B
0 0 K S
367
not anything objective-such as, for instance, the corpse of Stalin–
but solely the staged confessions of defendant<> pulverized into sub–
mission by methods that are no longer a mystery. Now Stalin is boss
of the Kremlin while Trotsky lies dead in Mexico, his skull crushed
by a pickaxe swung by an agent of the NKVD. "Since early youth,"
wrote Iremashvilli, a boyhood friend of Stalin's, "the carrying out
of vengeful plots became for him the goal that dominated all his
efforts." One could maintain, and quite plausibly too, that it is not
so much political necessity as the psychology of Stalin which explains
the assassination of Trotsky. Against that Mr. Schuman could argue
that such an explanation is subjective. He would be right, of course,
but there it is nevertheless. Really, it is time the mythomaniacs
learned that psychology is a knife that cuts both ways.
Stalin's murderous intervention in the writing of his biography
accounts for the unfinished state of this book. Only the first seven
chapters, which do not take us beyond 1923, are printed as Trotsky
wrote them; the rest consists of notes filled in by Mr. Malamuth, the
editor and translator. The estimate of Stalin remains substantially
the same as that recorded in Trotsky's earlier writings. Stalin per–
sonifies the interests and aspirations of the bureaucratic caste now
cashing in on the Revolution. He is the despoiler, not the continuator
of Leninism. A mediocrity so far as theoretical imagination and
historical intuition are concerned, he remained in the background
in 1905 and also in 191 7 because in those heroic periods the posts
of leadership were necessarily occupied by men capable of inspiring
mass-action and of acting as tribunes, orators, strategists and analysts
of revolution. Stalin's talents, on the other hand, are strictly of the
sort which find ample scope only in periods of reaction, when the
masses are in retreat and the political machine seizes control. When–
ever it becomes necessary to choose between the idea and the machine,
he inevitably sides with the machine. A program must first of all create
its bureaucracy before he can believe in it. "Such attributes of charac–
ter as slyness, faithlessness, the ability to exploit the lowest instincts
of human nature are developed to an extraordinary degree in Stalin,
and considering hie; strong character, represent mighty weapons in a
struggle." But not of course in any struggle, for the struggle to lib–
erate humanity requires other traits. "In Stalin's spiritual life, the
personal practical aim always stood above the theoretical truth, and
the will played an immeasurably greater part than the intellect....
Lack of confidence in the masses, as well as in individuals, is the basis
