Exile Trotsky

"Trotsky is hooked up with Capitalism, and writing from Constantinople for the New York Times!"

This bizarre half-truth was shrieked in Manhattan, last week, from the platform of a hall into which had jammed 5,000 men, women and children, all members or hangers-on of the Workers' (Communist) Party. This group of U. S. Reds looks for leadership to the dictator of Soviet Russia, silent, ruthless Josef Stalin; and consequently hates and fears famed Leon Trotsky, whom Stalin has booted out of Russia despite the fact that Trotsky was one of the first and greatest leaders of the Soviet Revolution, the friend of Lenin and the creator of the Soviet army. Of all the leaders of Communism, Leon Trotsky is the one least "hooked up with Capitalism," whereas Stalin is getting into constantly better relations with the capitalist Powers. But last week Comrade Trotsky did write exclusively for the Times the story of his exile from Russia and the history of how, according to Trotsky, Stalin seized illegally the powers of Lenin, the late mighty founder of the Soviet State.

Describing his recent ejection from Russia, Leon Trotsky (real name Lev Davidovich Bronstein) declared that agents of Dictator Stalin appeared suddenly at Trotsky's place of exile, Almaata, on the borders of Russian Turkestan, and informed him that he, his son and Mme. Trotsky must pack up their possessions and prepare to leave Russia. Soon all were bundled into a motor bus and since the snow was all but impassable a tractor was attached to pull the bus. Presently bus, tractor and Trotskys sank into a snowdrift. Seven hours were spent in extricating the exiles and conveying them by sledge to the nearest railway station, Pechweke Peke.

A special train had been provided, and so potent is the name of TROTSKY still, in Russia, that at his mere request another special train chuffed down from Moscow to meet the first, bearing two of his relatives for a family reunion. All along Comrade Trotsky had told the dictator's agents that he "refused"' to leave Russia at Stalin's "illegal" order, and seemingly the agents were so perturbed by this that they stopped the Trotsky special train for 12 days amid open fields to query Moscow for further orders. Every day the engine would chuff to a neighboring village and return with food, mostly canned. Amid this interlude of perplexity, and while the empty tin cans were piling up on either side of the track, Trotsky amused himself by re-reading several works by Anatole France, famed and precious French scoffer. When, in obedience to fresh orders from Moscow, the Trotskys were booted into Turkey (TIME, Feb. 11), Comrade Trotsky sent the following note to Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Pasha: "I was brought here against my will."

Last week it was said that Exile Trotsky had contracted pneumonia, summoned a specialist from Berlin. In describing how Stalin was able to seize supreme power, Trotsky declares that, during Lenin's last and protracted illnesses, the present dictator organized a veritable camarilla of self-seekers who conspired secretly against Trotsky (Lenin's logical successor) and took advantage of the fact that Trotsky himself was often ill to foment against him an opposition so strong that when Lenin died Oppositionist Stalin was able gradually to oust Trotskyists from their posts and finally to seize the government.

Suggesting that he might have been able to stop Stalin had he tried hard enough, Trotsky admits that he did not try his hardest. "I don't regret it," he concludes with a peculiar fatalism, "some victories lead to an impasse and some defeats open up new avenues. ..."