38
PETER WEISS
mand. In leaving us, Comrade Lenin ordered us to maintain and
strengthen the dictatorship of the proletariat. We swear, Comrade
Lenin, to honor your command.
In leaving us, Comrade Lenin enjoined us to be faithful to the prin–
ciples of the communist International. We swear, Comrade Lenin, to
dedicate our lives to strengthening and increasing the links between
the workers of the whole world in the communist International.
The procession returns to the back in a semicircle and goes off.
LEV SEDOV
enters. He goes to
TROTSKY.
LEV SEDov: Father. A telephone call from Berlin. Zina is dead. She
locked herself in her room. Turned on the gas.
TROTSKY
sits in a sunken attitude.
LEV SEDOV
goes off.
12. WORLD REVOLUTION
TR.OTSKY
feels his own pulse, counting softly. He shivers.
NATALIA
comes in with a rug and a newspaper. She spreads the rug over
his knees and places the newspaper beside him.
TROTSKY
takes up
the telescope and looks thwugh it, describing a semicircle toward
the front.
TROTSKY: What weather for May. Cold, damp. Grenoble shrouded in
mist. But the mountain tops are clear. Can see every crack in the
rocks. Like walls. The reckoning's not far off now.
Voices are heard outside. Then a few inexpertly sung bars of the
«Internationale."
TROTSKY
is startled.
TROTSKY: They've followed us even here.
(He jumps up and takes cover
behind the desk)
They'll shoot.
NATALIA: I think it's just the students from Paris. They asked to see you.
NATALIA
goes off.
TROTSKY
creeps beneath the desk. A group of
students enters.
TROTSKY
takes some papers from his pocket, scatters
them around and then picks them up. He rises, wipes his forehead
with a hand and puts the papers on the desk.
TROTSKY: The draught.
He sits down at the desk. The students bring up chairs. The con–
versation begins at once.
FRENCH STUDENT: Since you're not allowed to come to Paris, we've
come as a delegation to you.
GERMAN STUDENT: We have a lot of questions. Plenty to discuss. Will
there ever be a Fourth International anyway? The slump in Amer–
ica and England didn't produce the revolutionary situation you said
it would. You declared that the capitalist system was on the verge of
collapse. At long last. How many times have you said that already?
TROTSKY: The capitalist system stinks of corruption. The conditions are
