An Interview by Politiken

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"Are there particular reasons why you accepted the invitation to give a lecture in Copenhagen? I imagine you have received many other invitations as well?"

"Naturally it's a long way up here," Trotsky replies, "but I wanted to take a trip at the moment, and I am fond of Scandinavia. I've been here before, you know. It's purely accidental that I am now visiting Denmark before Norway. Two years ago I received an invitation from Norwegian students, and I was even granted an entry permit by Mowinckel, but in February of last year, just as I was about to begin the trip, there was a bad fire in my home in Prinkipo. All my manuscripts and papers were destroyed, and I left the island while the house was being repaired. I did not want to travel while that was going on. But now that is finished, and we will be going back there after our trip to Scandinavia."

"Have you been to Denmark before?" I ask, after promising not to touch on politics.

"In 1910 I took part in the international socialist congress in Copenhagen. I came here from England with Rosa Luxemburg, who in those years was living in exile from Russia the same as I: The lovely days spent in Copenhagen at that time are some of the happiest memories of my life. There is something gentle and friendly about the Danes. I'm not trying to flatter them, because obviously they can't help being the way they are. But it made an impression on me, I remember.

"We ended the congress with a big banquet in the city hall, I believe, and that was a magnificent experience. Yes, a lot has certainly happened since then. When I think back on the people who were together in Copenhagen at that time, numerous events come back to mind. There was Bebel, the German socialist leader; Jean Jaurès, who was murdered when the world war broke out; Lenin, who was relatively unknown at the time; and Rosa Luxemburg, who fell as a martyr for her passionate convictions. If we engaged in guesswork over the future, we nonetheless never guessed what was to happen later."

"Was your wife along with you that time?”

"No, but she has kept the photographs and picture postcards that I sent her from Copenhagen, and she has always looked forward to seeing the city that I praised so highly."

"Do you know that Lenin lived in Copenhagen a while when he was in exile?"

"That I have never heard, but I find it interesting to know. I myself almost went to Copenhagen in 1907 at the time of my second escape from Siberia. Disguised, I managed to get to the Urals. From there, in my rashness, I took the train to St. Petersburg, and fortunately was able to avoid the police spies. At the Finnish border, I was met by Finnish activists who helped me get to Sweden. Yet on my way to Copenhagen, I only reached Malmø — a steamship there happened to be heading for London."

"Are you going to give a speech in Norway this time too?"

"I think so. If only I can get in, I'll travel up there. My wife and I would also both like to go to Sweden, my wife mostly to see the museums and art. For ten years she was in charge of all the Russian museums — both scientific and artistic — and there are now many valuable collections that she was responsible for bringing together. In Italy, where we stopped on our way here, we had a great experience. We saw the new, huge excavations in Pompeii What the Italians have achieved there is really colossal. A third of the city has been re-created just the way it was in times past and you can relive the life of the city at that time."

"Have you had a hard trip?"

"Not at all. We had eight days of marvelous sailing from Constantinople to Marseilles, where, fortunately, we arrived too late to catch the train, so we had to take a car to Lyons. That was an unforgettable drive — 400 kilometers through southern France. I like to get around." With this Trotsky gets up and rolls up the window blinds. "I would also like to see a little of Denmark," he adds, "though it's too bad about the fog you've got here at the moment."

"What is your speech in Copenhagen going to deal with?"

"I am going to talk about the Russian Revolution — but it will consist of a purely historical and scientific explanation of events. I am going to stick exclusively to Russia and will not get into international politics. I unfortunately can't speak Danish, but I have chosen to speak in German, which is understood, I have heard, by many Danes."

"How long have you been living in Prinkipo?"

"For four years. I have been given the right to live in exile, you know, and Prinkipo is, naturally, better than Siberia. When I’m not writing, I go hunting or fishing. At present I am working on a new, big work on the Russian Revolution. I have a daughter, who lives with me along with her six-year-old son; and, as you know, where there are children, time never hangs heavy. Yet naturally I am not planning to settle down on the little island forever."

"Do you hope to go back to Russia?"

"No, thanks," smiles Trotsky, pulling thoughtfully on his grizzled, pointed beard, "now you’re trying to provoke me into talking politics, but I already told you I wouldn't."