The Press Thursday, April 2, 1925. The Disappearance of Trotsky.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18347, 2 April 1925, Page 8

The Press Thursday, April 2, 1925. The Disappearance of Trotsky.

Nowhere else but in Russia could such things happen as have led up to the disappearance of Leon Trotally from his retreat in the Caucasus. Revolutionary thrones arc proverbially insecure, and Trotsky is not the first leader of his kind who has been broken by the forces that he assisted to unleash. As a student of political history he must bo well aware of this; must know, too, that he has been lucky to escape the firing squad which is always ready for actioi} in Kussia. But as one who went into exile in Siberia with him many years ago has left it on record that his own advancement has always been his goal, it is unlikely that he will bo capable of appreciating this good fortune. And it cannot be denied that his fall was a great one. To be Minister of War in Russia is perhaps even a greater thing than to be Premier, and Trotsky was both War Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Red Arm}'. Now, stripped of his, powers and his honours, broken in health, deserted by his friends, lie has felt obliged, according to the latest cables, to removo himself out of the sight and reach of his former Comrades 111 AToseow. And the cause of his downfall was not really the book "1917." which he published towards the end of last year, but the vanity that made liim think he could persuade his party that he alone was worthy to succeed Lenin. In his book Trotsky pilloried Zinoviev and Kamenev for the sin (for which Lenin had! forgiven them) of under-estimating the strength of the revolutionary forces in Russia in October, 1917, when they voted against the armed uprising upon which the Central. Committee of the Communist Party determined. More than this he charged .Zinoviev with being responsible for the failure of the Communist risings in-' Germany aud Bulgaria in 1923 by again forming an j incorroct estimate of tho trend of events, and these charges he elaborated so as to create an atmosphere of suspicion towards tho triumvirate in tho executive of tho Communist Party Zinoviev, Kameriev, and Stalin. Unfortunately for himself he accused other Communist leaders of having been afraid at timos of Lenin's extreme tactics, and if he wanted to find the Tartar in his colleagues he could not have chosen a more effective method. When the Communist leaders had finished with him, his book, which was ' becoming the most widely read of the year, while apparently not officially suppressed, had ceased publication and he had been exiled in ignominy to the Caucasus.' One must admit that they had some reason to be angry .with him, for Trotsky a Menshevist until Lenin converted him, and they could not bo expected to allow a former Menshevist to taunt tliem with their shortcomings. Trotsky also stood for the democratisation of the party over which there had been a long and bitter controversy. His book revived -the issue and tho bitterness, and tho leaders of course did not want to see their own autocracy ended. So he had to go, and the men whom he attacked, who stand only for their own rule over Russia, are to-day apparently so strong that they can arrest his friends if they cannot find him himself.