Trotsky (45 page)

“What the worker will take from Shakespeare”: Trotsky,
Literature and Revolution,
184–85.

“Art must make its own way”: Trotsky,
Literature and Revolution,
178.

Symbolist poet Andrei Bely: Trotsky,
Literature and Revolution,
54–60.

“fellow travelers”: Trotsky,
Literature and Revolution,
62.

the champions of proletarian culture had their day: Brown,
Russian Literature Since the Revolution,
27–34.

idealized depictions of Soviet life: Brown, 31; Max Eastman,
Artists in Uniform: A Study of Literature and Bureaucratism
(Columbia University Press, 1953).

“It is impossible to read Soviet verse and prose”…Alexis Tolstoy…“manufacturer of ‘myths’ to order!”: Trotsky, “Art and Politics in Our Epoch,”
Partisan Review,
August–September 1938.

“New York intellectuals”: Wald,
The New York Intellectuals;
Terry Cooney,
The Rise of the New York Intellectuals:
Partisan Review
and Its Circle,
1934–1945 (The University of Wisconsin Press, 1986); Alexander Bloom,
Prodigal Sons: The New York Intellectuals & Their World
(Oxford University Press, 1986).

William Phillips and Philip Rahv: Wald, 76–77; Cooney, 39–41.

“vulgarizers of Marxism”: Cooney, 90.

“continuum of sensibility”: Cooney, 62.

“There is now a line of blood”: Cooney, 99–100.

the
Partisan Review
circle: Cooney, 107–9.

City College in upper Manhattan: Wald, 277, 313, 350; Web site for the 1997 PBS documentary film
Arguing the World,
http://www.pbs.org/arguing/ny intellectuals_geneology.html.

Farrell moved there from Chicago…the road toward open anti-Stalinism: Cooney, 102–3; Wald, 82–85; Alan Wald, “Farrell and Trotskyism,”
Twentieth-Century Literature,
Vol. 22, No. 1, February 1976.

“started out more or less as Trotskyism”: Wald, 5.

Farrell…developed sinus trouble: Wald, 136.

“he read French novels”: Bloom, 112; on Macdonald, see Michael Wreszin,
A Rebel in Defense of Tradition: The Life and Politics of Dwight Macdonald
(Basic Books, 1994).

children of immigrants: Wald, 76–77; Cooney, 6.

Macdonald…wrote to invite Trotsky: Macdonald to Trotsky, July 7, 1937, TEP 2836.

“very happy to collaborate”: Trotsky to Macdonald, July 15, 1937, TEP 8951; also Trotsky to Rahv, March 21, 1938, TEP 9765.

Trotsky found it too vague: Trotsky to Macdonald, September 11, 1937, TEP 8952.

“What is Living and What is Dead in Marxism?”:
Partisan Review
editors to Trotsky, January 14, 1938, TEP 3714.

“extremely pretentious and at the same time confused”: Trotsky to Macdonald, January 20, 1937, TEP 8953.

His defection was total: Max Eastman, “The End of Socialism in Russia,”
Harper’s,
February 1937.

“retreat of the intellectuals”: James Burnham and Max Shachtman, “Intellectuals in Retreat,”
New International,
Vol. 5, No. 1 (January 1939).

Rahv…fired a respectful blast: Rahv to Trotsky, March 1, 1938, TEP 4211.

Desperate for money: André Breton, “Visite à Léon Trotsky,”
Cahiers Léon Trotsky,
No. 12 (December 1982), 105–6 [hereafter: Breton, “Visite”]; Polizzotti, 446.

Surrealism preached the virtues of poetry…“pure psychic automatism”…“convulsive beauty”…autobiographical adventure journals: Polizzotti, 209–12, 264–73, 432–33; Roger Shattuck, “The Dada-Surrealist Expedition,”
The New York Review of Books,
Vol. 18, No. 9 (May 18, 1972), and No. 10 (June 1, 1972).

he confided to Stefan Zweig: Polizzotti, 466–67.

leonine and noble in appearance: Herrera, 226.

“the pope of Surrealism”: Polizzotti, 215.

Jacqueline—blond, lithe, and birdlike: Polizzotti, 403.

Breton, who was moved to tears: Breton, “Visite,” 110.

“blossomed forth…into pure surreality”: Herrera, 228.

Breton later described his state of excitement…“something electrifying”: Breton, “Visite,” 110–11.

no major topics were discussed…Trotsky asked Van: Van, 121–24.

Their next meeting…was more memorable: Van, 122.

“experiments with the inner life”: Shattuck, “The Dada-Surrealist Expedition,”
The New York Review of Books,
Vol. 18, No. 9 (May 18, 1972).

“Degenerate Art”: Wolfgang Benz,
A Concise History of the Third Reich,
Thomas Dunlap, trans. (University of California Press, 2006), 67–68.

“line of demarcation between art and the GPU”: Trotsky, “Art and Politics in Our Epoch,”
Partisan Review,
August-September 1938.

agreed to draft the founding manifesto: Van, 122.

the excursions and the road trips: Breton, “Visite,” 112.

“land of convulsive beauty”: Roche, 24.

pre-Columbian sculptures from Chupicuaro: Van, 127.

“Cette séduction est extrême”:
Breton, “Visite,” 112.

“skirmishes” between them: Breton, “Visite,” 115–16.

“keep open a little window”: Breton, “Visite,” 116.

stopped to visit a church: Van, 124–25.

“Have you something to show me?”…Van wisely declined: Van, 125.

headed for Guadalajara: Van, 124–25.

José Clemente Orozco: Van, 126; Rochfort, 99–119, 137–45; Brenner, 268–76; Wolfe, 159–61.

“the Mexican Goya”: Brenner, 268; Wolfe, 161.

bulwark mustache…perfunctory smile: Brenner, 269.

“He is a Dostoevsky!”: Van, 126.

Creative Man…The Rebellion of Man:
Rochfort, 139–41.

Orozco assured Trotsky: “Joe’s notes on Trotsky,” Hansen papers, 40:7.

like schoolkids playing hooky: Polizzotti, 461.

a trip to Pátzcuaro: Van, 127–28; Herrera, 227.

“an Aristotle, a Goethe, or a Marx”: Trotsky,
Literature and Revolution,
207.

“a small square of canvas?”…an attack of aphasia: Van, 128.

giving Trotsky a couple of pages of text…Trotsky decided to bow out: Van, 128–29; “Manifesto: Toward a Free Revolutionary Art,” in Paul N. Siegel, ed.,
Leon Trotsky on Literature and Art
(Pathfinder Press, 1970), 115–21.

International Federation of Independent Revolutionary Artists: Polizzotti, 468–71.

“a resounding flop”: Cooney, 142.

Trotsky and Breton parted: Van, 129; Polizzotti, 464.

“boundless admiration”…“Cordelia complex”: Breton to Trotsky, August 9, 1938TEP 369.

“I am sincerely touched”: Trotsky to Breton, August 31, 1938, TEP 7428.

this was the start of the trouble: Van, 134–37; Broué, 903–7.

seemed to disorient Diego: Herrera, 247; Van, 136.

Julien Levy Gallery: Herrera, 230–33.

The Paris show, called “Mexique”: Herrera, 250–51.

“all that junk”: Herrera, 250.

Rivera’s fame, money, and force of personality: Van, 132–33.

“incomparable political intuition and insight”: Hansen to Reba, November 16, 1937, Hansen papers, 18:5.

“passion, courage, and imagination”: Trotsky to Frida Kahlo, January 12, 1939, TC 11:37.

“You are a painter. You have your work”: Herrera, 473, n. 247.

Trotsky later lamented this choice of language: Trotsky to Cannon, October 30, 1938, TEP 7536.

“gift for alienating people”: Eastman,
Companions,
119.

“The idea of my wanting to be rid of Diego”: Trotsky to Frida Kahlo, January 12, 1939, TC 11:37.

the O’Gorman affair: Trotsky to Jan Frankel, March 27, 1939, TEP 8178; Broué, 903–7.

Cárdenas had nationalized Mexico’s petroleum reserves:
Cambridge History,
44.

“vandalism”: Broué,
Trotsky,
904.

“reactionary bootlicker of Hitler and Mussolini”…“Mexico is an oppressed country”: Trotsky to Jan Frankel, March 27, 1939, TEP 8178.

a letter to Breton in Paris: Van, 136–37; Natalia’s declaration, TEP 17313.

launching a number of initiatives: Trotsky to Curtiss, February 15, 1939, TC 23:7; Van, 137.

“purely personal adventures”: Trotsky, “A Necessary Statement,” January 4, 1939,
Writings,
11:269–74.

“very, very good hour”: Trotsky to Frida Kahlo, January 12, 1939, TC 11:37.

Rivera sent a letter of resignation: Rivera to Pan-American Bureau, March 19, 1939, TEP 15303.

“Now, dear Frida, you know the situation here”: Trotsky to Frida Kahlo, January 12, 1939, TC 11:37.

“Diego is completely right”:
Herrera, 246–47.

she and Diego divorced: Herrera, 272–73.

Mexico’s presidential politics: Van, 138; Charles Curtiss memoir, in Buchman papers, box 3, folder: “Mexico, 1987.”

“series of incredible zigzags”: Trotsky to Pan-American Committee, March 22, 1939,
Writings,
11:283–90.

he had to separate himself from the painter: Trotsky to Curtiss, February 15, 1939, TEP 7636.

Breton’s initial draft: Breton, “Visite,” 116; Roche, 39.

“morally and politically impossible”: Trotsky to Curtiss, February 14, 1939, TEP 7635.

about 1,500 former foreign volunteers in Spain: Trotsky to Goldman, January 7, 1939, TEP 8303;
Cambridge History,
46.

“He wishes to impose his generosity on me”…donated to the local comrades: Trotsky to Curtiss, February 14, 1939, TEP 7635.

Diego made public his break with Trotsky: Trotsky to Jan Frankel, April 12, 1939, TC 10:56;
The New York Times,
April 15, 1939.

the methods of the GPU: report of Curtiss meeting with Rivera, March 11, 1939, TC 23:7.

Diego’s promiscuous application…“A tremendous impulsiveness”: Trotsky to Pan-American Committee, March 22, 1939,
Writings,
11:283–90.

“You warned us many times”: Trotsky to Jan Frankel, March 27, 1939, TEP 8178.

“the Painter’s Case Is A Part Of The Retreat Of The Intellectuals”:
Trotsky to Breton, January 11, 1939, TEP 11027.

fantastic political U-turn: Wolfe, 385–86; Herrera, 341–42, 435.

for the purpose of having him assassinated: Herrera, 297.

At the moment of his departure: Van, 138.

Chapter Eight: The Great Dictator

an important meeting in the Kremlin: Sudoplatov, 65–69; Andrew & Mitrokhin, 41, 69, 76, 85–86; Montefiore, 4–5, 115–16.

let the “chatterbox” out of his grasp: Montefiore, 33.

“Stalin would now give a great deal”:
Diary,
26–27.

“treacherous infiltrations”: Sudoplatov, 67.

“The greatest delight is to mark one’s enemy”:
Diary,
63–64.

“operetta commander”: Montefiore, 33.

“outstanding mediocrity”…“gravedigger” of the Revolution:
My Life,
512; Volkogonov, 322;
Diary,
69;
Writings;
10:202.

“He is thinking of how to destroy you”:
Diary,
23–24.

“His craving for revenge on me is completely unsatisfied”…“Stalin would not hesitate a moment”:
Diary,
63–64.

“If Trotsky is finished”: Sudolatov 67

Sudoplatov, an experienced killer: Sudoplatov, 25–27.

“Trotsky should be eliminated within a year”: Sudoplatov, 67.

“But they cannot tear me away from history!”: Volkogonov, 299.

When Stalin found out, he was incredulous: Volkogonov, 315–16.

listed him as a writer: Van, “Lev Davidovich,” in
Leon Trotsky,
44–47.

he dreamed of becoming a writer:
My Life,
339; Bertram D. Wolfe, “Leon Trotsky as Historian,”
Slavic Review,
Vol. 20, No. 3 (October 1961), 495–502.

took a toll on his nerves and his health: Natalia, “Father and Son,” in
Leon Trotsky,
44.

“How could you lose power?”: Van, 58;
My Life,
xiv, 504–5.

library books that were shuttled back and forth: Glotzer, 38.

a demonstration of 2,500 Petrograd workers: L. D. Trotskii,
Istoriia russkoi revoliutsii
(two volumes in three, Respublika, 1997), Vol. 1, 124.

George Bernard Shaw once remarked: Wolfe, “Leon Trotsky as Historian,” 496.

he did not pretend to be impartial: Knei-Paz, 497; Howe, 155.

deliberately places himself in Lenin’s shadow: Deutscher III, 185, 203, Knei-Paz, 499.

lifting himself onto the pedestal: Volkogonov, 433.

“gray blur” in 1917: the famous phrase is that of Nikolai Sukhanov; see Tucker,
Stalin as Revolutionary,
178–79.

During a sedate autumn and winter of 1933–34: Van, 60.

a writer’s paradise: Volkogonov, 429.

Time
magazine gave its readers the impression:
Time,
January 25, 1937.

his financial situation was extremely precarious: Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse to Trotsky, January 20, 1937, TEP 568; Trotsky to Jan Frankel, December 19, 1937, TEP 8154; Holm og Rode to Trotsky, January 21, 1938, TEP 1990.

Max Lieber…was behaving like a “counter-agent”: Trotsky to Sara Weber, February 3 and February 12, 1937, TEP 10812, 10813.

“What is the matter with Lieber?”: Trotsky to Shachtman, Novack, and Weber, Januar 31, 1937, TEP 10323; Trotsky to Sara Weber, February 12, 1937, TEP 5883.

a front for Soviet espionage activity: Chambers,
Witness,
44, 355, 365–66, 376–77, 394–95, 397, 408–10; Albert Halper,
Good-bye, Union Square: A Writer’s Memoir of the Thirties
(Quadrangle Books, 1970).

Doubleday was insisting: H. E. Maule to Trotsky, January 28, 1937, TEP 3007; Trotsky to Maule, February 2, 1937, TEP 9030.

a book on the Moscow trials could be the best-seller: Trotsky to Sara Weber, January 15, 1937, TEP 12499.

a counterindictment he called “Stalin’s Crimes”: Trotsky to Harper & Brothers, February 20, 1937, TC 11:1.

Trotsky felt compelled to abandon his project: Jan Frankel to Charles Walker, June 9, 1937, TC 23:2.

“the average man on the New York street”: Trotsky to Walker, November 5, 1937, TEP 10763.

updating
My Life:
Trotsky to Walker, August 25, 1937, TEP 10755.