The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-05-14
CONTINUED from last issue)

Continued from last issue)
OUT Trotsky did not only fail to I'M
- derstand the dialectical develop
ment of the agrarian-peasant revolu-
ton into a socialist. revolution, his in
ability to understand it, made it i'm
possible for him to understand the
process of the development of the Rus
sian revolution into the world revolu-
ton. Thus in 1915 Trotsky dealt as
follows with the question Of the cor
relation between the Russian and the
international revolution: "Do we ad-
NIT that the development of the Rus
sian revolution, and consequently the
actual movements Of the Russian pro-
letariat, depend on the revolutionary
movement of the Russian intelligent
zia, the urban petty-bourgeoisie and
the peasantry? Or do we subprdi-
nate the movement of the Russian
proletariat to the tasks and aims Of
the movement Of the entire European
proletariat, making the Russian revo-
luton dependent on the proletarian
struggle in the entire capitalist world?
To put it briefly do we allow our en-
tire policy to be Influenced by the ma
tional bourgeois revolution or by the
International revolution of the prole-
tariat?"* This statement shows as
clearly as possible Trotsky's failure to
understand, within the framework Of
Russia, the correlation between the
national and the socialist revolution
and the process of the development
Of the Russian revolution, into the in
ternational revolution. Metaphysical
ly, Trotsky sets the national revolu-
ton against the socialist revolution.
He judges of this question as fol-
lows: either national or a socialist
revolution, ignoring the question of the
development of the national revolu-
ton into the socialist revolution.
This erroneous theoretical interpre-
tation of the peculiarities of the Rus
sian revolution found its expression
in Comrade Trotsky's political mis-
take at the time of the Brest Litovsk
peace negotiations when he issued the
slogan neither peace nor war" Ac-
cording to Trotsky, this slogan was to
be a challenge of the Russian prole-
tariat to the International proletariat
and an indication that the Russian
proletariat was placing the fate of the
Russian revolution in the hands of the
international proletariat. Trotsky did
not understand at that time that the
task, as pointed out by Lenin, con-
sisted in strengthening and consoli-
dating the union, between the Russian
working class and the peasantry, in
welding together the internal driving
forces of the Russian revolution and
in sounding" on this basis the trend
of the international revolution. The
Brest Litovsk peace had to be signed
in the interests of the consolidation of
the workers and. peasants union. But
Trotsky, instead Of solving these con-
crete tasks of this special phase OF
the revolution, limited himself to set.
ting the trend OF the national revolu-
ton against the trend of the interna-
tional revolution.
THE mistake Of Understanding the
4 peasantry, which has its origin in
the theory of the permanent revolu.
ton, was committed by Trotsky in
the famous discussion on the trade
unions in 192O-21. At the conclusion
of the civil war certain changes took
place in the relations between the
working class and the peasantry. On
the strength of these changes, the
'Trotsky-War and Revolution,
state publishing department, 1922,
Vol. 1, pp. 256 and 257 (Russian edi-
tiop \