MARK POLIZZOTTI
411
pinched voice that Zola might have some merit after all. Nor did Trot–
sky understand Breton's love of Sade and Lautreamont; and although he
admired Freud, he distrusted Surrealism's particular approach to psycho–
analysis (much like Freud himselO. "Are you trying to smother the con–
scious with the unconscious?" he asked. Finally, he questioned Breton's
interest in objective chance, even though the notion had originated with
Engels. Breton explained his view of the unconscious as a tool for social
liberation, but Trotsky, though partly swayed, accused him of trying to
"keep open a little window on the beyond."
Nonetheless, as Breton later noted, these "fleeting disagreements"
could not "damage the basic harmony" of the two men's relations.
Jacqueline, who followed her husband's interviews with Trotsky, also
remembered the predominantly cordial tone of their discussions:
L.
D.'s readings were very classical ... and this gap separated them. In
Andre, it provoked moments of despair. It must have been the same
for
L.
D. when it came to Andre's political gaps. And yet, the points
of convergence were innumerable. They shared the same love of and
respect for nature, the same joy, the same intensity of life, the same
will to change the world - each in his own way, of course, but in the
end it was the same. Both had the same violence of thought and
opinion. What Andre most admired in
L.
D. were his rigor, his com–
mitment, his passion, and his purity.
Jacqueline also saw in both of them a "great power of fascination
and seduction," as well as a "respectful, polite, generally deferent" - and
more than a little old-fashioned - attitude toward women: Breton
maintained a lifelong custom (long out of date, even in his childhood)
of kissing women's hands; and Trotsky could not tolerate a woman
smoking or wearing makeup. Needless to say, Jacqueline and Frida were
generally excluded from the men's conversations, and instead played Sur–
realist and children's games together in a corner of the room.
Over the course of Breton's four-month stay, he and Trotsky held
eight or ten such discussions, most of them during various trips taken to–
gether (both to provide a more pleasant context and to satisfy Breton's
touristic desires).
If
this seems few, it should be remembered that more
frequent contact was made difficult not only by the Russian's schedule -
apart from seeing Breton in these months, he composed several major ar–
ticles, worked on a huge book about Stalin, and kept his hand in vari–
ous political arrangements - but also by the security measures he had to
observe. Trotsky knew that the Soviet secret police had standing orders
