Evening star., 1946-04-28
Publishers Release Trotsky's Violent
Attack on Stain Withheld Durino War
STAIN
By Leon TrotSky. (Harper &
Bros. S5.00.J
Reviewed by
CRESTON B. MULLINS.

Ing in the warehouses of the pub.
Usher this last work of Leon Trotsky
has been published and the reasons
for its suspension at the time oi
the Pearl Harbor attack are ap-
parent. 1t is the kind of literary
work which, if thrown open to public
gaze when we were trying to tighter
our ties with Soviet Russia, woulo
have provided the enemy with aio
and comfort, at the expense of ar
ally whom we were striving des-
perately to keep in the war.
Trotsky's appraisal of Stain (borr
Joseph DjugashvilD and his influ.
ence on modern Russia is not 9
reassuring one and the suspicious
1t engenders-even today-migh1
have undermined the confidence we
needed to cultivate in Stain ano
his Russia, for Trotsky's treatment
is so exhaustive and his conclusions
SO highly documented that the
product carries at least the air ol
authenticity.
The book appears to have beer
officially regarded with such appre-
hension during the war that the
State Department made strong ef-
forts to prevent knowledge of its
contents from reaching the public
These efforts were the result, it is
said, of personal request from
Stain. The contents of the work
remained hidden, but Republican
Senator, who demanded access to il
from the Library of Congress wa:
instrumental in publicizing its ex,
istence during the war.
Stain had reason for fear OF
Trotsky's work, for the exile raised
more than simple. question that
Stain had hand~in expediting the
death of Nicolai Lenin. The sus-
picion cannot be helped" Trotsky
says, when it follows from the
circumstance, the facts and Stains
very charafer.''
That the publishers have decided
with the war over, to bring out
this work is a certain contribution
to history and to the understanding
not only of Stain, his background
and rise to power. but also of many
of the more detailed aspects of the
Russian revolution, of which the
author was one of the makers.
Trotsky appears to have been
concluding the introduction to
his work-having just finished a
thumbnail summation of Stalin's
position in the revolution-When on
August 20, 1910. he was struck
with a pickax on the back of the
head while in his Mexico City
study. The assassination prevented
Trotsky's own completion of his
volume, but his editor and trans
lator-Charles Malamuth-hasf filed
in missing portions of the text from
Trotsky's own voluminous files.
knowledge of Stalin's early life
is sufficiently meager to whet the
appetite of both layman and po-
litical scientist. Few men have
risen to such exalted position amid
such a cloud of ignorance about
their early life.
Trotsky adopts the biographical
form in that he follows Stalin's
career from humble beginnings in
the Caucasus through his abortive
studies for the priesthood, his ap-
premiership in the revolution and
his long years of persistent work
albeit in heavy obscurity-until the
revolution in 1917 brought him to
prominence in the Communist
party and finally to the general
secretaryship of the party, in which
post he established his dictator
ship.
However, Trotsky repudiates the
biographical technique and method
In his all-too-apparent hostility to
his subject-which is scarcely coun-
teracted bv his stanch disavowal
of hatred for Stalin-and in his
determination to disparage Stain
to the point of denying him the
doubtful prestige which might &C
crue to him from villainy. Thus
we learn that, contrary to official
biographers, Stain was not the
robber-expropriator, Trotsky calls
it-that he is painted. He might
have had hand in preparation
for the Tif1is appropriation" in
1907, but he certainly took no part
in it. So deduces Trotsky.
He pictures the future Russian
dictator in his early years as a
petty conspirator, never above sacri-
ficing others to save himself, and not
as heroic and high minded revolu-
tionary. Stain was an opportunist,
whose intellect was inferior to his
will.
And again, Stain was no orator
and made no fiery speeches. Unable
to catch fire himself, he was in
capable Of inflaning others. Cold
spite is not enough for mastering
the soul of the masses"
He summarizes Stalins career:
stain represents a phenomenon
utterly exceptional. He Is neither q
thinker, writer nor an orator. He
took possession Of power before the
masses had learned to distinguish
his figure from OTHERS during the
triumphal professions across Red
Square. Stain took possession OF
power, not with the aid of personal
qualities, but with the aid of ar
impersonal machine. And 1t was
not he who created the machine, but
the machine that created him. That
machine, with its force and author
ity, was the pre- quot of the pro.
longed and heroic struggle of the
Bolshevik party. which itself grew
out of ideas. The machine was the
bearer of the idea before it became
an end in itself. Lenin created the
machine through constant associa.
ton with the masses, if not by ora
word, then by printed word; if not
directly, then through the medium
of his disciples"
That, ~ a nutshell, is Stain!
career, and the last words tn,
scholar Trotsky appears to hav.
written before his death. The his
torical Importance Of his work
properly considered as to motive ant
tnspiration-is hardly to be doubted
ln24l(B]