TROTSKY’S ENEMIES

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21199, 23 August 1940, Page 4

TROTSKY’S ENEMIES

Another murderous and this time fatal attack on Leon Trotsky in his exile in Mexico City shows how relentless is the enmity between the two branches of the old Bolshevik party. Trotsky, before he died, declared that he would not survive this latest assault, which he attributed to Joseph Stalin. Whether Trotsky’s accusation is founded upon evidence or merely the assumption that his political enemy still seeks his undoing is not known, but it is clear that Trotsky’s enemies are animated by a powerful force and a consuming hatred that has not flagged in a quarter of a century. Something more than a desire for personal revenge seems to be behind the intention to end Trotsky’s ability to influence Russian opinion • Trotsky was one of the original Bolsheviks who plotted with Lenin and after the Revolution became Lenin’s People’s Commissar for War. While Lenin lived Trotsky was safe and at liberty to continue his campaign for a world-wide Bolshevik revolution. He believed that only by such a revolution could Russia be made safe for Bolshevism. But as Lenin was slipping towards the grave another force was gradually asserting itself in Russia. Stalin was quietly gathering the reins more closely into his own hands than his compatriots knew. When Lenin passed his mantle fell not upon Trotsky but upon Stalin, who from stealth quickly sprang .to life when the opportunity was presented. Trotsky suffered indignity after indignity and finally was exiled. Stalin had other plans for Russia which he set about putting into operation under the guise of Lenin’s will. Lenin was deified while Stalin moulded his policy as the new dictator desired. Even yet it is doubtful whether the Russian people have awakened to the great gulf that separates Stalin’s Russia from the Russia which dreamed of a Utopia under the original Bolshevik plan. How much of Lenin’s revolutionary platform remains no one seems to be able to say, but it is certain that since then Stalin has travelled far on other roads. Trotsky’s dream of world revolution is still perhaps not dead but only held in abeyance. If and when the time comes for its realisation, some powerful influence in Russia is evidently determined that Trotsky shall not be the leader.