10
PARTISAN REVIEW
As if to complete his self-portrait with one brilliant stroke, your Chica–
go ,correspondent vows-what !>ravery !-to meet you in a future concen–
tration camp-either fascist or "communist." A fine program! To tremble
at the thought of a concentration camp is certainly not admirable. But is it
much better to foredoom oneself and one's ideas to this grim hospitality?
With the Bolishevik "amoralism" which is characteristic of us, we are
ready to suggest that gentlemen-by no means anemic-who capitulate
before the fight and without a fight really deserve nothing better than the
concentration camp.
It would be a different matter if your correspondent simply said: in the
sphere of literature and art we wish no supervision on the part of "Trots–
kyists" any more than from the Stalinists. This protest would be, in essence,
absolutely just. One can only retort that to aim it at those who are termed
"Trotskyists" would be to batter in an open door. The ideological base of
the conflict between the Fourth and Third Internationals is the profound
disagreement not only on the tasks of the party but in general on the entire
material and spiritual life of mankind.
The real crisis of civilization is above all the crisis of revolutionary
leadership. Stalinism is the greatest element of reaction in this crisis. With–
out a new flag and a new program it is impossible to create a
revolutionary
mass base; consequently it is impossible to rescue society from its dilemma.
But a truly revolutionary party is neither able nor willing to take upon itself
the task of "leading" and even less of commanding art, either before or after
the conquest of power. Such a pretension could only enter the head of a
bureaucracy-ignorant and impudent, intoxicated with its totalitarian power
-which has become the antithesis of the proletarian revolution. Art, like
science, not only does not seek orders, but by its very essence, cannot toler–
ate them. Artistic creation has its laws-even when it consciously serves
a social movement. Truly intellectual creation is incompatible with lies,
hypocrisy and the spirit of conformity. Art can become a strong ally of
revolution only in so far as it remains faithful to itself. Poets, painters,
sculptors and musicians will themselves find their own approach and
methods, if the struggle for freedom of oppressed classes and peoples
scatters the clouds of skepticism and of pessimism which cover the horizon
of mankind. The first condition of this regeneration is the overthrow of
the domination of the Kremlin bureaucracy.
May your magazine take its place in the victorious army of socialism
and not in a concentration camp!
Coyoacan, D. F., June 18, 1938
LEON TROTSKY.
(Translated by Nancy and Dwight Macdonald)
