Stalin vs. Trotsky

Stalin vs. Trotsky

I. Dzhugashvili and Bronstein

Joseph Stalin, born Dzhugashvili, and Leon Trotsky, born Bronstein,

were the same age, and both had been from early youth members of the

Russian Social Democratic party. As dedicated Communists, they had

common basic outlook: they were philosophical materialists, committed

to the unity of theory and practice and bent upon spreading Communism

throughout the whole world. While Lenin was alive (at any rate until

1922) both men had a secure place in his favor and therefore in the

party as a whole. Since 1917, at least, Trotsky had supported Lenin on

the main issues and seemed to have more of his candor and flexibility

than Stalin. However, as Lenin sickened and died, the mutual

antagonism between Trotsky and Stalin, who had never been compatible,

deepened into a life-and-death struggle.

A. Stalin

It is difficult to compare the later lives of the two men, for Stalin

achieved sole power and Trotsky was exiled. Since Trotsky thus escaped

Stalin's dilemmas, it is uncertain how he would have responded to

them, although he detested Stalin's rule. Stalin hated his adversary

so deeply that he caused his name to be written simply "Judas Trotsky"

in officially commissioned books, but he borrowed many of his ideas

and methods. Their earlier lives, however, suggest something of the

personal differences which were to be complicated by disagreements

over doctrine and practice.

Stalin was the eldest surviving child of the shoemaker Vissarion

Dzhugashvili of Gori in Georgia. Today the hut in which he was born is

preserved by a temple-like structure erected over it. As a boy he

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...clared that it was impossible to build socialism in Russia

because the peasants did not want it. That it would only be possible

to do so if the workers of the West revolted, and he was right. Stalin

declared that it was impossible to wait for the Western workers to

revolt before building socialism, because they were not likely to

revolt in the immediate future. Therefore socialism could be built in

Russia only if the Party used the peasantry, and he was also right.

However, that the Western workers were not Communist, Trotsky could

never admit. He could only assert that they would be soon. The Russian

peasants were not Communist, Stalin could never admit, but he could

try to compel them to be. As a result Trotsky retreated into

utopianism, while Stalin proceeded to establish a minority

dictatorship built on terror.