SCANT NOTICE IN RUSSIA

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 47, 23 August 1940, Page 8

SCANT NOTICE IN RUSSIA

(Received August 23, 11 a.m.) MOSCOW, August 22. M. Trotsky's death is not published in the Press, which makes only a small announcement on an inside page of the attack on him, saying, "The assassination was attempted by one of our followers."

Like Stalin and Lenin, the name under which Trotsky won fame was not his real name. He was born Lev Davidobich Bronstein, and was of middle-class Jewish origin. His family lived near Elizavetgrad and he was educated at the Peter and Paul School in Odessa. He was first arrested as a revolutionary in 1898, when 19 years old, and exiled to Eastern Siberia. In 1902 he escaped to England by means of a forged passport made out in the name of Trotsky, which name he used thereafter. In London he soon became a member of a small band of Social Democrats, which included Plekhanov and Lenin, and collaborated on the revolutionary newspaper "The Spark." He was back in Russia in 1905 and became a member of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies, being in the chair at a meeting when the whole membership was arrested. He -was exiled again, this time to Tobolsk, but escaped immediately after arrival there and went to Vienna, where he continued to work for the revolution. At the Social Democrat Congress in Copenhagen in 1910 he took up a position between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. In 1913 he was to be found in Constantinople acting as a war correspondent, and the following year was in Zurich and Paris helping the publication of a revolutionary newspaper. He opposed the World War, wrote a book about it which drew him a short prison sentence, and later was expelled from France, going to Spain (where he was again arrested) and thence to the United States, where he edited another revolutionary paper, "The New World." REVOLUTION BEGINS. When the revolution began in Russia his friends subscribed money

to allow him to return. He "was arrested at Halifax, however, ancL interned until the Russian Provisional Government asked for his Jrelease. Ultimately he arrived in Petrograd soon after Lenin, by whom, alone, he was eclipsed in the months that followed. He joined the Bolshevik Party, though formerly he was leader of a small band of Social Democrats, and became Commissar for Foreijgn Affairs in 1917. He was the most Important figure in the delegation sent to Brest Litovsk to make peace with, the Germans, a peace which he opposed, but which he finally endorsed, "whereupon it was approved by a majority of one vote. Then he became Commissar for War, a role in which he worked to save the Revolution. It was his organisation, his leadership, h3s idea of employing tens of thousands of exTsarist officers which made the Revolutionary War successful. At this time he was the most brilliant and popular figure in the country. He prevented the complete collapse off the railway, used "bourgeois" experts in the factories, and opposed the disastrous Polish campaign, concerning which he was overruled by Lenin. He was also the real originator of the Five-year Plan. j BEATEN BY STALIN. He was 'expected tcji be the successor of Lenin, but was outmanoeuvred by Stalin, who, with, the methods of an American political boss, had appointed his own cneiatures in key posts. His fatal error when Lenin died was to fail to appear at the funeral —he had been on h;k way to the Caucasus to rest when the Red leader passed away. Trotsky claims that Stalin tricked him, over the date of the funeral. At aft events, when he did arrive he was. too late, for many changes had been made and approved by the Thirteenth Party Congress. The conflict with Stalin began, being set forth in Trotr/ky's pamphlet, "The Lessons of October," in which he argued that the devolution could not be confined to ■one country. He was defeated (the Communists never forgot that he was a recent arrival in the party) an/cl given minor posts. Finally he was 'expelled from the party in 1927, and in the following year wa? exiled to Turlfcestan, after which he was banished and went to Constantinople.

TURKIJY HIS REFUGE.

Turkey wejs then the only country which would give him refuge, and for years he remained there and worked on the island of Prinkipo. In 1933 it was suggested to him that he might find a home in France, and went there, but there was an outcry when his retreat was discovered, and later he moved to Fforway, where he was permitted to remain provided he did not indulge in ' political work. Later he went to Mexico. He was attacked there last May when his bedroom was machine-g nnned, and a pillow was struck by a bullet, but his only injury was from flying glass. He had been active in writing all this time, and cont?<jibuted many articles to reviews ar«J newspapers. For the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" he did the article cj.i Lenin, and for the "New York Times," for example, an article on the 'JRusso-German Pact. He has consistently opposed the Stalinist ideas and has set forth his philosophy in his book, "The Revolution Betrayed." In addition, he has written a history of the Itevolution and his autobiography. ;