Literary Projects and Political Considerations

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My literary projects? First a book on the world situation. I will try to give a comparative picture of the correlation of forces in the world arena. The war and postwar developments, including the Russian Revolution, have entirely changed the face of our planet from the economic, political, military, and diplomatic points of view. This new face is in no way stable. The relationship of forces is dynamic, laden with unforeseen complications and sharp turns. We are no longer in the time of the Holy Alliance of Metternich, nor in the epoch of pretended European equilibrium between the Entente and the Triple Alliance. European equilibrium has become a bitter memory or a half-formed dream. Europe in general has ceased to be the center of the world. It is foolish to hope that one day it will again hold this place. The terrible crisis at present, despite its ravages in the United States, has modified the relationship of forces, not in favor of Europe, but in favor of the United States and the colonial countries. To see where we are going — the struggle for a new division of the world on the one hand and the attempts at disarmament on the other — it is necessary to uncover the fundamental economic, social, and political forces, to trace the curve of their development and their mutual reactions, and to draw out their perspectives. There you have the content of my projected book.

The collection of the necessary materials and preliminary studies on diverse questions have occupied me for several years. The fire that destroyed my house and library on Prinkipo in February 1931 was a serious blow to my work, but a great part of the material has been regathered since then. The principal obstacle to my work has been the poverty of documentation in Turkey. I need at least three months of preparatory work in one of the richest libraries in the world. The place best situated for observing the panorama of the world, from every point of view, is in my opinion New York. Is it utopian to dream of working in one of the great American treasure houses of books? I hope the example of the Danish government will not be lost on other countries.

It is evident that political considerations, especially in the USSR, may contradict my literary plans. It is unnecessary to repeat that my sharp conflicts with the faction presently in power, conflicts that finally led to my banishment in Turkey, have changed neither my attitude toward the Soviet republic nor, I daresay, the attitude of the real majority of the party toward me.

The situation in the USSR is characterized by the combination of great successes with grave difficulties. The question of assessing the successes and difficulties depends, in the last analysis, on the program and the methods of the political leadership, which means its composition as well.

My connections with friends in the Soviet Union and my information enable me to declare with certainty: The prevailing opinion in the Bolshevik Party demands the establishment of unity in the ranks and the replacement of individual leadership, which has in no way justified itself, by collective leadership.

You ask if I am ready to collaborate with Stalin and his closest collaborators? I have never repudiated such collaboration, and now, before the serious difficulties within and without the country, I am less disposed than ever to repudiate it.

Politics knows no personal resentment nor the spirit of revenge. Politics knows only effectiveness. For myself, as well as my companions, it comes back to the question of the program. of the collaboration.

The Left Opposition, to which I belong, presents its political program in a publication that appears in Russian in Berlin with my fullest participation. Number 32 of this publication, the Biulleten Oppozitsii, is now at the printers. In addition to its programmatic and political articles, our publication illustrates the internal situation in the country with many articles from the USSR. Thus I feel in no way isolated from the state that emerged from the October Revolution.