Re: [Marxism] Fw: Isaac Deutscher and Marxist history

["Graham M." <gkmilner@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Brian,
                 Thank you for your comments on my post concerning Isaac
Deutscher and Marxist history.   I am particularly grateful for the link you
provided to John G. Wright's article reviewing the Malamuth edition and
translation of Trotsky's biography of Stalin.   I had not previously read
this piece, although I have read other material by Wright, including the
excellent article 'The Truth About Kronstadt', as well as some of his
translations.  I certainly agree with Wright that Trotsky's biography of
Stalin has great merits, and that in its time the book provided an essential
corrective to the outpourings of the Stalinist cult apparatus.   Some parts
of the book as published are gems - for example the appended essay 'Three
Concepts of the Russian Revolution'.   Nevertheless I have to largely agree
with Isaac Deutscher (in 'The Prophet Outcast') that Trotsky's study of
Stalin is marred by an excessive animus against its subject.

   Deutscher's own biography of Stalin restores the balance, without losing
the essential benefits of Trotsky's insights into the nature of the regime
and into Soviet history.   I think you are right to say that Deutscher's
depiction of Stalin's career is influenced by the ascendancy of Stalin's
personality in the late 1940s, and the hegemony of Stalinism in the world
Communist movement.   Changed circumstances, with the 20th Congress
revelations and de-Stalinisation, would no doubt have influenced Deutscher's
attitude to the Stalin regime, and this is very probably reflected in the
Trotsky trilogy.

   On the question of the Fourth International: it is well known that
Deutscher tended to downplay the significance of Trotsky's attempt in his
last exile to consolidate a cadre with which to forge a new revolutionary
International.   I myself was 'brought up' politically as a member of the
Australian Democratic Socialist Party, and when I was associated with that
group, it was held as an axiom that Deutscher's Trotsky trilogy, while no
doubt a great book, was severely flawed in its failure to accord proper
recognition and importance to what after all Trotsky himself considered to
be the most important work of his life ie. the building of the Fourth
International.   I do agree with most of your comments about the lessons
that may be learned from Trotsky's voluminous writings in his last exile
devoted to assembling and training revolutionary activists.   But it should
be said that the DSP, along with many other groups formerly associated with
the Fourth International, have long since concluded that the FI is too
narrow an organisational form for the regroupment of the international
revolutionary left, and that Deutscher's negative attitude expressed in the
final volume of his Trotsky biography, about Trotsky's preccupation with the
Fourth International project, is in all essentials one they now share.

                                  In solidarity,

                                          Graham Milner


----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Shannon" <brian_shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition"
<marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 12:39 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Fw: Isaac Deutscher and Marxist history



On Jul 1, 2006, at 4:38 PM, Graham M. wrote:

> Deutscher's biography of Stalin first appeared in 1949, while the
> Soviet dictator was still alive and while Stalinism was almost
> totally dominant in the world Communist movement. The book was
> ignored by the Soviet press, but it was a best-seller in the West.
> The book was denounced as an apology for Stalin and Stalinism by
> Cold Warriers in the West, while orthodox Communists denounced it
> as a heretical attack on the Stalin cult. There have been written,
> over the years, many biographies of Stalin, but Deutscher's study
> is to my mind the most satisfying of the ones I've read. Trotsky's
> biography of Stalin is in my view too partisan and lacking in the
> distance that is probably necessary for this kind of work.
> Deutscher's own perspective is however heavily indebted to Trotsky,
> but Deutscher develops interesting and important original insights
> concerning the nature of Soviet Bonapartism and the intricacies of
> Stalin's foreign policy.


I hope that you will expand and post this review to other forums. I
agree with it 99%. My only reservation is that Deutscher's trilogy is
less sympathetic to Stalin than his Stalin biography. In other words,
something should be said about how Deutscher's own views evolved.

By the time he finished the Trotsky trilogy (The Prophet Outcast,
1963),* Deutscher seems to have come closer to Trotsky, whereas the
earlier Stalin biography (1949) was written when the communist
parties dominated the Left throughout the world.

Trotsky's draft book on Stalin is an exceptional work, one however
deeply marred by the additions of the translator, Charles Malamuth,
who apparently had the copyright in his name at the time of Trotsky's
death. John G. Wright wrote an excellent review of Trotsky's
biography. http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/wright/
1946/07/stalin.htm
Unfortunately, in the interest of summarizing Trotsky's views,
Wright's comments on the completely twisted insertions by Malamuth
were much too short. Malamuth's poison runs throughout the book; he
performed a literary rape of Trotsky's thought. He substituted
primitive psychological second-guessing for Marxist evaluation and
even the barest of his connecting summaries contradicted Trotsky's
basic ideas about the Russian Revolution, Stalin, and the character
of the Soviet state:

> "It is necessary to briefly comment in passing on the scandalous
> conduct of Charles Malamuth who figures as “editor” of the book. He
> had been hired solely as translator of the book. Instead of
> preparing the uncompleted text for publication as the author had
> left it, he arbitrarily proceeded to interpolate passages directly
> counter to Trotsky’s own ideas, among them the cynical contention
> that Stalinism is the inevitable outcome of Bolshevism. It goes
> without saying that one of the main objects of the author was to
> demonstrate just the contrary." --John G. Wright

Despite the value of Deutscher's work and accepting his evaluation of
the futility of building the 4th International, history has many
strange twists. In my opinion, Trotsky's attempt to build the Fourth
International has given future revolutionists an extraordinary
collection of writings on the strategy and tactics of building a
revolutionary movement. . Drawing on 45 years of experience in
Europe, the Soviet Union, the founding of the 3rd International, and
the information that he received from his collaborators around the
world, Trotsky presents future revolutionists with a treasure of
arguments, suggestions, evaluations, and results.

Not the least of his contributions are the sympathetic and
collaborative methods that he used in bringing revolutionists
together, even those with whom he had clear disagreements.


Brian Shannon
________________

* "The three volumes of Deutscher’s life of Trotsky . . . were for me
the most exciting reading of the year. Surely this must be counted
among the greatest biographies in the English language." — Graham
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