.
he became a little more friendly. and
put the sandglass away. He said:
II believe the formula will hold
good absolutely, and that nationalist
feeling will in the end be swamped
by the political struggle inside the
p nation that is lighting u.s."
so that here also one may say
that a counter-revolutionar force.
even IL a national unity, would be-
gin by gaining successes, that its
use of these successes would illus
trate it's counter-revolutionar char
acter. would create divisions within
itself which. becoming pronounced
the moment these successes began
to be liquidated, would lead to ca
tastrophic collapse from within?"
Certainly. The existence Of
strong national feeling postpones.
retards, but does not prevent the
process. Esthonia stopped fighting
in time Who knows what would
have happened II she had been
forced to go on lighting for an
other six months? Remember that
there also they have to shoot their
Bolsheviks. that their Trade Unions
Council expressed itself in favor OF
q Soviet government. and that they
thereupon shot twenty-six and de-
ported about a hundred of the dele
gates, and that. Notwithstanding a
second congress. undeterred. adopted
a similar resolution. The process
was already clearly visible. Yet con-
slider the position of the present
Esthonian government fairly stable,
because they have a very small pro-
letariat and very large agricul-
tural population Of small farmers.
But this does not apply to Po-
land at all. There they have a very
large. thoroughly revolutionary pro-
letariat, and the bulk of the peas
ant population is similarly revolu-
tionary on account OF the enormous
size OF the big estates. 1t is, as il
were, a proletarianized peasantry.
Consequently ] am absolutely con-
vinced that, though by a sudden
blow they might break through and
seize for example, Smolensk, or
Kiev, that success would be the
first term in a formula which would
eventually be written out in full
and carried to its logical conclusion
in a complex collapse Of the Polish
government and a victorious Polish
revolution.
National feeling will merely act
a sa brake on the process, but in
the case of Poland a very slight one.
4 few months should see the be-
ginning Of the end, in case they In
sist on real war. Hitherto, as you
know. there has been no real war,
and they describe the capture of a
party OF scouts as a glorious VIC
tory Of Polish arms. The fact that
they do this shows in itself how
weak must be their position at
home"
"And, considering the problem
from the other side, do you not
think that the international reyolu-
tion in Russia Is gradually assum-
ing a national character, and that
more and more people are joining
you, not because OF any particular
social beliefs, but because your
army is Russian army, defending
Russia as well as defending the
revolution?"
To q certain extent that is true.
TT VIII be still more true II
roland nights against US. As you
know we have thousands of Kolt-
chak and Denikin prisoners. We
have not shot them, although they
shot every Communist they could
catch. j ask them. What are we
to do with your They reply at
once. Send US against the Poles
There Is certain feeling among
that kind of Russian that the
Polish attack Is a sort of base IN
gratitude. Poland was definitely
freed by the revolution. Russia re-