3. From the History of Bolshevism (Part Two)¶
Core Argument¶
The 1905 Revolution forged Bolshevism as a political force. Trotsky, who chaired the Petersburg Soviet—described by Lenin as an “embryonic organ of revolutionary power”—emerged from the upheaval with enormous popularity, while Lenin and Martov gained none. Crucially, Trotsky’s political position was already close to Lenin’s: both scorned class collaboration with the liberal bourgeoisie and identified the proletariat and peasantry as the sole revolutionary forces. Their respective journals supported one another without polemics. At the 1906 Stockholm Congress, Lenin insisted the bourgeoisie was counter-revolutionary and that the only guarantee against restoration was socialist revolution in the West, a position that set him against the Mensheviks’ argument that workers must refuse power in a bourgeois revolution.
During the long reaction of 1907–1914, Trotsky pursued conciliationism, seeking to hold the Marxist movement together by preventing a split. Lenin disagreed, arguing that unity required first breaking with opportunists. Trotsky later admitted Lenin was correct on this organisational question. The Bolshevik leadership itself was deeply divided, with Lenin often isolated against both ultra-left and conciliationist currents. A letter intercepted by Tsarist police, written by Stalin, dismissed émigré disputes as a “storm in a teacup” and urged practical work over theory. Lenin angrily rebuked this attitude, calling it a “great mistake.” In 1912, the Bolshevik paper Pravda reflected these moods, mutilating Lenin’s articles and omitting his polemics against the liquidators. Lenin condemned the editorial board, including Stalin, as “pitiful dishrags” ruining the cause.
In 1917, every “Old Bolshevik”—Kamenev, Zinoviev, Stalin—advocated support for the Kerensky Government and unity with the Mensheviks, abandoning Lenin’s revolutionary defeatism. On his return, Lenin launched a sharp faction fight, accusing them of “betrayal of socialism.” Trotsky, by contrast, acted in full solidarity with the Bolsheviks from his arrival in Petrograd, despite not yet formally joining the party. He delayed his membership only to bring the Mezhrayontsi (Inter-District Group) of 4,000 workers into the Bolsheviks. In July, he demanded arrest alongside Lenin, declaring complete political agreement. Lenin waived the probationary period, and Trotsky was elected to the Central Committee with the second-highest vote. In November 1917, Lenin stated: “Trotsky understood this, and from that time on there has been no better Bolshevik”—a remark later suppressed from the minutes.
Trotsky acknowledges his August bloc policy was adventurism, a “disease” of conciliationism towards Menshevism and distrust of Leninist centralism. He explains his aim was to unite the whole party, not to side with Mensheviks against Bolsheviks, but Lenin’s refusal to unite with Mensheviks left Trotsky in an unnatural bloc that disintegrated within months. The text defends Trotsky against Stalinist falsifications, insisting there is a fundamental difference between his acknowledged errors and the cold-blooded frame-ups of Stalinism. As Trotsky wrote in 1924, his former disagreements with Lenin were never as great as the distance between Stalin-Bukharin and Marxism-Leninism.