Plan:

1.Trotsky L.D.: life and political activity.

2. Stalin I.V: the main events that determined the fate of the leader

3.Stalin - Trotsky: confrontation between prominent

politicians of the Soviet period.

Bibliography:

1. Volkogonov D. Seven leaders (volume 1) - M: Novosti, 1997.

2. Zenkovich N.A. Leaders and associates.: Surveillance. Slander. Bullying. - M: OLMA-PRESS, 1997.

3. Heroes and anti-heroes of the Fatherland. Comp. V.M. Zabrodin. - M: "Informexpress" - "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" - "Practice", 1992.

4. History of the civil war in the USSR. ed. M. Gorky, V. Molotov, K. Voroshilov and others - M: State Publishing House "History of the Civil War", 1935

5. Brief philosophical dictionary. ed. M. Rosenthal, P. Yudin - M: State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1954

6. Stalin.I.V. Once again about the social-democratic deviation in our party - M: State publishing house of political literature, 1954.

7. Trotsky L.. My life - M: "Panorama", 1991.

8. Khromov S.S. Civil war and military intervention in the USSR - M: "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1983.

Introduction

Stalin and Trotsky… Two mysterious figures of our history.

If a lot has been written about the first, then about the second, until recently, it was known only that it was an enemy, a traitor, a “Jew”, a conspirator, etc. Who are they? What contribution did they make to the history of our country? I tried to understand this for myself through the study of the materials available to me, including through the study and comparison of their biographies. But since most of the materials I use were published during the existence of the Soviet Union, and some even during the lifetime of Stalin and Trotsky, some information to this day seems ambiguous. Therefore, I tried to combine sometimes polar sources and try to balance them, of course, to the extent possible (the reliability of some data is simply impossible to verify: too much time has passed for living witnesses of the events to remain, and the documents either did not survive, or their authenticity is in doubt)

1. Trotsky L.D.: life and political activity

Lev Davidovich Trotsky (Leiba Davidovich Bronstein) was born in 1879 in the family of a Jewish landowner, in the Kherson province. In addition to him, there was also his sister Olga. He lived in the village until he was 9 years old.

In 1888 he was sent to Odessa to study at a real school. In the seventh grade, he continued his studies in the city of Nikolaev. At this time, he began to read illegal literature and met former exiles.

From the age of 18, Trotsky began to participate in the social democratic movement. In 1898 he was arrested and placed in the Nikolaevsky prison, then transferred to Odessa. During his time in prison, Trotsky read a lot, using every opportunity. All the books in the prison libraries were read. Here he first became acquainted with Marxist literature. After almost 2 years in prison, he is sentenced to exile in Siberia. In the Moscow transit prison, he married Alexandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya, one of the leaders of the South Russian Workers' Union. In the autumn of 1900 they arrived in Ust-Kut.

In 1902, leaving his wife with two daughters (the youngest was 4 months old), forged a passport and fled from Siberia abroad. Thus, instead of the exiled Bronstein, Trotsky appeared.

In 1902 Trotsky arrived in London via Zurich and Paris. Here he finds Lenin's apartment and for the first time gets to know him and Krupskaya. At this time, many prominent revolutionaries gathered abroad: Plekhanov, Martov, Zasulich, Alekselrod. work was in full swing in the editorial office of the Iskra newspaper, preparations were underway for the Second Congress of the RSDLP. Trotsky took an active part in the editorial work of Iskra and in the preparations for the congress. At the congress, Trotsky received a mandate from the Siberian Union (a regional party created on the initiative of the Tomsk Workers of the Social Democrats). Disagreements arose at the congress on the first point of the charter: who should be considered a member of the party. Lenin insisted on identifying the party with an illegal organization. Martov wanted those who work under the leadership of an illegal organization to be considered party members. Attempts by Lenin's supporters to win over Trotsky to their side were unsuccessful. Trotsky stayed with the Mensheviks.

Completed the break with Lenin and Trotsky's negative attitude to Lenin's desire to remove Alekselrod and Zasulich from the editorial board of Iskra. Lenin explained this decision by the fact that they become an obstacle on the way to the future.

In 1904, Trotsky officially left the Mensheviks. At this time, a revolutionary situation was brewing in Russia. Trotsky returned to Kyiv on a fake passport. Having got acquainted here with the prominent Bolshevik Krasin, Trotsky compiled a series of proclamations and appeals for the underground printing house, which was at the disposal of Krasin. Taking advantage of the turnout that Krasin gave him, Trotsky arrived and stayed in St. Petersburg. He plunged headlong into the turbulent revolutionary life. Collaborating in the newspapers Russkaya Gazeta, Nachala, Izvestia, he took an active part in the work of the St. Petersburg Council, in fact he was its chairman.

In the life of Russia, the revolution of 1905 was the dress rehearsal for the revolution of 1917. In Trotsky's life it had the same significance. He took shape as one of the leaders of the St. Petersburg proletariat. This is also confirmed in Lunacharsky's book Silhouette, written in 1923 and then banned. In the already cited book “Silhouettes”, which was subsequently banned, Lunacharsky gives the following assessment of the role of the leaders of the first revolution: “The popularity of his “Trotsky” among the St. heroic (?) behavior in court. I must say that, of all the Social Democratic leaders of 1905-1906, Trotsky undoubtedly showed himself, despite his youth, to be the most prepared; time even for Lenin; more than anyone else, he felt what a state struggle is. And he came out of the revolution with the greatest gain in terms of popularity: neither Lenin nor Martov gained, in essence, anything. Plekhanov lost a great deal as a result of the semi-Cadet tendencies that manifested themselves in him. Trotsky, from that time on, stood in the front row.

On December 3, 1905, the Petrograd Soviet was arrested. Thus began the second prison cycle. During this time, Trotsky spent time in the "Crosses", in the "Peter and Paul Fortress", in the House of Preliminary Detention, in a transit prison. While in prison, he was engaged in literary activity from morning to evening, reading absolutely all new books that were worthy of attention.

By a court decision, Trotsky was deprived of all civil rights and sentenced to exile in a settlement. Then the familiar road to Siberia and a stop for 2 days in Berezov (here, an associate of Peter the Great Menshikov once served a link). Just before leaving, he escaped and eventually ended up in Finland, where Lenin and Martov were already there. He again finds himself in London, in 1907 he participates in the next 5th congress. By the way, Stalin came to see him. But Trotsky then did not notice his future main competitor. Again, he does not side with either the Bolsheviks or the Mensheviks. In vain are the tricks of Kamenev, who tried to win over the "independent" Social Democrat to the side of Lenin and the Bolsheviks. The talented stubborn man, whose journalistic abilities were known to Lenin, did not agree. Moreover, irritated by Kamenev's attempts to win him over to Lenin's side, Trotsky uses his caustic pen against Vladimir Ilyich, calling him "a professional exploiter of every backwardness in the Russian workers' movement" and even declaring him a "candidate for dictatorship" in one of his political pamphlets.

The following can be briefly said about Trotsky's further life abroad until October: When the First World War began, Trotsky, like Lenin, was a participant in the Zimmerwald Conference, whose delegates came up with an anti-war program. In 1916, Trotsky, as a "dangerous agitator", was expelled from France to Spain. Arrested in Madrid. They are again expelled from the country, and together with his family “despite such a turbulent political life, Trotsky manages to marry a second time during these years, again to the revolutionary Natalya Sedova, who bore him two sons” goes to New York. It was January 1917.

And in February, a bourgeois-democratic revolution took place in Russia, the Provisional Government headed by Kerensky came to power. Tsarism ceased to exist. Trotsky hurries home. However, in Halifax (Canada) he is arrested again, and only the intervention of the Provisional Government, which, in turn, is under pressure from the Petrograd Soviet, helps him to free himself and arrive in Petrograd in early May. He arrived a month later than Lenin. The train was met by many people with red banners. The newspapers wrote that a huge crowd carried Trotsky out of the car in their arms and put him in a car. As in 1905, he again headed the Petrograd Soviet.

Trotsky, together with Lenin, actively prepared an armed uprising. Trotsky was in fact the right hand of Lenin in preparing the uprising, because in addition to authority and great energy, he had real power, heading the Petrograd Soviet. This is confirmed by an article by Stalin in the Pravda newspaper in 1918: “The inspirer of the coup, from beginning to end, was the Central Committee of the party, headed by Lenin ... All work on the practical organization of the uprising took place under the direct supervision of the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, comrade. Trotsky. It can be said with certainty that the party owes the rapid transition of the proletariat to the side of the Soviets and the skillful constant work of the Military Committee, first of all and mainly to Trotsky. The article was signed by I. Stalin and the article was included in the collection of works by I. Stalin.

After the victory, it was necessary to form a government. Several members of the Central Committee, among them Lenin and Trotsky, discussed this problem. At Trotsky's suggestion, the government was named the Council of People's Commissars. Trotsky was appointed Commissar for Foreign Affairs. At Lenin's urging, he led the peace talks at Brest-Litovsk with the German delegation. Opinions on the negotiations and the conclusion of peace were greeted ambiguously among party workers. Three points of view emerged: Lenin was in favor of dragging out the negotiations, but in the event of an ultimatum, capitulate immediately; Trotsky - to negotiate until a break, even with the danger of a German offensive, in order to capitulate before the obvious use of force; Bukharin is the continuation of the war. According to the voting results of the party's activists, the votes were distributed: for the proposals of Bukharin - 32 votes, Lenin - 15 votes, Trotsky - 16 votes. On the proposal of the Council of People's Commissars, the local councils expressed themselves as follows: two councils (Petersburg and Sevastopol), with reservations, spoke in favor of peace, all the rest - for a break with Germany.

Ultimately, Trotsky made a statement in Brest: "The state of war is ending, peace is not signed, the army is being demobilized, we are going home to build socialist Russia." Official (Soviet) historians believe that Trotsky went against the Central Committee and disrupted the peace treaty (“Civil War and Military Intervention in the USSR”, encyclopedia, 1983). Trotsky himself believed that he acted on the decision of the party. On February 14, a resolution was adopted on his report, beginning with the words: "Having heard and discussed the report of the peaceful delegation, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee fully approves the course of action of its representatives in Brest." In March 1918, at the desk. At the congress, Zinoviev declared: Trotsky is right when he says that he acted on the decision of a competent majority of the Central Committee. Nobody disputed this…” (L. Trotsky, My Life, 1991).

Even in the days of October, Lenin felt that, in terms of the strength of his energy and revolutionary pressure, Trotsky was one of the outstanding people of his time. Therefore, at the critical moment of the revolution, in 1918, he nominated Trotsky for the post of chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, and from the autumn of 1918 also the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. Trotsky was not a military man from a professional point of view, moreover, he did not serve in the army or navy for a single day. But the time of the October whirlwind was special. Immediately after October, no one strictly professed the canons of tactics, operational art, and strategy. Revolutionary passion, pressure, will, the ability to rouse and lead people - that was what first of all decided the outcome of the case. Only much later, already towards the end of the civil war, with the help of military experts in the Red Army, the difficult methods of professional management of the organization and conduct of hostilities were mastered and applied to some extent. But this was when a cadre army of workers and peasants had already taken shape, when the partisanship in the localities was practically over.

In addition to this circumstance, Lenin singled out Trotsky for his rigidity and steadfastness in carrying out the adopted decisions of the party and good organizational qualities. Of course, the administrative-command style of leadership, which Trotsky was sometimes overly fond of, could not be suitable everywhere, but in some places it could greatly damage. But in the organization of a combat-ready army, it was then difficult to do without such a quality.

And finally, an important circumstance - Trotsky, possessing volcanic energy, determination, became more and more a fiery tribune of the revolution. He was known both by the parties and among the masses. The rally period did not end at that time, and whoever could brilliantly speak in front of people, ignite them. Is it Stalin or Voroshilov? Lenin, being a genius, was not mistaken in his choice. Trotsky was able to lead this difficult sector - the defense of the revolution - and coped with the party task.

In 1925, as a result of a sharp political struggle within the party, Trotsky was relieved of his duties as People's Commissar for Military Affairs. In the same year, he was appointed chairman of the concession committee, head of the electrical department and chairman of the scientific and technical department of industry.

On October 23, 1927, Trotsky was expelled from the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks; on November 14, 1927, he was expelled from the party.

In January 1928, he and his family were sent to Alma-Ata. Despite the remoteness (4000 km from Moscow, 250 km from the nearest station), Trotsky did not stop his political activities.

In mid-December 1928, a special representative of the GPU board from Moscow arrived at Trotsky with a written demand to stop leading the work of the opposition, otherwise the question of a change of residence would be raised. Trotsky replied in a letter to the Central Committee and the executive committee of the Comintern that the demand to renounce political activity meant the demand to renounce the struggle for the interests of the international proletariat, which he had been waging without interruption for 32 years, i.e. throughout his conscious life, therefore he does not want to obey the ultimatum of the GPU.

A month later, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, by a majority vote, decided to deport him from the USSR. Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky voted against. While the government was working through the embassies on the question of which state would agree to accept the exile, the same representative of the GPU came to Trotsky and showed him an extract from the minutes of the Special Meeting at the GPU collegium dated January 18, 1928, it was said that he was being expelled from the USSR for counter-revolutionary activity, expressed in the organization of an illegal anti-Soviet party, whose activity of late has been directed towards provoking anti-Soviet uprisings and preparing for an armed struggle against Soviet power. Having received this document, the enraged Trotsky issued the following receipt to the authorized GPU: “The resolution of the OS under the collegium of the GPU of January 18, 1929, which was criminal in essence and illegal in form, was announced to me. January 20, 1929. L. Trotsky.

On January 22, Trotsky, his wife and son were put into a car and sent, accompanied by an escort, to the Frunze station, from there by rail and road in the direction of Moscow. Then the train from Kursk goes to Odessa. Trotsky was brought to Turkey on the Ilyich steamer, where he lived for 4 years. Here he met a message about the deprivation of his 1932 Soviet citizenship.

The "Flying Dutchman" of the world revolution moved from country to country. Turkey, Denmark, Norway, France. Then he moved to Mexico. And wherever he stopped, he did not stop working for a single day. He wrote a huge number of books, pamphlet articles. One of the main characters of his works is the victorious rival (Stalin). Trotsky traces the Kremlin winner in various aspects - from political and theoretical to family and domestic. Emphasizes that he is perceptive at short distances, but historically shortsighted. An outstanding tactician, but not a strategist. In the consciousness of his mediocrity, Stalin invariably carries in himself. Hence his need for flattery. Hence his envy of Hitler and secret admiration for him. The alliance between Stalin and Hitler, which astonished everyone, was predicted by Trotsky, just as he predicted Hitler's attack on Stalin. Already on September 22, 1930, Trotsky wrote that "at the cost of a humiliating and treacherous alliance, Stalin will not buy the main thing - peace ...". At each new stage, Hitler will make ever higher demands on Moscow. Today he gives the Moscow friend for temporary storage "Great Ukraine". Tomorrow he will raise the question of who should be the master of this Ukraine. Both Stalin and Hitler violated a number of treaties. How long will the deal between them last?

Trotsky also foresaw the overthrow of Stalin from his pedestal. The last article he wrote 10 days before his death ends like this: “Nero was also a product of his era. But after his death, his statues were broken, and his name was erased from everywhere. The revenge of history is worse than the revenge of the most powerful general secretary.”

Stalin, having ordered the destruction of all Trotsky's relatives, does not forget about him either. After several unsuccessful assassination attempts, on August 20, 1940, Trotsky was seriously wounded in his office and died on August 21. His killer is Jaime Ramon Mercader del Rio. He died in 1978 in Cuba. His ashes rest at the Kuntsevo cemetery in Moscow. On the tombstone is written: "Hero of the Soviet Union, Lopez Ramon Ivanovich."

After himself, Trotsky left a huge amount of documents collected in his personal archive. Only 28 boxes of documents were taken from Russia to Turkey: “copies of archival documents of the RVSR, the Politburo, etc., as well as personal diaries, correspondence with Lenin, documents of the civil war.” Since 1917, at his direction, all the documents to which he was related were copied and sent to his personal archive. Trotsky was the first statesman of the Soviet state who collected, recorded and carefully stored documents for history. Trotsky, only in the period from 1917 to 1921 published 21 volumes of his works. According to historians, if you collect everything written by Trotsky, you will get at least 50 volumes.

2. Stalin I.V: main events,

determined the fate of the leader

Stalin Iosif Vissarionovich (Dzhugashvili) was born on December 21, 1879 in the city of Gori, Tiflis province. His father came from peasants, a shoemaker by profession, later a worker in a shoe factory in the city of Tiflis. In the autumn of 1888 I.V. Stalin entered the Gori Theological School. After graduating in 1894, he entered the Seminary in Tiflis. In the revolutionary movement I.V. Stalin joined at the age of 15, contacting underground groups of Russian Marxists living in the Transcaucasus.

In 1898 he became a member of the Tiflis organization of the RSDLP. Already by this time, the range of Stalin's theoretical interests was quite wide. During this period, Stalin conducts intensive propaganda work in workers' circles, for which he was expelled from the seminary in 1899. Being an ardent supporter of the Leninist spark, Stalin, together with Ketskhoveli, organized in 1901 the first illegal Georgian Social Democratic newspaper Brdzola (Struggle). In this newspaper, Stalin published an article "The Russian Social-Democratic Party and Its Immediate Tasks, in which he calls on the workers to contribute great energy to the struggle for their liberation, for great energy is born for a great goal." In this work, Stalin emphasized the need to combine scientific socialism with the spontaneous labor movement, and put forward the task of organizing an independent political party of the proletariat.

In 1901, Stalin was elected to the Tiflis Committee of the RSDLP. On behalf of the committee, Stalin conducted illegal agitation in the city of Batum, wrote leaflets, participated in strikes at factories, and participated in the creation of an illegal printing house. In 1902, Stalin was arrested and imprisoned in the Batumi prison. In the autumn of 1903, Stalin was exiled to eastern Siberia for 3 years. In exile, in 1903, Stalin received a letter from Lenin. Stalin's acquaintance with Lenin began with this letter. After escaping from exile in 1904, Stalin carried on revolutionary work in the Transcaucasus. In December 1904, Stalin led the strike of the Baku workers. At this time, he wrote many articles and letters, advocated the Leninist ideological and organizational principles of the new type of parties. In the article “How does the Social Democracy understand the national question?” Stalin appears as a theoretician of the national question. During the years of the first Russian Revolution (1905-1907), Stalin led the struggle of the Transcaucasian Bolsheviks against the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries and petty-bourgeois nationalist parties, for the Leninist strategy and tactics in the revolution. In 1905, as a delegate from the Transcaucasian Bolsheviks at the first All-Russian Bolshevik Conference in Tammerfors (Finland), he first met Lenin in person. During the years of the revolution and during the years of reaction that came after the defeat of the revolution of 1905-1907, Stalin wrote a number of articles devoted to the defense and development of the worldview of the Marxist party, the need for an armed uprising, and the tactics of fighting in an armed uprising. During this period, Stalin carried out his main activities in Baku, and in March 1908 he was arrested and exiled to the Vologda province. In June 1909, Stalin escaped from exile and returned to Baku to work illegally. In 1910 he was again arrested and again exiled to the Vologda province. In September 1911, he illegally left for St. Petersburg, where he was arrested and in December exiled to Vologda. At the Prague Party Conference in 1912, Stalin was elected a member of the Central Committee in absentia. In February 1912, Stalin escaped from exile. On behalf of the Central Committee, Stalin traveled around the most important regions of Russia, wrote the proclamation "Long Live May 1st", directed the Zvezda newspaper, and participated in the preparation of the first issue of the Pravda newspaper. His activities were interrupted by his arrest in April 1912. After being imprisoned, he was exiled to the Narym Territory for 3 years. In September 1912, he fled from exile to St. Petersburg, where he edited the newspaper Pravda and spoke at workers' meetings. In 1912-1913, Stalin wrote the work "Marxism and the National Question", which Lenin highly appreciated. In February 1913, Stalin was again arrested and exiled for four years to the Turukhansk region. In December 1916, Stalin was sent in stages to Krasnoyarsk, and then to Achinsk, here he was caught by the news of the February Revolution. In March 1917 he left Achinsk for Petrograd. With the arrival of Lanin from exile, Stalin participated with him in the struggle at a new historical stage. At the April Conference, he supported Lenin's struggle against the position of Kamenev, Rykov, and others, and delivered a report on the national question. In May 1917 he was elected a member of the established Politburo. At the Sixth Congress, Stalin spoke out against Lenin's appearance before the trial of the counter-revolution (suggested by Kamenev, Rykov and Trotsky). At the congress, Stalin rebuffed the Trotskyists, who put forward the thesis that the victory of socialism in Russia was impossible. On October 16, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the party, Stalin supported the resolution on an armed uprising. At this meeting, a party center (?) was elected to lead the uprising, headed by Stalin. This party center was the leading nucleus of the military revolutionary committee under the Petrograd Soviet.

After the victory of the revolution, Stalin became a member of the first Council of People's Commissars, taking the post of People's Commissar for Nationality Affairs, and from 1919, the post of People's Commissar of State Control.

In the days of the conclusion of the Brest Peace, Stalin, together with Lenin, spoke out against Trotsky and Bukharin, for peace in order to strengthen the Soviet Republic. During the Civil War, the Central Committee of the Party and Lenin personally sent Stalin to the most dangerous sectors and fronts. He was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic and a member of the Revolutionary Military Councils of the Western, Southern, South-Western Fronts. For selfless struggle on the fronts of the Civil War, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in 1919. In 1922, Stalin was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Under the leadership of Lenin, Stalin worked to create national Soviet republics, to unite them into one union state - the USSR, which was formed on December 30, 1922.

After Lenin's death (January 21, 1924), Stalin and his allies in the Central Committee waged a long and victorious struggle against Trotsky and his allies. As General Secretary of the Central Committee, Stalin developed Lenin's ideas of the socialist industrialization of the country and the collectivization of agriculture. Of great importance for the implementation of the correct line in the collectivization of agriculture were Stalin's works "Dizziness from Success" and "An Answer to Comrade Collective Farmers". Under Stalin's leadership, the party successfully completed the task of laying the foundation for a socialist economy. The victory of socialism in the USSR found its expression in the new constitution (Stalin's constitution) adopted in 1936 at the extraordinary Eighth All-Union Congress of Soviets. Stalin delivered a report on the draft of a new constitution. The report outlined the main changes that have taken place in the country since the adoption of the constitution of 1924, and the features of the new constitution. The Eighteenth Party Congress outlined a program for the struggle to bring about a gradual transition to the highest phase of communism, putting forward the task of overtaking and overtaking the most developed capitalist countries in economic terms as well, i.e. in production per capita. In 1939, on the occasion of his 60th birthday, Stalin was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. May 6, 1941 Stalin was appointed chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. The sudden and treacherous attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR on June 22, 1941 interrupted the peaceful creative work of the Soviet people. Stalin stood at the head of the Armed Forces, led the struggle of the Soviet people against fascism. On June 30, 1941, the USSR State Defense Committee was established. Stalin was appointed its chairman. On July 3, 1941, Stalin addressed the people with a historic speech, in which he indicated that mortal danger hung over the Soviet Union, that “it is a matter of ... life and death of the Soviet state, life and death of the peoples of the USSR, and also - to be the peoples of the Soviet Union free or fall into enslavement" (Stalin, on the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union).

After defeating Hitler's Germany, the Soviet army launched an offensive against Imperialist Japan and forced it to quickly capitulate. For merits in defeating the enemy, the Soviet government awarded Stalin the Order of Suvorov of the first degree, two Orders of Victory, awarded him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. On June 27, 1945, he was awarded the highest military rank - Generalissimo of the Soviet Union. In connection with the 70th birthday, Stalin was awarded the Order of Lenin for exceptional services in strengthening and developing the Soviet Union, in building communism in our country, organizing the defeat of the Nazi invaders and Japanese imperialists, as well as in restoring and further lifting national economy of the USSR in the postwar period. An important milestone in the life of the Party and the entire country was the Nineteenth Congress of the Communist Party, which outlined new prospects for the development of the country in all areas of communist construction. On the eve of the Party Congress, Stalin's new work, Economic Problems in the USSR, was published. Stalin spoke at the congress. In his speech, he further developed the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of the hegemony of the proletariat under the new conditions of class war, and thus gave the proletariat of the capitalist countries an ideological weapon in their struggle for peace, democracy and socialism. This was the last congress in Stalin's life. On March 5, 1953, after a serious illness, Stalin died.

3.Stalin - Trotsky: confrontation between prominent

political figures of the Soviet period

Stalin and Trotsky ... Two outstanding figures of the revolution and the party. Longtime and irreconcilable rivals and enemies. All 30-40 years passed under the sign of their confrontation. When Trotsky died in the hospital from a skull fracture on August 22, already on August 24, 1940, Pravda published an obituary with the following content: “London, August 22 (TASS). London radio today reported that in Mexico, in the Hospital, Trotsky died from a skull fracture received during an attempt on his life by one of his closest associates.

Further, the Tassovskaya information was accompanied by an editorial comment written suspiciously quickly after the news of Trotsky's death: A man descended into the grave, whose name is uttered with contempt and curse by working people all over the world, a man who for many years fought against the cause of the working class and its vanguard - the Bolshevik parties. The ruling classes of the capitalist countries have lost their faithful servant. Foreign intelligence services have lost a long-term, inveterate agent, an organizer of assassins who did not disdain any means to achieve his counter-revolutionary goals.

Trotsky went a long way of betrayal and betrayal. political double-dealing and hypocrisy. No wonder Lenin, back in 1911, dubbed Trotsky the nickname "Judas". And this well-deserved nickname forever remained with him.

This was followed by a list of real and imaginary sins of Lev Davidovich, starting from 1903, when at the Second Congress of the RSDLP he supported the views of Martov and other Menshevik leaders. Having joined the Bolshevik Party in June 1917, already in the spring of 1918, together with a group of so-called "Left" Communists and Left Social Revolutionaries, he organized a villainous conspiracy against Lenin, seeking to arrest and physically destroy the leaders of the proletariat: Lenin, Stalin and Sverdlov. As always, Trotsky himself - a provocateur, an organizer of murderers, an intriguer and an adventurer - remains in the shadows. His leading role in the preparation of this atrocity, which, fortunately, failed, was fully revealed only two decades later at the trial of the anti-Soviet "right-wing Trotskyist bloc" in March 1938.

During the years of the civil war, when the country of the Soviets repelled the onslaught of numerous hordes of White Guards and interventionists, Trotsky, with his treacherous actions and wrecking orders, in every way weakened the strength of the resistance of the Red Army.

At the same trial of the anti-Soviet "Right-Trotskyist bloc" the whole treacherous, treacherous path of Trotsky was revealed to the whole world: the defendants in this trial, the closest associates

Trotsky, admitted that they, and together with them their boss Trotsky, had been agents of foreign intelligence services since 1921, were international spies. They, headed by Trotsky, zealously served the intelligence services and the general staffs of England, France, Germany, and Japan.

When in 1929 the Soviet government expelled the counter-revolutionary, traitor Trotsky from our homeland, the capitalist circles of Europe and America embraced him. It was no accident. It was natural. For Trotsky had long since passed over to the service of the exploiters of the working class.

Trotsky has become entangled in his own nets, having reached the limit of human fall. He was killed by his own supporters. It was the very terrorists whom he taught about murder from around the corner, betrayal and atrocities against the working class, against the country of the Soviets, who did away with him. Trotsky, who organized the villainous murder of Kirov, M. Gorky, became a victim of his own intrigues, betrayals, betrayals, atrocities.

So ingloriously ended this despicable man, descending into the grave with the seal of an international spy and murderer on his forehead.

With such an "obituary" the central organ of the party responded to the news of the death of Ilyich's closest associate, a former member of the Politburo, former chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs.

Let us turn to Trotsky's testament, written on February 27, 1940, in Coyoacan, a small town in Mexico that became the last refuge of the exile. Compiled a few months before his death, it turned out to be prophetic: the author foresaw that his death would cause just such a reaction in the victorious Kremlin rival.

“There is no need for me here once again to refute the stupid and vile slander of Stalin and his agents. There is not a single spot on my revolutionary honor, - Trotsky confesses in his will. “Neither directly nor indirectly have I entered into any behind-the-scenes agreements or even negotiations with the enemies of the working class. Thousands of Stalin's opponents died victims of similar false accusations. New revolutionary generations will restore their political honor and give the executioners of the Kremlin what they deserve…”

And further. “For forty-three years of my conscious life I remained a revolutionary, of which forty-two years I fought under the banner of Marxism. If I had to start over, I would, of course, try to avoid certain mistakes, but the general direction of my life would remain unchanged. I will die a proletarian revolutionary, a Marxist, a dialectical materialist and therefore an inapplicable atheist. My faith in the communist future of mankind is no less ardent now, but stronger than in the days of my youth.”

From a postscript dated March 3, 1940: “Whatever the circumstances of my death, however, I will die with an unshakable faith in the communist future. This faith in man and his future gives me even now such a force of resistance that no religion can give.

Probably, there is no need to compare the specific moments of the confrontation - this is obvious from examining their biographies.

It seems to me that it is more relevant to understand why Stalin won. A small, inconspicuous politician, a rather weak orator, confidently defeated the fiery tribune of the Revolution, the creator of the Red Army, Lenin's right hand.

Stalin, like no other of the leaders, understood the colossal power of the apparatus - party officials and executive power in the localities and in the capital. Stalin proclaimed the slogan - "Cadres decide everything." Starting from 1922, when he became General Secretary, he gradually replaced people in all key positions with his proteges. This played a decisive, in my opinion, role in the fight against Trotsky. Trotsky believed that his authority, intelligence, oratorical talent, great merits, guarantee him victory.

By the way, history does not always teach our leaders. Khrushchev, Gorbochev did not appreciate the danger of the apparatus. But Yeltsin made full use of the power of the apparatus.

The conducted research convinced me even more that Stalin and Trotsky did not appear on the historical arena by chance. One can think for a long time about what would have happened to Russia if Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky and others had not been born. And what would have happened to the country if Trotsky had won? Although history does not have a subjunctive mood, one can still speculate what would happen to history. It seems to me that there would be no other, radically different way. Most likely, our country was moving in the same direction…

After the concentration of sole power in his hands, Leon Trotsky would hardly have betrayed the communist ideals, but, quite likely, he would have put them into practice in a tougher and more uncompromising form than Stalin.

power struggle

When Lenin's health worsened in early 1923, a serious struggle for power began in the leadership of the CPSU (b). The situation was aggravated by the "Letter to the Congress", in which Lenin sharply criticized his closest associates - Stalin and Trotsky, calling the first "rude and disloyal", the second - "boastful and self-confident." It was Trotsky who found himself in a disadvantageous position in the upcoming battle: the “troika” consisting of Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev, armed with the term “Trotskyism”, was preparing to give a serious battle to their main political opponent.
To begin with, the composition of the Central Committee was expanded at the expense of the supporters of the Troika, which allowed the main Bolshevik body to make decisions bypassing Trotsky's position. Subsequently, Stalin, who headed the Orgburo and the secretariat of the Central Committee, began to appoint his proteges to key party posts, which ultimately neutralized the competitor.
Lev Davidovich could have been saved by the XIII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which was held in May 1924 in Moscow, but having lost the debates preceding the congress, he remained in an absolute minority and soon completely lost control over the Central Committee. And yet, assuming that Trotsky defeated Stalin, what path could the USSR take? Let's think.

Chaos of a bright future

Trotsky, unlike the restrained and pragmatic Stalin, was an impulsive and categorical person. It is his political ideals that can best characterize the lines from the International: "We will destroy the whole world of violence to the ground, and then we will build ours, we will build a new world - who was nothing, he will become everything."
Speaking at a rally in Kazan in 1918, Trotsky said: “We highly value science, art, we want to make art, science, all schools, universities accessible to the people. But if our class enemies want to once again show us that all this exists only for them, we will say: death to the theater, science, art.
Such populist statements, and in the future, possibly inconsistent actions, would most likely complicate the building of socialism in the country with serious distortions, which could cause dissatisfaction with Trotsky's policies both in the ranks of party comrades-in-arms and among the broad masses of the population.
“We, comrades, love the sun that shines for us, but if the rich and the exploiters want to monopolize the sun, we will say: let the sun go out and darkness, eternal darkness reign,” Trotsky drew the frightening prospects for social construction to the people.

Father of terror

Despite the fact that many associate the repressive methods of Soviet politics solely with the name of Stalin, the Bolshevik terror was the invention of Lenin and Trotsky. If the latter had inherited power in the USSR, then the scope of repression would have been no less, and perhaps even greater, than under Stalin.
In 1920, Trotsky wrote a book with the ominous title Terrorism and Communism, which was a response to the theses of the German Marxist Karl Kautsky. In it, Lev Bronstein not only justifies the Red Terror during the Civil War, but also calls not to abandon it after it ends. Even in the political struggle, Trotsky advises to be guided not by arguments, but by force and one's own interests: "The conquest of power by the proletariat does not complete the revolution, but only opens it."
Of course, the idealist Trotsky explained the coercive policy of the state by the interests of the working masses, without which the authorities cannot do anything. However, no one would give guarantees that, with the concentration of all power in the hands of Trotsky, he would not introduce an absolute dictatorship.
Trotsky's political methods were most clearly demonstrated by the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion, where more than 1,000 dead sailors testified to the true attitude of the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council towards democracy.
It is curious that Stalin repeatedly referred to the book "Terrorism and Communism" and more than once used excerpts from it to justify political repressions. Without sinning against the truth, it should be recognized that Trotsky may well share with Stalin the title of ideologist of the Great Terror.

United states of the world

Trotsky repeatedly stated that he was not going to limit himself to building socialism in a single state, which Stalin was inclined to do. His ideal is the fire of the world revolution. It is likely that, having come to power, he would have continued to support the Comintern, as well as any communist uprisings around the globe. So, if Stalin and Zinoviev reacted very coolly to the uprising of the Hamburg communists, then Trotsky was convinced that this was the beginning of a communist revolution in Germany.
Until the end of his life, Trotsky believed that a communist state "The United States of Europe and Asia" would be built in the eastern hemisphere of the earth, in which citizens liberated from bourgeois shackles would live and enjoy the fruits of universal equality and prosperity.
If the state led by Trotsky had waged a consistent campaign to communize the planet, then it is quite possible that the countries of the West would have taken up arms against the USSR through a broad anti-Soviet coalition. Without reliable allies, our country would most likely have to enter into a protracted military conflict with the leading powers of the world - the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, and no one knows how this confrontation would end.
The Argentine writer Marcos Aginis writes in his book Young Leva: "If Trotsky's theses had prevailed over Stalin's, then everything would have gone differently in Europe." However, the Argentine overly idealizes his idol. The “beautiful and idealistic” character of the young Trotsky gives him the feeling that the revolutionary would never have become what Stalin later turned into.

Individual freedom

However, one can partly agree with Aginis. Trotsky did not suffer from leaderism; the cult of personality was unacceptable to him. Indicative in this regard are the words of Trotsky about the attitude of society towards Lenin, which made him not a revolutionary leader, but "the head of the church hierarchy", along the way cutting Lenin's quotes for "false sermons."
Absolutely not as Stalin perceived the position of individuals in the classless state built by the Bolsheviks. Even at the dawn of the Soviets, Trotsky was carried away by Freud and psychoanalytic experiments, the purpose of which was to create a "new man". So, at the initiative of Trotsky, the International Solidarity laboratory house was opened, where the younger generation was freed from all kinds of psychological complexes. An important element of education was the exclusion of parents from this process.
And now the obsolete institution of the family is being replaced by the commune, which was supposed to eliminate the line between the personal and the public, no matter whether it is material property or human feelings. It is not known what path Soviet society would have taken if all of Trotsky's social experiments had not been stopped.

Industrial spurt

The concept of over-industrialization of the country put forward by Trotsky was initially rejected by Stalin. The leader of the USSR was more attracted to the reform model proposed by Nikolai Bukharin, which envisaged the development of private entrepreneurship by attracting foreign loans. However, already in 1929, the Bukharinian approach was replaced by the Trotskyist one, though without the extremes inherent in the methods of war communism, on which Lev Davidovich intended to rely.
According to Trotsky's concept of accelerated industrialization, the rapid growth of the national economy was to be achieved by relying solely on internal resources, using the means of agriculture and light industry for the development of heavy industry. With such a one-sided approach, the costs of rapid industrial growth had to be "paid" by the peasantry. One can only imagine what kind of excesses and upheavals industrialization would have turned out for the country if the process was controlled by the author of the idea himself.

War cannot be avoided

The most tragic page of the Stalin era and the entire Soviet history was the Great Patriotic War. Could Trotsky have prevented this catastrophic event if he had assumed the post of head of state?
It is known that Trotsky treated Hitler with hostility, but the Fuhrer, on the contrary, showed all respect to the prominent revolutionary. Hitler's biographer Konrad Heyden recalled how the German leader praised Trotsky's memoirs, calling them "a brilliant book" and noting that he "learned a lot from their author."
The documents of the Reich even slipped the fact that the German government was making plans to create a collaborationist government of the USSR, headed by Trotsky. However, it was not Stalin's personality that prompted Germany to aggression against the USSR, but Hitler's indefatigable ambitions. It is not difficult to imagine that if Trotsky had been in Stalin's place, the staunch anti-Semite Hitler would have found additional arguments for attacking the Soviet state.

If one attempts to reconstruct what Trotsky's main political thought was, it is not so easy to make sense of the mountain of false accusations that was incessantly piled up against him, first by the Zinovievists, then by the Stalinists, then by the Stalinist heirs.

In any case, already at the time when this struggle was taking place within the party, and I was a witness to it, for me, as for all the Bolshevik leaders, the falsity and far-fetchedness of most of the disagreements was clear. It was necessary to defeat the opponent and seize power. But it was impossible to look like this was an unprincipled struggle of spiders in a jar. It was necessary to pretend that the struggle was highly ideological and that the disagreements were extremely important: almost the entire future of the revolution allegedly depended on one or another of their decisions.

Meanwhile, these were usually vague disputes about words. In particular, many such empty and tendentious disputes were held around Trotsky's famous theory of "permanent revolution" and Stalin's "building of socialism in one country." In fact, Trotsky's idea was that with the October Revolution in Russia, an era of world social revolution began, which would flare up in other countries as well. Always keeping this goal in mind, we must regard communist Russia as a springboard, a base that makes it possible to conduct and continue preparatory revolutionary work in other countries. This does not mean at all that, bearing in mind the goal of the world revolution, one can not attach any importance to what will happen in Russia. On the contrary, according to Trotsky, it is necessary to actively build communism in Russia; but in his opinion (and it must be said that Lenin fully shared this opinion before the revolution), one isolated Russian revolution would hardly withstand the onslaught of the other "capitalist" countries for long, which would try to suppress it by force of arms.

It is quite clear that although Trotsky was expelled, killed, condemned and anathematized, this general idea of ​​a permanent world revolution has always continued to be carried out by Russian communism, continues to be carried out and will always be the main strategic line of communism.

True, under the pressure of facts and experience, Russian communism had to revise some of the initial pessimistic forecasts of Lenin and Trotsky. The leaders of the major "capitalist" powers not only, contrary to all common sense, did not overthrow Russian communism by force of arms, but betraying Western civilization, like Churchill and Roosevelt, they did everything to save communism when danger began to threaten it, and did everything so that it would capture half the world and became the main global threat to humanity.

It was indeed very difficult to foresee such a degree of betrayal and political cretinism; here I must intercede for Lenin and Trotsky: they made assumptions based on the fact that they are dealing with normal and sane opponents. How can one not quote a talented Russian poet

Tell you about all the world's fools

That the fate of mankind is held in their hands.

Tell you about all the world's scoundrels

That go down in history in bright crowns.

Disputes about the Stalinist theory of "building socialism in one country" have exactly the same character of far-fetchedness. Stalin, wanting to pretend that he also had basically ideological differences with Trotsky, at the beginning of 1925 accused Trotsky of not attaching importance, "does not believe" in the possibility of building socialism in one country, that is, in Russia, where the communist revolution has already been carried out. Unfortunately, at that moment (March 1925), a squabble began again between Zinoviev and Stalin: Zinoviev did not tolerate Stalin's excursions into the field of general strategy and found his attempts to act as a theoretician and strategist ridiculous. There were skirmishes at the March plenum, and Stalin took revenge on Zinoviev by showing him that a majority in the Central Committee was worth more than any strategy. At the plenum, Zinoviev's theses to the Executive Committee of the Comintern were rejected on the absurd grounds of a dispute over words - whether the question is about the "final" victory of socialism or not. In April, Zinoviev and Kamenev doubled their attacks on the Politburo against Stalinist socialism in one country - it was necessary to prevent Stalin from putting his candidacy for strategists and leaders of the revolution. At the end of April, Stalin convened the XIV Party Conference, at which this issue was discussed purely.

Again, the disputes were about words and were far-fetched. Can socialism be built in one country? The question, after all, was whether his enemies were overthrown by force of arms. In the eighth year of the revolution, one could already see that no one was going to overthrow him yet. Should this be made into a symbol of faith? What's the point of this? Or consider that for the time being it is necessary to strengthen, and then it will be seen, this, in essence, did not matter. And how much later, having quarreled with Stalin, Zinoviev poured a block of ink on Stalin, proving that he was not a revolutionary, abandoned the world revolution and mired only in local affairs, etc.

In the early 1920s, relations between Trotsky and Stalin escalated. Forced to obey Trotsky militarily as a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of a number of fronts, but equal to him in party and government positions (both from March 1919 were members of the Politburo of the Central Committee, from October 26, 1917 - people's commissars), Stalin, with his pride, tried to interfere in military decisions. No less proud and striving to accustom his subordinates to the unquestioning execution of orders, Lev Davidovich was not inclined to tolerate such things. As an arbiter already in 1918. Lenin had to speak. He sought to establish their normal joint work.

At this time, Trotsky, of course, was assessed as the "second person" in the leadership after Lenin. He himself quite favorably perceived the desire of part of the press and those around him to form a cult of his personality. In 1922 in paragraph 41 of the Political Regulations of the Red Army, his biography was placed. The paragraph ended with the words: “Comrade. Trotsky is the leader and organizer of the Red Army. Standing at the head of the Red Army, comrade. Trotsky leads her to victory over all the enemies of the Soviet Republic. One of the first renamed settlements was Gatchina, which received the name "Trotsk".

After the death of Lenin, a conflict broke out in the party, the central figures of which were Trotsky and Stalin. In April 1922, immediately after the XI Party Congress, the plenum of the Central Committee elected Iosif Vissarionovich as the General Secretary of the RCP (b). And to put it more precisely (as Lenin said in his letter about Stalin), he "became" the general secretary. This phrase of Vladimir Ilyich cannot be omitted, since immediately after the "election" of Stalin, no minutes of the relevant meetings were found, about who voted "for", who "against", and whether there was a vote at all. And although this administrative, in general, position did not give any special rights, it opened the way to great power ... Much depended on the person who prepared questions for the Politburo, and then controlled the implementation of decisions. And not all current issues were brought up for discussion, they could be resolved in working order. And General Secretary Stalin skillfully used this.

In the conflict that broke out, Stalin was supported by Kamenev and Zinoviev. Collisions appeared even during the discussion of Lenin's latest works. It was Trotsky who asked Lenin to defend the monopoly of foreign trade at the plenum of the Central Committee, to support a group of Georgian communists against the Stalin-Ordzhonikidze line. It must be said that Trotsky himself reacted to these requests rather evasively, citing ill health. This position was also manifested in the signing by him, together with other members of the Politburo, the Orgburo and the Secretariat of the Central Committee on January 25, 1923. (the day after the publication of Lenin's article "How do we reorganize the Rabkrin", which caused discontent of the apparatchiks) of a secret circular to the provincial party committees, which emphasized Lenin's illness and his departure from everyday party life.

Meanwhile, a discussion was unfolding in the party. Given the authority of Trotsky, the Politburo proposed the creation of a conciliation commission to develop a resolution on party building. On December 5, a commission composed of Zinoviev, Stalin and Trotsky, after much debate, adopted the agreed text. Despite his illness (he caught a cold while hunting at the end of October and was ill until the spring of 1924), Trotsky published four articles in Pravda under the general title "New Course". Here he developed his thoughts on the problem of inner-party democracy in the conditions of the Soviet system, trying to rely on the resolution of the Politburo. Recognizing the need to prevent other parties during the period of the dictatorship of the proletariat, Trotsky at the same time argued that the ban on the faction itself did not solve the essence of the issue. He saw the main danger in bureaucracy, in the apparatus regime, therefore he insisted that the "leading party bodies" should listen "to the voice of the broad masses of the party, not to consider any criticism as a manifestation of factionalism", that not the party for the apparatus, but the apparatus "is elected by it and must not leave it."

A new stage in the discussion broke out in the autumn of 1924, after the publication of the third volume of Trotsky's writings, which collected articles and speeches of 1917, and the article "Lessons of October" was offered as a preface. The author proved his unity with Lenin at that time, and called Kamenev and Zinoviev the main opponents in the party.

Undoubtedly, this historical work had a "transparent" political super-task. Therefore, immediately after its publication, a large-scale campaign began, in which the vast majority of participants were not interested in finding out the historical truth, but in the opportunity to strike back. Kamenev and Zinoviev were especially zealous. They organized demands to expel Trotsky from the leading bodies and even from the party. This was opposed by Stalin, the "genius of apparatus games", who appeared before the party in the aura of a peacemaker and received political benefits from the mutual accusations of three other party leaders. In January 1925 Trotsky agreed to submit an application to the plenum of the Central Committee for his release "from the duties of chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council." Trotsky was removed from the post of People's Commissar of the Military Sea and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council, His supporter K.B. Radek commented on the discussions with a playful epigram: “Dangerous business to write books in Russia. You, Leva, scribbled "Lessons of October" in vain. In May 1925 Trotsky was made chairman of the concession committee, chairman of the scientific and technical department of the Supreme Economic Council.

But life was preparing another turn. Having won, the "troika" splits. At that time, Stalin supported Bukharin, who considered possible new concessions to the peasantry, the predominant development of light industry in the coming years. Kamenev and Zinoviev accuse them, above all Bukharin, of underestimating the "kulak danger", of "right deviation". At the same time, they question the possibility of the victory of socialism in one country, the "consistently socialist" nature of state enterprises, and recall Lenin's demand to remove Stalin from the post of general secretary. An open clash occurs in December 1925. at the XIV Congress of the CPSU (b).

Now Stalin is changing. At first cautiously, and then bolder and bolder, throwing off the mask of a “modest” old Bolshevik whom the party “forced” to bear the heavy burden of the Secretary General, he more and more clearly showed a desire to get into the pantheon of great people, not disdaining any means. Already his fiftieth anniversary, he turned into a real "crowning the kingdom." Thousands of the meanest, meanest, servilely servile resolutions, greetings from the masses, concocted by the trained party, trade union and Soviet apparatus, addressed to the "dear leader", "Lenin's best student", "brilliant theoretician". Dozens of articles in Pravda, in which many authors declared themselves Stalin's disciples - this is the main background of the anniversary.

Finally, Stalin's "historical" article in The Proletarian Revolution finally and with all cynicism reveals his true intentions. To remake history in such a way that Stalin takes the "befitting" place of a great man in it - that is the innermost meaning of Stalin's article.

Just as Louis Bonaparte swore allegiance to the constitution before the chamber and at the same time prepared to proclaim himself emperor, so Stalin, in his struggle with Trotsky, and later with Zinoviev and Kamenev, declared that he was fighting for the collective leadership of the party, that “it is impossible to lead the party outside the collegium, that "it is impossible to lead the party without Rykov, Bukharin, Tomsky", that "we will not give you Bukharin's blood", that "the cut-off policy is disgusting to us", and at the same time prepared a bloodless coup, cutting off one group after another and selecting them for the Central Committee apparatus and secretaries provincial committees and regional committees of people personally loyal to him.

Gradually, organizational measures against Trotsky became tougher. October 23, 1926 the joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission removed him from the Politburo, where he had not played an active role for a long time. Exactly one year later, a new plenum expelled Trotsky and Zinoviev from membership in the Central Committee. Stalin enlisted the organs of the OGPU in the fight against the opposition.

November 14, 1927 Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the party. Five days later, Trotsky's longtime friend A.A. committed suicide. Ioffe. At his funeral, at the Novodevichy Cemetery, Trotsky delivered his last public speech. From December 2 to December 19, the XV Congress of the CPSU (b) was held. The speeches of the representatives of the opposition - Rakovsky, Kamenev, Muralov - were accompanied by the incessant noise of the hall, indignant cries. The paradox was that tomorrow's anti-Stalinists, such as A.I. Rykov, M.N. Ryutin, offered to throw the opposition into the "garbage pit of history", threatened "in the near future ... to increase ... the population of prisons." The congress expelled from the party about a hundred leading oppositionists, giving the signal for reprisals on the ground. The largest opposition figures were sent to various cities of the country. The prediction of one of Trotsky's supporters (who was shot in August 1936), S.V., came true. Mrachkovsky: "Stalin will deceive, and Zinoviev will run away." A few months later, Kamenev and Zinoviev fully admitted their guilt before the party and were returned to Moscow. Many others followed their example. This did not save them all from new reproach in the coming years, and then destruction.

Along with some others, Trotsky remained inflexible. January 17, 1928 he was taken with his wife and sons to the Yaroslavl railway station. On the ring road, the train went to the Central Asian direction. The final goal was Alma-Ata. Here Trotsky spent about a year. In January 1930 he is introduced to the resolution of the board of the OGPU (January 18, 1929), which provided for the expulsion of Trotsky from the USSR for provoking anti-Soviet speeches and preparing an armed struggle against Soviet power.

Meanwhile, Stalin undertakes a new stage of political repression. Beginning in 1928 first of all, from blows against the old intelligentsia, now repressions are increasingly falling on the former party opposition. Trotsky, his activities become for the OGPU-NKVD a necessary component for the charges brought. All those arrested were accused, as a rule, of "Trotskyism", of propagating his ideas, having connections with Trotsky, carrying out his instructions, and plotting a counter-revolutionary coup. In the Soviet press, Trotsky becomes an ominous symbol of the most vile plans of imperialism and fascism against the USSR. Politicians, journalists, cartoonists compete among themselves in search of the most derogatory epithets, which should show the insignificance and blackness of Trotsky's soul. There is no crime he has not been accused of. Foreign communist parties are involved in this persecution and diplomatic channels are used. In 1932 Trotsky is deprived of Soviet citizenship.

Throughout the 1930s, Trotsky did not stop political activity within the limits that were available to him. First of all, it was a literary work. As a journalist and publicist, he was unusually prolific. In addition to the autobiographical book "My Life", he writes "What is a permanent revolution?" (came out in 1930 in Berlin). At the same time, the two-volume History of the Russian Revolution was published. The works "Stalin's school of falsifications", "The betrayed revolution", "Their morality and ours", biographies of Lenin and Stalin appear. Since 1929 the Bulletin of the Opposition is published, with which he constantly cooperates.

If in 1932 he wrote that the main thing was to "remove Stalin", then in 1936. comes to the conclusion that the problem is much more serious: “The elimination of Stalin personally would today mean nothing more than replacing him with one of the Kaganoviches, whom the Soviet press would turn into the most brilliant of geniuses in the shortest possible time.” And further: "The point is ... to change the very methods of managing the economy and directing culture," emphasizing the need for a "second ... revolution." He pointed out that "Stalinism and fascism, despite the deep difference in social foundations, are symmetrical phenomena."

Meanwhile, around Trotsky, the ring was shrinking ever tighter. It seems that he himself was to a certain extent needed by Stalin during the period of the "great terror". Needed as a symbol of the Devil, Satan. But people close to Trotsky died one after another.

At about 6:20 p.m. on May 28, Jacques Mornard (Ramon Mercader) came to Trotsky with a corrected text of his article, which he had shown him a few days before. Trotsky forbade the guards to search visiting acquaintances. When Lev Davidovich sat down at his desk, Jacques pulled out a shortened ice ax from under his cloak and hit the owner of the house on the head. Trotsky was taken to the hospital, where he died on August 21, 1940. at 19:25.

Trotsky's life ended in 1961, but his books, his ideas, and his followers remained. His name will attract the attention of historians, philosophers, and economists for a long time to come. It will be discussed.

Such, in its most concise form, is the political path of Trotsky and the trend he created—Trotskyism. Trotsky is one of the most controversial figures in the history of the Russian and international revolutionary movement, a revolutionary, party and statesman of the world's first workers' state. What is instructive in his multifaceted and far from unambiguous experience? Where Trotsky showed himself as a recognized leader of the masses, a responsible leader of the party and the Soviet state, his activity is close and understandable to us. Wherever he opposed the lines of the party, Leninism opposed his own concepts and personal ambitions, his paths diverged from the party. Such is the logic of historical development.

Stalin vs. Trotsky Shcherbakov Alexey Yurievich

Good old methods

Good old methods

One of Trotsky's favorite terms was "Thermidor". He borrowed it from Lenin, but it was Lev Davidovich who put it into wide use.

The essence of the term is as follows. During the French Revolution on July 27, 1794 (9 Thermidor II of the Republican calendar), another coup took place. The government of radical revolutionaries led by Maximilian Robespierre was overthrown, its members were executed. Far more moderate elements came to power, taking a course to curtail the revolution - primarily to stop the terror, which had already gone beyond all limits. Subsequently, the Thermidorians were dispersed by Napoleon.

From the point of view of the Trotskyists, "Thermidorianism" meant the rebirth of the revolution.

“During the French Revolution, many were guillotined. And we shot many. But there were two big chapters in the French Revolution... When the chapter went like this - upwards - the French Jacobins, then Bolsheviks, guillotined the royalists and the Girondins. And we had such a big head when we, the oppositionists, shot the White Guards together with you and expelled the Girondins. And then another chapter began in France, when ... the Thermidorians and Bonapartists ... began to shoot the left Jacobins - the then Bolsheviks.

(L. D. Trotsky)

In Stalin's policy, Lev Davidovich saw a "creeping Thermidor." But since he understood that he could not cope with Stalin alone, then ... That's it. He began to gather all the dissatisfied, not particularly looking at their political views. What will become the trademark of the Trotskyists for a long time. However, here, as always, everyone hopes that in the end he will outplay everyone. This is how the “united opposition” was born. One of the main slogans was "the course towards workers' democracy and, above all, inner-party democracy."

We started again with letters. In July 1926, before the plenum of the Central Committee, the “Statement of the 13” was sent to him. Among others, there were signatures of Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Krupskaya, Pyatakov.

There was a lot of truth in the statement. The "united opposition", like any other, expounded all the miscalculations of the leadership and outrages, which, of course, were enough in the USSR. What was offered in return? Nothing. More precisely - "democracy". Although it is obvious that democracy in itself, without the absence of an alternative program, means only one thing: let us now lead, we will certainly do everything. But this intelligentsia is fascinated by the word "democracy", but the motivation of the oppositionists was perfectly clear to the workers. The unscrupulousness of many authors of the "statement" was also understandable. After all, when Letter 46 was published, Zinoviev and Kamenev considered it unacceptable. And they got hit in the nose - so they themselves signed up under almost the same requirements.

In addition, the opposition pulled out a "letter to the congress" as a trump card.

“Perhaps the most significant difference between Statement 13 and Statement 46 was the personalization of criticism and its direction against Stalin. Finally, after several years of struggle, Trotsky recognized Stalin as his most serious opponent. Deutscher claimed that Zinoviev and Kamenev convinced him of this for a long time. Believing that the main blow should be directed against the general secretary, both members of the Politburo, who had previously objected to the publication of Lenin's Letter to the Congress, now changed their position. Since the issues of Lenin’s struggle with Trotsky and the trade union discussion of 1920-1921, which largely determined the motives of the Letter, ceased to be relevant, Kamenev and Zinoviev, finding themselves in a bloc with Trotsky, saw great opportunities in using Lenin’s notes to discredit Stalin. Lenin's thoughts about the role of Trotsky, about the need to expand the size of the Central Committee, and so on, were perceived only as random remarks, and the proposal to move Stalin from the post of General Secretary seemed to be the core of the "Letter", which was increasingly announced as "Testament". Now that the role of the general secretary and his authority had immeasurably grown in comparison with the winter of 1922/23, Lenin's phrase that Stalin had concentrated immense power in his hands looked like a fatal prophecy.

(Yuri Emelyanov)

Thus, in the “Statement of the 13” it is said: “Together with Lenin, who clearly and precisely formulated his thought in a document known as the Testament, we are, on the basis of the experience of recent years, deeply convinced that the organizational policy of Stalin and his group threatens the party with further fragmentation of the main cadres, as well as with further shifts from the class line.

Although, as we remember, Trotsky wrote somewhat differently about the same "letter" ...

The discussion at the plenum was tough. One of its results was that F. E. Dzerzhinsky died of a heart attack. But this did not help the oppositionists. Stalin simply read out the Letter to the Congress. So their case ended in a new failure.

Zinoviev was removed from the Politburo, and a little later he was removed from the Comintern. For some reason, Trotsky was left in the Politburo. Then the opposition decided to use a new, or rather, old Bolshevik tactics. Mass mobilization began.

“They gathered in small groups in cemeteries, in forests, on the outskirts of cities, etc.; they put up guards and patrolmen to protect their rallies.”

(Isaac Deutscher)

“The work was taken seriously. The Center had its agents in the Central Committee and the OGPU, a special group that worked among the military (which included Primakov and Putna, the future "heroes" of the process of generals). There were similar centers in Leningrad, Kyiv, Kharkov, Sverdlovsk and other cities. For communication with opposition groups in other communist parties, they used like-minded people who worked in the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs and the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade. At one time, opposition materials were exported abroad by Alexandra Kollontai - until she switched to Stalinist positions in a very timely manner. As you know, flirting with the Trotskyists safely got away with it.

According to the old Bolshevik habit, the opposition went to the people. In Moscow and Leningrad, they held secret meetings in workers' apartments. According to the possibilities of apartments, from a few dozen to one and a half to two hundred people came there. The meetings were semi-secret, but the representatives of the Central Control Commission and the OGPU were well aware of the gatherings, and often even appeared there demanding to disperse. Usually they were sent away, with or without scuffle, and continued to work. About 20,000 people attended such meetings.”

(Elena Prudnikova)

At the same time, samizdat went to the people. Materials of the opposition were propagated by improvised means. The good old methods were used - hectographs, glass printers and typewriters.

Supporters of the general line did not remain in debt. This is how an unknown supporter of the opposition described what was happening: “Malenkov ... organized numerous gangs of party and Komsomol hooligans. Specially trained by Malenkov and equipped with sticks, stones, old galoshes, rotten eggs, etc., these gangs, calling themselves "workers' squads," disrupted discussion meetings, pelted oppositionists with stones, galoshes, etc., dispersed their meetings, wielding sticks." By the way, these Malenkov detachments received the nickname "SBB", that is, "Stalin's battalions of bashi-bazouks."

All in all, it's been an interesting time. Imagine a picture - Komsomol members are sitting in some student hostel, drinking culturally. Then someone suggests:

- What are we going to do guys? Maybe we'll go beat the Trotskyists in the face?

However, with all the noise, there was not much sense. There was no mass discontent. After all, it is far from certain that all of the twenty thousand workers who passed through the meetings of the opposition became its supporters. Although a certain number of people joined the opposition. Offended in Russia sympathize. In addition, there are always "eternal Protestants."

Most of all, it would seem, Trotsky won. Because all oppositionists began to be called "Trotskyists." His name was already circulating on its own.

Moreover, the party leadership was forced to announce a discussion. Otherwise it turned out somehow ugly. Oppositionists went to the people already legally.

Good People of Ancient Russia Charity is a word with a very controversial meaning and a very simple meaning. Many people interpret it differently and everyone understands it the same way. Ask what it means to be kind to others and you may get as many answers as you do.