Letter to V.I. Lenin, October 3, 1918

Source: Tom 17

3/X

Comrade Ilyich!

First of all, greetings, and then allow me to tell you a few things about the affairs of our front.

The enclosed document will give you a picture of an extremely unpleasant conflict between the workers on the Southern Front and Trotsky. The fact of the matter is that Trotsky, generally speaking, cannot do without theatrical gestures. At Brest he dealt a blow to our cause with his excessively "left" gesture. On the question of the Czechoslovaks he similarly harmed the cause with his bombastically diplomatic gesture back in May. Now he deals a new blow with his gesture concerning discipline, while in practice this entire Trotskyist discipline amounts to ensuring that the most prominent workers on the front gaze at the backsides of military specialists from the camp of "non-party" counter-revolutionaries and do not interfere with the latter as they ruin the front (this is what Trotsky calls non-interference in operational affairs).

In general, the situation is such that Trotsky cannot sing without hitting a false note, cannot act without theatrical gestures, and I would have nothing against these gestures if the interests of our common cause did not suffer in the process.

Therefore I ask you, while there is still time, to restrain Trotsky and put him in his place, for I fear that Trotsky's reckless orders, if they continue -- handing over all front affairs to so-called military specialists from the bourgeoisie who deserve no trust whatsoever -- will sow discord between the army and the command staff and ruin the front once and for all. Our new army is being built because, alongside the new soldiers, new revolutionary commanders are being born. To foist upon them obvious traitors like Sytin or Chernavin means disrupting the entire front.

I need not mention that Trotsky, who only recently joined the Party, presumes to lecture me on Party discipline, having apparently forgotten that Party discipline is expressed not in formal orders but, above all, in the class interests of the proletariat.

I am not fond of noise and scandal, but I feel that if we do not immediately create a check on Trotsky, he will ruin our entire army in the name of "left" and "red" discipline, which makes even the most disciplined comrades sick. Therefore it is necessary now, while there is still time, to rein in Trotsky and call him to order.

I shake your hand.

Yours,

Stalin.

Tsaritsyn, October 3, 1918.

Source: Bolshevik Leadership. Correspondence. 1912-1927, pp. 52-53.

RGASPI. F. 558. Op. 1. D. 1812. L. 1-3.