PARTISAN REVIEW
37
Zinoviev, Kamenev are working with
him.
They always were waverers.
But one mustn't judge them by their behavior last October, they
have other excellent qualities. Among the younger people Pyatakov
and Bukharin would be acceptable in a collective leadership. You,
Davidovich, are the most capable. But so full of ideas, you tend to
extremes. Often shoot wide of the mark. Then get tangled up in
administrative matters. Yes, you are partly responsible for the mono–
lithic state that's now growing up. You see your mistakes too late.
A moment of silence.
TROTSKY
sits in a sunken attitude.
LENIN: Why don't you speak? Why, when I'm about to go, do you sud–
denly become so weak and helpless? Why do you pull back? Why don't
you accept my suggestion? Fight in my place at the party conference
for the revival of proletarian democracy? Against the bureaucrats.
TROTSKY: The Politburo calls my attacks on them attacks on the party.
They push the general secretary forward and don't see 'it is he who is
pushing them.
LENIN: So you go on waiting. Your overconfidence again. Do you think
they'll run after you? Proclaim you my successor?
A period of silence.
LENIN
lies stretched out, an arm over his face.
TROTSKY
stands up and walks to and fro.
TROTSKY: Beside you I could work. Could lead the fight against bureau–
cratic methods. I watched the new generation, the young cadres. Could
talk to them. Be damned to passive obedience, servility. Stand up for
your beliefs. Defend them. But when
you
died, all that remained was
the struggle for power. I couldn't join in that.
LENIN: You mustn't let yourself be pushed aside, Lev Davidovich. You
must be firm, unyielding. They'll see you're right in the end. Our
revolution must spread out into world revolution, or it will die.
Everything must be sacrificed to that, all short-term advantages
ignored. International class warfare. Hold firm to that. China's on
the brink of revolution. Russia and China.
If
India comes in, we'll
have an overwhelming majority. Keep on. Keep on.
He lies with closed eyes, stretched out stiffly.
TROTSKY
goes to a
chair at front and sits.
FOUR SOLDIERS,
as before, march in to the camp bed. They lift
LENIN
up and carry him to the back. Figures appears there:
KAME–
NEV, ZINOVIEV, PYATAKOV, DZERZHINSKY, RAKOVSKY, SMffiNOV, Bu–
KHARIN, STALIN.
The soldiers lay
LENIN
on a bier. The others lift
the bier and, closely huddled, bear it towards the front with slow,
dragging steps.
TROTSKY
remains motionless.
STALIN: In leaving us, Comrade Lenin commanded us to protect the
unity of our party. We swear, Comrade Lenin, to honor your com-
