Trotsky - book

Trotsky Downfall of a Revolutionary, by Bertrand M. Patenaude (Harper Collins, 2009)

Leon Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (1879) to a well-off Russian, non-religious, Jewish farming family, became second in importance only to Lenin during the Russian Revolution of 1917. He was first People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, one of the first members of the Politburo, and he founded and was Commander of the Red Army that successfully defeated the Whites. As a critic and rival of Stalin, and Stalin’s policies, he was thrown out of the Communist Party, and eventually found asylum in Mexico where he was assassinated on Stalin’s orders. For these modest achievements he was recently dismissed as a “schmuck” by a most disgraceful excuse for a book review (Justin Moyer, Seattle Times, Sunday, November 8, 2009). This brief and dismissive review makes me wonder if the reviewer even read the book.

This book is not a biography of Trotsky, nor does it tell you much about the Russian revolution. It focuses primarily on the years of Trotsky’s exile in Mexico, the only major country that agreed to accept him after the Russians pressured other countries, finally including Norway, to expel him, and only after the intervention of the great Mexican painter, Diego Rivera (a dilettante socialist), who approached the then Mexican President, Lazaro Cardenas on his behalf. Trotsky, who had been an important literary figure in Russia, and was himself a fine writer and critic, managed to support himself, his wife, and a number of bodyguards through his writing, and with the assistance of Trotskyite factions in the U.S. and elsewhere. While it is true that he did not do well in interpersonal relations, he was a spellbinding speaker, and did receive the loyalty of many (both paid and volunteer) followers who often referred to him simply as the “Old Man.” Much of his time in exile was spent defending himself from the outrageously false charges Stalin persisted in pursuing, in spite of the fact that he was acquitted by an investigative commission led by no less a figure than John Dewey. Trotsky had predicted the shameful Stalin/Hitler pact, and also what would happen to the Soviet Union under Stalin, and he wrote widely and often on such subjects, at times in a very insulting manner towards Stalin, which, of course, did not sit well with the Dictator. It was no secret that Stalin wanted him eliminated.

As a result of Stalin’s known intentions, Trotsky’s life in Mexico was one of constant vigilance. He lived in a carefully guarded complex with five or six bodyguards in attendance at all times. For a man who liked to travel, picnic, hunt and fish, his activities were restricted but not completely, and he did enjoy occasional outings. Among other things he became interested in collecting cactus and filled his patio with different varieties. He also enjoyed raising chickens and rabbits. Trotsky was known as a bit of a philanderer and had a brief affair with Rivera’s artist wife, Frida Kahlo, that was apparently not known to Rivera who was an extremely jealous person (when Rivera and Trotsky finally parted ways it was not because of this affair). While Trotsky’s wife, Natalia Sedova (of almost forty years, and mother of their two children), might well not have been happy about this, to say she was “humiliated,” as the above mentioned reviewer writes, has to be far from the truth. No one could possibly read the account of Trotsky’s death in this book, and Natalia’s reaction at the time, and not believe the love between them was not far more powerful than could possibly have been affected by Trotsky’s apparently occasional dalliances. Indeed, one of the last things Trotsky said to her while dying was that he loved her, he insisted everything should go to her, and implored his colleagues to take care of her. When he died, in her grief, she pressed her face against the soles of his feet.

Having survived a major but failed attack on his stronghold by a number of armed intruders, Trotsky was finally murdered on Stalin’s orders with a blow to the head by single operative who had managed to infiltrate his immediate entourage. The picture of Trotsky that emerges from this interesting book, at least for me, is that of an intellectual and political giant who, entirely consumed by his belief in the possibility of a workers’ paradise, did not suffer fools gladly, was not very concerned about most others or their feelings, did not compromise easily or at all, was a demanding taskmaster, and perhaps a bit of a perfectionist, and relentlessly pursued his revolutionary beliefs. He opposed and bravely fought against Stalinism when it was exceedingly dangerous for anyone to do so. He believed that Stalin had failed the revolution and socialism, but at the same time could not repudiate his own life’s work as a socialist, and believed in socialism until the very end. I do not think the subtitle of this book, “Downfall of a Revolutionary,” is entirely appropriate, it should more properly be “Destruction of a Revolutionary,” or even more appropriately, “Assassination of a Revolutionary.”