Page 219 - The Chief Culprit

180 y e Chief Culprit

drowned on Stalin’s orders, and the “accident” was organized by Kanner and Iagoda.” By the
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way, Kanner was executed by a firing squad in 1937, Iagoda in 1938.
In Kazakhstan, Trotsky could not publish anything. By letting Trotsky go free, Stalin
gave him the opportunity to say and write anything he wanted, including the most horrible
things about Stalin. Why did Stalin postpone Trotsky’s murder for so long? In the 1930s,
Stalin accused all his enemies in the country of being Trotskyites. Trotskyites and those who
were branded Trotskyites were executed by the thousands or sent to the camps by the thou-
sands. Meanwhile, Trotsky himself was free. He lived on islands of fantastic beauty in Turkey,
then in the south of France, in Norway, and finally in Mexico. en, all of a sudden, the hunt
for Trotsky began. ere were several assassination attempts until the successful blow with
the ice-pick.
Did Stalin’s paranoia increase? No. On the eve and at the very beginning of World War
II, Trotsky presented a clear and imminent danger not only to Stalin, but to the entire Soviet
leadership. Trotsky fanatically supported the World Revolution. Once he realized that it had
failed in Germany and throughout the world he warned that Soviet Russia could not survive
encircled by capitalist states. e only hope was to turn Soviet Russia into a military camp
and use its forces to aid revolutions whenever and wherever an opportunity appeared. Stalin
insisted that Trotsky was wrong and the Soviet Union first had to build “Socialism in One
Country.” e Soviet Union would not export revolution. en Stalin took more radical
measures than Trotsky had proposed to turn the Soviet Union into a military camp. He car-
ried out forced collectivization and industrialization, and built the GULAG camps for forced
labor. Under Stalin the Soviet Union became an industrial power and the military base for
World Revolution. Summing up, Trotsky loudly called for the World Communist Revolution.
Stalin acted to achieve the same goal, but said that Trotsky’s slogans were wrong.
Stalin’s rhetoric was successful and duped Trotsky, who thought he was exposing Stalin
when he declared to the world that Stalin had betrayed the cause of Communism and World
Revolution. Trotsky did not understand that criticism was necessary for Stalin and was part of
his plan. With his accusations, Trotsky dulled the fears of the West that Stalin would pursue
World Revolution. Trotsky claimed that there was no reason to fear Stalin, that Stalin was
“the greatest mediocrity in power,” and that his regime would implode from within. “Stalin’s
personal dictatorship clearly nears its sunset,” Trotsky said in November 1931. us, with
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Trotsky’s dubious endorsement, the West helped Stalin to create a powerful military industry,
and to prepare his country and army to crush Western civilization.
Trotsky’s opinion had credibility for Western politicians; after all, he had played a key
role in the revolution, the Civil War, and the establishment of the Red Army. Trotsky launched
the World Revolution, but he lost power. Stalin, if one believed Trotsky, was not instigating
revolution but building socialism in one country, the Soviet Union. Stalin let Trotsky leave
the Soviet Union and provided him with publicity around the world. Contact with Trotsky
was a standard accusation against so called “enemies of the people” at every political trial in
Moscow. Stalin could have called his enemies any number of names, but he stubbornly called
them Trotskyites, giving Trotsky additional political weight. If Trotsky had asserted the op-
posite, if he had said that Stalin was preparing for aggression, if he had warned the West of
the dangers of Stalin’s malice, he would have been murdered as early as 1927.
Gradually, Trotsky sensed Stalin’s true intentions. He stopped writing that Stalin had
betrayed the cause of the World Revolution and started writing that Hitler had come to