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Historians in the Service of the Big Lie: An

Examination of Professor Robert Services
Biography of Trotsky
By David North
15 December 2009

We are publishing here a lecture delivered by David North on A review of the biography written by the right-wing British historian
December 13 at the Friends Meeting House in London. North is the Norman Stone, an admirer of Margaret Thatcher and Augusto Pinochet, is
chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web entitled The Ice Pick Cometh. Another glowing review, written by the
Site and national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US). The writer Robert Harris and published in the London Sunday Times,
lecture develops Norths critique of Services falsifications, initially congratulates Service for having effectively, assassinated Trotsky all
discussed in the review, In the Service of Historical Falsification: A over again.
Review of Robert Services Trotsky: A Biography. This is the language of people who are very troubledboth personally
It has been reported in the Evening Standard that at the public launching and politically. Seventy years after Trotskys death, they are still terrified
of his new biography of Leon Trotsky at Daunt Books in Londons by the spectre of the great revolutionary. The very thought of the man
Holland Park, on October 22, Professor Robert Service declared: evokes homicidal images. But do they really believe that Mr. Services
Theres life in the old boy Trotsky yetbut if the ice pick didnt quite do book can accomplish what was beyond the power of Stalins totalitarian
its job killing him off, I hope Ive managed it. police state? That Mr. Service and his admirers can even entertain such a
One might reasonably wonder what type of historianindeed, what type thought exposes how little they understand of Trotsky and the ideas to
of manwould describe his own work, and with evident satisfaction, in which he devoted his life.
such a manner. Is it really the aim of a serious biographer to carry out the Leon Trotskythe co-leader of the October Revolution, opponent of
literary equivalent of an assassination? Every possible interpretation of Stalinism, and founder of the Fourth Internationalwas assassinated by an
this statement speaks against Mr. Service. Leon Trotsky was murdered, agent of the Soviet secret police, the GPU, in August 1940. The last 11
and in a particularly gruesome and horrible manner. The blunt side of an years of his life had been spent in exile. Living on what he called a
alpenstock was driven by the assassin into Trotskys cranium. His wife, planet without a visa, Trotsky moved from Turkey, to France, to Norway
Natalia, was nearby when it happened. She heard the scream of her and finally, in 1937, to Mexico. The years between his expulsion from the
companion of 38 years and, when she ran into his study, saw blood USSR and his arrival in Mexico had witnessed a ferocious growth of
streaming down over his forehead and eyes. Look what they have done international political reaction: the coming to power of Hitler in Germany,
to me, Trotsky cried out to Natalia. the strangulation of the revolutionary movements of the working class in
The death of Trotsky was felt by many as an almost unendurable loss. In France and Spain by the Stalinist and social-democratic bureaucracies
Mexico City, 300,000 people paid tribute to him as his funeral cortge under the banner of the Popular Front, and the orchestration of the
made its way through the streets of the capital. A private letter written by Moscow Trials and ensuing Great Terror that physically exterminated
the American novelist, James T. Farrell, provides a sense of the traumatic virtually all the representatives of Marxist politics and socialist culture in
impact of Trotskys assassination. The crime is unspeakable. There are the USSR.
no words to describe it. I feel stunned, hurt, bitter, impotently in a rage. The first of the Moscow Trials, whose 16 defendants included historic
He was the greatest living man, and they murdered him, and the leaders of the Bolshevik Party such as Grigory Zinoviev and Lev
government of the United States is even afraid of his ashes. God! [1] Kamenev, was held in August 1936. The defendants were accused of
A serious biographer of Trotsky would not joke about the ice pick. It plotting assassinations and various acts of terrorism. Not a single piece of
is a despicable icon of political reaction. Mr. Service would, perhaps, evidence was produced at the trial, other than the confessions of the
protest that his biography has assassinated Trotsky only in the sense of accused. All were sentenced to death by the tribunal. The defendants
bringing an end to all interest in and discussion of this particular appeals were denied within a few hours of the trials conclusion, and they
individual. But is this a legitimate ambition? A genuine scholar hopes that were executed on August 25, 1936. Though not present, the chief accused
his work contributes to, rather than stifles, the development of the were Leon Trotsky and his son, Leon Sedov. From his exile in Norway,
historical discussion. But this was clearly not the intention of Mr. Service. Trotsky vehemently denounced the trial as one of the biggest, clumsiest
As he told the Evening Standard, he hopes that he will achieve with his and most criminal plots of the secret police against world opinion. [2]
biography what Stalin failed to accomplish through murderthat is, to Under pressure from the Soviet regime, the social-democratic
kill off Trotsky as a significant historical figure. With this aim in mind, government of Norway interned Trotsky in order to prevent him from
one can only imagine how Service approached the writing of this continuing his public exposure of Stalins murderous frame-up of the
biography. Bolshevik leaders. For nearly four months he was held incommunicado,
Services remark at his book launch seems to reflect a state of mind that virtually cut off from any contact with the outside world, while the
is fairly widespread in the reactionary milieu within which he circulates. Stalinist regime broadcast its lying denunciations of him. The Norwegian

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confinement did not end until December 19, 1936 when Trotsky was victory for Trotsky. But the powerful momentum of political reaction had
placed aboard a freighter bound for Mexico, whose government had not been exhausted. Within the Soviet Union, Stalins police were
granted him asylum. murdering more than 1,000 people every day. In Spain, the victory of
The last message that Trotsky wrote before his departure was to his Franco was being assured by the counter-revolutionary politics of the
eldest son, Lev Sedov. Not knowing what awaited him on the voyage to Communist Party and the homicidal frenzy of Stalins secret police.
Mexico, Trotsky informed Lev that he and his younger brother, Sergei, Paralyzed by the betrayals of the Stalinists, the European working class
were his heirs, entitled to whatever royalties accrued from his writings. was unable to stop the spread of fascism and the movement toward war.
Trotsky noted that he had no other possessions. His letter ended with a Trotsky concentrated his energies on the founding of the Fourth
poignant request to Lev Sedov: If you ever meet Sergei, wrote Trotsky, International. The world political situation as a whole, he wrote in early
tell him that we have never forgotten him and never will forget him for a 1938, is chiefly characterized by a historical crisis of the leadership of
single moment. [3] But Lev Sedov was never to see or speak with his the proletariat. [6]
younger brother again. Sergei was executed, on Stalins orders, on The Stalinists countered Trotskys efforts by escalating their violence
October 29, 1937. Nor was Lev ever to be reunited with his father and against his closest co-thinkers and supporters. In July 1937, Erwin Wolf,
mother. He died on February 16, 1938, the victim of an assassination one of Trotskys political secretaries, was murdered in Spain. Two
carried out by agents of the Soviet secret police. months later, Ignace Reisswho had defected from the GPU, publicly
Trotsky and Natalia Sedova arrived in Mexico on January 9, 1937. They denounced Stalin and declared his allegiance to the Fourth
lived as guests of Diego Rivera in his famous Blue House in Coyoacn, Internationalwas assassinated in Switzerland. In February 1938, the GPU
a suburb of Mexico City. Trotsky immediately threw himself into the killed Sedov. And in July 1938, Rudolf Klement, the secretary of the
struggle to expose Stalins frame-ups. The second trial of Old Bolsheviks Fourth International, was kidnapped in Paris and murdered.
was about to begin. This time there were to be 21 defendants, including Despite this reign of Stalinist terror, the Fourth International held its
Yuri Pyatakov and Karl Radek. In a speech filmed on January 30, 1937, founding conference in September 1938. In a speech recorded one month
which is easily viewed today on the internet, Trotsky declared: later, Trotsky declared that the aim of the Fourth International is the full
material and spiritual liberation of the toilers and exploited through the
socialist revolution. He scoffed at the terror of the Soviet bureaucracy.
Stalins trial against me is built on false confessions, extorted by The hangmen think in their obtuseness and cynicism that it is possible to
modern Inquisitorial methods, in the interests of the ruling clique. frighten us. They err! Under blows we become stronger. The bestial
There are no crimes in history more terrible in intention or execution politics of Stalin are only the politics of despair. [7]
than the Moscow trials of Zinoviev-Kamenev and of Pyatakov-Radek. Less than two years of life remained for Trotsky after the founding of
These trials develop not from communism, not from socialism, but the Fourth International. His intellectual creativity and political
from Stalinism, that is, from the irresponsible despotism of the far-sightedness were undiminished. Not only did he recognize the
bureaucracy over the people! inevitability of a second world war, Trotsky predicted that Stalin would
What is now my principal task? To reveal the truth. To show and attempt to extricate himself from the disastrous consequences of his
to demonstrate that the true criminals hide under the cloak of the international policies by seeking an alliance with Hitler. Trotskys
accusers. [4] analysis was confirmed with the signing of the Stalin-Hitler
Non-Aggression Pact in August 1939. But Trotsky also warned that
Stalins treachery would not spare the Soviet Union from the horrors of
Trotsky issued a call for the establishment of an international war. It would be only a matter of time before Hitler hurled his military
commission of inquiry to investigate and pass judgment on the charges forces against the USSR.
made by the Soviet regime. He pledged to present to this commission all During the final months of his life, with war already raging in Western
my files, thousands of personal and open letters in which the development Europe, Trotsky defended the historical perspective of socialism in the
of my thought and my action is reflected day by day, without any gaps. I face of widespread skepticism and despair. He did not seek to reassure
have nothing to hide! Trotsky declared that there was not a stain on his wavering followers with predictions of imminent revolution.
honor, either personal or political. Rather than offering a prediction, Trotsky posed a question: Will
Within less than three months, on April 10, 1937, the commission was objective historical necessity in the long run cut a path for itself in the
convened in Coyoacn under the chairmanship of the renowned American consciousness of the vanguard of the working class; that is, in the process
philosopher, John Dewey. Immense pressure had been brought to bear by of this war and those profound shocks which it must engender, will a
the Stalinists and their legions of liberal friendsincluding luminaries such genuine revolutionary leadership be formed capable of leading the
as Lillian Hellman, Malcolm Cowley and Corliss Lamontto prevent the proletariat to the conquest of power?
formation of the commission, and, when those efforts failed, to sabotage He recognized that the many defeats suffered by the working class had
the proceedings. For one week, Trotsky testified before the commission, created widespread skepticism as to its revolutionary capacities. There
answering scores of questions relating to the allegations made by the were many who shifted blame for these defeats away from the political
Stalinist regime. No one who witnessed him testify, hour after hour, ever leaders and onto the shoulders of the working class itself. For those who
forgot the experience. James T. Farrell, who observed the proceedings, believed that past defeats proved that the working class was incapable
recalled in later writings the overwhelming moral force of Trotskys of taking and holding state power, the historical condition of mankind
presence. could only appear hopeless. But against that perspective of despair and
His final oration, delivered in English and lasting more than four hours, demoralization, Trotsky advanced another: Altogether differently does
left the commissioners deeply moved. Anything I can say will be an the case present itself to him who has clarified in his mind the profound
anti-climax, Dewey remarked upon the conclusion of Trotskys speech. antagonism between the organic, deep-going, insurmountable urge of the
[5] In December 1937, the Dewey Commission issued its findings. masses to tear themselves free from the bloody capitalist chaos, and the
Trotsky was declared Not Guilty and the proceedings in Moscow were conservative, patriotic, utterly bourgeois character of the outlived labor
found to be a frame-up. leadership. [8]
The findings of the Dewey Commission represented a great moral Trotsky did not expect to survive the war. He assumed that Stalin would

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spare no effort to kill him before the Soviet Union was drawn into open politically reactionary and intellectually dishonest campaign to deprive
conflict with Nazi Germany. In the early morning hours of May 24, 1940, him of his great place in history. The publication of Robert Services
a Stalinist assassination squad, led by the painter David Alfaro Siqueiros, biography of Trotsky is a milestone in this campaign of historical
penetrated the villa in which Trotsky and Natalia were living. Sheldon distortion and falsification, whose stated aim is the discrediting of the
Harte, a Stalinist agent working inside the compound, had unlocked the actions and ideas of this key figure in modern history.
gates of the villa. The Stalinist hit men made their way into the bedroom Before proceeding to a review of Services Trotsky, it is necessary to
of Trotsky and Natalia and unleashed a barrage of machine gun fire. make a few preliminary remarks about the treatment of Trotsky by
Almost miraculously, the two survived the assault. But Trotsky knew that historians both within and outside the USSR. Of course, within the USSR
the May attack would not be the last. He understood better than anyone during Stalins dictatorship, Trotsky was totally anathematized. From the
else the danger that he confronted. In a reactionary epoch such as ours, early 1920s, the political struggle waged by the rising Soviet bureaucracy
he stated, a revolutionist is compelled to swim against the stream. I am against Trotsky proceeded first and foremost on the basis of the
doing this to the best of my ability. The pressure of world reaction has falsification of historyof the history of the development of the Russian
expressed itself perhaps most implacably in my personal fate and the fate Social-Democratic Labor Party, the protracted conflict between its
of those close to me. I do not see in this any merit of mine: this is the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions, the role of different tendencies and
result of the interlacing of historical circumstances. [9] individuals in that generally heated struggle, and, finally, of the October
On August 20, 1940, Trotsky was assaulted by a GPU agent, and died Revolution. Trotskys role in the latter event, and in the civil war that
the next day of the injuries that he had suffered. He was 60 years old. followed, was so immense that the campaign to discredit him, which
Several months after the assassination, Max Eastman wrote a final began in earnest in 1923, required the systematic falsification of history.
tribute to Trotsky. It was published in, of all places, the prestigious The campaign of lies began in 1923-24 with the charge that Trotsky
bourgeois journal, Foreign Affairs. Eastman had known Trotsky very well underestimated the peasantry. This absurd allegation, which reflected
for almost 20 years. He had written Trotskys biography and translated pre-1917 programmatic differences as well as emerging disputes within
into English many of his most important works, including The History of the Soviet state over economic and foreign policy, set the stage for a
the Russian Revolution. Eastman was not an uncritical admirer of Trotsky. generalized attack on Trotskys Theory of Permanent Revolution, which
Their relationship had been marked by periods of sharp conflict. During had provided the strategic foundation for the Bolshevik conquest of state
the last years of Trotskys life, Eastman repudiated his radical power and its goal of world socialist revolution. The fight against Trotsky
inclinations, definitively rejected Marxism and moved ever more sharply reflected the repudiation of the internationalist program of the October
to the right. When Trotsky and Eastman met in Mexico for the last time, Revolution by a bureaucracy increasingly focused on the defense of its
in February 1940, it was not as comrades but as old friends who had social privileges within a national framework. Thus, there existed a
become somewhat estranged. At this point, neither man was interested in symbiotic relationship between the ever more vindictive denunciation of
attempting to persuade the other of the correctness of his own position. Trotskys supposed heresiessupported by the misrepresentation of
The fact that Eastman was no longer politically connected to Trotsky pre-1917 factional conflicts between Trotsky and Leninand the
endows his final tribute with exceptional probative value. His memorial promulgation of the program of socialism in one country. The lies that
essay, entitled The Character and Fate of Leon Trotsky, began as began in 1923 led to tragic consequences. As Trotsky wrote in 1937, the
follows: judicial frame-ups of the Moscow Trials had their source in supposedly
minor historical distortions.
Even after the exposure of Stalins crimes in 1956, the Soviet
Trotsky stood up gloriously against the blows of fate these last bureaucracy desperately resisted Trotskys historical and political
fifteen yearsdemotion, rejection, exile, systematized slanderous rehabilitation. Even if it no longer claimed, officially, that he had been in
misrepresentation, betrayal by those who had understood him, league with the Gestapo, the Soviet regime and its allies defended and
repeated attempts upon his life by those who had not, the certainty of supported the struggle against Trotskyism that had been waged by
ultimate assassination. His associates, his secretaries, his relatives, Stalin in the 1920s. The systematic falsification of Trotskys role in the
his own children were hounded to death by a sneering and sadistic history of Russian socialism, in the leadership of the October Revolution,
enemy. He suffered privately beyond description but he never in the creation of the Red Army and its victory in the Civil War, and,
relaxed his monumental discipline. He never lost his grip for one above all, in the fight against the Soviet bureaucracy, continuedeven up
visible second, never permitted any blow to blunt the edge of his wit, until the dissolution of the USSR. Mr. Service claims that Gorbachev
his logic or his literary style. Under afflictions that would have sent ordered Trotskys posthumous rehabilitation in 1988. [p. 2] This is just
almost any creative artist to a hospital for neurotics and thence to the one of Professor Services innumerable errors. Trotsky was never
grave, Trotsky steadily developed and improved his art. His officially rehabilitated by the Soviet government.
unfinished life of Lenin, which I had partially translated, would have Outside the USSR, the treatment of Trotsky was very different. The role
been his masterpiece. He gave us, in a time when our race is played by Isaac Deutschers trilogyThe Prophet Armed, Unarmed and
woefully in need of such restoratives, the vision of a man. Outcastin reawakening interest in Trotsky is well known. But it must be
Of that there is no more doubt than of his great place in history. noted that Deutschers recounting of Trotskys extraordinary life found a
His name will live, with that of Spartacus and the Gracchi, receptive audience within a broad spectrum of scholars who, though
Robespierre and Marat, as a supreme revolutionist, an audacious usually hostile to Marxism, accepted as an indisputable fact his gigantic
captain of the masses in revolt. [10] role in the history of the 20th century. Thus, even an historian as
unfriendly to Trotskys ideas as Richard Pipes, could bring himself to
admit, in a review of Deutschers magnificent second volume:
These words provided a sense of the enduring significance of Trotskys Personal courage and intellectual honesty Trotsky undoubtedly
life. Eastman was telling his readers that Trotsky would still be possessed, in sharp contrast to the other contenders for Lenins mantle
remembered, in 2,000 years, as one of the great fighters for human who were cowardly and deceitful to a remarkable degree. [11]
freedom. The growing appreciation of Trotskys role in Soviet history was not,
But here we are, 70 years after Trotskys assassination, in the midst of a by any means, attributable solely to Deutschers biography. The work of

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other important historians writing in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s to spend time on Thatchers work today, as I have already written an
contributed to a significant deepening of the understanding of Russian extensive analysis of this miserable compendium of distortions and lies.
revolutionary history and Trotskys role within it. Of particular He is relevant to todays discussion only as the precursor and principal
significance was the work of scholars such as E. H. Carr, Leopold inspirer of Robert Services biography. Mr. Service pays special tribute to
Haimson, Moshe Lewin, Alexander Rabinowitch, Richard Day, Pierre Thatcher in his preface. Ian, he writes, has spent his career writing
Brou, Robert V. Daniels, Marcel Liebman and Baruch Knei-Paz. about Trotsky; I appreciate his generosity of spirit in scrutinizing my draft
Significantly, a fundamental change in the treatment of Trotsky became and making suggestions. [p. xx] Indeed, Ian Thatchers spirit
apparent in the last years of the USSR and in the aftermath of its pervades Services biography. Claiming that his work exposes Trotskys
dissolution. First, within the USSR, as the crisis of the Stalinist regime evasive and self-aggrandizing autobiography, Services basic approach
mounted, it was inevitable that the old historical falsifications would lose is borrowed entirely from Thatcher.
credibility. This process, one might have expected, would work to the In introducing his book, Service describes it as the first full-length
advantage of Trotskys historical reputation. Certainly, in the aftermath of biography of Trotsky written by someone outside of Russia who is not a
1956, dissident elements hungered for whatever information they could Trotskyist. [p. xxi]
find about him. However, from the 1970s on, the movement of the Soviet What is meant by the term full-length? Merely that it is long?
intelligentsia was to the right. Solzhenitsyns Gulag Archipelago, which Generally, the term full-length biography implies not merely the length
paid little attention to the left-wing opposition to Stalinism, became the of a book, but, rather, its breadth and depth. Every important biography
leading text of the dissident movement. This opposition did not reject examines its subject in the context of the epoch in which he or she lived.
Stalinism as a perversion of Marxism; rather, it rejected Marxism and the It not only recounts the actions of the individual, but also examines the
entire revolutionary project. Thus, within the dissident literature of the origins and development of his or her thought. It strives to uncover and
1970s and early 1980s, the treatment of Trotsky was markedly hostile. explain the influences, objective and subjective, that shaped the subjects
Emphasis was generally placed not on his opposition to Stalinism, but emotional and intellectual characteristics. The Service biography does
rather on the alleged continuity between Trotskys policies and those none of these thingsand not merely because its author is pathologically
implemented by Stalin after Trotsky had been expelled from the hostile to his subject (though that is, indeed, a serious handicap). The fact
Communist Party and exiled from the USSR. This tendency became is that Mr. Service simply does not know enough about the life and
particularly pronounced during the era of Gorbachev, when, for the first thoughts of Trotsky. Far too little time and intellectual effort went into the
time, genuine historical documents relating to Trotskys role, including preparation of this book for it to be anything else than a piece of
some of his books, became available. As if to counter the favorable hack-work.
impression these documents and books would make on a public that was The genuine scholar who possesses the necessary knowledge, audacity
asking whether an alternative had existed to Stalin and Stalinism, the new and even, perhaps, foolhardiness to attempt a full-length biography of a
opposition to Trotsky assumed the form of unfavorable commentaries on major historical figure imposes immense demands upon himself. The
his personality. Another increasingly common form taken by biographer must be prepared, to the extent that it is possible, to recreate in
anti-Trotskyism in the last years of the USSR, and in the immediate his or her own mind the life of the subject. To undertake such a project is,
aftermath of its dissolution, was a heavy-handed and overtly anti-Semitic more often than not, extremely taxing on the biographer, often requiring
emphasis on Trotskys Jewish origins. years of study, research and writing. It is both intellectually and
The reactionary environment of political triumphalism that followed the emotionally demandingboth for the author and for those with whom he
collapse of the Stalinist regime was reflected no less sharply in the lives and works. That is why so many historians include in their prefaces
treatment of Trotsky outside the former USSR. A campaign was initiated or forewords expressions of gratitude to their wives or husbands, children,
to undermine and even destroy the historical image of Trotsky as the friends and colleagues who provided intellectual, moral and emotional
representative of an historical alternative to Stalinism. In the early 1990s, support.
the University of Glasgow sponsored the publication of the Journal of One might cite as an example of this process the writing of the
Trotsky Studies. As soon became clear, the purpose of this journal was to biography of G. V. Plekhanov by Professor Samuel Baron. Many years
discredit Trotsky by claiming that his historical reputation was after the publication of this book in 1963, Baron wrote an essay in which
undeserved, that it was based on an all-too-uncritical acceptance of a he described the ordeal through which he had passed. The project had
narrative based on Trotskys writings. These writings, it was claimed, begun in 1948, when Baron chose to make an aspect of Plekhanovs work
were self-serving and even false. The chief target of this attack was the subject of his doctoral dissertation. Its completion required four years.
Trotskys autobiography, My Life, which had achieved, over many But Baron decided that this dissertation was too narrowly focused to be
decades, recognition as a masterpiece of twentieth century literature. worthy of publication; and so
Every facet of Trotskys careeras it had been presented in his
autobiography and in the works of other historianswas challenged.
Trotsky led the October insurrection? No, he spent the crucial night of the with scant appreciation of the implications I resolved to write a
Bolshevik seizure of power attending to insignificant secretarial functions. full-scale biography. Because the sources were so voluminous, the
Trotsky led the Red Army to victory? No, he was a vainglorious poseur, subject so complex, and my free time so limited, it required eleven
who liked to strut around in military dress. Trotsky opposed the years to see the plan through. During these years, although I was
bureaucracy? No, he was an inveterate factionalist and trouble-maker who burdened with a heavy teaching load and had a home and family to
simply loved to argue. care for, Plekhanov was rarely out of my mind. I spent many an
The principal specialist in this sort of rewriting of history was Ian evening during the teaching year, as well as weekends, holidays and
Thatcher, who served as co-editor of the Journal of Trotsky Studies at the vacations, in research and writing My sleeping as well as my
University of Glasgow, before moving on to Leicester University and then waking hours were often filled with reflections and refractions of my
to Brunel University in West London. Thatchers career has been almost subject. The task I had set myself seemed so interminable that
entirely based on creating a new school of anti-Trotskyist falsification. sometimes I wondered out loud whether it would finish me before I
The climax of his efforts in this sphere was his writing of a biography of finished it. Yet there could be no thought of quitting, for I had too
Trotsky that was published by Routledge in 2003. There is no need for me much invested, and so I continued doggedly at my Sisyphean labor. [

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 12] scholarly detachment, which a politically committed historian might
find more difficult to attain. But Professor Service is neither detached nor
politically uncommitted. Since he has chosen to describe the late Brou as
How long did it take Professor Service to research and write his an idolater, Service can be described, with far greater justification, as a
biography of Trotsky? His previous large volume, a rambling and hater. And hate, particularly of the subjective and vindictive character
inchoate work entitled Comrades: A History of World Communism, was that so obviously motivates Service, is incompatible with genuine
published in 2007. Before that, Service brought out, in 2004, a biography scholarship. Moreover, there is still one more failing that disqualifies Mr.
of Stalin. I will not discuss the quality of either work, other than to state, Service as a biographer and historianand that is an utter lack of
quite briefly, that both were abysmally bad. But let us leave that problem intellectual integrity and curiosity.
for some other time. What interests us here is that Service has brought out I have already written a lengthy critique of Professor Services
his full length biography of Trotsky only two years after the publication biography that was circulated widely in November at the annual
of his History of World Communism. At that point, judging from the conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic
content of the earlier volume, Services knowledge of Trotskys life was Studies (AAASS). Several thousand specialists in the field of Russian
very limited. The references to Trotsky are of a desultory character and history were in attendance. A significant number of historians received
include a number of glaring factual errors. He gets the date of the first and read my critique. In subsequent discussions, a few of these historians
attempt on Trotskys life by David Alfaro Siqueiros wrong. It occurred in have expressed some degree of disapproval of its harsh tone. But no one
May 1940; but Service writes that it took place in June. Even more has challenged or contradicted me on a single issue of fact.
astonishingly, he gets the date of Trotskys death wrong. This published critique, In the Service of Historical Falsification, ran
But only two years after the publication of Comrades, Services Trotsky well over 10,000 words. One might ask oneself: what more is there to say
has hit the bookstores. Consider what is involved in writing a biography about Services book? The truth is, my initial critique barely scratched
of Trotsky. His political career spanned 43 years. He played a major role, the surface of Professor Services falsifications, distortions, half-truths
as chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, in the 1905 Revolution. In 1917, and outright lies.
after returning to Russia and joining the Bolshevik Party, Trotsky again I do not intend today to simply repeat the points that I have already
became the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. He also became the raised. But I will resume my enumeration of Professor Services
chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee, which, under distortions by returning to the issue that plays so central a role in his
Trotskys direction, organized and led the October 1917 insurrection that biography of Trotskythat is, Trotskys Jewish origins. As I stated in my
brought the working class to power. He became, in 1918, the Commissar earlier review: There is, to be blunt, something unpleasant and suspect
for Military Affairs, and, in that position, played the leading role in the about Services preoccupation with this matter. The fact that Trotsky was
organization and command of the Red Army. Between 1919 and 1922, a Jew occupies a central place in Services biography. It is never far from
Trotsky was, alongside Lenin, the most influential political figure in the Services mind. He is constantly reminding his readers of this fact, as if
Communist International. Beginning in late 1923, with the formation of he were worried that it might slip from their attention. [13] As I noted,
the Left Opposition, he emerged as the central figure in the struggle his descriptions of Trotsky are rife with ethnic stereotyping (e.g., Trotsky
against the Stalinist bureaucracy. After his expulsion from the Soviet was brash in his cleverness, outspoken in his opinions. No one could
Union in 1929, Trotsky inspired the formation of the International Left intimidate him. Trotsky had these characteristics to a higher degree than
Opposition and, between 1933 and 1938, elaborated the theoretical and most other Jews he was far from being the only Jew who visibly
programmatic foundations of the Fourth International. enjoyed the opportunities for public self-advancement his real nose
In addition to the immense scope of his political and practical activities, was neither long nor bent and so on).
Trotsky was among the most prolific writers of the 20th century. It has Among Services favorite techniques is to present openly anti-Semitic
been estimated that a complete collection of his published writings would attitudes without citation, such as, Jews indeed were widely alleged to
run well over 100 volumes. Even today, a substantial portion of his dominate the Bolshevik Party. Alleged by whom? The deliberate use of
writings, including letters and diaries, has not been published or translated the passive voice to present a position without a citation that properly
into English. The point is that the writing of a serious, full-length, identifies the source allows Service to introduce an anti-Semitic slur
biography of Trotsky is a task that would require years of rigorous work without assuming any responsibility for it. This is not an innocent
by a conscientious scholar. mistake. There are definite rules that govern scholarly work. Service, who
Moreover, the biographer would have to be deeply knowledgeable of has worked for decades as a professional historian, violates these rules
the historical and social environment within which his subject lived, and deliberately and repeatedly.
with the political and theoretical premises that formed the foundations of I would like to call attention to another example of Services efforts to
his outlook. Professor Service makes a major point of the fact that his emphasize Trotskys Jewish origins to which I have not previously
biography has not been written by a Trotskyist, and refers disparagingly referred. And that is his persistent reference to the young person as Leiba
to the late Pierre Brou, who was politically affiliated to the Trotskyist Bronstein. Service writes that Trotsky was Leiba Bronstein until the
movement, as an idolater. Aside from the fact that Brou was, quite age of twenty-three when he adopted his renowned pseudonym. [p.11]
apart from his political commitments, an outstanding historian, there is a And, so, for the first 40 pages of Services biography, he refers to the
very good reason why his personal involvement with socialist politics, young man only as Leiba. Finally, on page 41, Service announces a
like that of Deutscher (who was not a Trotskyist) was a significant major turning point. Leiba, already eighteen and increasingly involved
advantage in the writing of a biography of Trotsky. Both Brou and in revolutionary activity, has made new acquaintances in the provincial
Deutscher possessed, even before they set to work, a genuine familiarity town of Nikolaev: Ilya Sokolovski, Alexandra Sokolvskaya and Grigory
with Marxist and socialist culture, acquired over many decades of Ziv. They were Jews, Service writes, but they did not talk, read or write
political involvement. in Yiddish. Moreover, they had Russian first names and liked to be called
Service possesses none of the qualifications required to write a by very Russian diminutives: Ilya as Ilyusha, Alexandra as Sasha, Shura
biography of Trotsky. One must allow that the lack of personal or Suruchka and Grigori as Grisha. Leiba, wanting to be like them,
involvement in the Marxist movement need not be an absolute barrier to decided that he wanted to be known as Lva [Lyova]. Semantically it had
the writing of such a biography. Indeed, it may allow a degree of nothing to do with the Yiddish name Leiba; but it was a common

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first-name and helpfully it sounded a little the same. [pp. 41-42] name that he had not used since 1902, became increasingly common in
This story of the transformation of Leiba into Lva reinforces a central the mid-1920s as the Stalinist bureaucracy intensified its campaign
theme of Services argument: that Trotsky was ashamed of his Jewish against the Left Opposition. References to Trotsky as Bronstein (and to
origins and even sought to downplay them in his autobiography (one of Zinoviev as Radomyslsky and Kamenev as Rosenfeld) became part of the
the examples of its serious inaccuracies). So Service would have his stock-in-trade of the Stalinists. During the Moscow Trials, Trotsky drew
readers believe that he has uncovered the real story whereby little Leiba attention to the anti-Semitic sub-text of the proceedings, in which so
Bronstein the son of the plucky Jew David Bronsteinbecame Lyova many Jews were among the defendants. Curiously, many bourgeois
Bronstein, and, somewhat later, Lev Trotsky. liberals of Jewish origin in the United States, including the politically
An interesting story, but is there any truth in it? In his autobiography, prominent Rabbi Stephen Wise, denounced Trotsky for calling attention
Trotsky remembers that he was called, from his earliest childhood, Lyova. to this aspect of the trials. This willingness to maintain a polite silence on
In My Life, a footnote written by the translator, Max Eastman, states: the anti-Semitic stench emanating from the Kremlin reflected the
Trotskys full and original name was Lev Davydovich Bronstein, his indulgent attitude of liberals toward Stalinism during the era of Popular
fathers name being Davyd Leontiyevich Bronstein. Lyova is one of Frontism.
the many similar diminutives of Lev, which literally means Lion. In Decades later, during glasnost in the 1980s, and continuing after the
English and French usage, Trotsky has become known as Leon, in dissolution of the USSR, Trotskys Jewish origins assumed obsessive
German as Leo. [14] dimensions among a wide variety of Russian anti-Semites. As the eminent
Service offers no documentary evidence that the young boy was ever historian Walter Lacqueur has pointed out: it would be wrong to
called anything other than Lyova, or related diminutives, such as underrate the real hatred for Trotsky among sections of the Russian Right
Lyovochka. The Bronstein family did not speak Yiddishthe language and neo-Stalinists. He was the personification of all evil, and he was
used at home was a mixture of Russian and Ukrainianso there is no doubly vulnerable as a Communist and a Jew; his original name, Leiba
apparent reason why he would have been called Leiba. Bronstein, was always stressed with loving care by his enemies, a practice
So what about Services story of the young Leibas adoption of the that had once been the monopoly of the Nazis. No one would have
name Lva so that he could have a Russian-sounding first name like his dreamed of referring to Lenin as Ulyanov, to Gorky as Peshkov, or to
friends? For this story Service does provide a footnoted reference to two Kirov as Kostrikov. [15] In a footnote, Lacqueur writes that Trotskys
items: 1) a bitterly hostile memoir written by Grigory Ziv, who had been childhood name was Lyova.
one of the young Trotskys earliest associates in the revolutionary In a number of meetings related to the book launch of the biography,
movement; and 2) a letter written by the young Trotsky in November Professor Service has been questioned about his treatment of Trotskys
1898 to his love, Alexandra Sokolovskaya. Jewish background. Rather than explain his approach in a professional
A reader would reasonably assume that these documents provide the manner, Service has replied aggressively, as if threatening a lawsuit: Are
factual substantiation of Services story. Most readers, however, would you calling me an anti-Semite? Only Service and, perhaps, his closest
have neither the time nor means to access the original documents. Neither associates know what his innermost feelings about Jews are. But that is
document exists in English. Zivs book, published in 1921, is available in not the issue. An individual who, for whatever reasons, appeals to,
a few libraries in the original Russian. The letter to Sokolovskaya, which arouses, and exploits anti-Jewish prejudice is practicing anti-Semitism.
is also in Russian, exists on microfiche in the archives of the Hoover That Service may include Jews among his personal friends is beside the
Institute at Stanford University. point. It is a well known historical fact that Karl Lgerthe founder of the
However, an examination of these documents has yielded the not anti-Semitic Christian Socialist Party and mayor of Vienna in
entirely surprising discovery that they include absolutely no information fin-de-sicle Austriahad a number of Jewish friends. For Lger,
that corroborates Services story. The first chapter of the Ziv memoir, in anti-Semitism was merely a political device to rally the embittered
which his initial contacts with the young Trotsky are recounted, is entitled Viennese petty bourgeoisie to his politically reactionary banner. When
Lva. It says nothing at all about Trotsky changing his first name from asked to explain how he reconciled his anti-Semitic demagogy with his
Leiba to Lva or Lev. The young man he met was known as Lva. genial dining engagements with Jews, Lger replied cynically: In
The name Leiba does not appear, even once, in the memoir. Inasmuch Vienna, I decide who is a Jew. Professor Service practices similar moral
as Ziv discusses at length the change in his former comrades last double bookkeeping.
namefrom Bronstein to Trotsky (which occurred when the young One final point on this matter. In his 2004 biography of Stalin, Professor
revolutionary escaped from exile and apparently took the name of a Service made a point of absolving Stalin of the charge of anti-Semitism.
former jailer)there is no reason to believe that Ziv simply forgot the He cites a comment that Stalin made at the conclusion of an early
name Leiba. Ziv did not write about it because he had never heard Lva congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party. Stalin, noting
referred to by that name. that a higher percentage of Jews was to be found among the Mensheviks
What about the second document cited by Service, the letter of than among the Bolsheviks, remarked that It would do no harm if we, the
November 1898 from Trotsky to Alexandra Sokolovskaya? This is an Bolsheviks, carried out a small pogrom in the party. Service, with
intensely personal and intimate letter, from a young man to a woman with remarkable indulgence, observes that Stalins remarks were later used
whom he is deeply in love. This letter is an important document, to which against him as proof of anti-Semitism. They were crude and insensitive.
Service refers on several occasions. Does the young Trotsky, in this very But they scarcely betokened hatred of all Jews For many years into the
personal letter, explain to his love how he came to adopt the name Lva? future he would be a friend, associate and leader of countless Jews. [p.
The answer is: No! There is nothing at all about such a transformation. 77, Emphasis added] What an extraordinarily generous explanation of
The letter, by the way, is signed Lva, the name by which he had been Stalins attitude toward Jews! Inasmuch as he did not hate all Jews, and
known his entire youth. even included Jews among his friends, Stalin was not an anti-Semite! By
So until Professor Service is able to produce proper documentation for the way, it should be noted that Services citation of Stalins remarks at
his story about the transformation of Leiba into Lva, we are entitled the RSDLP conference left out the following passage: Lenin is outraged
to assume that he simply, and quite dishonestly, made the whole thing up. that God sent him such comrades as the Mensheviks. What kind of people
The issue of Trotskys original name is of both historical and political are they, really? Martov, Dan, Axelrodcircumcised Jews Do Georgian
significance. It is well known that references to Trotsky as Bronstein, a workers really not know that the Jewish people are cowardly and no good

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for fighting? [16] hopes and values. The two sentences that follow immediately after read:
The central purpose of Services biographyand in this he is continuing The son, furthermore, was as stubborn as his father. He would no longer
where his mentor, Ian Thatcher, left offis to discredit Trotsky not only as be told what to do, and rather than submit to the paternal will he fled his
a political figure, but as a man. To some extent, Services concentration comfortable apartment and took up residence in Shvigovskis house. [p.
on Trotskys personality is dictated by the fact that the biographer has 41] Thus, contrary to what Service declared in the first sentencethat
sufficient sense to realize that he lacks the intellectual equipment to deal Leiba had no compunction about living at his fathers expensethe
with Trotskys ideas. It is easier to attack Trotsky personally, to reader learns in the third sentence that the young man gave up the
misrepresent his actions and his motives. comforts of home in order to pursue his ideals!
Services portrayal of Trotsky has been welcomed by innumerable Service claims repeatedly that Trotsky edited drafts of his
right-wing critics. For example, Robert Harris has written in the London autobiography in order to remove material that might prove embarrassing
Times: If one can imagine the most obnoxious middle-class student to him. In fact, he does not provide a single example of such an excision.
radical one has ever metbitter, sneering, arrogant, selfish, cocky, callous, Quite the opposite. Service notes that in an early draft of the
callow, blinkered and condescendingand if one freezes that image, autobiography, Trotsky recounts a story in which he displayed
applies a pair of pince-nez and transports it back to the beginning of the exceptional personal and physical courage in defying a cruel and sadistic
last century, then one has Trotsky. prison warden. Trotsky told the warden to his face that he would not
I would imagine that most of the adjectives employed by the overheated tolerate his abusive comments. It was the warden who retreated. In the
Mr. Harris would serve very well as a description of his own person. published version of My Life, this storyfor which there were
The real purpose of Services grotesque portrayal of Trotskywhich witnesseswas not included.
reverberates throughout the bourgeois press and will eventually be echoed Service comments: As with several such episodes of daring in his life,
in subsequent pseudo-historical works that dutifully cite Professor Trotsky did not include this information in his published memoirs. It had
Services authoritative and magisterial volumeis the concoction of to be dragged out of him by admiring writers. Although he liked to cut a
an entirely new historical persona. All traces of the real Trotskyas he dash in public, he disliked boasting: he preferred others to do the job for
was described and remembered by comrades and friends, and, above all, him. He was noisy and full of himself. People did not have to wait long
as found expression in his words and his deedsare to be effaced, before discovering how vain and self-centered he really was. [p. 56,
obliterated and replaced with something monstrous and grotesque that Emphasis added]
bears no resemblance to the real human being. The historical persona of Through a rather clumsy sleight of hand, Service finds a way of
the great revolutionary, political genius, military leader and master of the insulting Trotsky for his modesty and dislike of boasting!
written word is to be replaced with something abominable and Service devotes an enormous amount of space to blackguarding Trotsky
contemptible. Trotsky, la Service, as one of the political monsters of the as a faithless husband who cruelly abandoned his first wife and their two
twentieth century! This is what Service and his friends have in mind when children. As a husband, writes Service, he [Trotsky] treated his first
they talk of his book as a second assassination of Trotsky! wife shabbily. He ignored the needs of his children especially when his
But because the concoction grossly falsifies reality, the author loses political interests intervened. This had catastrophic consequences even for
himself in countless contradictions. The book begins, oddly enough, with those who were inactive in Soviet public lifeand his son Lev, who
a fairly honest and objective summary of Trotskys role in the Russian followed him into exile, possibly paid with his life for collaborating with
Revolution. Service writes, in the opening paragraph: his father. [p. 4]
One would hardly guess, based on Services telling of the story, that
either the oppressive conditions of Tsarist Russia or, later, the
Trotsky moved like a bright comet across the political sky. He was persecutions of Stalin had anything to do with the tragic fate of Trotskys
the finest orator of the Russian Revolution. He led the family and loved ones. In fact, Service actually criticizes Trotsky for
Military-Revolutionary Committee which carried out the overthrow assigning responsibility to the Soviet regime for the death of his daughter
of the Provisional Government in October. He did more than anyone Zina in 1933.
to found the Red Army. He belonged to the Party Politburo and had a But the circumstances of the deaths of his children and his first wife are
deep impact on its political, economic and military strategy. He was of little interest to Service. What interests him is portraying Trotsky as
a principal figure in the early years of the Communist International. some sort of irresponsible and callous philanderer, who thoughtlessly and
The whole world attributed the impact of the October Revolution to egotistically abandoned his first wife, Alexandra Sokolovskaya.
his partnership with Lenin. [p.1] Service treats the relationship between Trotsky and Alexandra
Sokolovskaya with a truly offensive crudeness. Repeatedly, he attempts to
drag both the young Lyova and Alexandra down to his own level.
Within little more than a page, however, Service sets to work In this regard, Services use of the letter of November 1898to which I
repudiating his opening paragraph. Trotsky, he tells us, exaggerated his have already referredis especially significant. This letter was written by
personal importance. His ideas before 1917 were nowhere near to being as the 19-year-old Lyova to Alexandra while they were both imprisoned in
original and wide-ranging as he liked to believe. His contribution to the Odessa. They could not communicate with each other in person. When
Bolshevik advance on power was important but not to the degree that he Lyova wrote this letter, he was ill and depressed. Nearly a year had passed
asserted. since they had been arrested. Trotsky had spent several months of
The two assessments are not compatible with each other. If Trotsky did imprisonment in solitary confinement.
all that Service states that he did in the first paragraph of the biography, Citing a brief passage from this letter, in which Trotsky admits that he
then how could Trotsky have exaggerated his personal importance? had thought of, and rejected, suicide, Service comments:
After the first paragraph, Service piles insult upon insult, indifferent to
the accumulation of obvious absurdities and contradictions. There are
times when he even manages to make a declaration in one sentence that There was showiness and immaturity in these sentiments. He was a
he proceeds to contradict in the same paragraph! Leiba, he writes, had self-centered young man. Unconsciously he was trying to induce
no compunction about living at his fathers expense while despising his Alexandra to do more than love him: he wanted her to understand

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 and look after him and perhaps this could be achieved by admissions letterfrom which I have cited only a small sectionvaluable material for
of weakness. He was never genuinely suicidal: his comment was developing an understanding of his subject and his times. But Service is
designed to make her want to protect him. He saw that he had been simply not interested.
haughty and unfeeling towards her. What better, then, than to own up An odor of indifference and laziness pervades the entire volume. The
to possessing a stony exterior and to say that he was shedding author shows no curiosity at all about the sources of Trotskys intellectual
tears about this. [p. 52] and artistic creativity. Services comments on Trotskys early literary
efforts, written during his first Siberian exile, are generally so banal and
perfunctory that it seems that their only purpose is to provide the author
This sort of facile psychologizing is, even when offered with the best of with the page count he requires in order to advertise his biography as
intentions, of rather dubious value. But it assumes a maliciously absurd full-length. A typical example of Services talent for producing
character when the passage upon which the analysis hinges has been penetrating intellectual commentary is his remark that Trotsky adored
falsified. Trotsky, Service tells us, is slyly attempting to appeal to French novels, was an admirer of Ibsen and was impressed by Nietzsche.
Alexandras vulnerability by insincerely confessing that he was He treated them all as examples of contemporary world culture. [p. 207,
shedding tears about his stony exterior. emphasis added] Did he really? Who would have imagined? But there is
The problem with this interpretation is that Service has something here that does not seem quite right. The reference to Nietzsche
misrepresented the text of Lyovas letter. The exposure of this raises doubts. The reader may be tempted to wonder: what was it about
falsification requires that the relevant passage be fully and correctly Nietzsche that impressed Trotsky?
quoted. The young revolutionary wrote: If the critical reader is in a position to investigate the issue, he might
discover an essay, written by Trotsky shortly after the death of Nietzsche
in 1900, entitled Something about the Philosophy of the Overman.
Sasha [Alexandra] is so good, and when I feel like kissing and Upon reviewing this essay, the reader will quickly learn that impressed
caressing her so much. And all that is beyond reach: instead, there is hardly the word that describes the young Trotskys response to
is loneliness, insomnia, repulsive thoughts about death brrr .. The Nietzsche. Trotsky saw in the latters philosophy of the overman a
hour of redemption will arrive, The people will sing their hymn, justification for a new and ever more powerful social type: the
They will remember us with tears. They will visit our graves. Our
graves, Sasha: our g-r-a-v-e-s. O, with what horror will they speak
at some time about todays social order beyond my doors right financial adventurists, overmen of the stock exchange, political
now at this very moment I can hear the familiar clang of so many and newspaper blackmailers sans scruple, in short, that entire mass
chains: after all they are on people. Sasha, how much we have of parasitical proletariat which has tightly attached itself to the
become used to this, and yet how terrible it is. Chains on people bourgeois organism and in one way or another livesand usually
And this is all according to the law. Are you surprised by my burst of lives quite wellat societys expense without giving back anything in
Weltschmerz? An unusual sensitivity is developing in me: I have return. But the entire group (rather numerous and ever growing)
become capable of shedding tears while reading the civil poems of still needed a theory which would give the intellectually superior the
P. Ya /in Mir B./ or while reading works of fiction Its simply right to dare. It awaited its apostle and found him in Nietzsche.
that my nerves are extremely strained, thats all. The Siberian taiga
will temper this tender civic sensitivity. On the other hand, how
happy we will be there. Like Olympian gods. We will always, Trotsky concludes his essay with the observation that the social soil
always be inseparably together.How many times I have always from which Nietzscheanism emerged has turned out to be decayed,
repeated this, and yet I feel like repeating it over and over again malignant and infected [17]
You and I have gone through so much together, we have suffered so Does it still appear that Trotsky was impressed with Nietzsche? Or is
much that, to be sure, we deserve our hour of happiness. it not more likely that Service did not bother to read Trotskys essay, and
simply does not know what he is talking about. With Service, as with
others of his type, intellectual dishonesty goes hand in hand with
This letter is, in its own right, an extraordinary and deeply moving ignorance and charlatanry.
document. That its author was the future leader of the October Revolution As I have previously noted, an exhaustive review of all the errors and
imparts to it immense significance. To interpret this letter as an false statements that appear in this volume would require a full-length
expression of showiness and immaturity speaks to Services book at least as long as Services biography. It is not an exaggeration to
cynicism and insensitivity. However, from a professional standpoint, state that there is hardly a page in which an informed reader will not find
Services treatment of this letter is dishonest and misleading. passages that are objectionable from the standpoint of the basic standards
First of all, Trotskys admission to shedding tears, which he places in of historical scholarship. It is not even possible to accept, without direct
quotation marks, does not refer to his weeping about his efforts to conceal investigation, the authors references and citations. Again and again it
his stony exterior. Rather, it refers directly to his response to the poetry emerges that the source material cited by Service does not support his
of Pyotr Yakubovich. Were Service a serious historian, he wouldafter claims.
having carefully reflected on this matterexplain to his readers the In bringing this review to a conclusion, it is appropriate to return to
significance of this reference. Yakubovich (1860-1911) was an important Services treatment of the relationship between Trotsky and Alexandra
poet and revolutionary, active in the populist Peoples Will. His poems, Sokolovskaya. The distortion of the circumstances of their separation
which evoked the heroism and tragedy of the doomed struggle of the plays a major role in Services effort to discredit Trotskyas a husband, a
revolutionary terrorists against tsarism, made a deep moral impact upon father, and as a man. All the reviewers in the right-wing British press have
the youth of the 1890s. The images employed by Yakubovich in his picked up the theme with enthusiasm.
poetry, particularly those of death and sacrifice, are evoked by Trotsky in In discussing the circumstances of his first escape from Siberian exile in
his letter to Alexandra. She, of course, would have understood these 1902, Trotsky wrote in My Life:
references very well. A conscientious historian would find in this complex

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 At that time we already had two daughters. The younger was four that assignment.
months old. Life under conditions in Siberia was not easy, and my Finally, with regard to the personal relation between Trotsky and
escape would place a double burden on the shoulders of Alexandra Alexandra, there is a document that testifies to their deep and enduring
Lvovna. But she met this objection with the two words: You must. bond of comradeship and friendship. It is a letter written by Alexandra to
Duty to the revolution overshadowed everything else for her, Trotsky on August 8, 1935. The final act of the terrible human tragedy is
personal considerations especially. She was the first to broach the about to begin. Alexandra addresses the letter to Dear Lyova. She tells
idea of my escape when we realized the great new tasks. She brushed Trotsky of the difficult conditions that confront different members of their
away my doubts. family. Alexandra includes, in a reference to efforts by Trotsky to provide
For several days after I had escaped, she concealed my absence material support for her, I am very touched, as always, by your
from the police. From abroad, I could hardly keep up a thoughtful attitude toward me. And she closes the letter, Love and
correspondence with her. Then she was exiled for a second time; Embraces, Yours, Alexandra. [19]
after this we met only occasionally. Life separated us, but nothing Lev Davidovitch Trotsky and Alexandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya were
could destroy our friendship and our intellectual kinship. [18] extraordinary human beings, the representatives of a revolutionary
generation whose capacity for self-sacrifice, in the interest of the
betterment of mankind, seemed to know no limits. How pathetic it is for
Service, who does not actually quote Trotskys statement, writes: Professor Service and his ilk to believe that he will succeed, with insults,
falsifications and slanders, in dragging these titans down to his miserable
level.
He [Trotsky] later made the claim that Alexandra had Footnotes
wholeheartedly blessed his departure. This is hard to take at face 1. Quoted in James T. Farrell: The Revolutionary Socialist Years, by
value. [p. 67] Alan M. Wald (New York University Press, 1978), p. 87. [return]
2. Ibid, p. 413. [return]
3. Ibid, p. 502. [return]
On what basis is this statement made? Service does not produce a single 4. Writings of Leon Trotsky 1936-37 (New York, Pathfinder, 1978), p.
piece of evidencedocuments, letters, personal testimonythat contradicts 179. [return]
Trotskys account, which, it should be stressed, was written in 1929 when 5. The Case of Leon Trotsky, Report of Hearings on the Charges Made
Alexandra was still alive. She did not contradict it, even thoughgiven the Against Him in the Moscow Trials, by the Preliminary Commission of
fact that Trotsky had been exiled from the Soviet Union and was publicly Inquiry (Merit Publishers, New York, 1968) p. 585. [return]
reviled as the greatest enemy of the Soviet peoplethe Stalinist regime 6. The Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution, (New York,
would have welcomed her personal denunciation of her former husband. Pathfinder, 1977) p. 137. [return]
Service employs a series of loaded phrases to cast Trotskys actions in 7. Writings of Leon Trotsky 1938-39, (New York, Pathfinder, 1974) pp.
the worst possible light: Bronstein was planning to abandon her in the 93-94. [return]
wilds of Siberia No sooner had he fathered a couple of children than he 8. In Defense of Marxism, (London, New Park, 1971) p. 15. [return]
decided to run off. [p. 67] Service, however, proceeds to discredit his 9. Writings of Leon Trotsky 1939-40, (New York, Pathfinder, 1973) p.
own unsubstantiated claims by acknowledging that Trotsky was acting 299. [return]
within the revolutionary code of behavior. The cause was everything 10. Foreign Affairs, Volume 19, No. 2 (January 1941, p. 332). [return]
for the revolutionaries. Marital and parental responsibilities had an 11. The American Historical Review, Vol. 54, No. 4 (July 1960), p.
importance but never to the point of preventing young militants from 904. [return]
doing what their political conscience bade them to do. [p. 67] If that 12. My Life With G.V. Plekhanov, p. 188. [return]
were the case, as Service acknowledges explicitly, then on what grounds 13. In the Service of Historical Falsification: A Review of Robert
can he claim that Trotskys statement that Alexandra supported, and even Services Trotsky: A Biography, Mehring Books (Oak Park, 2009), p. 15.
proposed, his escape from exile is hard to take at face value? [return]
The fact is that Services condemnation of Trotskys action is not based 14. My Life, (New York, Pathfinder, 1970) p. 3. [return]
on an honest appraisal of the historical context within which the two 15. Stalin: The Glasnost Revelations (New York: Charles Scribners
young revolutionaries lived. One must add that Services reference to Sons, 1990), pp. 59-60. [return]
Alexandra being abandoned is maliciously motivated conjecture. As a 16. Cited in Stalin, by Hiroaki Kuromiya (London: Longman, 2005), p.
matter of historical fact, there is good reason to believe that efforts were 12. [return]
made to provide assistance for Alexandra and the children. Indeed, in a 17. L. Trotskii, Works, Series 6, Volume 20, Culture of the Old World,
later chapter, Service includes material that indicates that the Bronstein M.-L., State Publishing House, 1926. 147-162. (New translation from the
family played a significant role in providing support for Trotskys original Russian text) [return]
children. During a trip to Western Europe to visit Trotsky in 1907, 18. My Life, p. 132-133. [return]
Trotskys parents brought his daughter Zina with them. Service notes that 19. Trotskys Diary in Exile 1935, (New York, Atheneum, 1963) pp.
Trotskys family lived a complicated existence. Zina at that time lived 159-160. [return]
with his [Trotskys] sister Elizaveta and her husband in their family home
on Gryaznaya Street in Kherson. Alexandra wrote regularly to them. [p.
108] To contact the WSWS and the
So it seems that Trotsky did not abandon his family. As Socialist Equality Party visit:
revolutionaries, both Lev Davidovitch and Alexandra Lvovna coped as
best as they could in exceedingly difficult circumstances. At some point
in the future, as more documents are discovered, it may be possible to
http://www.wsws.org
reconstruct accurately the details of their complicated personal
arrangements. But Robert Service will not be the man who undertakes

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