PARTISAN REVIEW
323
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE LlTERATURNAJA GASETA
In the newspaper of the Soviet writers association of March
31, 1970, you turn against my play,
Trotsky in Exile.
1
You accuse me
of historical distortion, use of false documents and of falsification of
the Great Socialist October Revolution.
To be sure my account of the Revolution and of Lenin's fighting
comrades does not correspond to the picture as it has been drawn in
the Soviet Union for more than four decades. Indeed, the play is an
attack directed against this picture, for I proceed from a different
reality than the one that determined the picture as valid for socialism.
Although, from your point of view, my play can be evaluated as
being provocative, one ought to be able to expect of you that you are
more familiar with the background of the onesided drawing of the
Soviet image of Trotsky. The documentation of Marxist historical re–
search are all too numerous, the works of the people in question, the
documents and protocols about the true circumstances, speak a suffi–
ciently clear language so that they could be denied in any serious
discussion.
Even if you were to take the position that the time has not yet
come to uncover the truth about an incisive epoch, and that in the
intensified battle against imperialism certain simplifications must
be
retained for propaganda purposes, one would still assume an under–
standing of the fact that my work is not a falsification but an attempt
at restoring just historical proportions.
It
would then be possible to argue to what extent such a play can
be of service to present socialist interests or might be exploited by anti–
Soviet forces. Already Marx in his preface to
The 18th Brumaire,
and
after him Lenin again and again, pointed to the fact that the hiding of
weaknesses and conflicts is never in the best interests of socialism, and
that only their disclosure and analysis will strengthen it. All along
unsparing criticism of all mistakes in one's own camp has been the
main law of the workers' movement.
1.
This piece was written in response to an article by
Lew
Ginsberg.
Trotsky
in
Exile
was first put on in Germany in 1969, and
PR
published parts of the play for
the first time in America (No.1, 1971).
An Open Letter to the Literaturnaja
Gaseta
is reprinted with permission of Suhrkamp Verlag. Copyright
©
1971 by
Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main.
