he sent off the first chapter: Trotsky to Collins, July 1, 1938, TEP 7607.
“far more than 80,000 words”: Trotsky to Walker, August 20, 1938, TEP 10782.
Trotsky had changed the conception of the book: Collins to Walker, September 22, 1938, TEP 13957; Walker to Trotsky, September 25, 1938, TEP 5825.
he hoped to finish the book by February 1: Trotsky to Collins, September 25 and 27, 1938, TEP 7612, 7613.
Trotsky responded with a vigorous defense…“My book on Stalin must be unattackable”: Trotsky to Walker, October 3, 1938, TEP 10783; Malamuth to Trotsky, December 22, 1938, TEP 2876; Cass Canfield to Trotsky, October 7 and November 26, 1938, TEP 452, 454; Trotsky to Canfield, November 29, 1938, TEP 7485.
The writing would proceed more quickly now: Trotsky to Collins, November 28, 1938, TEP 7615.
“Health is revolutionary capital”: Van, “Lev Davidovich,” in Leon Trotsky, 44.
His obsession with matters of health and fitness: Ulam, 515–18.
passionate about hunting and fishing: Van, 11–13; Van, “Lev Davidovich,” in Leon Trotsky, 44; Deutscher II, 335–36.
he often paced the patio: “Joe’s notes on Trotsky,” Hansen papers, 40:7.
He became a gardening addict: Hank Stone to Jan Frankel, May 31, 1938, TC 23:5; Hansen to Reba Hansen, June 19, 1938, Hansen papers, 18:12; Hansen to Rose Karsner, August 21, 1938, TC 23:6; Trotsky to Rae Spiegel, November 3, 1938, TC 10:3; Trotsky to Jan Frankel, November 3, 1938, TEP 8174.
Cactus expeditions: Charles Cornell, “With Trotsky in Mexico,” in Leon Trotsky, 64–67.
Old Man Cactus: Dugrand, 38.
Natalia made jokes: Deutscher III, 363.
hunting stories…“We flushed a covey of mourning doves”…This gave Trotsky an opening to poke fun: Hansen to Reba Hansen, January 2, 1938, Hansen papers, 18:7.
a Sunday in October 1923: My Life, 495–98.
“L.D.’s temperature mounted”: Natalia quoted in My Life, 499–500.
Trotsky’s illness continued to plague him: “Auszug aus der Krankengeschichte von Herrn Leon Sedoff,” 1935, TEP 15749.
“my high temperature paralyzed me”: My Life, 522.
Trotsky headed south for the Black Sea resort of Sukhumi: My Life, 508.
“Lenin is no more”: Nina Tumarkin, Lenin Lives! The Lenin Cult in Soviet Russia (Harvard University Press, 1983), 158.
Lenin’s body lay in state for four days: Tumarkin, Lenin Lives!, 138–62; Deutscher II, 110–11.
Walter Duranty described a series of false rumors: The New York Times, January 8, 1924.
No one informed Trotsky of the postponement…“I had no choice”: My Life, 508–11; Trotsky to Malamuth, October 21, October 29, and November 17, 1939, TEP 8979, 8980, 8981.
In Eastman’s view, Trotsky did have a choice: Eastman, Love and Revolution, 408.
The funeral was held on Sunday…“like a smoke sacrifice”: Tumarkin, Lenin Lives!, 162; Volkogonov, 266.
bright, warm January sun: My Life, 509.
At 3:55 p.m…. The effect was deafening: Tumarkin, 162.
“It is the moment of Lenin’s burial”: My Life, 509; Trotsky to Malamuth, October 21, 1939, TEP 8979.
The mail brought disconsolate letters…seventeen-year-old Lyova: My Life, 511.
“I should have come at any price!”: Leon Trotsky, Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence (Harper & Brothers, 1941), 381.
cryptogenic fever: Van, 57; Diary, 118–19, 145–46, 148, 159; Trotsky to Sara Weber, December 11, 1938, TEP 10836.
He lost ten pounds…no signs of a heart problem: “Health Report by Harry Fishler, M.D.,” TEP 15751; Dr. Alfred Zollinger to Dr. Hartmann, March 5 and April 16, 1938, TEP 15646, 14740.
He did not leave the house for more than two months: Irish O’Brien to Rose Karsner, February 23, 1939, TC 23:7; Lillian to Rose Karsner, March 29, 1939, TC 23:7.
“The general name of my illness is “the sixties’”: Trotsky to Jan Frankel, March 31, 1939, TEP 8180.
the loss, yet again, of his Russian typist: Trotsky to Hansen, March 17, 1939, TEP 8436; Trotsky to Jan Frankel, March 27, 1939, TEP 8179.
Trotsky pleaded his hard luck case: Trotsky to Collins, January 3 and April 8, 1939, TEP 7616, 7619.
“I am almost desperate”: Trotsky to Hansen, March 17, 1939, TEP 8436.
The new residence…in dilapidated condition: Van, 138; Natalia, 251; Irish O’Brien to Usik, May 14, 1939, TEP 12537.
he found a Russian typist: Trotsky to Collins, May 9, 1939, TEP 7621.
less detailed and more “synthetic”…“if nothing extraordinary happens”: Trotsky to Collins, June 3, 1939, TEP 7622.
Trotsky was thoroughly disgusted: Natalia, “Father and Son,” in Leon Trotsky, 42–43.
an aggressive prosecuting attorney: Knei-Paz, 528–32; Deutscher III, 361–67.
“never-slumbering envy”…“in the full panoply of power”: Trotsky, Stalin, 336.
Stalin had hastened Lenin’s death: Deutscher III, 367–68.
death of Lenin’s widow, Krupskaya: Trotsky, “Kroupskaia est morte,” March 4, 1939, TEP 15726.
“They proved to be not only peppery but poisoned”: Trotsky, Stalin, 372–73.
“the monstrosity of such suspicion”: Trotsky, Stalin, 372, 376–80.
Trotsky accused Life of caving in to “the Stalinist machine”: quote is in Trotsky to Bush, January 8, 1940, TEP 8925; also see Bush to Trotsky, October 3, 1939, TEP 2790; Trotsky to Bush, October 15, 1939, TEP 8919; Bush to Trotsky, November 22, 1939, TEP 2793; Trotsky to Editorial Board, Life, November 23, 1939, TEP 8922; Trotsky to Saturday Evening Post, January 27, 1940, TEP 10018.
the text of an anonymous letter: TC 13:40.
Trotsky…decided that they deserved to be taken seriously: Trotsky to Jan Frankel, May 10, 1939, TEP 8185.
Orlov was now living in Los Angeles: Deadly Illusions, 322.
he tried to reach Trotsky by telephone: Trotsky to Jan Frankel, May 10, 1939, TEP 8185; Legacy, 20.
room 735 of the Lubyanka: Sudoplatov, 68–69.
Operation Utka…Stalin authorized the operation: Kolpakidi, 153–54; Ocherki, 93.
Chapter Nine: To the Finland Station
Alfred and Marguerite Rosmer: Van, 143.
they were rejuvenated: Van to Rose Karsner, August 10, 1939, TC 23:9; Hansen to Reba Hansen, November 7, 1939, Hansen papers, 19:2; Hansen to Rose Karsner, November 9, 1939, TC 23:10.
Hubert Herring: Van, 131; Herring to Trotsky, March 9, 1937, TEP 1970.
the Nazi-Soviet pact: Craig II, 654–57.
Trotsky insisted that the pact was of secondary importance…“the OM refused to be disturbed”: O’Brien to Rose Karsner, August 31, 1939, TC 23:9.
predicting a rapprochement between Stalin and Hitler: Glotzer, 287, 314.
keenly sensitive to the danger posed by Hitler: Van, 2; Glotzer, 57.
the Red Army should immediately be mobilized: Eastman, Heroes, 254–55.
Trotsky changed his mind about remaining inside the Comintern: Knei-Paz, 414–15; Glotzer, 200–1; Jean van Heijenoort, “How the Fourth International Was Conceived,” in Leon Trotsky, 61–64.
The moment was hardly propitious: Deutscher III, 342; Volkogonov, 400–1.
many Trotskyists were skeptical: Glotzer, 309–10; Deutscher III, 340–41; Knei-Paz 417.
the voice of supreme optimism: Deutscher III, 345–46; Trotsky to Cannon, June 16, 1939, TEP 7546.
“The Death Agony of Capitalism”: Knei-Paz, 413.
scene of the founding congress…At the end of the day: Deutscher, III, 340–41; Volkogonov, 400–7.
Zborowski protested that the Russian section: Deutscher III, 342; Volkogonov, 401.
Sylvia Ageloff…Ruby Weil: Levine, 43–47; FBI, 1:22, 7:58–67; American Aspects of Assassination of Leon Trotsky: Hearings Before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-First Congress, Second Sessio
n (United States Government, 1951), December 4, 1950, 3401–17; Weil profile, TC 24:1.
Jacques took the ladies sightseeing…perfect dilettante: “Statement of Walta Karsner,” August 21, 1940, TC 24:4; “Memorandum of talk with Hilda and Ruth Ageloff,” August 24, 1940, TC 24:2.
Ramón Mercader…Ramón’s flamboyant mother: Ocherki, 94; Levine, 14–21, 35–37, 43, 61–65; Kolpakidi, 155–57.
Spanish civil war became the NKVD’s training ground…Leonid Eitingon: Levine, 32–35.
she was asked to serve as a translator…she was worried that her Trotskyism…things about Jacques that did not add up: “Memorandum of talk with Hilda and Ruth Ageloff,” August 24, 1940, TC 24:2; “Statement of Walta Karsner,” August 21, 1940, TC 24:4.
Trotsky was especially fond of Sylvia’s sister Ruth: Van, 146.
the American Trotskyists gathered: Cannon to Trotsky, October 13, 1938, TEP 499; Rose Karsner to Lillian, October 30, 1938, TEP 6637.
“I hope that this time my voice will reach you”…“stinking cadaver”…“Long live the Fourth International!”: Writings, 11:85–87.
Socialist Workers Party: Constance Ashton Myers, The Prophet’s Army: Trotskyists in America, 1928–1941 (Greenwood Press, 1977); Glotzer, 21–24.
James Cannon: Kelly, 47–49; Wald, 169–70.
Max Shachtman: Kelly, 48; Wald 165, 172–75.
Cannon was wary: Cannon to Trotsky, December 16, 1937, TEP 491.
Burnham objected to Cannon’s authoritarian management style…“The tendency in your letters”: Burnham to Cannon, June 15, 1937, TEP 13825.
“degenerated workers’ state”…“unconditional defense”: Knei-Paz, 410–18; Glotzer, 294–95; Eastman, Heroes, 244.
regarded as “treason”: Trotsky quoted in Glotzer, 283.
Burnham and Carter described the Soviet system as “bureaucratic collectivism”: Kelly, 63–64; Glotzer, 284.
“a little epidemic of revisionism”: Cannon to Trotsky, November 15, 1937, TEP 490; Trotsky to Burnham and Carter, December 6, 1937, TEP 7456; Trotsky to Burnham, December 15, 1937, Glotzer papers, box 3, folder: “Trotsky, Leon” Trotsky to Cannon, December 21, 1937, TEP 7516.
especially strong among the youth: Jack Weber to Trotsky, November 22, 1937, Glotzer papers, box 4; Jan Frankel to Trotsky, December 23, 1937, TEP 1263; Israel Kugler to Trotsky, November 17, 1938, TEP 2422.
four out of seventy-five votes: Jan Frankel to Trotsky, January 2, 1938, TEP 1265.
“totalitarian” twins bearing a “deadly similarity”: Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed, Max Eastman, trans. (Dover, 2004), 208, 210.
This confounded the Trotskyists: Shachtman, “The Soviet Union and the World War,” New International, April 1940.
The Germans had launched their blitzkrieg: Craig II, 659–61.
the Soviets arrested and deported hundreds of thousands of Poles…Katyn Forest Massacre: Allen Paul, Katyn: The Untold Story of Stalin’s Polish Massacre (Scribner’s, 1991).
“The USSR in War”: In Defense of Marxism, 3–21.
“nothing else would remain”: In Defense Of Marxism, 9, 14–15.
took his followers by surprise: Glotzer, 315; In Defense of Marxism, 30.
In Trotsky’s view, the Red Army…was serving as a vehicle for progress in Poland: In Defense of Marxism, 18.
Shachtman had now joined forces with Burnham: In Defense of Marxism, ix–x; Deutscher III, 382.
Anatoly Lunacharsky…wrote a profile of him: Anatoly Vasilievich Lunacharsky, Revolutionary Silhouettes, Michael Glenny, trans. (Penguin, 1967), 61–62, 66.
“a man of exceptional abilities”: Volkogonov, 18.
second congress of the Russian Social Democrats: Deutscher I, 60–69; Volkogonov, 25–28.
Our Political Tasks: Knei-Paz, 176–199; Deutscher I, 73–77; Volkogonov, 30–31.
his break with the Mensheviks: Knei-Paz, 206–14.
His ineptitude as a conciliator: Deutscher I, 160–64; Knei-Paz, 180.
“the poisonous seeds of its own destruction”: Trotsky quoted in 31.
Trotsky turned down Lenin’s offer: Knei-Paz, 225.
“Go where you belong from now on: into the dustbin of history!”: Ulam, 363–73; Deutscher I, 259; Knei-Paz, 509; Glotzer, 125.
Trotsky’s passivity in the struggle to succeed Lenin: Glotzer, 149–53.
“In the time of revolutionary storm”: Eastman, Heroes, 258–59.
“sharing the bitter fate”: Ulam, 373.
Trotsky’s account of the October events: Istoriia russkoi revoliutsii, Vol. 2/2, 277–78.
Eastman…and his wife visited Prinkipo: Eastman, Companions, 114–15.
Eastman was strikingly handsome: John P. Diggins, “Getting Hegel out of History: Max Eastman’s Quarrel with Marxism,” American Historical Review, Vol. 79, No. 1 (February 1974), 38–39 [hereafter: Diggins].
pale blue color of his eyes…kept insisting were black: Eastman, Love and Revolution, 557–58.
“Trotsky’s throat was throbbing and his face was red”: Eastman, Companions, 114.
twice tried and twice acquitted: Eastman, Love and Revolution, 85–99, 118–24.
an invitation from Lenin and Trotsky: Eastman, Love and Revolution, 78.
Lenin’s still-secret political testament: Eastman, Love and Revolution, 442–55.
the dialectic, a principle of change…“historical materialism”: Walter Kaufmann, Hegel: A Reinterpretation (University of Notre Dame Press, 1978), 153–62; Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1972), 210–30; Max Eastman, “Russia and the Socialist Ideal,” Harper’s, March 1938; George Novack, “Trotsky’s Views on Dialectical Materialism,” in Leon Trotsky, 94–102.
Eastman was puzzled by the connection…the library of the Marx-Engels Institute: Eastman, Love and Revolution, 125–32, 416–18; Diggins, “Getting Hegel out of History.”
Marx and Lenin: The Science of Revolution: Eastman, Love and Revolution, 460–63.
Hook and Eastman were Dewey’s “bright boys”: Eastman, Love and Revolution, 499–500.
“he became almost hysterical”: Eastman, Companions, 115.
“to trim Marx’s beard”: Van, 63; Lunacharsky, Revolutionary Silhouettes, 66.
Eastman’s “petty-bourgeois revisionism”: Eastman, Love and Revolution, 593–95.
fixated on the subject of Eastman’s heresy…“Pragmatism, empiricism is the greatest curse”: George Novack, “Trotsky’s Views on Dialectical Materialism,” in Leon Trotsky, 94–102; In Defense of Marxism, 44–47; Shachtman to Trotsky, March 5, 1939, TEP 5107.
an article in Harper’s in March 1938: Eastman, “Russia and the Socialist Idea.”
that Eastman be dealt with “mercilessly”: Trotsky to Burnham, March 22, 1939, TEP 7458.
Burnham was prepared to defend the October Revolution…but not dialectical materialism: Shachtman to Trotsky, March 5, 1939, TEP 5107.
Hook…Dewey…Edmund Wilson: Diggins, 59–60.
the “greatest blow”…“the best of gifts to the Eastmans of all kinds”: Trotsky to Shachtman, January 20, 1939, TEP 10337; Trotsky to Shachtman, March 9, 1939, Glotzer papers, box 3.
the intellectual equivalent of an appendectomy: Kelly, 77.
“Trotsky does not write on the dialectic”: Hansen to Trotsky, June 23, 1939, TC 18:12.
a defense of Marxism’s core principles: Trotsky to Cannon, January 9, 1940, TEP 7558; Knei-Paz, 485–86; Glotzer, 285–86.
Events in Europe in the autumn of 1939: Craig II, 659–61.
the Trotskyist Minority…proposed a referendum: Cannon to Trotsky, September 8 and October 26, 1939, TEP, 13874, 6222; Hansen to Reba Hansen, October 19, 1939, Hansen papers, 19:1; In Defense of Marxism, 33.
the vote was eight to four: Cannon to Trotsky, November 8, 1939, TEP 523.
the Soviet invasion of Finland: Craig II, 661–62.
“A Pett
y-Bourgeois Opposition in the Socialist Workers Party”: In Defense of Marxism, 43–62.
“The ABC of Materialist Dialectics”: In Defense of Marxism, 48–52.
not sure how it related to current debates: Hansen to Trotsky, January 1, 1940, TEP 1814.
“Cannon represents the proletarian party”: In Defense of Marxism, 61.
his analysis of the Finnish events: In Defense of Marxism, 56–59.
“moral and material support”: Stanley [Stanley Plastrik] to Trotsky, December 23, 1939, TEP 5379.
utterly fantastic: Manny Garrett [Geltman] to Bob, December 26, 1939, Glotzer papers, box 2; Burnham, “The Politics of Desperation,” New International, January 1940; Glotzer, 305–6.
the Old Man had gone “completely haywire”: Glotzer to John [Jan Frankel], January 21, 1940, Glotzer papers, box 12; Shachtman, “The Crisis in the American Party,” New International, March 1940.
Sherman Stanley…secretary-guard: Young to Charles Cornell, May 3, 1940, TEP 7239.
“the most monstrous and shameful non-sequitur”: Stanley [Stanley Plastrik] to Trotsky, December 23, 1939, TEP 5379.
“petty-bourgeois,” a time-honored Bolshevik term of abuse: Van, 130.
“L.D. has laid the gauntlet”: Manny Garrett [Geltman] to Bob, December 26, 1939, Glotzer papers, box 2.
“enraged petty-bourgeois”: Trotsky to Friends, December 27, 1939, TC 13:31.
“Stalinist agents working in our midst”: Trotsky to Cannon, December 29, 1939, TEP 7555.
laying the basis for a split: Hansen to Trotsky, January 1, 1940, TEP 1814.
“wrong side of the barricades”: Trotsky to Shachtman, December 20, 1939, TC 12:14.
Hansen’s…reputation for heavy-handed sarcasm: Stanley [Stanley Plastrik] to Trotsky, December 23, 1939, TEP 5379; Hansen to Trotsky, March 15, 1940, TEP 1820.
“declassed kibitzers” and “petty-bourgeois smart alecks”: Cannon to Trotsky, January 11, January 18, and February 20, 1940, TEP 530, 532, 6203.
a “madhouse”: Hansen to Trotsky, January 15, 1940, Hansen papers, 34:3.
“Where’s the civil war in Finland?”: Hansen to Trotsky, March 15, 1940, TEP 1820.
Howls of laughter: Hansen to Paul Anderson, March 7, 1940, Hansen papers, 18:6.
“provincials, blockheads, stupid yokels”: Hansen to Trotsky, January 15, 1940, Hansen papers, 34:3.