Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-08
SOVIET DICTATOR
FEARS TROTSKY
ExiIed Leader May Return as
"Man on Horseback"
Against Stain.
BY JOHN ELLIOTT.

BY Radio to The Star
BERLIN, February 8.-When the
Russian revolution broke out many
political observers, recalling the fate
sof the French Revolution, predicted
THAT one day it would be terminated by
~'the man on horseback" That Leon
TrotSky should ever emerge as the
Napoleon of the october revolution
may seem a bit far-fetched, yet this
fear actually appears to possess Joseph
Stain, Soviet dictator, and his fol-
lowers.
That Trotsky was forenting a
"Bonapartist movement within the Red
army alleged by the Communist party
machine as justification for recent
dramatic raid on the homes left the
opposition members in Moscow and
other cities of Russia. Now TrotSky
himself is to be banished from Russia,
according to the Berlin Rote Fahne,
Official newspaper of the German
Communist party.
Attempts to split the Red army by
counter revolutionary strike propaganda
in the factories and by antiSoviet agi-
tation among the peasants" are the ex-
scuses given by the Rote Fahne for
Stains decision to drive the most for
midable adversary into exile. If year
ago Stain thought he could crush
Trotsky by banishing him to distant
: Turkestan, he has been sadly disillus-
stoned. TrotSky seems to have been
able to keep in touch with his friends,
even in remote Alma Alta.
Following Increases.
The economic crisis and the mis-
takes committed by the Soviet govern
ment have resulted within the past
year in a strong growth in the number
of Trotsky's followers. Especially
among the young workers and in the
army Trotsky seems to have many
sympathiZers. Certainly among all the
leaders of postwar Russia. with the
single exception of Lenin, TrotSky
stands out as the most admirable. :.
Trotsky has steadfastly declined all
overtures made by Moscow for truce.
Even the threat of death and the lone
illness of exile and the ravages OF ma
laria have failed to daunt his courage
LAST October Trotsky was permitted to
come to Moscow from Central Asia by
Stain, who hoped to persuade his Zoe
to abandon his opposition. Failing In
this, Stain trusted that he could at
least bride into silence the deadly
tongue and still more dangerous pen OF
his rival, by offering him the old i'm
perial palace In sunny Crimea or the
healthy Caucasus. Trotsky rejected
these proffers with contempt, and
broken in health, but mistaken in
spirit. returned to endure the rigors OF
the Turkestan climate.
Driven underground the Trotskyites
have been printing their pamphlets on
secret printing presses and circulating
them among the workers and poorer
peasants. One of the most effective
arguments that is left the opposition
members have employed is the conten-
ton that Satin after degrading Trotsky
stole his agrarian program which saved
the situation in the Spring. The Trots-
kyites then claim that Stains depar
ture from the Trotsky policy Of crush
ing the "kulaki" or the prosperous peas
. ants for the recent food shortage.
Book AssaiIs Stain.
Trotsky achieved strategical master
stroke when he succeeded in getting
"the true situation in Russia" out OF
the country and published abroad.
Fully conscious of my responsibility
for what am now about to say de-