Letter from Mexico (1938)

From: Comrades Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Stalin, Molotov
To: All True Bolshevik-Leninists

Comrades!

It has been over nine years now since the Bukharinist Rightists have usurped power in the Soviet Union. Taking advantage of (and exaggerating) temporary and easily correctable difficulties which arose in the course of attempted collectivization, they used a slight majority in the Politburo (assisted by the Red Army, which unfortunately in the present stage of economic development must be a predominantly peasant army) to seize control. They accused Comrade Stalin and other true Bolsheviks of having been "dizzy with success"; they won a certain demagogic popularity with not only kulaks but deluded middle peasants by promising to dissolve the collective farms; and they have in effect established a terrorist dictatorship that makes a mockery of intra-party democracy.

Abroad, they instituted the notorious "United Front" with the social democrats in Germany. This policy merely alarmed the German militarists and big bourgeoisie and led to Hindenburg's "constitutional coup" which established the current semi-military regime (with Papen as Chancellor being merely civilian "window-dressing"). In vain do the Bukharinists say that it was all done to save Germany from "Hitlerism." There was hardly any prospect of a Hitler regime; and even if he did take nominal power as Chancellor, it would surely only be under an arrangement which would give all the real power to the Hugenbergs and Papens, anyway. (Note how quickly the "National Socialists" faded away after Hitler's "suicide" during the Hindenburg-Papen "Night of the Long Knives.")

Nor have the Bukharinist blunders in the Comintern been confined to Germany. In the US, for example, true Leninists like William Z. Foster and James P. Cannon have been expelled from the party, while a "cult of personality" surrounds the "infallible leader" Lovestone. In Spain, the Bukharinists ignore that Francoism can be defeated only by promising land to the peasants and factories to the workers; they repress the POUM, which despite some errors is the only mass party in Spain to generaly side with the Marxist-Leninst-Trotskyist-Stalinist world movement against Bukharinism.

In terms of Soviet foreign policy, they have betrayed the principles of Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin by entering into an alliance with imperialist France.

In internal Soviet policy, they have ignored the fact that while Lenin said the NEP was intended seriously and for a long time, he never said it would go on forever. As a result, Soviet agriculture is in crisis because of the high prices the kulaks (and their sympathizers among the middle peasants) demand. Meanwhile, the NKVD concerns itself not with true counterrevolutionaries but with mythical "Trotskyist-Stalinist terrorist conspiracies."

Under these circumstances, we of the United Opposition declare: Enough! We can no longer be in the same International with you, Bukharinist-Rykovist-Tomskyist criminals! You may laugh at us, Bukharinists--you rule from the Kremlin, while we are a mere "handful of factionalists" in Mexican exile. But do not forget how hopelessly outnumbered the Bolsheviks seemed to be in 1914.

We therefore announce the creation of the only true Bolshevik international--the Fourth International (Leninist-Trotskyist-Stalinist). It will adhere to the general analysis of Soviet society in *The Revolution Betrayed* by L. Trotsky and J.V. Stalin.

It will not rest until the final destruction of capitalism and Bukharinism.

With Bolshevik greetings,
 
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Abroad, they instituted the notorious "United Front" with the social democrats in Germany. This policy merely alarmed the German militarists and big bourgeoisie and led to Hindenburg's "constitutional coup" which established the current semi-military regime (with Papen as Chancellor being merely civilian "window-dressing"). In vain do the Bukharinists say that it was all done to save Germany from "Hitlerism." There was hardly any prospect of a Hitler regime; and even if he did take nominal power as Chancellor, it would surely only be under an arrangement which would give all the real power to the Hugenbergs and Papens, anyway. (Note how quickly the "National Socialists" faded away after Hitler's "suicide" during the Hindenburg-Papen "Night of the Long Knives.")

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Well fudge. I thought for a moment this would lead to Op Barbarossa against a different sort of Soviet Army. Maybe even some different political alignments 1938-39. Guess that will have to wait.
 
Bukharin bringing the soviet union into an age of wonders? Stalin and Trotsky co-authoring a book together?

Hell yes. :D
 
Consider me subscribed.

The collaborative nature of Stalin & Trotsky's relationship is more than enough to garner my attention, and is a nice twist to the Stalin-less Soviet Union scenario. Knowing what I know about the Trot and the man of steel, this opening post isn't actually far-fetched either.
 
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