2 Soviet Papers Look at Trotsky, See Opportunist

Two leading Soviet newspapers devoted long articles on Sunday to disgraced Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky but stressed that speculation about a possible reappraisal of his role was groundless.

Both the newspaper Soviet Russia and the trade union daily Trud presented Trotsky as an opportunist who had opposed Vladimir I. Lenin, founder of the Soviet state, on many issues.

Until recently it was virtually taboo to even mention Trotsky, whose opposition to Josef Stalin led to his disgrace and finally his murder in exile in Mexico in 1940.

In recent months articles about Trotsky and other figures purged by Stalin have appeared in the Soviet press.

But the article in Soviet Russia, coming as the Soviet Union prepares for the 70th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, was not complimentary to Trotsky.

It also denied foreign press reports that journalists closely tied with the glasnost (openness) policies of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev were seeking to have Trotsky rehabilitated.

“In actual fact the party has long since made an accurate assessment of Trotsky and Trotskyism. The hostility of Trotsky and Trotskyism to the party, and its complete break with him, were the logical conclusions of the longstanding Trotskyist struggle against Bolshevism,” the article said.

But the article, citing Lenin’s reminiscences about Trotsky, conceded he played a role in building up the Red Army that saved the Soviet state from the rival White armies in the Civil War after the revolution.

The Trud article dwelt on Trotsky’s opposition to Lenin over the question of trade unions in 1920 and 1921. It said Trotsky’s attempts to politicize trade unions would have led to their annihilation as instruments of democracy.

The two articles came only a day after the Soviet weekly Ogonyok, considered to be at the forefront of glasnost, referred to Trotsky as “an outstanding activist of our party” who was forced “onto the path of isolation.”