why did stalin exile trotsky why did stalin exile trotsky

From the Show Trials, ever more outlandish tales about Trotsky were spun. So did their grandson, Esteban Volkov, who had been living with them. That is why I suggest that the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post and appointing another man in his stead, who, in all other respects, differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite and more considerate to the comrades, less capricious, etc.. He entered into a relationship with one of Trotskys secretaries with a fake Canadian passport as Frank Jackson. Losing two sons and innumerable comrades and friends to Stalin did not break his spirit, but the losses threw a shadow over everything he had done. The method of murder chosen was interesting. world) revolution." Joining the Bolsheviks a few months later, Trotsky worked closely with Lenin. One of the classic histories of the Bolshevik Revolution, Ten Days That Shook the World, written by the American radical, John Reed, hardly mentions Stalin. But there is one pretty solid, I think, evidence, that he wasn't tortured, as well as his arrested in 1937 fellows. At the end of February, Trotsky wrote a final testament, fearing death was near. Stalin disagreed and said socialism in one country was possible. The concept appealed to many Bolsheviks confronting the isolation of the globes only Marxist state. Related Topics . I expelled him from the Party. On a hot day, Mercader came dressed in a raincoat, but that didnt alert anyone such a regular he was in the house. They borrow from Lenin whatever is convenient at that moment. Interesting talking was in the ranks of Soviet generals, isn't it? In the aftermath, Trotsky was jailed and brought to trial in 1906. In his memoirs "Special Tasks" Sudoplatov says that during a personal meeting with Stalin and Beria they gave exactly that reason to assassinate Trotsky (the potential threat he was posing to the Communist movement's unity), @sds - Pt 1/2) Trotsky's Fourth International was no great threat to Stalin. Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin were political rivals. Why are non-Western countries siding with China in the UN? His ignorance of foreign languages compels him to follow the political life of other countries at second-hand. He was quite clear-minded in assessing the possible consequences of the victory of Trotskyism. From his exile, Trotsky continued to oppose Stalin, right up until Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico on Stalin's orders in August 1940. In the 1920-30s, Trotsky was an important figure in the Marxist opposition against Joseph Stalin. Reminiscent of Nazi anti-Semitic theories, Trotskyism metamorphosed into a truly demonic apparition during the Show Trials. How did the KPD relate to the German state during the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact? Still, the contest endured into the late 1920s. Gregori Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, not Stalin, emerged as Trotskys principal opponents in the immediate aftermath of Lenins death. What transpired in Spain in 1936-37 was not only a civil war but a social revolution. Under the alias of Canadian businessmanFrank Jacson, he had infiltrated Leon Trotskys household in Coyocan, a borough of Mexico City, several months earlier. Why was Trotsky exiled by Stalin? During the revolution, Trotsky oversaw Soviet military operations in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), the capital of the Russian Empire. Trotsky continued to function as the military leader of the Revolution when Kerensky vainly attempted to retake Petrograd with loyal troops. The second point is that Tukhachevsky's case, is still classified, as well as Blyukher's one, so there is no way for me to provide direct evidence as well as for other "historians", who were even allowed to the archives, since they do not provide documents but only excerpts from them in their own interpretation, often biased or outright distorted. Photograph of Trotsky and Sedovas Tomb, in the Garden of Their House in Coyocan, in Mexico City. The point of this cases is that Trotsky was not simply sitting in Mexico and writing memoirs, as did many other ideological enemies of the Bolsheviks in the world, like Kerensky, for instance. With his opponents removed, Stalin enacted the collectivization of agriculture and state-directed industrialization, programs once championed by the Left Opposition, but now brutally implemented with a staggering toll of lives. Updates? Trotsky prevented Mercader from inflicting another, fatal blow and battled for his life until his bodyguards arrived. The struggle between the two party leaders entered its open phase, due to Lenins illness the leader of the party couldnt engage in political activity anymore; he simply withdrew. At the outbreak of World War I, Trotsky joined the majority of Russian Social-Democrats who condemned the war and refused to support the war effort of the tsarist regime. Collective ownership and control of the means of production (e.g. Mercaders vile act closed the long, bitter conflict between the two men. Is it possible to rotate a window 90 degrees if it has the same length and width? He reacted forcefully to potential rivals, and even more forcefully to actual rivals, which Trotsky was. Prophetically, Trotsky denounced Stalin as the gravedigger of the Revolution. Sent into internal exile in Kazakhstan for a year, he was then deported to Turkey in February 1929. During his early involvement in Russian socialist politics, Trotsky clashed with Vladimir Lenin over how a revolutionary party should be organized (such clashes would later serve Stalin well when he depicted Trotsky as hostile to Lenins ideas). Which is why Lenin initiated the New Economic Plan after the Russian revolution failed to spread. Trotsky, firmer than ever in his opposition to Stalin, was exiled to Alma-ata in January 1928 and was exiled from the Soviet Union itself in February 1929, sent into exile in Turkey. ERROR: CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW WITH DATA cannot be executed from a function. @0tyranny0poverty: What was objectively true was less important than what Stalin thought. Klement was kidnapped, presumably by GPU agents. Stalin's ideas are popular with the party and by the late 1920s he becomes dictator of the Soviet Union. On May 1, a day long associated with the Left and labor militancy, 20,000 Mexican Communists marched in the capital and shouted: Out with Trotsky! Trotsky and Natalia had already assumed their lives were in jeopardy. @o.m. Saying Stalin took power by force makes it sound as though he seized his position as the leader of the government by mounting a coup, as for example General Pinochet did in Chile, which wouldn't be accurate. Had Trotsky won the struggle to succeed Lenin, the character of the Soviet regime would almost certainly have been substantially different, particularly in foreign policy, cultural policy, and the extent of terroristic repression. This revolution, Trotsky made clear, would resemble the European upheavals of 1830 and 1848 more than the October Revolution. In retrospect, it is astonishing just how confident were Trotsky and his supporters like Victor Serge, Isaac Deutscher, and James Cannon in a coming proletarian revolution that would sweep away the Stalin regime. Why are trials on "Law & Order" in the New York Supreme Court? After Vladimir Lenin, the first Soviet head of state, suffered a stroke in early 1923, Trotsky and Stalin engaged in a contest for power. Reeling, the old revolutionary found the strength to fight back against the assassin. (see this DjVu file of issue 1 1990 of the Russian language "Military-historical magazine", page 79), We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. He gathered many supporters such as Karl Radek, Christian Rakovsky, and Victor Serge. 157K subscribers in the communism101 community. Unlike Trotsky, it would have been no trouble at all for Stalin to keep Bukharin quietly under house arrest. Together, they prepared the overthrow of the ruling Provisional Government which kept the country in the disastrous world war. The idea that the anti-Stalinist Marxist left was Trotskyist or likely to put itself under Trotsky's leadership is a Trotskyist misapprehension, interestingly also asserted by Stalinists - hence the idea even today that Marxist opposition to Stalinism among Spanish Republicans was mostly "Trotskyist". Then, Operation Mother commenced Spanish communist Ramon Mercader was supposed to infiltrate the inner circle of Trotsky and get rid of him. He had an older brother and sister; two other siblings died in infancy. Trotskys struggle against Stalin entered a new and final phase with the start of World War II just a week later. True, they had an influence out of proportion with their numbers in Barcelona in 1937, but that isn't saying much and they were of FAR less weight than the Spanish anarchists and the Marxist POUM. This really could carry the day for him for quite a while. Stalin explains "LEON TROTBKY IS TRYING TO KILL ME. Stalins downfall would also signal new life for the trade unions. In September 1937, the Commission issued its findings, clearing Trotsky of all the charges. In 1936 Primakov, the deputy commander of the Leningrad military district, was arrested and charged with a counter-revolutionary conspiracy etc. Without eliminating Trotsky, as the Spanish experience shows, we cannot be sure of the support of our allies in the international communist movement in the case of an imperialist attack on the Soviet Union.. Although history rightly remembers Joseph Stalin as Trotskys chief rival and later mortal enemy, in the early 1920s Stalin passed unnoticed by many observers. Coming to pick his girlfriend up after work, he slowly began to gain the trust of the inhabitants of the house: he was invited in, he showed interest towards Trotskys ideas and brought presents for his grandson. Upon the outbreak of revolutionary disturbances in 1905, Trotsky returned to Russia. Trotsky prevented Mercader from inflicting another, fatal blow and battled for his life until his bodyguards arrived. This period was not to be nearly as transitional as Trotsky believed. To the leading group of the party (in the wide circles he was not known at all) he always seemed a man destined to play second and third fiddle. In the struggle for power following Vladimir Ilich Lenins death, however, Joseph Stalin emerged as victor, while Trotsky was removed from all positions of power and later exiled (1929). His answer was absolutely unequivocal. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. For many, Marxism became irrevocably defined by and identified with Stalinism. Moreover, Stalin calculated that after he had succeeded i. Due to the indoctrination put in play my Hitler's followers, the children were more faithful to Nazi-ism than to their family. Joseph Stalin was a hangman whose noose could reach across oceans. In 1929 he was exiled by his chief rival in government, Joseph Stalin. Why did Stalin rather than Trotsky emerge as leader of the USSR in 1929? Others were murdered in labor camps, the infamous Gulags, or in prisons. More defeats soon followed in Germany, Estonia, and Bulgaria in 1923-25. But mainly, Trotsky had crossed him, so Trotsky had to go. Stalin had Trotsky assassinated for personal reasons. He reached New York City in January 1917, where he joined the Bolshevik theoretician Nikolay Bukharin in editing the Russian-language paper Novy Mir (The New World). Trotsky hailed the outbreak of revolution in Russia in February (March, New Style) as the opening of the permanent revolution he had predicted. His antiwar stance led to his expulsion from both France and Spain. What can a lawyer do if the client wants him to be acquitted of everything despite serious evidence? After his exile, Leon Trotsky sought asylum in Mexico. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. He settled into a house in Coyoacn in 1936. This would have amounted to the greatest geopolitical revolution in human history with socialism becoming a truly global societal form. More posts you may like. Can you add some more details to this answer, fleshing it out a bit more? Frida Kahlo, with whom Trotsky had an affair in 1937, and Diego Rivera were his tireless defenders in Mexico City. Trotskys failure, however, seems to have been almost inevitable, considering his own qualities and the conditions of authoritarian rule by the Communist Party organization. - user17846 Jun 27, 2017 at 8:20 Add a comment 6 Answers Sorted by: 42 rev2023.3.3.43278. In 1922, Lenin, appreciating his organizational talents, chose Stalin for the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party. Thus, in Trotskys view, the lasting success of a socialist revolution (e.g., the October Revolution) depends on revolutions in other countries. Trotsky opposed and organised against Stalin through political means. Now why was Stalin so wary of Trotsky? Stalin used this hatred of the cocky and self-assured Trotsky to persuade those in power to vote against him becoming the new leader of the Soviet Union. It was led by the painter David Alfaro Siqueiros, once a friend of Rivera, but now a convinced Stalinist. Thirteen months later, in Paris, Rudolf Klement, who had once worked as Trotskys secretary, sat down for breakfast. By hook or by crook, I defeated him in the power struggle after Lenin's death in '24. Trotsky, as the leader of the Fourth International, was a direct competitor to Stalin as the Leader of the World Worker Movement. After the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Trotsky was gradually removed from power. This gave him authority over party membership and appointments. Why did Stalin deem Quantum Mechanics 'counter-revolutionary'? This position, which alienated many of his adherents, coexisted with another claimthe new world war would mean the end of the Stalin regime. But Blyukher refused, saying that she was not only his wife, but "the mother of his child". Stalin decided not to resort to extreme measures: Trotsky was removed from his posts, expelled from the party and, in 1929, expelled from the USSR. @CodyGray, do I have to spell out that Stalin was a paranoid dictator who saw rivals and conspiracies even where none existed, and who. Thanks to Stalin, Trotskyism soon became a term of opprobrium for elitism, factionalism, and a lack of connectedness to the masses of workers and peasants. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? How do I align things in the following tabular environment? Why did children report their parents to the Secret Police? He was too full of himself to build alliances and win political friends. Leon Trotsky, 1920 Trotsky was a key figure in the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, second only to Vladimir Lenin in the early stages of Soviet communist rule. A second assassination attempt took place some three months later. He clung to it as his own health deteriorated and, as he had long feared, Stalins assassins closed in on him. Despite the fact that Trotsky was chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council, Stalin didnt obey his orders and sent letters to Lenin, demanding to grant him military authority: If Trotsky will, without thinking twice, grant mandates left and right then we can confidently say that, in the North Caucasus, everything will fall apart in a months time Ram it into his head For the good of the cause, I need military authority I wont be stopped by the fact that Trotsky hasnt issued me any papers. Trotsky, in turn, demanded Stalin be dismissed. And the fact that today he is playing first is not so much a summing up of the man as it is of this transitional period of political backsliding in the country.". The difference between the phonemes /p/ and /b/ in Japanese. On August 20, 1940, Spanish communist Ramn Mercader fatally struck Trotsky with an ice pick. The same story is with Putna, who was arrested on August, 20, 1936. That did not save him. As Trotsky leaned over his desk, Mercader viciously struck him on the right side of the head with a pickax, its handle cut down to hide it more easily under a raincoat. Trotsky quickly rose to a position of power in the party: just before the October Revolution, he was elected to the Bolshevik Central Committee. Trotsky was one of the most recognizable figures associated with the October Revolutionadmired, hated, and emulated within and outside the USSR. Its aim was to provide a revolutionary alternative to the Moscow-led Third or Communist International (Comintern). Did Stalin have full control of the government in 1936? He plunged into literary activity there and completed his autobiography and his history of the Russian Revolution. In a moving tribute to his son, Trotsky told of the terrible grief he and Natalia felt. Arrested in January 1898 for revolutionary activity, Bronshtein spent four and a half years in prison and in exile in Siberia, during which time he married his coconspirator Aleksandra Sokolovskaya and fathered two daughters. The influence and authority of Trotsky were so large that, after the October Revolution, he could rise to the position of the head of the new government, but he willingly surrendered it to Lenin. With its electrified wires, alarms, and enforced doors, their house in Coyocan looked more like a fortress than a home. A mistake, fateful for all three, though, had already been made. He remained the leader of an anti-Stalinist opposition abroad until his assassination by a Stalinist agent. When the death sentence was passed on Bukharin, Stalin's long-neutralised and powerless former rival, Bukharin was allowed to write a short note to his sometime friend. Trotskys expectation that World War II would lead to the toppling of Stalin and the restoration of a true workers state in the U.S.S.R. never, of course, materialized. This answer would be improved if you can point to or cite specific passages from the mentioned books relevant to your answer. Trotsky long before he was exiled from the USSR embarrassed Stalin on many occasions by pointing Stalin his mistakes as a commander in Stalingrad, forcing Stalin to bow and apologize just for Stalin to keep his post, critical of Stalin's editing skills in Pravda, Mockery of Stalin's accent when speaking in Russian. Thanks for contributing an answer to History Stack Exchange! Trotsky was known to be short and tactless with the Communist elite and frequently argued about Communist theory and the ideological future of the Soviet Union. Vyshinskys words became murderous reality in the USSR in the late 1930s and '40s. The importance of World War II to Jean-Paul Sartres life and thought is often overlooked. Indeed, with Trotskys murder, Stalin demonstrated his most terrifying talent. Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. However, in the ensuing power struggle, he fell foul of his nemesis,. After Lenin's death Russia looked for a new leader. The next day, Trotsky succumbed to his wounds, dead at the age of 60. Under the New Economic Policy (NEP) set in motion by Lenin in 1921, the Bolsheviks had to concentrate on economic recovery after the severe wartime measures. Which is why Lenin initiated the New Economic Plan after the Russian revolution failed to spread. He was released from prison in September and shortly afterward was elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies. To continue the speculation: what alternative leaders might army putschists have installed, instead of Trotsky? In the aftermath of the Show Trials, he believed an even more important reason would drive Stalin to come to an agreement with Berlin: survival. Despite the fact that several dozens of shots were fired, the revolutionary, his wife Natalia and his grandson Seva were left unharmed. After his trial and life sentence to Siberia for his revolutionary activities, he escaped and resumed life as a radical intellectual in Vienna, capital of the multinational Habsburg Empire. "We, who've been connected by blood to Prussia's throne and people since Dppel". What is the correct way to screw wall and ceiling drywalls? Nin disappeared at a critical moment in the Spanish revolutionaries struggle against Francisco Franco, never to been seen again. Trotsky, speaking in his quite imperfect English, responded to every accusation leveled by the Stalinists. What about Trotsky's communist ideology differed from Stalin's and caused the perceived threat to the Soviet state? Perhaps Stalin, Trotsky surmised, now seemed content with partitioning Eastern Europe with the German fascists. Stalin turns on the Right Credit: Hulton Archive/Toronto Star. When Gamarnik was leaving, Blyukher deliberately didn't come to the railway station see him off. If so, did the west secretly assist in Trotsky's assassination? This was a guy who murdered 13 out of 15 of his Army Marshals. Traveling to the Mexican capital, the Commission held thirteen sessions in April 1937. Why did Stalin choose to exile Trotsky instead of killing him, just to turn around and have him assassinated 11 years later? In August, while still in jail, Trotsky was formally admitted to the Bolshevik Party and was also elected to membership on the Bolshevik Central Committee. The following sample essay on Why Did Stalin Succeed Lenin and not Trotsky. How to react to a students panic attack in an oral exam? Answer (1 of 6): Stalin was terrified of Trotsky and resented him. He was actively waging a subversive war on the USSR, that is why he had to be assassinated. The secret police put him to death in January 1940. He was also responsible for organising protests which angered the Bolshevik elites. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. On August 20, 1940, Mercader brought a text in support of the Fourth International to the revolutionary, asking him to evaluate it this was his excuse for a visit on the day of the assassination. So let me add some additional information to this. What was Leon Trotskys role in the October Revolution? He is famous for playing leading roles in the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917, and for organising the Red Army during the ensuing Russian Civil War. Why did Stalin and the Soviet leadership have Leon Trotsky assassinated? Trotsky helped organize the failed Russian Revolution of 1905, after which he was again arrested and exiled to Siberia. comments sorted by Best Top New Controversial Q&A Add a Comment . On the other hand, there do not appear to be any clear reasons why Trotsky actually was an important threat to him in 1940. Thanks to tienne, the GPU could count on seeing many of the articles from the latter before they even appeared in print. He advocated full-scale terror and dictatorship within the country, as well as spreading the fire of Revolution across the entire world. The Left Opposition might dislodge Stalin from within without directly challenging state power. Much like Hitler, he believed he could overcome this by hyperactivity (he was a very high-energy guy) and brilliant speeches. Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been, Though I'm still sticking to my own answer, I would like to add one source to this one. Paradoxically, compared to Trotsky, Stalin looked like a much more clear-minded and rational politician. . With the Japanese in China, Hitler moving into Austria, and threatening Czechoslovakia, and Mussolini dreaming of a Roman Empire in the Mediterranean, the prospect of a new world war soon overtook him. The Soviet attack on Finland in November 1939, the beginning of the Winter War, made him wonder how far Stalin was willing to go to create a sphere of interest for himself. First, my answer is not based only on "Glasha's tale". Why was he concerned? Following their death sentences, several successor trials ensued through 1938. This is from "An Instance of Treason: Ozaki Hotsumi and the Sorge Spy Ring" by Chalmers A. Johnson. Officially the Japanese propaganda stated that he had become "disillusioned" with Stalin, that all Trotsky conspiracies never existed etc. A Mexican policeman holds the short- handled pickax used by Ramon Mercader. So, to keep up with our latest content, simply do the following: If using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. She told, how in 1936 general Gamarnik, another "victim" of Stalin, was inspecting the Far East military district. Governmental authority crumbled quickly, and Petrograd was largely in Bolshevik hands by the time Lenin reappeared from the underground on November 7 to take direct charge of the Revolution and present the Congress of Soviets with an accomplished fact when it convened next day. Trotsky had no doubt Hitler would do so at the earliest opportunity. This systematic killing overlapped with the monstrosity of Stalins Show Trials. As the most visible aspect of the Purges, the Show Trials started with the Trial of the Sixteen in August 1936. There was the Red Scare in the United States in the same period. They admitted, that they were planning to perform a coup and that behind it was Trotsky. The American Committee set up a Commission of Inquiry, chaired by John Dewey, the famous Pragmatist philosopher. @user907860 - I think you misunderstand. He was represented as the principal conspirator, in absentia, in the treason trials of former communist opposition leaders held in Moscow (193638). Stalin disagreed and said socialism in one country was possible. Perhaps he fatally compromised himself when he became a Bolshevik in 1917, subordinating himself to Lenins leadership and accepting the methods of dictatorship that he had previously condemned. On April 21, 1946, two political parties united, creating a single, dominant party in what became East Germany. In a steady stream of articles and interviews, he condemned the role of the Soviet Union, a state that, at least in its rhetoric, had sided with the colonized against imperialism. Granted refuge by the leftist Cardnas government of Mexico, their arrival in Coyocan in January 1937 was greeted with derision and menace by the countrys pro-Stalin Communist Party. Stalins agents also infiltrated the circle around Trotskys son, Leon Sedov. Germany was a country with a modern urban, industrial society he had long regarded as vital to the prospects for socialism. He vanished and, it is believed, was shot in October 1937. The radical Left underwent terrible defeats in 1919 in Germany and Hungary. Omissions? Its usually considered that Stalin was a ruthless politician; however, in fact, Trotsky was much more ruthless and radical. In 1935 Trotsky was compelled to move to Norway, and in 1936, under Soviet pressure, he was forced to seek asylum in Mexico, where he settled at Coyoacn. Trotsky decried the impact of Stalins policies in this catastrophe. Henceforth, throngs of people uttered their names togetherLenin and Trotsky. As a member of the Bolshevik-led Military Revolutionary Committee, Trotsky played a decisive role in the insurrection in Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg), events he would later chronicle in his famed History of the Russian Revolution. The two favourite's were about to embark on a political campaign; trying to eliminate each other out of the running with their popularity, ideas for the future dedication. As Trotsky tried from afar to keep pace with Hitlers invasion of France and the Low Countries, launched on May 10, a plot to kill him took shape. The state, no longer bound to the calamitous Stalinist policies, could return to the satisfaction of workers needs, like housing. Despite a difficult relationship with his father, Leon worked tirelessly for him in Paris. Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin were political rivals. But look around, don't you see that in the world today powers are actively engaged not only in the overt strife, but in a secret one too. Stalin eventually emerged as its victor and gained virtual dictatorial control over the Soviet Union. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Isaac Babel, whom Trotsky once termed the most talented of our younger writers, confessed to working as a spy and terrorist mastermind for Trotsky. He once again escaped, and spent the following 10 years working in Britain, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, and the United States. Do I need a thermal expansion tank if I already have a pressure tank? As it says in the title, I cannot find a good explanation for why Trotsky was exiled and not immediately killed. Were they able to endure "terrible Stalin's tortures"? The violence swept away both supporters and opponents of Stalin and Stalinism. Did Stalin kill all Soviet officers involved in the Winter War? Stalin, wielding his power like a club, expelled Trotsky and his followers from the party in late 1927. Pt 2/2) Nor was the tiny Trotskyist group very influential in Spain. In what ways would have this endangered the political legacy? Trotsky, however, was the head of the Council, so the struggle between the two continued. The vision Trotsky held in The Revolution Betrayed of political institutions in a liberated, post-Stalin USSR may surprise some. Trotsky was undoubtedly the most brilliant intellect brought to prominence by the Russian Revolution, outdistancing Lenin and other theoreticians both in the range of his interests and in the imaginativeness of his perceptions. In his books and articles, written in emigration, Trotsky called his opponent Hitlers intendant and criticized his cult of personality, totalitarianism and especially bureaucracy. Sorge's report included Lyushkov's personal statement of his anti-Communist attitude, his opinion on the extent and strength of anti-Moscow factions withing the Soviet Far East Army.