| Category | Template | Form |
|---|---|---|
| Text | Text | Text |
| Author | Author | Author |
| Collection | Collection | Collection |
| Keywords | Keywords | Keywords |
| Subpage | Subpage | Subpage |
| Template | Form |
|---|---|
| BrowseTexts | BrowseTexts |
| BrowseAuthors | BrowseAuthors |
| BrowseLetters | BrowseLetters |
Template:GalleryAuthorsPreviewSmall
Special pages :
Students at Edinburgh Offer Trotsky Rectorship
June 7, 1935.
To the Students of Edinburgh University
Dear Sirs,
I am indebted to you for your so unexpected and flattering proposal: to put me up as candidate for the rectorate of your university. The freedom from any nationalist considerations which yon show is a great tribute to the spirit of the students of Edinburgh.
I appreciate your confidence all the more since you, as you yourselves say, are uninfluenced by the refusal of the British Government to grant me a visa. Nevertheless I do not feel that I have the right to accept your proposal. The elections to the rectorate, you write, are conducted on a NON-POLITICAL basis and your letter itself is signed by representatives of every political tendency. But I myself occupy too definite a political position; all my activity has been and remains devoted to the revolutionary liberation of the proletariat from the yoke of capital. I have no other right to responsible posts. I would therefore consider it a crime toward the working class and a disloyalty toward you to appear on no matter what public tribune not under the Bolshevik banner. You will find, I have no doubt, a candidate much more in conformity with, the traditions of your University.
I wish you with all my heart the greatest success in your work.
| Sincerely yours,
L. Trotsky |