Letter to Margarete Neumann, April 13, 1932

Add a subpage to this text

Read the help page for usage.

 

On a Political Novel

Dear Comrade M. Neumann:

I gave your novel to two younger friends to read. They found reading it very interesting, and when they were finished both had the same unshakable impression — emotionally for the Oppositionists, politically against the Opposition. That coincides completely with my impression too. You yourself make no attempt to hide this attitude. On the contrary, you express the moral of the book in the title: I Can't Go On. This refers not only to the Opposition, but to the Soviet Union as a whole: I can't stand it any more. You develop this trend by tracing the root of the problem to the dictatorship of the proletariat But this question is the dividing line between communism and reformism — here dictatorship, there democracy. In this sense too your book has been written completely in favor of the Social Democracy and against communism. I do not doubt for a moment that this was not your goal, but you reached it all the same. You will understand when I say that in no case and by no means can I solidarize myself with this book. It is unfair not so much to me as to the cause I defend for the publisher to want to put my picture on the jacket But of course I can't prevent that.

Let me add that your book contains factual errors. The Fifth World Congress [1924] was not concerned with a "lost revolution." On the contrary, it still saw the revolutionary situation ahead of it. No one wanted to censor my speech. And I was not against but in favor of the November demonstration of 1927.

My sincere thanks for the friendly feelings you hold for me. You have won me over so much through your letters that I deeply regret the fact that our paths are leading in such irreconcilable directions.

With warmest greetings.

Yours,

L. Trotsky