Chapter 2
TROTSKY
LEAVES NEW YORK TO COMPLETE THE REVOLUTION
You will have a revolution, a terrible revolution. What course it takes will depend much on what Mr. Rockefeller tells Mr. Hague to do. Mr. Rockefeller is a symbol of the American ruling class and Mr. Hague is a symbol of its political tools.
Leon
Trotsky, in New York Times,December 13, 1938. (Hague was a New Jersey
politician)
In 1916, the year preceding the Russian Revolution, internationalist Leon Trotsky was expelled from France, officially because of his participation in the Zimmerwald conference but also no doubt because of inflammatory articles written for Nashe Slovo, a Russian-language newspaper printed in Paris. In September 1916 Trotsky
Other
Trotskyites also made their way westward across the Atlantic. Indeed, one
Trotskyite group acquired sufficient immediate influence in Mexico to write the
Constitution of Querétaro for the revolutionary 1917 Carranza government,
giving Mexico the dubious distinction of being the first government in the
world to adopt a Soviet-type constitution.
How
did Trotsky, who knew only German and Russian, survive in capitalist America?
According to his autobiography, My Life, "My only profession in New York
was that of a revolutionary socialist." In other words, Trotsky wrote
occasional articles for Novy Mir, the New York Russian socialist journal. Yet
we know that the Trotsky family apartment in New York had a refrigerator and a
telephone, and, according to Trotsky, that the family occasionally traveled in
a chauffeured limousine. This mode of living puzzled the two young Trotsky
boys. When they went into a tearoom, the boys would anxiously demand of their
mother, "Why doesn't the chauffeur come in?"1 The
stylish living standard is also at odds with Trotsky's reported income. The
only funds that Trotsky admits receiving in 1916 and 1917 are $310, and, said
Trotsky, "I distributed the $310 among five emigrants who were returning
to Russia." Yet Trotsky had paid for a first-class cell in Spain, the Trotsky
family had traveled across Europe to the United States, they had acquired an
excellent apartment in New York — paying rent three months in advance — and
they had use of a chauffeured limousine. All this on the earnings of an
impoverished revolutionary for a few articles for the low-circulation
Russian-language newspaper Nashe Slovo in Paris and Novy Mir in New York!
Joseph
Nedava estimates Trotsky's 1917 income at $12.00 per week, "supplemented
by some lecture fees."2
Trotsky was in New York in 1917 for three months, from January to March, so
that makes $144.00 in income from Novy Mir and, say, another $100.00 in lecture
fees, for a total of $244.00. Of this $244.00 Trotsky was able to give away
$310.00 to his friends, pay for the New York apartment, provide for his family
— and find the $10,000 that was taken from him in April 1917 by Canadian
authorities in Halifax. Trotsky claims that those who said he had other sources
of income are "slanderers" spreading "stupid calumnies" and
"lies," but unless Trotsky was playing the horses at the Jamaica
racetrack, it can't be done. Obviously Trotsky had an unreported source of
income.
What
was that source? In The Road to Safety, author Arthur Willert says Trotsky
earned a living by working as an electrician for Fox Film Studios. Other
writers have cited other occupations, but there is no evidence that Trotsky
occupied himself for remuneration otherwise than by writing and speaking.
Most
investigation has centered on the verifiable fact that when Trotsky left New
York in 1917 for Petrograd, to organize the Bolshevik phase of the revolution,
he left with $10,000. In 1919 the U.S. Senate Overman Committee investigated
Bolshevik propaganda and German money in the United States and incidentally
touched on the source of Trotsky's $10,000. Examination of Colonel Hurban,
Washington attaché to the Czech legation, by the Overman Committee yielded the
following:
COL.
HURBAN: Trotsky, perhaps, took money from Germany, but Trotsky will deny it.
Lenin would not deny it. Miliukov proved that he got $10,000 from some Germans
while he was in America. Miliukov had the proof, but he denied it. Trotsky did,
although Miliukov had the proof.
SENATOR
OVERMAN: It was charged that Trotsky got $10,000 here.
COL.
HURBAN: I do not remember how much it was, but I know it was a question between
him and Miliukov.
SENATOR
OVERMAN: Miliukov proved it, did he?
COL.
HURBAN: Yes, sir.
SENATOR
OVERMAN: Do you know where he got it from?
COL.
HURBAN: I remember it was $10,000; but it is no matter. I will speak about
their propaganda. The German Government knew Russia better than anybody, and
they knew that with the help of those people they could destroy the Russian
army.
(At
5:45 o'clock p.m. the subcommittee adjourned until tomorrow, Wednesday,
February 19, at 10:30 o'clock a.m.)3
It
is quite remarkable that the committee adjourned abruptly before the source of
Trotsky's funds could be placed into the Senate record. When questioning
resumed the next day, Trotsky and his $10,000 were no longer of interest to the
Overman Committee. We shall later develop evidence concerning the financing of
German and revolutionary activities in the United States by New York financial
houses; the origins of Trotsky's $10,000 will then come into focus.
An
amount of $10,000 of German origin is also mentioned in the official British
telegram to Canadian naval authorities in Halifax, who requested that Trotsky
and party en route to the revolution be taken off the S.S. Kristianiafjord (see
page 28). We also learn from a British Directorate of Intelligence report4 that
Gregory Weinstein, who in 1919 was to become a prominent member of the Soviet
Bureau in New York, collected funds for Trotsky in New York. These funds
originated in Germany and were channeled through the Volks-zeitung, a German
daily newspaper in New York and subsidized by the German government.
While
Trotsky's funds are officially reported as German, Trotsky was actively engaged
in American politics immediately prior to leaving New York for Russia and the
revolution. On March 5, 1917, American newspapers headlined the increasing
possibility of war with Germany; the same evening Trotsky proposed a resolution
at the meeting of the New York County Socialist Party "pledging Socialists
to encourage strikes and resist recruiting in the event of war with
Germany."5 Leon
Trotsky was called by the New York Times "an exiled Russian
revolutionist." Louis C. Fraina, who cosponsored the Trotsky resolution,
later — under an alias — wrote an uncritical book on the Morgan financial
empire entitled House of Morgan.6 The
Trotsky-Fraina proposal was opposed by the Morris Hillquit faction, and the
Socialist Party subsequently voted opposition to the resolution.7
More
than a week later, on March 16, at the time of the deposition of the tsar, Leon
Trotsky was interviewed in the offices of Novy Mir.. The interview contained a
prophetic statement on the Russian revolution:
"...
the committee which has taken the place of the deposed Ministry in Russia did
not represent the interests or the aims of the revolutionists, that it would
probably be shortlived and step down in favor of men who would be more sure to
carry forward the democratization of Russia."8
The
"men who would be more sure to carry forward the democratization of
Russia," that is, the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks, were then in exile
abroad and needed first to return to Russia. The temporary
"committee" was therefore dubbed the Provisional Government, a title,
it should be noted, that was used from the start of the revolution in March and
not applied ex post facto by historians.
President
Woodrow Wilson was the fairy godmother who provided Trotsky with a passport to
return to Russia to "carry forward" the revolution. This American
passport was accompanied by a Russian entry permit and a British transit visa.
Jennings C. Wise, in Woodrow Wilson: Disciple of Revolution, makes the
pertinent comment, "Historians must never forget that Woodrow Wilson,
despite the efforts of the British police, made it possible for Leon Trotsky to
enter Russia with an American passport."
President
Wilson facilitated Trotsky's passage to Russia at the same time careful State
Department bureaucrats, concerned about such revolutionaries entering Russia,
were unilaterally attempting to tighten up passport procedures. The Stockholm
legation cabled the State Department on June 13, 1917, just after Trotsky
crossed the Finnish-Russian border, "Legation confidentially informed
Russian, English and French passport offices at Russian frontier, Tornea,
considerably worried by passage of suspicious persons bearing American
passports."9
To
this cable the State Department replied, on the same day, "Department is
exercising special care in issuance of passports for Russia"; the
department also authorized expenditures by the legation to establish a
passport-control office in Stockholm and to hire an "absolutely dependable
American citizen" for employment on control work.10
But the bird had flown the coop. Menshevik Trotsky with Lenin's Bolsheviks were
already in Russia preparing to "carry forward" the revolution. The
passport net erected caught only more legitimate birds. For example, on June
26, 1917, Herman Bernstein, a reputable New York newspaperman on his way to
Petrograd to represent the New York Herald, was held at the border and refused
entry to Russia. Somewhat tardily, in mid-August 1917 the Russian embassy in
Washington requested the State Department (and State agreed) to "prevent
the entry into Russia of criminals and anarchists... numbers of whom have
already gone to Russia."11
Consequently,
by virtue of preferential treatment for Trotsky, when the S.S. Kristianiafjord
left New York on March 26, 1917, Trotsky was aboard and holding a U.S. passport
— and in company with other Trotskyire revolutionaries, Wall Street financiers,
American Communists, and other interesting persons, few of whom had embarked
for legitimate business. This mixed bag of passengers has been described by
Lincoln Steffens, the American Communist:
The
passenger list was long and mysterious. Trotsky was in the steerage with a
group of revolutionaries; there was a Japanese revolutionist in my cabin. There
were a lot of Dutch hurrying home from Java, the only innocent people aboard.
The rest were war messengers, two from Wall Street to Germany....12
Notably,
Lincoln Steffens was on board en route to Russia at the specific invitation of
Charles Richard Crane, a backer and a former chairman of the Democratic Party's
finance committee. Charles Crane, vice president of the Crane Company, had
organized the Westinghouse Company in Russia, was a member of the Root mission
to Russia, and had made no fewer than twenty-three visits to Russia between
1890 and 1930. Richard Crane, his son, was confidential assistant to then
Secretary of State Robert Lansing. According to the former ambassador to
Germany William Dodd, Crane "did much to bring on the Kerensky revolution
which gave way to Communism."13
And so Steffens' comments in his diary about conversations aboard the S.S.
Kristianiafjord are highly pertinent:" . . . all agree that the revolution
is in its first phase only, that it must grow. Crane and Russian radicals on
the ship think we shall be in Petrograd for the re-revolution.14
Crane
returned to the United States when the Bolshevik Revolution (that is, "the
re-revolution") had been completed and, although a private citizen, was
given firsthand reports of the progress of the Bolshevik Revolution as cables
were received at the State Department. For example, one memorandum, dated
December 11, 1917, is entitled "Copy of report on Maximalist uprising for
Mr Crane." It originated with Maddin Summers, U.S. consul general in
Moscow, and the covering letter from Summers reads in part:
I
have the honor to enclose herewith a copy of same [above report] with the
request that it be sent for the confidential information of Mr. Charles R.
Crane. It is assumed that the Department will have no objection to Mr. Crane
seeing the report ....15
In
brief, the unlikely and puzzling picture that emerges is that Charles Crane, a
friend and backer of Woodrow Wilson and a prominent financier and politician,
had a known role in the "first" revolution and traveled to Russia in
mid-1917 in company with the American Communist Lincoln Steffens, who was in
touch with both Woodrow Wilson and Trotsky. The latter in turn was carrying a
passport issued at the orders of Wilson and $10,000 from supposed German
sources. On his return to the U.S. after the "re-revolution," Crane
was granted access to official documents concerning consolidation of the
Bolshevik regime: This is a pattern of interlocking — if puzzling — events that
warrants further investigation and suggests, though without at this point
providing evidence, some link between the financier Crane and the revolutionary
Trotsky.
Documents
on Trotsky's brief stay in Canadian custody are now de-classified and available
from the Canadian government archives. According to these archives, Trotsky was
removed by Canadian and British naval personnel from the S.S. Kristianiafjord
at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on April 3, 1917, listed as a German prisoner of war,
and interned at the Amherst, Nova Scotia, internment station for German
prisoners. Mrs. Trotsky, the two Trotsky boys, and five other men described as
"Russian Socialists" were also taken off and interned. Their names
are recorded by the Canadian files as: Nickita Muchin, Leiba Fisheleff,
Konstantin Romanchanco, Gregor Teheodnovski, Gerchon Melintchansky and Leon
Bronstein Trotsky (all spellings from original Canadian documents).
Canadian
Army form LB-l, under serial number 1098 (including thumb prints), was
completed for Trotsky, with a description as follows: "37 years old, a
political exile, occupation journalist, born in Gromskty, Chuson, Russia,
Russian citizen." The form was signed by Leon Trotsky and his full name
given as Leon Bromstein (sic) Trotsky.
The
Trotsky party was removed from the S.S. Kristianiafjord under official
instructions received by cablegram of March 29, 1917, London, presumably
originating in the Admiralty with the naval control officer, Halifax. The
cablegram reported that the Trotsky party was on the
"Christianiafjord" (sic) and should be "taken off and retained
pending instructions." The reason given to the naval control officer at
Halifax was that "these are Russian Socialists leaving for purposes of
starting revolution against present Russian government for which Trotsky is
reported to have 10,000 dollars subscribed by Socialists and Germans."
On
April 1, 1917, the naval control officer, Captain O. M. Makins, sent a
confidential memorandum to the general officer commanding at Halifax, to the
effect that he had "examined all Russian passengers" aboard the S.S.
Kristianiafjord and found six men in the second-class section: "They are
all avowed Socialists, and though professing a desire to help the new Russian
Govt., might well be in league with German Socialists in America, and quite
likely to be a great hindrance to the Govt. in Russia just at present."
Captain Makins added that he was going to remove the group, as well as Trotsky's
wife and two sons, in order to intern them at Halifax. A copy of this report
was forwarded from Halifax to the chief of the General Staff in Ottawa on April
2, 1917.
The
next document in the Canadian files is dated April 7, from the chief of the
General Staff, Ottawa, to the director of internment operations, and
acknowledges a previous letter (not in the files) about the internment of
Russian socialists at Amherst, Nova Scotia: ". . . in this connection,
have to inform you of the receipt of a long telegram yesterday from the Russian
Consul General, MONTREAL, protesting against the arrest of these men as they
were in possession of passports issued by the Russian Consul General, NEW YORK,
U.S.A."
The
reply to this Montreal telegram was to the effect that the men were interned
"on suspicion of being German," and would be released only upon
definite proof of their nationality and loyalty to the Allies. No telegrams
from the Russian consul general in New York are in the Canadian files, and it
is known that this office was reluctant to issue Russian passports to Russian
political exiles. However, there is a telegram in the files from a New York
attorney, N. Aleinikoff, to R. M. Coulter, then deputy postmaster general of
Canada. The postmaster general's office in Canada had no connection with either
internment of prisoners of war or military activities. Accordingly, this
telegram was in the nature of a personal, nonofficial intervention. It reads:
DR.
R. M. COULTER, Postmaster Genl. OTTAWA Russian political exiles returning to
Russia detained Halifax interned Amherst camp. Kindly investigate and advise
cause of the detention and names of all detained. Trust as champion of freedom
you will intercede on their behalf. Please wire collect. NICHOLAS ALEINIKOFF
On
April 11, Coulter wired Aleinikoff, "Telegram received. Writing you this
afternoon. You should receive it tomorrow evening. R. M. Coulter." This
telegram was sent by the Canadian Pacific Railway Telegraph but charged to the
Canadian Post Office Department. Normally a private business telegram would be
charged to the recipient and this was not official business. The follow-up
Coulter letter to Aleinikoff is interesting because, after confirming that the
Trotsky party was held at Amherst, it states that they were suspected of
propaganda against the present Russian government and "are supposed to be
agents of Germany." Coulter then adds," . . . they are not what they
represent themselves to be"; the Trotsky group is "...not detained by
Canada, but by the Imperial authorities." After assuring Aleinikoff that
the detainees would be made comfortable, Coulter adds that any information
"in their favour" would be transmitted to the military authorities.
The general impression of the letter is that while Coulter is sympathetic and fully
aware of Trotsky's pro-German links, he is unwilling to get involved. On April
11 Arthur Wolf of 134 East Broadway, New York, sent a telegram to Coulter.
Though sent from New York, this telegram, after being acknowledged, was also
charged to the Canadian Post Office Department.
Coulter's
reactions, however, reflect more than the detached sympathy evident in his
letter to Aleinikoff. They must be considered in the light of the fact that
these letters in behalf of Trotsky came from two American residents of New York
City and involved a Canadian or Imperial military matter of international
importance. Further, Coulter, as deputy postmaster general, was a Canadian
government official of some standing. Ponder, for a moment, what would happen
to someone who similarly intervened in United States affairs! In the Trotsky
affair we have two American residents corresponding with a Canadian deputy
postmaster general in order to intervene in behalf of an interned Russian
revolutionary.
Coulter's
subsequent action also suggests something more than casual intervention. After
Coulter acknowledged the Aleinikoff and Wolf telegrams, he wrote to Major
General Willoughby Gwatkin of the Department of Militia and Defense in Ottawa —
a man of significant influence in the Canadian military — and attached copies
of the Aleinikoff and Wolf telegrams:
These
men have been hostile to Russia because of the way the Jews have been treated,
and are now strongly in favor of the present Administration, so far as I know.
Both are responsible men. Both are reputable men, and I am sending their
telegrams to you for what they may be worth, and so that you may represent them
to the English authorities if you deem it wise.
Obviously
Coulter knows — or intimates that he knows — a great deal about Aleinikoff and
Wolf. His letter was in effect a character reference, and aimed at the root of
the internment problem — London. Gwatkin was well known in London, and in fact
was on loan to Canada from the War Office in London.17
Aleinikoff
then sent a letter to Coulter to thank him
most
heartily for the interest you have taken in the fate of the Russian Political
Exiles .... You know me, esteemed Dr. Coulter, and you also know my devotion to
the cause of Russian freedom .... Happily I know Mr. Trotsky, Mr.
Melnichahnsky, and Mr. Chudnowsky . . . intimately.
It
might be noted as an aside that if Aleinikoff knew Trotsky
"intimately," then he would also probably be aware that Trotsky had
declared his intention to return to Russia to overthrow the Provisional
Government and institute the "re-revolution." On receipt of
Aleinikoff's letter, Coulter immediately (April 16) forwarded it to Major
General Gwatkin, adding that he became acquainted with Aleinikoff "in
connection with Departmental action on United States papers in the Russian
language" and that Aleinikoff was working "on the same lines as Mr.
Wolf . . . who was an escaped prisoner from Siberia."
Previously,
on April 14, Gwatkin sent a memorandum to his naval counterpart on the Canadian
Military Interdepartmental Committee repeating that the internees were Russian
socialists with "10,000 dollars subscribed by socialists and
Germans." The concluding paragraph stated: "On the other hand there
are those who declare that an act of high-handed injustice has been done."
Then on April 16, Vice Admiral C. E. Kingsmill, director of the Naval Service,
took Gwatkin's intervention at face value. In a letter to Captain Makins, the
naval control officer at Halifax, he stated, "The Militia authorities
request that a decision as to their (that is, the six Russians) disposal may be
hastened." A copy of this instruction was relayed to Gwatkin who in turn
informed Deputy Postmaster General Coulter. Three days later Gwatkin applied
pressure. In a memorandum of April 20 to the naval secretary, he wrote,
"Can you say, please, whether or not the Naval Control Office has given a
decision?"
On
the same day (April 20) Captain Makins wrote Admiral Kingsmill explaining his
reasons for removing Trotsky; he refused to be pressured into making a
decision, stating, "I will cable to the Admiralty informing them that the
Militia authorities are requesting an early decision as to their
disposal." However, the next day, April 21, Gwatkin wrote Coulter:
"Our friends the Russian socialists are to be released; and arrangements
are being made for their passage to Europe." The order to Makins for
Trotsky's release originated in the Admiralty, London. Coulter acknowledged the
information, "which will please our New York correspondents
immensely."
While
we can, on the one hand, conclude that Coulter and Gwatkin were intensely
interested in the release of Trotsky, we do not, on the other hand, know why.
There was little in the career of either Deputy Postmaster General Coulter or
Major General Gwatkin that would explain an urge to release the Menshevik Leon
Trotsky.
Dr.
Robert Miller Coulter was a medical doctor of Scottish and Irish parents, a
liberal, a Freemason, and an Odd Fellow. He was appointed deputy postmaster
general of Canada in 1897. His sole claim to fame derived from being a delegate
to the Universal Postal Union Convention in 1906 and a delegate to New Zealand
and Australia in 1908 for the "All Red" project. All Red had nothing
to do with Red revolutionaries; it was only a plan for all-red or all-British
fast steamships between Great Britain, Canada, and Australia.
Major
General Willoughby Gwatkin stemmed from a long British military tradition
(Cambridge and then Staff College). A specialist in mobilization, he served in
Canada from 1905 to 1918. Given only the documents in the Canadian files, we
can but conclude that their intervention in behalf of Trotsky is a mystery.
We
can approach the Trotsky release case from another angle: Canadian
intelligence. Lieutenant Colonel John Bayne MacLean, a prominent Canadian
publisher and businessman, founder and president of MacLean Publishing Company,
Toronto, operated numerous Canadian trade journals, including the
Financial Post. MacLean also had a long-time association with Canadian Army
Intelligence.18
In
1918 Colonel MacLean wrote for his own MacLean's magazine an article entitled
"Why Did We Let Trotsky Go? How Canada Lost an Opportunity to Shorten the
War."19
The article contained detailed and unusual information about Leon Trotsky,
although the last half of the piece wanders off into space remarking about
barely related matters. We have two clues to the authenticity of the
information. First, Colonel MacLean was a man of integrity with excellent
connections in Canadian government intelligence. Second, government records
since released by Canada, Great Britain, and the United States confirm
MacLean's statement to a significant degree. Some MacLean statements remain to
be confirmed, but information available in the early 1970s is not necessarily
inconsistent with Colonel MacLean's article.
MacLean's
opening argument is that "some Canadian politicians or officials were
chiefly responsible for the prolongation of the war [World War I], for the
great loss of life, the wounds and sufferings of the winter of 1917 and the
great drives of 1918."
Further,
states MacLean, these persons were (in 1919)doing everything possible to
prevent Parliament and the Canadian people from getting the related facts.
Official reports, including those of Sir Douglas Haig, demonstrate that but for
the Russian break in 1917 the war would have been over a year earlier, and that
"the man chiefly responsible for the defection of Russia was Trotsky...
acting under German instructions."
Who
was Trotsky? According to MacLean, Trotsky was not Russian, but German. Odd as
this assertion may appear it does coincide with other scraps of intelligence
information: to wit, that Trotsky spoke better German than Russian, and that he
was the Russian executive of the German "Black Bond." According to
MacLean, Trotsky in August 1914 had been "ostentatiously" expelled
from Berlin;20
he finally arrived in the United States where he organized Russian revolutionaries,
as well as revolutionaries in Western Canada, who "were largely Germans
and Austrians traveling as Russians." MacLean continues:
Originally
the British found through Russian associates that Kerensky,21
Lenin and some lesser leaders were practically in German pay as early as 1915
and they uncovered in 1916 the connections with Trotsky then living in New
York. From that time he was closely watched by... the Bomb Squad. In the early
part of 1916 a German official sailed for New York. British Intelligence
officials accompanied him. He was held up at Halifax; but on their instruction
he was passed on with profuse apologies for the necessary delay. After much
manoeuvering he arrived in a dirty little newspaper office in the slums and
there found Trotsky, to whom he bore important instructions. From June 1916,
until they passed him on [to] the British, the N.Y. Bomb Squad never lost touch
with Trotsky. They discovered that his real name was Braunstein and that he was
a German, not a Russian.22
Such
German activity in neutral countries is confirmed in a State Department report
(316-9-764-9) describing organization of Russian refugees for revolutionary
purposes.
Continuing,
MacLean states that Trotsky and four associates sailed on the "S.S.
Christiania" (sic), and on April 3 reported to "Captain Making"
(sic) and were taken off the ship at Halifax under the direction of Lieutenant
Jones. (Actually a party of nine, including six men, were taken off the S.S.
Kristianiafjord. The name of the naval control officer at Halifax was Captain
O. M. Makins, R.N. The name of the officer who removed the Trotsky party from
the ship is not in the Canadian government documents; Trotsky said it was
"Machen.") Again, according to MacLean, Trotsky's money came
"from German sources in New York." Also:
generally
the explanation given is that the release was done at the request of Kerensky
but months before this British officers and one Canadian serving in Russia, who
could speak the Russian language, reported to London and Washington that
Kerensky was in German service.23
Trotsky
was released "at the request of the British Embassy at Washington . . .
[which] acted on the request of the U.S. State Department, who were acting for
someone else." Canadian officials "were instructed to inform the
press that Trotsky was an American citizen travelling on an American passport;
that his release was specially demanded by the Washington State
Department." Moreover, writes MacLean, in Ottawa "Trotsky had, and
continues to have, strong underground influence. There his power was so great
that orders were issued that he must be given every consideration."
The
theme of MacLean's reporting is, quite evidently, that Trotsky had intimate
relations with, and probably worked for, the German General Staff. While such
relations have been established regarding Lenin — to the extent that Lenin was
subsidized and his return to Russia facilitated by the Germans — it appears
certain that Trotsky was similarly aided. The $10,000 Trotsky fund in New York
was from German sources, and a recently declassified document in the U.S. State
Department files reads as follows:
March
9, 1918 to: American Consul, Vladivostok from Polk, Acting Secretary of State,
Washington D.C.
For
your confidential information and prompt attention: Following is substance of
message of January twelfth from Von Schanz of German Imperial Bank to Trotsky,
quote Consent imperial bank to appropriation from credit general staff of five
million roubles for sending assistant chief naval commissioner Kudrisheff to
Far East.
This
message suggests some liaison between Trotsky and the Germans in January 1918,
a time when Trotsky was proposing an alliance with the West. The State
Department does not give the provenance of the telegram, only that it
originated with the War College Staff. The State Department did treat the
message as authentic and acted on the basis of assumed authenticity. It is
consistent with the general theme of Colonel MacLean's article.
Consequently,
we can derive the following sequence of events: Trotsky traveled from New York
to Petrograd on a passport supplied by the intervention of Woodrow Wilson, and
with the declared intention to "carry forward" the revolution. The
British government was the immediate source of Trotsky's release from Canadian
custody in April 1917, but there may well have been "pressures."
Lincoln Steffens, an American Communist, acted as a link between Wilson and
Charles R. Crane and between Crane and Trotsky. Further, while Crane had no official
position, his son Richard was confidential assistant to Secretary of State
Robert Lansing, and Crane senior was provided with prompt and detailed reports
on the progress of the Bolshevik Revolution. Moreover, Ambassador William Dodd
(U.S. ambassador to Germany in the Hitler era) said that Crane had an active
role in the Kerensky phase of the revolution; the Steffens letters confirm that
Crane saw the Kerensky phase as only one step in a continuing revolution.
The
interesting point, however, is not so much the communication among dissimilar
persons like Crane, Steffens, Trotsky, and Woodrow Wilson as the existence of
at least a measure of agreement on the procedure to be followed — that is, the
Provisional Government was seen as "provisional," and the
"re-revolution" was to follow.
On
the other side of the coin, interpretation of Trotsky's intentions should be
cautious: he was adept at double games. Official documentation clearly
demonstrates contradictory actions. For example, the Division of Far Eastern
Affairs in the U.S. State Department received on March 23, 1918, two reports
stemming from Trotsky; one is inconsistent with the other. One report, dated
March 20 and from Moscow, originated in the Russian newspaper Russkoe Slovo.
The report cited an interview with Trotsky in which he stated that any alliance
with the United States was impossible:
The
Russia of the Soviet cannot align itself... with capitalistic America for this
would be a betrayal It is possible that Americans seek such an rapprochement
with us, driven by its antagonism towards Japan, but in any case there can be
no question of an alliance by us of any nature with a bourgeoisie nation.24
The
other report, also originating in Moscow, is a message dated March 17, 1918,
three days earlier, and from Ambassador Francis: "Trotsky requests five
American officers as inspectors of army being organized for defense also
requests railroad operating men and equipment."25
This
request to the U.S. is of course inconsistent with rejection of an
"alliance."
Before
we leave Trotsky some mention should be made of the Stalinist show trials of
the 1930s and, in particular, the 1938 accusations and trial of the
"Anti-Soviet bloc of rightists and Trotskyites." These forced
parodies of the judicial process, almost unanimously rejected in the West, may
throw light on Trotsky's intentions.
The
crux of the Stalinist accusation was that Trotskyites were paid agents of
international capitalism. K. G. Rakovsky, one of the 1938 defendants, said, or
was induced to say, "We were the vanguard of foreign aggression, of
international fascism, and not only in the USSR but also in Spain, China,
throughout the world." The summation of the "court" contains the
statement, "There is not a single man in the world who brought so much
sorrow and misfortune to people as Trotsky. He is the vilest agent of fascism
.... "26
Now
while this may be no more than verbal insults routinely traded among the
international Communists of the 1930s and 40s, it is also notable that the
threads behind the self-accusation are consistent with the evidence in this
chapter. And further, as we shall see later, Trotsky was able to generate
support among international capitalists, who, incidentally, were also
supporters of Mussolini and Hitler.27
So
long as we see all international revolutionaries and all international
capitalists as implacable enemies of one another, then we miss a crucial point
— that there has indeed been some operational cooperation between international
capitalists, including fascists. And there is no a priori reason why we should
reject Trotsky as a part of this alliance.
This
tentative, limited reassessment will be brought into sharp focus when we review
the story o£ Michael Gruzenberg, the chief Bolshevik agent in Scandinavia who
under the alias of Alexander Gumberg was also a confidential adviser to the
Chase National Bank in New York and later to Floyd Odium of Atlas Corporation.
This dual role was known to and accepted by both the Soviets and his American
employers. The Gruzenberg story is a case history of international revolution
allied with international capitalism.
Colonel
MacLean's observations that Trotsky had "strong underground
influence" and that his "power was so great that orders were issued
that he must be given every consideration" are not at all inconsistent
with the Coulter-Gwatkin intervention in Trotsky's behalf; or, for that matter,
with those later occurrences, the Stalinist accusations in the Trotskyite show
trials of the 1930s. Nor are they inconsistent with the Gruzenberg case. On the
other hand, the only known direct link between Trotsky and international
banking is through his cousin Abram Givatovzo, who was a private banker in Kiev
before the Russian Revolution and in Stockholm after the revolution. While
Givatovzo professed antibolshevism, he was in fact acting in behalf of the
Soviets in 1918 in currency transactions.28
Is
it possible an international web (:an be spun from these events? First there's
Trotsky, a Russian internationalist revolutionary with German connections who
sparks assistance from two supposed supporters of Prince Lvov's government in
Russia (Aleinikoff and Wolf, Russians resident in New York). These two ignite
the action of a liberal Canadian deputy postmaster general, who in turn
intercedes with a prominent British Army major general on the Canadian military
staff. These are all verifiable links.
In
brief, allegiances may not always be what they are called, or appear. We can,
however, surmise that Trotsky, Aleinikoff, Wolf, Coulter, and Gwatkin in acting
for a common limited objective also had some common higher goal than national
allegiance or political label. To emphasize, there is no absolute proof that
this is so. It is, at the moment, only a logical supposition from the facts. A
loyalty higher than that forged by a common immediate goal need have been no
more than that of friendship, although that strains the imagination when we
ponder such a polyglot combination. It may also have been promoted by other
motives. The picture is yet incomplete.
Footnotes:
1Leon
Trotsky, My Life (New York: Scribner's, 1930), chap. 22.
2Joseph
Nedava, Trotsky and the Jews (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of
America, 1972), p. 163.
3United
States, Senate, Brewing and Liquor Interests and German and Bolshevik
Propaganda (Subcommittee on the Judiciary), 65th Cong., 1919.
4Special
Report No. 5, The Russian Soviet Bureau in the United States, July 14, 1919,
Scotland House, London S.W.I. Copy in U.S. State Dept. Decimal File,
316-23-1145.
5New
York Times, March 5, 1917.
6Lewis
Corey, House of Morgan: A Social Biography of the Masters of Money (New York:
G. W. Watt, 1930).
7Morris
Hillquit. (formerly Hillkowitz) had been defense attorney for Johann Most,
alter the assassination of President McKinley, and in 1917 was a leader of the
New York Socialist Party. In the 1920s Hillquit established himself in the New
York banking world by becoming a director of, and attorney for, the
International Union Bank. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hillquit
helped draw up the NRA codes for the garment industry.
8New
York Times, March 16, 1917.
9U.S.
State Dept. Decimal File, 316-85-1002.
10Ibid.
11Ibid.,
861.111/315.
12Lincoln
Steffens, Autobiography (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1931), p. 764. Steffens was
the "go-between" for Crane and Woodrow Wilson.
13William
Edward Dodd, Ambassador Dodd's Diary, 1933-1938 (New York: Harcourt, Brace,
1941), pp. 42-43.
14Lincoln
Steffens, The Letters of Lincoln Steffens (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1941), p.
396.
15U.S.
State Dept. Decimal File, 861.00/1026.
16This
section is based on Canadian government records.
17Gwatkin's
memoramada in the Canadian government files are not signed, but initialed with
a cryptic mark or symbol. The mark has been identified as Gwatkin's because one
Gwatkin letter (that o[ April 21) with that cryptic mark was acknowledged.
18H.J.
Morgan, Canadian Men and Women of the Times, 1912, 2 vols. (Toronto: W. Briggs,
1898-1912).
19June
1919, pp. 66a-666. Toronto Public Library has a copy; the issue of MacLean's in
which Colonel MacLean's article appeared is not easy to find and a frill
summary is provided below.
20See
also Trotsky, My Life, p. 236.
22According
to his own account, Trotsky did not arrive in the U.S. until January 1917.
Trotsky's real name was Bronstein; he invented the name "Trotsky."
"Bronstein" is German and "Trotsky" is Polish rather than
Russian. His first name is usually given as "Leon"; however,
Trotsky's first book, which was published in Geneva, has the initial
"N," not "L."
23See Appendix 3; this
document was obtained in 1971 from the British Foreign Office but apparently
was known to MacLean.
24U.S.
State Dept. Decimal File, 861.00/1351.
25U.S.
State Dept. Decimal File, 861.00/1341.
26Report
of Court Proceedings in the Case of the Anti-Soviet "Bloc of Rightists and
Trotskyites" Heard Before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of
the USSR (Moscow: People's Commissariat of Justice of the USSR, 1938), p. 293.
27See
p. 174. Thomas Lamont of the Morgans was an early supporter of Mussolini.
28See
p. 122.
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