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| Title | One year of revolution |
| Alternative Title | One year of revolution: celebrating the first anniversary of the founding of the Russian Soviet Republic, November 7, 1918 |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
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| Publisher | Socialist Publication Society |
| Place of Creation (TGN) |
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| Date | 1918 |
| Subject.Name (LCNAF) |
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| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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| Genre (AAT) |
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| Language | English; Russian; German |
| Type (DCMI) |
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| Original Item Extent | 32 pages: illustrations; 28 cm. |
| Original Item Location | DK265.S62 1918 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b8304499~S11 |
| Original Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
| Digital Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/scpamp |
| Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://libraries.uh.edu/branches/special-collections |
| Use and Reproduction | This item is in the public domain and may be used freely. |
| File Name | index.cpd |
| Title | Image 9 |
| Format (IMT) |
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| File Name | uhlib_6770052_008.jpg |
| Transcript | LEON TROTZKY « In war time events crowd each other, and a year of war counts more than a decade in normal times. This old truth holds good even in our rapidly moving modern age. Scarcely 22 months ago Leon Trotzky was still among us, striving with a few others to make the pulse of the American movement beat more rapidly, in tune with the revolutionary forces of the European socialist movements. At that time socialist America was intensely ignorant of conditions and tendencies of European Socialism. The words Zimmer- wald and Kienthal were only the vaguest of conceptions even to the more intelligent of American Socialists. Always astonishingly out of touch with international questions, the movement here had completely failed to establish even the most superficial mental and spiritual affiliations with the International organization of the Socialist Left. It was thus Leon Trotzky, one of the authors of the Zimmerwald Manifesto, found the American Socialist Party when he arrived in New York in the first days of January, 1917. And with him seemed to come the first actual contact with our comrades in Europe. It happened that a few days before his arrival a group of American Socialists had decided to hold a conference at which a program of action for Socialists of the Left, for the purpose of organizing the radical forces in the American Socialist movement, was to be discussed. America stood on the brink of war, and we felt that our movement was utterly unprepared to take up the momentous questions that lay before it. Something had to be done to arouse the Party to a more energetic spirit of protest. A meeting in a private home was arranged, and our Russian guest, who had arrived in America just the day before, was invited. As we look back upon that seemingly informal occasion in the light of what occurred during the year that has just passed, it was a distinguished company that came together in the sleepiest part of sleepy Brooklyn that night. Besides the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Army and Navy, there was the always interesting, always spontaneous Alexandra Kollon- tai, Mrs. Minister of Public Welfare (now Public Security). There was the "typical Leninite," as Trotzky so often called him, N. Bucharin, the most noted and generally recognized theoretician of the aggressive school of New Russia, who, since Brest Litovsk, has been consistently opposed to Lenine; there was the youthful, uncommonly sympathetic G. T. Tjudnovsky, who made the impression that he could not kill the proverbial fly and yet proved to be one of the truest heroes in the battles of the Bolsheviki, sacrificing first limb and then life itself in active defense of the great cause; there was V. Volodarsky, who always played the role of the silent onlooker and yet, from the very first day of the establishment of the Soviet regime, was one of the most reliable and efficient pillars of the Russian proletariat. At first it seemed that this conference which was rapidly followed by a number of others would achieve no tangible results. The Russians were in their element and long drawn out but intensely interesting theoretical discussions were always in order. We others felt that for the time being it was hopeless to think of organizing the Left within the Party for anvthins: like effective action. Here Trotzky, who had unconsciously become the spiritual center of this movement, proved himself to be a practical man as well. He proposed that first of all an organ be created that would fearlessly and truthfully express the attitude of the revolutionary minority. Another group, with Bucharin, were at first in favor of founding a separate organization, with a periodical expressing its aims and purposes, but were outvoted by the others. A sub-committee was elected with instructions to present definite suggestions to the next meeting of the conference, and a week later, this committee, of which Trotzky was a member, proposed the publication of a bimonthly periodical. The "Class Struggle" is the fruit of this conference. Since then not quite two years have passed. And we have done day-laborers' work, while our former co-workers were fighting out world-historical battles for the international proletariat. Yet these few |