Anastas Mikoyan, Joseph Stalin, and Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze photographed together in Tbilisi
Lev, Kamenev is here to see you now.“ Trotsky’s wife Natalia stood in the door to the room from which the People's Commissar for Army and Navy Affairs conducted his work from home. Something he had done for the past two weeks due to a severe case of lumbago. Trotsky smiled at his wife, “can you ask him to give me five minutes? Thanks dear.” She nodded and closed the door, and his eyes returned to the letter he was holding in his hand. He read it for the tenth time.
Dear Comrade Trotsky
It's my wish that you take it upon yourself to defend the so called Georgian case in the Central Committee of the party. We cannot depend on Stalin and Dzerzhinsky's to show impartiality – quite the opposite as a matter of fact. If you would accept to act on our Georgian comrades' defense, I would be calm that this matter can be solved in a just way. If you for some reason cannot or will not do this, please return the dossier and all its content to me. I shall consider such an act a negative answer from you.
With best comradely greetings,
Lenin
Trotsky rose from his chair and massaged the muscles of his lower back absentmindedly while he considered the situation. What little pain remained in the muscles from the last weeks quite horrible bout of lumbago did not distract him from the situation at hand. Vladimir Ilyich had suffered a couple of what the physicians called “lesser shocks” which could be preludes to another stroke. He was now confined to his bed and only communicated through his secretaries Glasser and Fotiyeva. Glasser had approached Trotsky at the Central Committee's meeting the day before and had handed him a note with a brief summary of Trotsky's speech given to plenary meeting two days ago and the question, “did I understand you correctly?” Trotsky had replied, “What do you need it for?” “For Vladimir Ilyich”, Glasser had written back, which prompted Trotsky to reply, “Your summery is correct.” During this exchange of notes, it had been obvious to Trotsky, that Stalin watched them with alarm.
This morning, he had been visited by both of Lenin' secretaries. Without any prelude, Fotiyeva said “Vladimir Ilyich is preparing a bomb for Stalin at the congress.” Nothing had yet come of Lenin's and Trotsky's decision to confront the bureaucracy and Stalin. What had brought new urgency to the struggle was Stalin's recent betrayal of Lenin's confidence. To insure himself of support in Georgia, Stalin had together with Ordzhonikidze
1 and with support from Dzerzhinsky, organized a coup d’état there against the foremost section of the party. Stalin had taken advantage of Lenin's illness and fed him misinformation and ignored to inform the majority of the Central Committee while he used its authority to shield himself from any repercussions. Lenin had asked Fotiyeva and Glasser to collect all important information they could find regarding the Georgian situation so that he could come out openly against Stalin at the twelfth Party Congress. However, he was worried that his failing health would make it impossible for him to attend. Both Fotiyeva and Glasser were open with the fact that they had suggested that Lenin should discuss the situation with Zinoviev and Kamenev, something he had dismissed. He was convinced they would ally themselves with Stalin against Trotsky as soon as he left politics. Lenin had wondered if Trotsky shared his view on the Georgian situation and the War Commissar's speech at the plenary meeting and his and Glasser's subsequent exchange had convinced Lenin that Trotsky should lead the attack on Stalin at the Party Congress. Glasser had then handed over the dossier which consisted of all the documents that were the essence of Lenin's “bomb.” Trotsky hesitated. Surely, there must be a better, a more discrete way. “Kamenev is leaving tomorrow for the Georgia party conference. I can inform him of Lenin’s dossier so as to induce him to act properly in Georgia.”
Fotiyeva had answered, “No. Lenin is convinced that Kamenev will reveal everything to Stalin." This had concluded the meeting.
About an hour later Fotiyeva had returned alone with a new message from Lenin. It was a copy of a message to the old revolutionary Mdivani, Makharadze
2, and other opponents of Stalin's policy in Georgia. It read, “I'm following your situation with heart and soul. Ordzhonikidze’s heavy handed methods and Stalin’s and Dzerzhinsky’s support and encouragement fill me with indignation. I'm preparing a speech for you.” To his surprise, Trotsky could see that the copy was also addressed to Kamenev and asked Fotiyeva if Lenin had changed his mind. She admitted that he had indeed changed his mind and that his condition now seemed to get worse by the hour. Apparently Lenin could now only speak with difficulty and had deemed it better to act now before it might be too late for him, despite the timing beeing far from ideal.” Trotsky had sent Fotiyeva with a note to Kamenev with a request that he come and see him.
Now, scarcely an hour later, Lev Borisovich Kamenev, the acting Sovnarkom
3 and Politburo
4 chairman, entered the room, Natalia closed the door behind him. “Thanks for coming on such a short notice. Grab a chair.” Trotsky studied his guest’s well known features as he moved one of the chairs so that it stood in front of Trotsky’s desk and then sat down - the long face, with the prominent forehead and nervously darting eyes slightly concealed in the reflections in the glasses and the bushy beard. “I take it that you have read Vladimir Ilyich’s note in support for the previous leadership in Georgia?”
“Yes, of course.”
“And what is your opinion?”
“It’s problematic for sure. I see the merits of both views on the matter. How to handle it effectively is difficult. I have no suggestions at the moment.”
Trotsky handed Kamenev Lenin’s dossier, “read this and then tell me what you think. I will take care of some long overdue correspondence meanwhile.”
Kamenev read swiftly and Trotsky did not quite have the time to finish his letter before he spoke, “I see that the situation is more serious than I thought. It’s not surprising though – earlier today I visited Nadyezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya 5 at her request. She told me that Vladimir Ilyich just had dictated to his stenographer a letter to Stalin saying that he breaks off all relations with him. Apparently the reason for this is Stalin’s attempt at isolating Vladimir Ilyich from all sources of information and in doing so being very rude to Nadyezhda Konstantinovna. She then told me that as we well know, Vladimir Ilyich would never do this if he didn’t think it was necessary to crush Stalin politically.” Kamenev grew pale and agitated while speaking. His eyes darted here and there and he looked like he expected hard words from Trotsky.
“At times, people see danger where there is none and when they act on this false belief, they bring themselves into a truly dangerous situation. I have no wish to initiate a conflict at the congress with the objective of making organizational changes. I am for preserving the status quo. However, if Lenin recovers and will attend the congress, which I think is very unlikely but sincerely hope for, he and I will certainly discuss the matter again. So to be clear – I will not seek the removal of Stalin and Dzerzhinsky from their offices, nor will I call for the expulsion of Ordzhonikidze. Having said that, it's also important that you understand that I agree with Vladimir Ilyich in substance. I want to see radical change in the policies regarding nations, and an immediate stop of the persecution of Stalin's Georgian opponents. Further, we must see an end to the administrative oppression of the party, a firmer policy in matters of industrialization, and an honest cooperation in the highest echelons of our party and government. On the question of nations, Stalin's approach is worthless. The arbitrary and impudent oppression by a powerful nation is just as bad as the protests and resistance of small, weak and backward nationalities. I presented my resolution as an amendment to Stalin's policy, to make it possible for him to make changes without losing face. There must be an immediate and clear change of course. Also, Stalin should write to Krupskaya at once and apologize for his rudeness. He must also make sure to treat her well in the future. The poor woman has enough grievances to be burdened by hurtful behavior. Enough of the intrigues, Lev Borisovich. We must have honest cooperation.”
Kamenev looked down like a scolded schoolboy, “You're right of course.”
“When you are at the conference in Tblisi, you must facilitate a complete reversal of the policy toward Lenin’s Georgian supporters on the national question.”
Kamenev looked relieved but still breathed heavily. “I accept your proposals and I agree with your suggested line of action. My fear is that Stalin won't see it the way we do. He's as unpredictable as he is rude.”
Trotsky smiled, “I feel confident that Stalin will understand that he has no other alternative than comply with our wishes.”
“I will speak to him at once and inform you of the outcome as soon as possible.” Kamenev rose, “Good bye.”
“Have a safe journey.” Kamenev left and Trotsky although quite distracted by the tension of the situation continued to work late into the night. Just as he considered himself too tired to work effectively anymore and decided to go to sleep, he received a phone call from Kamenev. Stalin had accepted all their terms and he had already sent a letter of apology to Krupskaya. Lenin had not seen it yet since his condition had worsened during the evening. Trotsky felt sad by the news of Lenin's condition and there was little satisfaction from the phone call. Kamenev had sounded more like he used to the last year - distant and cold.
1 Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze - Georgian Bolshevik and close friend to Stalin.
2 Filipp Makaradze – Deposed Chairman of the Georgian Revolutionary Committee
3 Sovnarkom - Council of the People's Commissars
4 Politburo - The Politburo is a bureau of the Central Committee tasked with making day-to-day political decisions, which must later be ratified by the Central Committee.
5 Nadezhda Konstantinovna "Nadya" Krupskaya - Vladimir Lenin's wife.