The return of Trotsky to Russia (1917)

On January 13, 1917, Leon Trotsky and his family arrived from Spanish Barcelona to New York , where he settled in the Bronx area. In the incomplete two months before the February revolution in Russia, he made big plans for the arrangement in the United States , some of which he even managed to implement. Trotsky planned to continue his “literary and political” activities - he was not going to get a job ^[1] . In the very first days of his stay in North America, Trotsky opposed the political position of the Bolsheviks (in particular, Nikolai Bukharin and Alexandra Kollontai ), who called in those years for the separation of the left, revolutionary-minded part of the American socialists and for the creation of a separate party by them; With his speeches, Trotsky actively “got in the way” of this plan - about which Kollontai informed Vladimir Lenin ^[2] .

Trotsky willingly collaborated with the Russian-language newspaper Novy Mir, which belonged to the left wing of the Social Democratic movement , as well as with the Jewish workers newspaper Forverts ( Yiddish פֿאָרווערטס , Forverts or Vorwärts ^[3] ), which had a two-hundred thousandth circulation in those years . He developed a “warm relationship” with the Marxists living in the USA. On March 5, at a rally organized by the US Socialist Party, he and the American Communist even proposed, in the event America entered World War I , to organize strikes and actively resist mobilization ^[4] . This proposal was rejected by the more conservative party leadership. In addition, Trotsky sharply polemicized with the Russian-language liberal newspapers Russian Voice and Russian Word published in New York ^[5] .

Trotsky was invited to numerous "political banquets " convened to raise party funds - not only in New York, but also in the neighboring major cities of the US East Coast . Despite all this, the overthrow of the autocracy in the homeland led to the fact that Trotsky urgently began to prepare his return to Petrograd ^[6] .

Visas and Fundraising

On March 25, 1917, Trotsky visited the Russian Consulate General, where he "with satisfaction" drew attention to the fact that there was no longer a portrait of the Russian Tsar on the wall. “After inevitable delays and bickering” ^[7] on the same day he received the necessary documents for his return to Russia - the old imperial officials did not put any obstacles to him. US authorities also promptly granted returnees exit visas. Apparently, in the general turmoil, the British Consulate also issued transit documents - later this decision will be disavowed by the London authorities. Perhaps the American authorities subsequently regretted the issue of Trotsky’s documents of departure: in the following months, the State Department strongly warned the control services of the need for a more thorough examination of returning emigrants ^[8] .

In addition, Trotsky’s supporters of “different nationalities” raised money in favor of the departing revolutionaries: German prisoners of war dominated among those who agreed to donate for the needs of the revolution. According to Trotsky himself, this fee gave 310 dollars, which were distributed among all members of the group who went to Russia ^[9] .

Rally and ship

Already on March 27, Trotsky with his family and several other emigrants with whom he managed to get close in the USA - G. N. Melnichansky , G. I. Chudnovsky (Trotsky’s assistant ^[10] ), Romanchenko K. A. , Nikita Mukhin and Leo (Leiba ) Fishelev - boarded the ship “Christianiafjord” (“Christiania-Fiord” ^[11] ) ( Norwegian Kristianiafjord ), traveling to Europe - to the Norwegian Bergen ^[12] (only a few months later, in June 1917, this ship died in the Newfoundland area ^[13] ) ^[8] .

Before leaving, during a farewell speech on American soil - at Harlem River Park Casino - Lev Davidovich called on US residents to organize and "throw off the damned, rotten, capitalist government" ^[14] . About 300 people came to escort Trotsky to the port: enthusiastic friends and supporters brought him directly to the bot on his shoulders. American journalist Frank Harris (Frank Harris), warned Trotsky that during his transatlantic journey, he may be in the hands of the British authorities ^{[15] [10]} .

Arrest in Canada

As Harris warned, in the Canadian city of Halifax , during the search of the ship and passengers, the British authorities interned Leon Trotsky. In the prisoner of war camp, he continued his revolutionary work among several hundred German soldiers - his performances were successful. Trotsky’s detention caused resonance both in the Russian press and in the international arena - while the liberation of Trotsky was actively promoted by the leader of the Bolsheviks Vladimir Lenin . As a result, the arrest, which lasted several weeks, brought Trotsky closer to the Bolsheviks. After his release, Trotsky and his family continued their journey to Europe ^{[17] [18] [19]} .

End of Path

From the transatlantic steamer that delivered Trotsky's group from Halifax to Sweden , the revolutionary transferred to the train. With a transplant in Finland , he soon reached Petrograd - this time the British authorities guarding the Swedish-Finnish border did not fix any obstacles ^{[20] [21]} .

Trotsky appeared in the capital of the former Russian Empire on May 4 ( 17 ), 1917 ^[22] . At the Beloostrov station closest to the city, where the Finnish border passed ^{[20] [23]} , Trotsky’s car — which also included the chairman of the Second International Emil Vandervelde and the Belgian socialist Hendrik de Man ^[24] —included for the meeting of the Russian revolutionary the representatives of the Bolsheviks and groups of united internationalists (more precisely, the Inter-District Social Democratic Organization). The “Mezhrayontsev” was represented by Trotsky’s old friend Moses Uritsky and the Armenian Social Democrat Lev Karakhan — both of them played leading roles in the organization. In contrast to them, the Bolsheviks sent for a meeting a less senior figure - the metal worker Grigory Fedorov . The Mensheviks did not meet Trotsky ^{[20] [21]} .

At the same Finland station , where Lenin “debuted” a month ago, a rally was held with official greetings, and Fedorov spoke on behalf of Vladimir Ilyich personally. In his prepared speech, Fedorov focused on the subsequent stages of the revolution, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the socialist path of development. Trotsky “accepted the hand extended by Lenin” and, in his reply speech, came out in agreement with Leninist positions ^[25] .

Home Improvement

With great difficulty, Trotsky and his family were able to settle in one room of the Kiev Hotel Numbers small hotel. The very next day, the former locksmith Alexander Loginov (Serebrovsky) came to him, who had become an engineer and officer by that time, and in 1905 participated in the fighting squad of the Petersburg Council , headed by Trotsky. At the suggestion of Loginov, Trotsky moved to his "rich" apartment - soon, due to political differences, the Trotsky-Sedov family returned to the hotel ^{[26] [27]} .

On May 5 ( 18 ), 1917 — the day after arriving in the capital — Trotsky appeared at a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet in the Tauride (sometimes, erroneously, Smolny ^[28] ) palace. He was “dryly” welcomed by Chairman Nikolai Chkheidze , but - at the suggestion of the Bolshevik Lev Kamenev - the Executive Committee of the Council decided to include Trotsky in his composition, with the right of an advisory vote. The basis for this decision was that Trotsky was chairman of the Council in 1905. Lev Davidovich “received his membership card and a glass of tea with brown bread” ^{[29] [27]} .

As a result of his return from exile, Trotsky was able to speak in the Petrograd Soviet - and thereby influence the decisions taken by the Council ^[27] . He also got the opportunity to join the “group”, calling itself the St. Petersburg Interdistrict Committee of the United Social Democrats Internationalists and mainly supporting the Bolshevik slogans (with the exception of the thesis of turning the imperialist war into a civil one). The rapid growth of the “inter-district”, which reached four thousand members in mid-1917 ^[30] , mainly from the intelligentsia , was primarily due to the fact that Trotsky became part of it ^[31] .

The active participation of Lenin and the Bolshevik faction in the liberation of Trotsky, to whom in the previous years the future head of the Council of People's Commissars “ had no special love ”, promoted a political alliance between Trotsky and Lenin - and, in addition, made Trotsky himself an All-Russian “ a celebrity ” ^[32] . In the “absolute freedom of speech” that began after February , the revolutionary was in demand among the masses. He spoke at the Council and at the Putilov factory , and also traveled to Kronstadt , where revolutionary sailors enthusiastically received his speeches; sometimes performed together with Anatoly Lunacharsky ^[33] . After the final rapprochement with the Bolsheviks, which occurred six months after returning from the United States, Trotsky became one of the key organizers of the October seizure of power ^[34] .

Books

• Felshtinsky Yu. , Chernyavsky G. New return to Russia. Inter-district group // Leo Trotsky. Book 1. Revolutionary. 1879-1917 - M .: Centerpolygraph , 2012 .-- 448 p. - ISBN 978-5-227-03783-1 .
• Volkogonov D.A. Trotsky. Political portrait . - M .: AST , 1998.- T. 1.- 416 p. - (World History in Faces). - ISBN 5-237-00973-5 .
• Service R. Trotsky: A Biography. - Cambridge: Belknap Press / Harvard University Press , 2009 .-- 648 p. - ISBN 978-0674036154 .
• Deutscher I. Trotsky. Armed Prophet. 1879-1921 . - M .: Tsentrpoligraf , 2006 .-- 527 p. - ISBN 5-9524-2147-4 .
• Broué P. X. Le début de l'errance // Trotsky = Trotsky. - Fayard , 1988 .-- 1105 p. - ISBN 9782213022123 .
• Harris F. Contemporary portraits: Fourth series. - London: Grant Richards Ltd, 1924 .-- 307 p.
• Trotsky L. Return to Russia // My life. An autobiography experience , in 2 vols. - Berlin: Granite, 1930 .-- 325.337 p.
• Avdeev N. Revolution of 1917. (Chronicle of events). - M .; PG: State Publishing House , 1923 .-- T. 2 .-- 309 p.
• Ackerman KD Paterson // Trotsky in New York = Trotsky in New York, 1917: A Radical on the Eve of Revolution. - Oxford: Counterpoint, 2016 .-- 396 p. - ISBN 9781619028739 . - ISBN 1619028735 .

Articles

• Rodney W. Broken Journey: Trotsky in Canada, 1917 // Queen's Quarterly. - 1967. - No. 74 . - S. 649-665 .
• Rodney W. Russian Revolutionaries in the Port of Vancouver, 1917 // BC Studies. - 1972-1973. - No. 16 . - S. 25-31 .
• Socialists conservative: Refuse to Favor Strikes, Though Unwilling to Sanction War // The New York Times . - 1917. - March 5.
• Tennyson B. Trotsky was interned here // The Chronicle Herald. - Halifax, 2015. - March. Archived on October 16, 2017.
• Abarinov V. American Trotsky Odyssey // Top Secret . - 2011. - May 2 ( No. 5/264 ).