The daily worker., 1928-11-12
The Real Situation in Russia
By Fred Ellis

W years. we re communists anu
you're splitting the party" Trotzky
persisted, rousing the WORKERS to
rage, and from their hands he es-
capped only by fleeing in his car.
Everywhere the opposition met a
nike rebuff. A spontaneous rejec-
tion by the very workers who were
at first allured by the seductive
promises of the higher wages and
more privileges, held out in the op-
position program.
About this side of the conflict Mr..
Eastman is eloquently silent. While
dwelling on the ''intrigues" and
ruthless strategy of the party
against the opposition, he sedulous-
| ly omits the ruthlessness and vio-
lence and provocative tactics en-
ployed by the opposition against
the party. One might think that
the oppositionists were all sweet
ness and light, harmless as brood
of doves. No hint to the reader
thatt the faction they organized was
put on war footing, with secret
pass words, and Red Cross cap
tanned by Joffe; that the opposi-
tionists forcibly seized halls, vio-
lently ejecting the regular party
workers; that they repeatedly vio-
lated explicit promises given to the
party; that they supplied the bour-
geois press with party documents,
and even waged their propaganda
among correspondents of the foreign
capitalist press.
Masses Repudiate Opposition.
1t was by this defiance of all
party discipline and loyalty that the
oppositionists alienated such SYM
pathy as they first enjoyed among
the workers. In their eyes the course
pursued by the opposition was lead
ing to the disruption of the party,
and-despite all disclaimers to the
contrary-to the formation of sec
ond party, threat to the very ex-
istence of the proletarian state.
Alarmed at this prospect the mas
ses rallied to the defense of the
party and to the support of the
central committee. If in the prov
inces it was the agrarian program
of the oppositionists that defeated
them, in the cities it was primarily
their tactics, stirring deep and wide
spread Indignation. They were con-
demned by the party masses as
dangerous, if not destructive, to the
revolution.
Nothing of this is in the book.
The feelings, ideas, and judgment
of the party masses are ignored.
They are completely left out of the
picture, or dragged in now and
then to appear shouting hosannas
to the opposition. The whole con-
troversy is presented as a duel be-
tween contending, leaders, with Mr..
Eastman striving by all means to
glorify the Trotzkyists and to
blacken the Stalinists, but in his
bitter partisanship he overreaches
himself. He leaves the party ac-
quiescent in perpetration of mons
trous crime.
Slander Against Russian Party.
If this were true, how pitiful alb
ject and contemplate the character
of the million revolutionists COM
prising the Russian Party, how ut
terly lacking either in will or in in
telligence. For either they have
been hoodwinked and tricked by the
"demagogism, lying and jesuitry" of
Stain and his henchmen, and were
ignorant of the situation; or craven,
covering, and browbeaten, they lack
ordinary backbone and courage to
rise up in protest against it. The
party that wrought the greatest re-
volution in history, the party that
fought through a decade of war,
famine, blockade, now become
crowd of dupes or towards!
Is it possible that anyone believes
that this is the real situation in
Russia?
"The Real Situation in Russia" !"
By Leon Trotzky. Translated bu
Man Eastman. Harcourt, Brace and