Evening star., 1940-08-22
Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky
There is no easy explanation for
Leon Trotsky. His name, his per-
sorality, his record are wrapped in
an aura of mystery. All the prin-
cipal events Of his career are sur
rounded by an atmosphere of secre-
tiveness and furtiveness. He moved
through the world subterraneously,
like a mole burrowing' far from the
sun. The puzzle of his death Is Of
the nature Of that Of his life. His
autobiography serves merely to add
to the confusion.
Yet some facts are clear. Among
them may be mentioned the un-
dubitable reality of the power which
Trotsky exercised in the years be-
tween 1917 and 1923. During that
period he was one Of the masters
of human fate. Next to Lenin he
could claim to be the chief architect
of that Bolshevik revolution which
destroyed the primitive Russian de-
mocracy Of Kerensky. The two
leaders commonly are supposed to
have been friends. Actually, they
were critics, bitterly opposed in most
matters Of policy. History brought
them together, merged their differ
ences into an entity which, when
applied as an alleged corrective for
the problems of civilization in the
twentieth century, created disaster
not even yet fully comprehended.
Trotsky was more definitely man
OF action than his partner. He had
gained experience in the abortive
rising Of 1905 and had passed
through ordeals Of exile and i'm
prisonment which had hardened his
theories Of dynamic change. Lenin,
a philosopher Of a sort, might have
listened to reason, perhaps would
have been willing to compromise.
His associate, as president of the
Petrograd Soviet, as Foreign Com
missar and as commander of the
Red Army, invariably wanted
maximum achievement. He was
successful until his rivals learned to
initiate his stubbornness.
Inevitably the time would come
when the communist junta would
disagree. Trotsky at last was ac-
cused Of the crime of Socrates. It
was affirmed that he sought to be
the mentor Of younger element"
intending to overthrow Stain, Zino-
view and their contemporaries, the
so-called veterans" Of Bolshevism.
Beginning In 1925 he was discredited,
expelled, exiled. And now he has
met death at the hands Of an
assassin in Mexico. His wanderings
are finished.
Trotsky was measurably the archi-
tect Of his own destruction. He
believed in forceful expedients. It
was his boast that he hesitated at
nothing to gain the ends which he
conceived to be useful to the cause
Of universal revolution. He spared
few. II any. Of those who, having
challenged him, later fell into his
clutches. Desiring the fulfllment of
the MARKHAM dream for a proletarian
dictatorship, he demanded rebellions
everywhere on earth and did his best
to bring them about. "Only this
struggle" he insisted, will bring real
peace to the blood-drenched world"
But the serenity he wanted was
the submission Of society to a form
Of slavery as cruel as any the mind
can conceive. It was not the har-
mony Of representative government.
Neither was it tolerant or liberal or
altruistic in any respect. Trotsky
despised these bourgeois virtues"
and consistently inveighed against
them. Now he has died a martyr
to the logical development of the
errors he taught. But the evil that he
did lives after him to the sorrow OF
millions.