From October to Brest-Litovsk

From October to Brest-Litovsk

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Title: From October to Brest-Litovsk
Author: Leon Trotzky
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From October to Brest-Litovsk
By Leon Trotzky
Authorized Translation from the Russian
1919
TRANSLATOR'S NOTES:
1. In this book Trotzky (until near the end) uses the Russian Calendar
in indicating dates, which, as the reader will recall, is 13 days behind
the Gregorian Calendar, now introduced in Russia.
2. The abbreviation S. R. and S. R.'s is often used for
"Social-Revolutionist(s)" or "Socialist-Revolutionaries."
3. "Maximalist" often appears instead of "bolshevik," and "minimalist"
instead of "menshevik."

THE MIDDLE-CLASS INTELLECTUALS IN THE REVOLUTION
Events move so quickly at this time, that it is hard to set them down
from memory even in chronological sequence. Neither newspapers nor
documents are at our disposal. And vet the repeated interruptions in the
Brest-Litovsk negotiations create a suspense which, under present
circumstances, is no longer bearable. I shall endeavor, therefore, to
recall the course and the landmarks of the October revolution, reserving
the right to complete and correct this exposition subsequently in the
light of documents.
What characterized our party almost from the very first period of the
revolution, was the conviction that it would ultimately come into power
through the logic of events. I do not refer to the theorists of the party,
who, many years before the revolution--even before the revolution of
1905--as a result of their analysis of class relations in Russia, came to
the conclusion that the triumphant development of the revolution must

inevitably transfer the power to the proletariat, supported by the vast
masses of the poorest peasants. The chief basis of this prognosis was
the insignificance of the Russian bourgeois democracy and the
concentrated character of Russian industrialism--which makes of the
Russian proletariat a factor of tremendous social importance. The
insignificance of bourgeois democracy is but the complement of the
power and significance of the proletariat. It is true, the war has
deceived many on this point, and, first of all, the leading groups of
bourgeois democracy themselves. The war has assigned a decisive role
in the events of the revolution to the army. The old army meant the
peasantry. Had the revolution developed more normally--that is, under
peaceful circumstances, as it had in 1912--the proletariat would always
have held a dominant position, while the peasant masses would
gradually have been taken in tow by the proletariat and drawn into the
whirlpool of the revolution.
But the war produced an altogether different succession of events. The
army welded the peasants together, not by a political, but by a military
tie. Before the peasant masses could be drawn together by
revolutionary demands and ideas, they were already organized in
regimental staffs, divisions and army corps. The representatives of
petty bourgeois democracy, scattered through this army and playing a
leading role in it, both in a military and in a conceptual way, were
almost completely permeated with middle-class revolutionary
tendencies. The deep social discontent in the masses became more
acute and was bound to manifest itself, particularly because of the
military shipwreck of Czarism. The proletariat, as represented in its
advanced ranks, began, as soon as the revolution developed, to revive
the 1905 tradition and called upon the masses of the people to organize
in the form of representative bodies--soviets, consisting of deputies.
The army was called upon to send its representatives to the
revolutionary organizations before its political conscience caught up in
any way with the rapid course of the revolution. Whom could the
soldiers send as deputies? Eventually, those representatives of the
intellectuals and semi-intellectuals