Evening star., 1946-04-24
Book by Trotsky Poses Question
of Stain Hand in Lenin's Death
BY the Associoted Press

| BY the Associated Press
NEW YORK, April 24.-Leon
Trotsky in a posthumous biography
of Joseph Stain, published yester-
day, posed a series of questions
whether Joseph Stain might have
had a hand in the death in 1924 of
Nicolai Lenin, honored in Russia
as the founder of the Soviet Union.
The book asked these questions,
and did not offer or supply a direct
answer:
What was Stains role at the
time of Lenins illness? Did not the
disciple do something to expedite
his masters death?" 1t is a mon
|strous suspicion, Trotsky says, but
that cannot be helped, when it fol-
lows from the circumstances. the
facts and Stalin's very character
The book, Stain, an Appraisal
OF the Man and His Influence"
(Harper & Bros), is published
six years after Trotsky, Stains bit
ter political foe, was assassinated
in exile in Mexico City. Trotsky
had completed about two-thirds of
the book at the time of his death
but left an outline. copious notes,
and memoranda and partly written
pages from which the editor and
Translator, Charles Malamuth, COM
pleted the lengthy work. The chap
ter relating to Lenins death is in
cluded in this latter section. The
books existence long has been
known: it was ready for publica-
ton at the time of Pearl Harbor
publishers note says, but Its ap-
pearance was then postponed by the
publisher until after the end of the
war;
(The Associated Press has
asked Moscow for comment on
the book. No reply had been re-
ceivedD
Stalin Chief Source of Worry"
Trotsky says that when Lenin was
bedridden after a stroke in Decem-
ber, 1922, he was "af1ame with
alarm" and that his chief source of
worry was Stalin," then general sec
retary of the Communist party
Lenin proposed that way be found
to remove Stain from his position
because he had concentrated great
power in his hands and Lenin wasn't
sure he would use it properly.
In those days" Trotsky says,
Stain was morose . his fate was
at stake. He had made up his mind
to overcome all obstacles"
Toward the end of 1923, Trotsky
wrote. Stain told him and others
that the sick Lenin suddenly had
called him in and asked for poison.
Lenln saw another stroke approach
ing, he was suffering and he want
ed the poison at hand if he became
convinced his case was hopeless.
TTotsky continues with an intricate
array of suspicious, suggestions and
charges until his climax:
whether Stain sent the poison
to Lenin with the hint that the
physician had left no hope for his
recovery or whether he resorted to
more direct means I do not know.
But l am firmly convinced that Sta
lin could not have waited paSsively
when his fate hung by thread and
the decision depended on q small,
very small motion of his hand"
The book, from the opening para
graph, is violent attack which has
to be accepted or rejected on its face
value, for it is almost impossible to
check the allegations. Yet, there is
much of historical Importance in
the story of Bolshevism which forms
the background for the Stain BIZ
ography and for what in it's essence
was a Stalin-Trotsky battle for
leadership.
Not Thinker or Writer.
Trotsky didn't live to see Stalin's
leadership of Russia in World War
IL Whether he would have altered
his appraisal in any way must
remain a matter of speculation.
Trotsky writes in his introduction
that Stain 'is neither a thinker, 4
writer nor an orator" and that he
took possession of power, not with
the aid of personal qualities, but
with the aid of an impersonal ma
chine"
He tells Of Stains birth as the
son of a shoemaker in Georgia. and
speculates on whether the 'Sovit
chief has Mongolian blood in his
veins. He cited details largely by
quoting others. to show that the
boy Stain became heartless and
orim through frightful beatings by
his father, sensed the humiliation
of social inequality and finally while
a student in theological school, de-
serted religion and God. At the age
of IS he got revolutionary ideas.
In summing up the Stain of the
order of professional revolution
lists. Trotsky says:
He saw the purpose of his life In
0verthroWing the powers that be.
Hatred of them was immeasurably
more active in his soul than love for
the oppressed Prison, exile. sacri-
fees, privations did not frighten
him. He knew how to look danger
~traight in the eye. At the same
line he was keenly sensitive about
UGH of his traits as his slowness
# intellect, lack of talent, the gen.
eral colorlessness of his physical
and moral countenance His over
weening ambition was tinged with