Trotzky v. Stalin

The severance of Anglo-Soviet relations by Great Britain (TIME, June 6) brought on at Moscow last week a political crisis. Dictator Josef Vissarionovitch Stalin was again openly criticized for the first time since last fall by his incessant rival, Lev Davidovitch Trotzky. Amid the excitement, Sir Robert Hodgson, Chief of the British Mission at Moscow, quietly departed for London with his staff on the Riga Express.

The Stalin-Trotzky feud was seemingly quenched (TIME, Oct. 25) when Comrade Trotzky was forced to sign a pledge that he would not oppose or criticize the Stalin majority group. Last week this pledge seemed less than "a scrap of paper" as M. Trotzky stood up before the Comintern* and thundered opposition to Josef Stalin with all the moving fire of his famed spellbinding prowess. He urged that warlike "reprisals" be taken against Britain, demanded that pressure be brought on the Chinese Nationalists to proclaim a Chinese Soviet Republic, and generally flayed Dictator Stalin for not pushing with sufficient energy the Communist program of world revolution. Amid the stress of last week, the Comintern dared not antagonize Comrade Trotzky further than by passing a stiff resolution of censure against him.

Observers felt that M. Trotzky had given the Soviet regime a final black eye before the world by insisting on just those "orthodox" Communist policies of impractical violence and "world revolution" which the shrewd Josef Stalin is seeking to hold in check.

One of the few fortunate happenings for Soviet Russia last week was the return of the Persian Ambassador at Moscow to Teheran where he became Premier. He is expected to bring Persian foreign policy into close harmony with that of the Soviet Union.

*Executive and Central Committee of the Communist Party. M. Trotzky is a member.