Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-19
TROTSKY. LOYAL TO SOVIET,
SCORES STAIN ON POLICIES
Exile Breaks Silence to Say ''Retreat" to
Right Results From Faulty Direction,
but Denies Turning Toward Capitalism.

'defeatistS' Of the Soviet Union. they
are truly mistaken, as well as their
more powerful inspirers.
I'm the moment of danger the So
called 'TrotskyistS' Opposition OF the
Left will fill the most combative posi-
tionS, as they did during the october
upheaval or during the years OF the
civil war.
You ask whether the new course pro-
claimed in the recent speech OF Stain
signifies a turning toward the road OF
capitalism. No; for such conclusion
I find no basis.
Calls Retreat" Tactical.
I'VE have. before us zigzag along
the road from capitalism to Socialism.
Taken in part, it is q zigzag Of retreat.
But a retreat has, nevertheless, q tao
teal character. The strategic line can
remain the old one. The necessity for
the turn, and its sharpness. were brought
about by the faults OF the Stalinist d.
rection during the recent period.
These faults. as well as the newt
ability of the turning itself, were pointed
out by me dozens of times during the
last two years in the Russian OPPOSE
tional Bulletin, published abroad Paris
Berlin, Hence the turning was the
least possible surprise for the opposition
of the Left. To speak on the occasion Of
this turning of the remuneration of the
goals of Socialism is to take nonsense.
Scores Five-Year Plan.
1.-THE new course of Stain may, new
ertheleSS, not only encourage some
light minded enemies, but also discour-
age some friends. of the Soviet Union
who do not think very profoundly. The
first feared, the second hoped, that dur
ing a few years in the Soviet Union the
peaSantry would be entirely collectivized
and Socialism would reign.
THE question of the five-year plan
took on the inadmiSsible character of q
jumping competition.
The opposition of the Left decidedly
warned against this policy, especially
against the premature and precipitate
transformation of the flve-year plan
into q four-year plan.
Sees Outcome Inevitable.
1T goes without saying that it is
necessary to do everything for the &C
celeration of industrialization. But If.
when put to proof. it should be shown
that the plan is realizable not in four,
but in five or even in six or seven
years, that. too. would be magnificent
success, Capitalistic society developed
immeasurably more slowly and with
much higher number of zigzags, turn
ings and clashes
1T is indubitable that the present
zigzags to the right have been caused
by previous faults in direction and sig
Nifty an inevitable transitory reinforce
ment of bourgeois forces and ten4
denotes in the country.
However, to conserve state property
on land and especially on essential
means Of production. 1t does not sig
nifty in any case a regeneration of
capitalism. Such regeneration is IN
general impossible without a forced es-
tablishment of private ownership of the
means of production, which would
neceSsitate the victory of a counter
revolution.
Seeks Political Regeneration.
"By this I do not want at all to
deny that there are certain political
dangers connected with the new turn
ing. The fight against these dangers
should consist in this, namely, to re-
generate the political free activity of
the masses suppressed by the bureau
cratic regime Of Stain.
Precisely along this line the prin-
cipai efforts of the opposition of the
Left are now directed. Once the re-
unions and the party is established, the
opposition of the Left will take, ma
turally and inevitably, its place in the
common ranks.
Plans Book on 1918.
You ask me about my own plans
I am working now on the second VOL
ume of The History of the Russian
Revolution The more extensive eX-
tracts of the first volume are now being
published. If my political dog days are
going to continue 1 want to write a
book on the year 1918, which has
taken in the Russian Revolution the
same place as 1893 in the French Revo-
luton. 1t was the year of enormous
difficulties, dangers, losses, the greatest
tension of the revolutionary masses, the
year of the German offensive, the COM
mencement of the Intervention of the
allied countries, interior conspiracies
instructions, terrorist attacks-the year
of the creation of the Red army and
of the commencement of the civil war
whose fronts soon encircled the Mus
covite center in a wise.
I'm these books I want. by method
of comparison, to submit to an analysis
the Civil War between the Northern and
Southern States of America. l suppose
American readers will find striking
many of the analogies. as I myself was
surprised while studying the American
Civil War.
1T is unnecessary to say that I fol-
-