Famous Russian historian Edward Radzinsky talks about how Comrade Stalin had Trotsky expelled from Russia and why. Here is the extraordinary story of Trotsky’s actual ejection. Look how Radzinsky finds it hard not to laugh at the naivety of these revolutionaries. Here is my rough
translation of what he is saying. The best part is the last sentence:
Beloborodov was until the end faithful to Trotsky. At that time he was on vacation and left his apartment to Trotsky. They tricked Trotsky.
They told him that they will send him out at some other time, so he had several days to prepare demonstrations and protests. It was his some who was supposed to organise this, etc. But they expelled him on the next day.
And then took place this unbelievable scene. They broke into the apartment. Trotsky’s on rushed out on the staircase and shouted that the Leader of the Revolution, Trotsky, is being expelled from the country. It was not just a house there, it was a so called
“House of Workers” but nobody even opened the doors. Everbody hid behind their doors. Trotsky resisted. They were ordered not to hit him, God forbid that he would have any signs on his face, so that he would not be able to show a beaten up face.
Because of that they fought with him with carefully. He turned out to, I think Molotov talked about it, very strong and it was very hard to drag him out.
Moreover, he delivered a few very successful blows. As the result they brought him down in order to carry him out. He caught a table and while he was holding this table, they pulled him by his legs together with this table.
Finally they detached him from that table and carried him out. His son came earlier to the railway station, Stalin will have him shot after that, excuse me for telling you such obvious things. They brought him to the station.
Trotsky saw that there were workers there and were working on some platform, so Trotsky’s son shouted to those workers making this platform, that they are destroying the Revolution, well just like Camille Desmoulins
when he was being taken to the guillotine by fellow revolutionaries, was also crying “it was I who lead the people to take the Bastille”, and here “he who created the October Coup, etc, the October Revolution, it was already by this time The Great October Revolution.
The workers did not react. As you surely know, these were not workers. These were employees of the same remarkable institution, who task was to check that they really put him into this wagon. And he left into exile, from where they would then send him out of the country.
In this way all of them created Yosif Vissarionovich, the brilliant, of course, real bureaucrat, a great one, who was able to built these longest chess games, and when you don’t understand anything in his actions, always look at the ending.
There everything will become clear. So I think he remembered that very correct phrase of Tomsky: ”In our country there can be only to parties: one in power and one in jail”.
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