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Special pages :
Statement to the Press
| Author(s) | Leon Trotsky |
|---|---|
| Written | 15 April 1929 |
Many reporters have already come to question me about my plans and intentions. Since it is physically and materially impossible for me to grant so many interviews, I ask them to take note of the following:
In the immediate future I will remain in Constantinople, since the government of Turkey is creating no obstacle to my remaining.
Although this has not been requested of me, I declared that I did not wish to involve myself in the internal affairs of the country. For its part, the government has done everything possible to facilitate my stay in Turkey.
I am spending my time preparing several books for publication in German, French, and American editions. Some of them, like my autobiography and Lenin and the Epigones,Si are new works. Others have already appeared in Russia and need to be translated and adapted for European and American readers.
Because Stalin has held my former assistants in internal exile, despite his official promise to allow them to join me in Turkey, I have had to obtain new assistants who are sufficiently qualified for the work, with the help of the publishers involved.
I intend to establish residence with my family and my coworkers in the Constantinople area in order to devote myself peacefully to my work.
To the question of whether I will go to some European country for the medical attention I need, my reply is that the immediate prospects seem to be somewhat dimmed by the attitude of the Social Democratic government of Germany, which found it necessary to consider the matter for two months only to reply in the negative. I believe that an openly bourgeois government would not have proven so disturbed or so indecisive. My experience in government had already taught me that in practical questions — both large and small-it is better to deal with the boss than with his agents. Nevertheless, I hope that there will be some government in Europe that will permit me to enjoy the democratic right of asylum, even if only for medical treatment.
The question of my return to Russia continues to be posed in the same terms. I am always at the disposal of the Soviet republic and the October Revolution, and my adversaries understand, as well as my friends do, that my exile cannot be permanent.