1. SPEECH DELIVERED AT A PLENUM OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE AND THE CENTRAL CONTROL COMMISSION OF THE RUSSIAN COMMUNIST PARTY.1
Comrades, on the instructions of the Secretariat of the Central Committee I have to give you certain necessary information on matters concerning the discussion and on the resolutions connected with the discussion. Unfortunately we shall have to discuss Trotsky's initiative in his absence because, as we have been informed today, he will be unable to attend the plenum owing to illness.
You know, comrades, that the discussion started with Trotsky's initiative, the publication of his Lessons of October.
The discussion was started by Trotsky. The discussion was forced on the Party.
The Party replied to Trotsky's action by making two main charges. Firstly, that Trotsky is trying to revise Leninism. Secondly, that Trotsky is trying to bring about a radical change in the Party leadership.
Trotsky has not said anything in his own defence about these charges made by the Party.
It is hard to say why he has not said anything in his own defence. The usual explanation is that he has fallen ill and has not been able to say anything in his own defence. But that's not the Party's fault, of course. It is not the Party's fault if Trotsky begins to get a high temperature after every attack he makes upon the Party.
Now the Central Committee has received a statement by Trotsky, dated January 15, stating that he has refrained from making any pronouncement, that he has not said anything in his own defence, because he did not want to aggravate the controversy or exacerbate the issue.
Of course one may or may not deem this explanation convincing. Personally I don't think it is.
Firstly, how long has Trotsky been aware that his attacks upon the Party worsen relations? When, precisely, did he become aware of this fact? This is not Trotsky's first attack on the Party and it's not the first time that he expresses surprise or regrets that his attack undermined comradely relations.
Secondly, if he really wants to prevent intra-Party relations from deteriorating, why did he publish his Lessons of October? It targeted the leading core of the Party and was intended to sour intra-Party relations. That's why I think that Trotsky's explanation is quite lame.
A few words about Trotsky's statement of January 15 to the Central Committee, which I have just mentioned and which has been distributed to Central Committee and Central Control Commission members.
The first item that must be read and taken note of is Trotsky's statement that he is willing to take any post the Party appoints him to, that he is willing to submit to any kind of control over his future initiatives and that he thinks it absolutely necessary in the interests of our work to be removed from the post of Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council as speedily as possible.2
All this, of course, must be taken note of.3
[...]
2. SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE PLENUM OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE.
I have taken the floor in order to support Comrade Frunze's proposal strongly. I think that we must decide three issues here.
Firstly we must accept Comrade Frunze's proposal for additional assignments of 5,000,000 rubles for a total budget of 405,000,000 rubles.
Secondly we must pass a resolution endorsing Comrade Frunze's appointment to the post of Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council.
Thirdly we must instruct the Party to render the new Revolutionary Military Council every assistance by way of providing personnel.
I must say that owing to an increase in the requirements of our economic bodies and to the fact that our economic and cultural needs exceed our present means, lately a certain liquidationist mood concerning the Army has surfaced among us. Some of our comrades say that step by step, keeping the brakes on, we ought to reduce our Army to the level of a militia. What they have in mind is not the militia system but a peace Army, converting the Army into a simple militia unprepared for military complications.
I must declare most emphatically that we must do away with this liquidationist mood resolutely.1
Why? Because a radical change in the international situation has begun. New preconditions foreshadowing new complications for us are maturing, and we must be ready to meet them. The danger of intervention is again becoming real.2
[...]
3. FROM THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE RUSSIAN COMMUNIST PARTY TO THE CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE KUOMINTANG.
The Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party joins you in mourning the loss of the leader of the Kuomintang 1 and organizer of the national-liberation struggle of the workers and peasants of China for the freedom and independence of the Chinese people, for the unity and independence of the Chinese state.
The Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party has no doubt that Sun Yat-sen's great cause will not die with Sun Yat-sen, that Sun Yat-sen's cause will live in the hearts of the Chinese workers and peasants to the terror of the enemies of the Chinese people.2
The Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party is confident that the Kuomintang will hold high the banner of Sun Yat-sen in the great struggle for liberation from imperialism, that the Kuomintang will succeed in carrying this banner with honour to complete victory over imperialism and its agents in China.
Sun Yat-sen is dead [photograph on the right].3
Long live the cause of Sun Yat-sen!
May Sun Yat-sen's behests live on and amplify their power!
Secretary of the Central Committee
of the Russian Communist Party
J. Stalin
March 13, 1925
4. THE ACTIVE OF THE YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE.
[...]
Seventhly. The Young Communist League active in the countryside must receive precise instructions on the rights and duties of Young Communist Leaguers, precise instructions outlining the relationship between the Young Communist League and the Party and specifying the relationship between the Soviets and the Young Communist League.
Every member of the Young Communist League must regard him/herself as an assistant to the Party and to the Soviet Government in the countryside. High-handed methods in the countryside, anarchy during the holding of Soviet elections, attempts to usurp the functions of the Party or the functions of cooperative organizations or the functions of Soviet organizations, and rowdy escapades during so-called anti-religious propaganda—all of this—must be banned and halted forthwith as behaviour that tarnishes the banner of the Young Communist League and disgraces the name of Young Communist Leaguer.
The task is to wage a ruthless fight against such scandals and to establish the proper relationship between the Young Communist League and Soviet or Party bodies.1
[...]
5. TO THE FIRST ALL-UNION CONFERENCE OF PROLETARIAN STUDENTS.1
Comrades, your representatives have asked me to express my views on the tasks of the Party and about Party work among the proletarian students.
Permit me to say a few words to you on this subject.
The specific feature of the present situation is that the proletariat of our country has succeeded in creating the conditions necessary for building socialism. It is not true that socialism cannot be built in one country, especially a country that has vanquished and driven out the capitalists and landlords.
A country which has established the dictatorship of the proletariat, possesses tremendous natural resources and enjoys the backing of the proletarians of all countries can and must build socialism. Lenin was right when he said that our country possesses all that is necessary "for building a fully socialist society."
The specific feature of the present situation is that we have made considerable progress in building socialism, we have transformed socialism from an icon into a prosaic object of everyday practical work.
What part should proletarian students play in this work of construction?
Undoubtedly their part is important, perhaps of prime importance.
Higher educational institutions, Communist universities, workers' faculties and technical schools are institutions for training the commanding echelon of economic and cultural progress. Doctors, economists, co-operators, teachers, miners, statisticians, technicians, chemists, agricultural experts, railway engineers, veterinary surgeons, forestry experts, electrical and mechanical engineers, are all future commanders in the task of building the new society, of building the socialist economy and the socialist culture.
The new society cannot be built without new commanders just as a new army cannot be built without new commanders. The advantage of having the new commanders is that their function is not to exploit working people according to the interests of a handful of rich men but to build up the emancipation of working people from the handful of exploiters.
The whole point is that higher-education students—workers or peasants, Party or non-Party—should become conscious of this honourable role and begin to fulfil it not by constraint but by conviction.
Hence the Party's first task is to make the proletarian students conscious builders of the socialist economy and the socialist culture.
But the new society cannot be built by commanders without direct support of the working masses. The knowledge obtained by the new commanders is not sufficient for building socialism. These commanders must also have the confidence and support of the masses.
The distinguishing feature of the old commanders who built under capitalism was that they were divorced from the workers and peasants, felt superior to the toiling masses and did not value their confidence or support. Hence they enjoyed neither. Such attitudes are absolutely inappropriate in our country. The new commanders building the new economy and the new culture are called "new" precisely because they must abruptly and irrevocably break with the old style of commanding.2
Not divorce from the masses but the closest connection with them; not feeling superior to the masses but leading them; not alienation from the masses but merging with them and winning their confidence and support. Such are the new methods of management that must be employed by the new commanders. Without these attitudes no kind of socialist construction is conceivable.3
Hence the Party's second task is to make proletarian students regard themselves as an inseparable part of the masses of the working people, to make the students feel and act in a genuinely public spirit.
[...]
Lastly, about the Communist students in particular.
It is said that the Communist students are making little progress in scientific knowledge. It is said that they lag very much behind the non-Party students in this repect. It is said that the Communist students prefer to engage in "high politics" and waste two-thirds of their time in endless debates on "world problems."
Is all this true? I think it is. But if it's true, at least two conclusions must be drawn. First, the Communist students stand in danger of becoming poor directors for building socialism, for it's impossible to direct the construction of a socialist society without a mastery of scientific knowledge. Second, the work of training new commanders stands in danger of becoming the monopoly of the old professors who need to be replaced by new people. A new professorial staff and new scientific workers cannot emerge from people unwilling or unable to master science. Needless to say, all this cannot but directly jeopardize the entire effort of building socialism.
Can we resign ourselves to such a state of affairs? Obviously not. Hence Communist and Soviet students in general must set themselves, clearly and decisively, the urgent task of mastering science and conforming a new professorial staff of new Soviet people to take the place of the old.
I do not mean to imply that students should not engage in politics. Not at all. I merely wish to say that Communist students must learn to meld political work with the task of mastering science. It is said that it's difficult to combine the two. That's true, of course.4 But since when have Communists been daunted by difficulties? Difficulties in our work of construction are there to be combated and overcome.5
[...]
Of course Stalin knew all this. He had vigorously opposed the Military Opposition group at the Eighth Party Congress (Chapter 5, Item 5, footnote 6).Hold meetings but govern without the slightest hesitation; govern with a firmer hand than the capitalist's who preceded you. If you do not, you will not vanquish him. You must remember that governance must be much stricter and a lot firmer than it was aforetime. The discipline of the Red Army was not inferior after many months of meetings to the discipline of the old army. Strict stern measures were adopted which include the death penalty, measures that even the former government did not apply. Philistines wrote and howled, "The Bolsheviks have introduced capital punishment." Our reply is, "Yes, we have introduced it and have done so deliberately." Whoever forgoes order and discipline now is letting the enemy infiltrate our midst.
6. SPEECH AT THE FUNERAL OF M. V. FRUNZE.1
Comrades, I cannot make a long speech. In my present state of mind I am not in the mood for that. I shall merely say that we have lost in Comrade Frunze one of the purest, most honest and most fearless revolutionaries of our time.
The Party has lost in Comrade Frunze one of its most faithful and most disciplined leaders.
The Soviet Government has lost in Comrade Frunze one of the boldest and wisest builders of our country and of our state.
The Red Army has lost in Comrade Frunze one of its most beloved and respected leaders and creators.
That's why the Party mourns the loss of Comrade Frunze so deeply.
Comrades, this year has been a period of affliction for us. It has torn a number of leading comrades from our midst. But it appears that this was not enough; still another sacrifice was needed. Perhaps it is indeed necessary that our old comrades should so easily and simply go down to their graves.2
Unfortunately our young comrades do not so easily and by no means so simply come to the fore to take the place of the old ones. Let us believe and hope that the Party and the working class will take all measures to facilitate the forging of new cadres to take the place of the old.3
The Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party has instructed me to express the grief of the whole Party at the loss of Comrade Frunze.4
Let my short speech be the expression of that grief, which is boundless and does not need attesting with long speeches.5
Saying goodbye to Sophia, Frunze wished her well and assured her: "I am in a good mood and completely calm."I feel absolutely healthy now and it's almost ridiculous to even think about an operation, let alone undergo one. Nevertheless both consultations prescribed it. I'm personally satisfied with this decision. Let them take a good look once and for all at what's there and come up with a proper treatment.
7. THE FOURTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION.1
[...]
Comrades, I shall not answer the notes on particular questions separately because the whole of my reply to the discussion will in substance be an answer to those notes.
Nor do I intend to answer personal attacks or any verbal pokes of a purely personal character, for I think the congress has enough material with which to verify the motives of those jabs and what hides behind them.
Nor shall I deal with the "cavemen," those people who gathered somewhere near Kislovodsk and hatched all sorts of schemes about the organs of the Central Committee. Let them scheme, that's their business.
I should only like to emphasize that the same Lashevich who spoke here with aplomb against the politics of scheming was himself one, and it turns out that he played a substantial role at the cavemen's conference near Kislovodsk. So much for him.2
(Laughter)
It is evident that Stalin had "his men" placed in the audience to provide laughter, catcalls and applause during his verbal abuse of the New Opposition.
Sokolnikov, an economist educated at the Sorbonne, was accused of vilifying the task of socialist construction, playing tricks with economic data, talking "utter nonsense and downright untruth," slandering the Party and insinuating that the political system of the U.S.S.R. was in fact state capitalism.3
Kamenev was criticized for stating that the congress had made concessions to the kulaks, not the poor peasants. Stalin rejoined that his statement was "slander of the Party" and that concessions made at the Fourteenth Party Conference (April 27-29, 1925) would strengthen the Party's bond with the peasantry. "Whoever fails to understand that approaches the subject not as a Leninist but as a Liberal," snapped Stalin.
Krupskaya was belittled for talking utter nonsense about the New Economic Policy. "One cannot come out here in defence of Lenin against Bukharin with nonsense like that," said Stalin.
Bukharin was censured for having earlier disagreed with Lenin on the compatibility of state capitalism and the proletarian dictatorship, and for reiterating his mistake at the congress.
Zinoviev underestimated and wished to "neutralize" the middle peasantry, in opposition to the Leninistt policy of seeking an alliance with them. "Zinoviev has never displayed the firmness of line on the peasant question that we need," rejoined Stalin, branding him a "wobbler" who engaged in hysterics, not politics.
The Central Committee turned down Zinoviev's petition for an autonomous magazine in Leningrad [recall Stalin's call at the Twelfth Party Congress to enlarge the Central Committee to at least forty members]. Stalin argued that "such a magazine, running parallel to Moscow's Bolshevik, would inevitably become the organ of a group, a factional organ of the opposition, that such a step was dangerous and would undermine the unity of the Party." Stalin added: "This incident showed that the Leningrad leadership wants to segregate itself as a separate group."
Zinoviev, Kamenev, Sokolnikov and Lashevich were accused of advocating a radical reform of the Central Committee Secretariat.
The tone of Stalin's reply to the discussion was acrimonious. An example follows:
Kamenev and Zinoviev think presently that they can frighten somebody with the "prohibition" bogey, expressing indignation like Liberals at our having banned the publication of Comrade Krupskaya's article. You will not frighten anybody with that. Firstly, we refrained from publishing not only Comrade Krupskaya's article but also Bukharin's. Secondly, why not prohibit the publication of Comrade Krupskaya's article in the interests of Party unity? How is Comrade Krupskaya different from every other responsible comrade? Perhaps you think that the interests of individual comrades should be placed above the interests of the Party and its unity? Are not the comrades of the opposition aware that for us Bolsheviks formal democracy is an empty shell whereas the real interests of the Party are uppermost?
(pp. 393-94)
We still adhere in the main to the viewpoint of that document.4 In our draft resolution, as you know, we have already toned down some formulations in the interests of intra-Party harmony.
We are against amputation. We are against the policy of amputation. That does not mean that leaders will be allowed to give themselves airs and ride roughshod over the Party with impunity. No, spare us that. There will be no obeisances to leaders.
(Voices: "Quite right!" Applause)
We stand for unity, we are against amputation. The policy of amputation is abhorrent to us. The Party wants unity and it will achieve it with Kamenev and Zinoviev—if they are willing—without them if they are not.
(Voices: "Quite right!" Applause)
What does unity demand? That the minority should submit to the majority. There is no Party unity without that nor can there be.
We are opposed to the publication of a special discussion sheet. Bolshevik has a discussion section. That will be quite enough. We must not allow ourselves to be carried away by discussions. We are a Party that is governing a country, do not forget that. Do not forget that every disagreement at the top finds an echo in the country that is harmful to us, not to mention the impression transmitted abroad.
The organs of the Central Committee will probably remain in their present format. The Party is hardly likely to agree to break them up.
(Voices: "Quite right!" Applause)
The Politburo has full powers as it is, it is superior to all organs of the Central Committee but the plenum. The supreme organ is the plenum. That's sometimes forgotten: our plenum decides everything and calls its leaders to order when they begin to lose their balance.5
(Voices: "Quite right!" Laughter. Applause)
There must be unity among us and there will be if the Party—if the congress—demonstrates steadfastness and does not let itself be cowed.
(Voices: "We won't. We are seasoned people")
If any of us ventures too far, we shall be called to order; that's essential, it's necessary. To lead the Party other than collectively is impossible.6 Now that Ilyich is absent it's silly to dream of such a thing...
(Applause)
It's silly to talk about it.
Collective work, collective leadership, unity in the Party, unity in the Central Committee organs, the minority submitting to the majority—that's what we need now.
As regards Leningrad Communist workers, I have no doubt that they will always be in the front ranks of our Party. With them we built the Party, with them we reared it, with them we raised the banner of the October uprising in 1917, with them we defeated the bourgeoisie, with them we tackled and will tackle all the difficulties that may lie on the road of our work of construction.
I am sure that the Leningrad Communist workers will not lag behind their fellow workers at other industrial centres in the struggle for iron, Leninist unity in the Party.7
(Stormy applause. The "Internationale" is sung)
8. NINETEEN TWENTY-FIVE.
Moscow: Police have uncovered a conspiracy to assassinate an important Soviet leader. According to the Tcheka distinguished supporters of Trotsky are involved.
Constantinople: News from Georgia say that two regiments sent by the Moscow "barbarians" to suppress an uprising in Georgia mutinied. The officers were murdered and a soldier, a former Muscovite barber well known for his Anarchist ideas, was put in charge of one regiment. The mutineers perpetrated all kinds of excesses. They shot back at pursuing Cavalry, causing many casualties on both sides. They have sought sanctuary in the mountains.
A baneful career—but a very interesting one from a playwright's perspective—has just finished. Leon Trotsky the most renowned Bolshevik figure after Lenin has been vanquished in his duel with the Central Executive Committee. Trotsky is no longer the Minister of War and the Navy and faces a threat of expulsion from the Communist Party. Presently Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin rule the Party, the Government and the Third International.
On the occasion of Trotsky's fall we consider of some interest a review of his sojourn in Spain, based on unpublished letters. Trotsky was expelled from France at the start of November 1916 for the defeatist propaganda dispensed by his newspaper Nashe Slovo ("Our Word") published in Paris in the Russian language.
A penniless Trotsky spent one day in San Sebastián, another one in Bilbao, then came to Madrid and went to see Anguiano the Socialist who put him in touch with some associates. But meanwhile Madrid's General Directorate of Security received a telegram from Paris stating that "Trotsky the well-known terrorist" had crossed the Spanish border. Trotsky was detained, taken to the Model Prison and lodged in a "half-package fee" jail cell [private room, jailhouse chow]. During his interrogation Trotsky protested his status of "terrorist" vehemently and launched into a lengthy dissertation on the difference between a Marxist-socialist and an anarchist-terrorist; something the Police officer found mildly interesting at best.
In a pamphlet written later in the style of a novel, Trotsky recounts good-humouredly his adventures in Madrid, he acknowledges having been treated with courtesy and expresses his astonishment at having to pay for his prison lodgings as if for a hotel room. Trotsky spent four days in the Model Prison (November 9-13, 1916) and subsequently was driven to Cadiz for deportation on the first vessel sailing to Havana.
Trotsky has not published anything regarding his sojourn in Cadiz, but we have read some personal letters written to a French friend of his. The lively humour and satirical spirit never left Trotsky. He pokes fun at the Municipal Library of Cadiz where "the most up-to-date book dates from 1801"; he makes sport of the detective who keeps him under constant surveillance, sits beside him at the café, lets Trotsky foot the bill and boasts that his grandfather owned a [nobility] title and a fortune of forty million duros [equivalent to 1,900,000,000 USD, year 2024]. We ascribe full responsibility to the deposed dictator for his malicious takes on Spain.
In the meantime Trotsky had mobilized his Socialist friends of Madrid to plead on his behalf with the Government for the suspension of his decree of expulsion.
The gorgeous Island of Cuba holds no pull for him at all; Cuba does not seem a receptive soil for Socialist propaganda (we do not say "Bolshevik" because at that time Trotsky had not yet joined Lenin's party). His fondest wish is to stay in Spain and found a bi-monthly journal entitled, La Internacional.
Had Trotsky remained in Spain, the unfolding of the Russian Revolution might have had a different outcome. In his "1917" opus, which earned him the hostility of the Triumvirate and eventually clinched his fall, Trotsky asserts that the success of the Bolshevik coup d'état (November 7, 1917; a year after his arrival to Spain) owes more credit to him than to Lenin. It is possible that without the energy and the organizational talent of Trotsky (why should we dispute it?) the Bolshevik coup might have failed or that the Bolshevik regime would have foundered within the first few weeks of its precarious existence.
The Spanish Giovernment did not let Trotsky stay in Spain, but it finally granted his petition to be deported to New York instead of Havana. The negotiations lasted three weeks, and Trotsky spent those three weeks in Cadiz.
JUAN DE VACZ
Riga: News from Moscow state that for one year Trotsky will have a monthly salary of 100 Sterling Pounds [equivalent to £7,620 or €8,915 today, 20-02-2024]. The Tcheka made several searches of his home and seized a large number of his documents.
Moscow: Zinoviev and Chicherin the Commissar of Foreign Affairs had a violent discussion over the latter's promise to the French Ambassador in Moscow that Communist propaganda in France would be curtailed. Zinoviev threatened Chicherin with being sent, like Trotsky, to the Caucasus for a spell.
Riga: The Commissar of State Revenues handed a report to the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party stating that Russia is on the brink of an economic catastrophe which will occur without remedy if the Soviets do not obtain a sizeable foreign loan soon.
London: Reuters news agency says that according to reliable reports the condition of the Soviet Government has become more critical since Trotsky was sent to the Caucasus. Current Bolshevik leaders think that the only way out is for the Soviets to win a war against an enemy that has not yet been clearly defined.
The Soviets have created fifty-six infantry divisions supported by airplanes and armoured personnel carriers. It is said that the Soviets have ordered three thousand machine guns and twenty-five million cartridges from Holland, Italy and Spain. A German factory is manufacturing ten long-range heavy guns.
Many cavalry regiments have also assembled on the west and southwest frontiers of Russia.
London, 27: According to a telegram received from Riga, Trotsky has vanished from the "villa" where he was secluded in the Caucasus. No one of his circle knows his whereabouts. Stalin the fiercest enemy of Trotsky has ordered the Cheka and all other civilian and military authorities to apprehend the fugitive. Special agents were dispatched to the Black Sea ports and to the frontier crossings nearby.
All passengers bearing some resemblance to the fugitive are detained. Navy commanders in the Black Sea were ordered to search merchant vessels thoroughly.
Moscow: The plight of children worsens day by day. Thousands die of starvation. In "Tambrow" (Tambov?), "Teodowial" (Feodosia?), "Cheronigaw" (Chernigov?) and "Krorrwo" (Kovrov?) thousands of corpses lie abandoned on the streets.
Moscow: The trial has begun of German students Kinderman, Ditmar and Wolsch, members of a counter-revolutionary organization named "Consul," accused of preparing an attempt on the life of Trotsky and Stalin.1
Sommerfeld and Muravyov, two prominent Russian lawyers, have declined to defend the students after examining the indictment closely.
Riga: Moscow newspapers report that many Chinese bandits make frequent incursions into the goldfields of Siberia, particularly in Amur Province. The raiders ransack trading-post depositories, cooperative warehouses and sometimes even government holdings. The population is terrified and the authorities have sent forces to hurl the bandits back to the Chinese side of the frontier.
Riga: News from Moscow state that according to the terms of the agreement signed between the Komintern and the leaders of the Chinese nationalist movement [Kuomintang] the Manchurian railway will be under Soviet control in exchange for a delivery of weapons, money and instructors. The Chinese companies established in Eastern Siberia will be turned into regiments and brigades; those companies are already equipped with rifles and machine guns.
Moscow: Official statistics of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) provide the following numbers: 401,480 active Party members and 339,637 candidate members for a total number of 741,117 individuals to whom must be added some 50,000 Communists appointed to special jobs in the Red Army or stationed abroad.
The proportion then is 103 Party members for every ten thousand citizens over the age of eighteen [i.e., 1.03%].
Soviet warships in Naples (via radio): It has been announced that two units of the Russian Navy will pay a visit to Naples this month in return for the recent visit of an Italian flotilla [Fascist] to Leningrad.
Riga: News from Moscow state that great unease reigns among Red politicians as a result of the latest public affirmation made by Chang So-ling blaming Soviet agents for the latest turmoil in China. The agents interrupted railway traffic in sections of track to secure the smooth conveyance of heavy guns and ammunition from Soviet Russia to China.
There is also talk in Moscow about the possibility that Chang So-ling will proclaim himself dictator and embark on a campaign to the death against the Bolsheviks.
Riga: News from Moscow say that the Council of People's Commissars approved a 10-year concession to a Japanese firm on the goldfields of Kukteni River, Okhotsk District, Government of Kamchatka.
Berlin: According to Dni the Russian nespaper published in Berlin, Trotsky was invited to a session of the Revolutionary War Committee as a reappointed member. The appointment was completely unexpected and insistent rumours circulated that Frunze would resign, but the rumour seems baseless for Frunze keeps his double posting as President of the Revolutionary War Council and as Commissar of the War and Navy.
Madrid (via telephone): Reports from Moscow state that several Bolshevik leaders were found murdered in Kiev. The authors of the crime are unknown and the Tcheka speaks only of a plot hatched by supporters of the Czar with ramifications in other provinces.
Nauen: The consequence of ending the ban on the sale of firewater has been so disastrous that the Soviet Government has moved to ban the sale of liquor on Sundays and holidays.
Madrid (via telegraph): A report from Moscow states that Krasin the Commissar of Foreign Trade has been removed from his post, accused of having been a Czarist spy from 1894 to 1902.
Moscow: Stalin the Secretary-General of the Russian Communist Party delivered on the occasion of a Party Congress a long speech saying that he considered the Dawes Plan a motive for the next uprising in Germany, and the Locarno Pact the instrument for a new European war since it has all the requisite elements.
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