A
letter from the ECCI Secretariat to the leaders of the British and French
Communist Parties regarding the conclusion of the “United
Trotskyist-Zinovievite terrorist center” trial and the upcoming Brussels Peace
Congress.
Top
secret
28
August 1936
1.
It is essential to use the trial of the Trotskyist-Zinovievite terrorist gang
for the political liquidation of Trotsky and Trotskyism as a fascist agency
which, in capitalist countries, masking itself with radical phrases, disorganizes the workers movement and, in the
USSR, organizes terrorist acts against the leaders of the country of socialism.
The Bureau in Paris is to take leadership of this campaign in its hands, using
the arrival of communists from many countries to the Brussels Peace Congress.[i]
It is essential that Thorez and Pollitt instruct each of the groups of
communist delegates from different countries in Brussels on how to conduct this
campaign.
2.
It is essential to inform public opinion, as broadly as possible, about the
results of the trial which has indeed shown that
a)
Trotsky and Zinoviev, nourishing unrestrained hatred toward the party, lacking
any ideological or political program to counterpose the party, lacking any
support among the masses, promoted terror as the only method of struggle
against the party leadership. All of their counterrevolutionary, bandit
activities were aimed at reaching personal, mercenary goals –- to force their
way to power at any cost;
b)
Trotsky and his gang, interwoven with the Gestapo spies, subversives and
agents, were preparing attempts on the lives of com. Stalin and other
outstanding leaders of the USSR;
c)
they killed com. Kirov, treacherously hiding themselves behind the physical
executor of this brutal act -- Nikolaev;
d)
they acted in concert with the Gestapo, i.e. German fascism, the worst enemy
not only of the German, but the whole world's working class. They cultivated
the practices of the fascist guards, who, as is well known, had eliminated all
its participants after the Reichstag fire;[ii]
e)
Trotsky and Zinoviev's terrorist activity was closely linked to their goal of
the USSR's defeat in case of the German and Japanese imperialists' aggression
against it. They set for themselves the goal of contributing to the
imperialists' victory over the workers and peasants of the USSR.
All
this was proven and confirmed at the trial by the confessions of the accused in
the presence of the representatives of the international press.
3.
Along with this, Trotsky and his supporters are playing a role in wrecking the
workers’ movement in capitalist countries:
a)
with their foul and dastardly campaign against the USSR, against the Bolshevik
party and its leaders, they are trying to undermine the trust of the
international working class in the USSR and turn the masses toward the fierce
enemies of the workers -- the fascists;
b)
they are the enemies of the working class unity, enemies of the rallying of the
masses into a solid anti-fascist front. They disperse the workers movement into
small and minuscule groups trying to weaken the working class and facilitate
the victory of fascism;
c)
in Spain, their adventurist policies are pushing the revolutionary people
toward defeat and are facilitating the intervention of German and Italian
fascism;
d)
wherever Trotskyism entered a mass workers’ organization, it either attempted
to destroy them, or did destroy them from within (French Socialist
Party, [iii] Belgian "Young Guard," trade union
organizations as, for example, leftist teachers union in France, etc. [)];
e)
everywhere Trotskyists are interwoven with the police agents. This is the case
in Greece, [in] China, where Trotskyists are serving the Japanese elements, in
the countries of Latin America, etc. In Poland, the police reprint Trotsky's
books in order to confuse the ranks of the workers’ movement. In Norway, a few
days before the trial, fascists staged a search of Trotsky's house in order to
create the impression among the workers that Trotsky is the victim of fascist
prosecution, and thereby to help to keep him afloat politically.
It
is no accident that the fascist press, "Volkischer Beobachter"[iv]
in particular, comes to Trotsky’s defense, thus revealing once again his role
as a zealous champion of the fascist plans;
f)
having established, in the "underground," connections with the secret
agents of different countries, Trotsky openly contributes to the newspaper of
the American fascist newspaper trust "Hearst," which is the foulest
disseminator of slander against the USSR and the workers movement of the whole
world;
g)
Doriot,[v]
Trotsky's comrade in arms in France, is a rabid enemy of a united front with
the Soviet Union. He fights for an alliance of Republican France with Germany.
Since the "Croix de Feu’s"[vi]
dissolution, he is organizing a new fascist party and creating militant fascist
organizations.
4.
The struggle against Trotsky and Trotskyism, the vanguard of the
counterrevolutionary bourgeoisie, which carries out the directives of fascism
to penetrate the working masses, should be the cause not only of communists,
but also Socialist parties, every worker organization, every democratic
organization, every honest politician struggling against fascism. The struggle
against fascism [sic. – Trotskyism][vii]
is an integral part of the anti-fascist struggle of the international
proletariat.
"To
defend base terrorists means to help fascism," wrote com. Dimitrov. He who
directly or indirectly defends Trotsky and his terrorist gang in fact serves
German fascism and contributes to the realization of its plans, helps Generals
Franco[viii]
and Mola[ix]
and other rebel generals in Spain, [and] is an enemy of the Spanish workers and
peasants fighting fascism.
5.
Based on com. Dimitrov’s article "Defending Base Terrorists Means Helping
Fascism,"[x] it is
essential to repulse the reactionary leaders of the II International[xi]
who, at the moment of the creation of the united front of the international
proletariat around the heroic struggle of the Spanish people, are trying to
undermine the unification movement with their defense of the terrorists.
Everywhere,
Socialist workers who hate fascism and are ready to fight it approve of the
verdict of the Soviet Union. The Spanish Socialist and Republican parties,
which are carrying out an armed struggle against fascism, enthusiastically
welcome the verdict [passed on] the Trotskyist-Zinovievite terrorist gang. The
defense [of that gang], offered by the reactionary leaders of the II
International is a hostile demonstration against the USSR and international
communism. When fascists in France attacked Blum,[xii]
communists of all countries came forward in Blum's defense against the fascist
scoundrels. The reactionary leaders of the II International are siding with the
fascist scoundrels who killed com. Kirov and are prepared to assassinate com.
Stalin, [who are] against the land of the Soviets, against com. Stalin and
Kirov. Let workers judge the behavior of communists and reactionary Socialist
leaders by their deeds.
6.
The campaign against Trotsky has to parallel the mobilization of the sympathies
of the working masses toward the Soviet Union, VKP(b), and the leader of
international proletariat, com. Stalin who, because of his selfless service to
the international working class, is so hated by the world bourgeoisie and its
fascist agents. The international working class has to form a wall of steel
around the USSR, to shield its great leader from the vile intrigues of the
class enemy, to surround their Stalin with an impenetrable wall of love and self-sacrifice.
7.
All of the activities of the Trotskyist agents revealed at the trial point to
the necessity of raising Bolshevik vigilance in every area of struggle.
Trotskyists,
following their teacher’s example, are seeking to penetrate the ranks of communist
parties and carry out their provocations from within.
Bolshevik
vigilance in the selection of cadres, in particular to the leading organs, has
to nip in the bud any possibility for activities by the agents of Trotskyism
and those assisting them.
RGASPI,
f. 495, op. 184, d. 15. Outgoing telegrams for 1936. Special, ll. 72-76.
Original in Russian.
Typewritten with handwritten corrections.
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Document 19 conveys not only the
bill of particulars against Trotsky and his supporters, but also the political
logic that animated the anti-Trotskyist campaign, a logic that the August trial
had validated. The most striking aspect
of the document is the fear that permeates it--fear of fascism, fear of
Trotskyism, fear of enemy agents within the USSR, and fear of war. These fears fueled the period's increasing
paranoic suspicions, and calls for vigilance and widening repression.
Document 19 also sheds light on the
self-destructive nature of the conspiratorial mindset. The Brussels Congress's goal was to generate
broad-based support for the embattled Spanish Republic and for the anti-fascist
Popular Front. Central to its success
was winning the support of liberals, radicals, Social Democrats and supporters
of the Second International. However
the August trial had outraged most such people who viewed it not as "an
act in defense of democracy, peace, socialism [and] revolution," but for
what it was--political repression.
Liberal, radical and socialist newspapers condemned the trial. Indeed one of Document 19's purposes was to
provide communists abroad with arguments and evidence to counter criticisms of
the trial. But in the process,
longstanding hatred of Social Democrats came to the fore. Although the letter's juxaposition of
Spanish socialists, who were committed to “an armed struggle against fascism,”
and the Second International’s "reactionary leaders” (as opposed to its
rank-and-file members) sought, however lamely, to maintain the anti-fascist
alliance, the description of the Second International’s leaders differs little
from the earlier "social fascist" formulation. Such political reversion served to erode the
Popular Front and, as that process accelerated, to reinforce Moscow’s sense of
isolation.
Nor was this formulation an
abberation. The ECCI Secretariat sent
to the leaders of the French, English, US, Dutch, Swiss, Norwegian, Swedish and
Belgian parties an encoded telegram stating that the "campaign surrounding
the trial of the Trotskyist-Zinovievite terrorist band is developing
weakly...international reaction has raised a furious anti-Soviet howl. At anti-Soviet demonstrations, leaders of
the Second International give speeches" condemning the trial and USSR.[xiii] Dimitrov made similar claims in his article
entitled "Defending Base Terrorists Means Helping Fascism" published
in the journal Communist International.[xiv] The man, who during the 1933 Leipzig trial
learned well how prosecutors can distort and falsify evidence and who apparently
harbored doubts about the trial,[xv]
now proclaimed the clarity of the "documents, facts, real proof"
presented at the August trial. Dimitrov
argued that because the defendants had the right to defend themselves, their
confessions stood as proof of their guilt.
He then went on to vilify those Social Democratic leaders of the
Socialist Workers International and the International Association of Trade
Unions who had sent a telegram to the Soviet government protesting the August
trial. Such rhetoric and accusations
alienated Social Democrats and other non-communists, and weakened Popular Front
coalitions in various countries. By
defending the August trial's legitimacy, Dimitrov and the ECCI undermined the
policy deemed essential to the defeat of fascism and the defense of the USSR.
On 23 August, the day before the
August trial ended, the Cadres Department sent to Dimitrov a report on the
results to date of the verification (proverka)
of fraternal party members and emigres living in the USSR. The report stated that: "The Cadres Department has sent to the
NKVD material on 3,000 people suspected as spies, provocateurs, wreckers,
etc. The fact is that the Cadres
Department has conducted much work during the verification of party documents
to unmask significant numbers of enemies [who] had penetrated the VKP(b). It is also a fact that a whole series of
outstanding cases concerning...provocateurs and alien anti-party elements in
the Polish, Rumanian, Hungarian and other parties were supplied properly and
quickly to the Cadres Department. In
the Central Committees of a series of parties, with the help of the Cadres
Department, alien elements and agents of the class enemy were exposed."[xvi] Several aspects of this report are
striking. The first is the Cadres Department
had sent materials on 3,000 people to the NKVD. In this way, the NKVD's files mushroomed. Among the 3,000 were members of the Central
Committee’s “of a series of parties.”
Their inclusion among the 3,000 put fraternal parties, especially the
Polish, Hungarian and Rumanian parties, and their members living in the USSR at
increased risk. What kind of “help”
the Cadres Department offered the unnamed fraternal parties is unclear, but no
one could accuse it of lacking vigilance.
Nor is it clear who "supplied properly and quickly" the
information on the alleged “provocateurs and alien anti-party elements.” The report's language suggests that many of
the 3,000 names on the list were VKP members, however it implies that all were
foreign-born. Whether or not this was
the case is unclear, but there seems little doubt that foreign-born comrades
comprised the preponderance of the 3,000.
The report provided evidence that transformed emigres, especially those
from neighboring states, into a threatening "Other."
At a 29 August Cadres Department
meeting, after reporting on the abovementioned report, Chernomordik ordered the
staff "to prepare old lists of Trotskyists and suspicious people in
emigration [in the USSR]."[xvii] Six days later he sent to the ECCI Secretariat
Document 20, a list of “Trotskyist and other hostile elements in the emigre
community of the German CP." He
undoubtedly also sent a copy to the NKVD and the ORPO. Across Chernomordik's cover letter, Dimitrov
wrote "carry out and report on the results of the verification of
the German emigres." Echoing a
theme expressed earlier by others,[xviii]
Chernomordik asserted that "among the German emigres in the USSR there are
people who were known in the CPG as active Trotskyists and factionalists before
their arrival in the USSR." The
material in the document represented “only the typical cases” and announced
that “a much larger number” of “hostile elements” had “already been revealed.” Lists such as these constituted ”proof” of
Krajewski’s (Chernomordik’s co-worker) 1934 allegation that, “under the guise
of emigres,” “secret agents” had penetrated the USSR. Document 20 is a lengthy document, the value of which resrs in
the types of evidence presented and how Chernomordik interpreted that evidence.
In the course of two weeks, Cadres
Department officials produced "evidence" that the two perceived
threats to the USSR, VKP, and Comintern--foreign-born "spies, wreckers,
[and] provocateurs," and "Trotskyists and factionalists"--were
very real and very numerous.
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[i] The Brussels Peace Congress took place between 3 and 6 September 1936. It was organized in Paris by the International Bureau for the Preparation of the Congress for Universal Peace.
[ii] The German Reichstag was set on fire on 27 February 1933. A former CP Holland member Marinus van der Lubbe was accused of setting the fire. Dimitrov was among those tried for complicity in the fire.
[iii] The French Socialist Party was officially called the French Section of the Workers’ International or SFIO (French abbreviation). The party was created in 1905.
[iv] Volkischer Beobachter -- newspaper of the Nazi party.
[v] Jacques Doriot (1898-1945). In 1915-1918, he was a member of the French Socialist Party. In 1921, he joined the CPFr. After 1924, he was a member of the CC CPFr and its Political Bureau. From 1922 to 1923, he was Secretary of the KIM Executive Committee. In 1924-1932, he was a candidate member of the ECCI. In June 1934, he was expelled from the CPFr. On 28 July 1936, he announced the creation of the French People’s Party. During the WWII, he collaborated with the occupying German forces.
[vi] Croix de Feu (“Cross of Fire”) was the largest fascist group in France. It originally emerged in 1927 as an organization of veterans. In 1935, it was re-named the French Socialist Movement of the Cross of Fire. It was disbanded by a government decree of 18 June 1936.
[vii] Although the word ‘fascism’ appears in the text, it is clearly an error. It should read Trotskyism. (Trans.).
[viii] Francisco Franco (1892-1975). A Spanish general from 1926. In 1934-1936, he was the head of the General Staff and later was the Military Governor of the Canary Islands. He was a key member of the Military Junta Executive which organized the rebellion against the Popular Front government in 1936. From September 1936, he was a head of the “Spanish State” and the Commander-in-chief of the rebel armies. After 1939, he was the Spanish head of state and the leader of the Spanish Falange Party for life.
[ix] Emilio Mola (1887-1937). A Spanish general, he was the head of the Spanish Military Union from 1932. On the eve of the mutiny against the Popular Front government he was the military governor of Navarra. He was a member of the Junta of National Salvation (23 July -- 30 September 1936), the first government of the Spanish rebels. He was the Commander of the rebels’ Army of the North. He died in a plane crash in 1937.
[x] This article by G. Dimitrov was published in the August (#14) 1936 issue of the Kommunistichesky Internatsional.
[xi] Second International -- The International Union of Socialist Parties was formed in 1889, and almost ceased to exist after the outbreak of the World War I. In 1919, the 2nd International was re-created as a union of Social Democratic parties. In 1923, after merging with the so-called 2 1/2 International, it was reorganized as the Labor and Socialist International.
[xii] Leon Blum (1872-1950). The leader of SFIO, head of the first (4 June 1936 -- 21 June 1937) and fourth (13 March -- 8 April 1938) Popular Front governments in France. On 13 February 1936, members of the Royal Youth and of the youth wing of the extreme right-wing movement Action Français attacked Leon Blum as he was driving home from the Parliament.
[xiii]F. 495, op. 184, d. 73, Outgoing telegram for 1936, l. 78. My thanks to Fridrikh Firsov for sharing this material with me.
[xiv]Kommunisticheskii Internatsional, No. 14 (1936), 4-6.
[xv] SeeDiary of Georgi Dimitrov, entry of 18 December 1936.
[xvi]F. 495, op. 10a, d. 39, l. 49.
[xvii]F. 495, op. 21, d. 34, l. 210.
[xviii]See the discussion of Pyatnitsky's comments to the party committee meeting of 20 February 1935 in Chapter 2.