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ism, Trotsky's remark does not-nor could it-touch upon the
complex of causes behind that degeneration. Any effort to explain
a major historical phenomenon (like the rise of Stalinism) by the
workings of an exclusive cause (like Bolshevik centralization) is
doomed to be superficial, and the later Trotsky w.as right in rejecting
such a mode of explanation.
Though siding with the Mensheviks on party organization,
Trotsky began, in the early years of the century, to express views
on another fundamental problem-the relationship in the corning
Russian Revolution between the socialist and the liberal bourgeois
parties-which brought him closer to Lenin. Since, as all Russian
Marxists agreed, the first task was to overthrow the Czar and
establish democratic rights, the Mensheviks argued that the liberal
bourgeoisie would have to take the lead and the working class serve
as a loyal opposition. Trotsky, by contrast, insisted that the socialists
should keep a clear distance from the bourgeois parties and not
compromise with liberalism.
These discussions, apparently so academic, soon involved the
destinies of millions. For the moment, however, they were happily
put aside when the Russian people, long voiceless and dormant,
began in 1905 to stir against the Czarist regime. In Petersburg a
demonstration led by an Orthodox priest called for democratic rights;
the Czar ordered his troops to fire into the crowd. From Geneva
Trotsky wrote in a state of high excitement:
One day of revolution was enough, one magnificent contact
between the Czar and the people was enough for the idea of
constitutional monarchy to become fantastic, doctrinaire, and
disgusting. The priest Gapon rose with his idea of the monarch
against the real monarch. But, as behind him there stood not
monarchist liberals but revolutionary proletarians, this limited
"insurrection" immediately manifested its rebellious content
in barricade fighting and in the outcry: Down with the Czar.
The real monarch has destroyed the idea of the monarch. . . .
The revolution has come and she has put an end to our
p0-
litical childhood.
Throughout the year 1905 Russia was in a turmoil of rebellion.
Strikes closed the factories, street demonstrations broke out in the
cities, the crew of the battleship
Potemkin
revolted. One of the
fIrst
