Pierre Broué, just Soviet Union, describes Trotsky's granddaughter and the atmosphere of excitement at a Nov. 15, 1988, Moscow public rally Russian revolutionary's complete rehabilitation TROTSKY
1989 1989-01Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 9 →
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Broué symbolically offered his new 1100-page biography of Trotthe Soviet workers, the audience responded with loud applause.
SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 1989 9 Hayard When sky to literally jumping over text.
The event was chaired by a young university student named V. Lyssenko. The speakers' platform included other students, a university professor named S. Dzarasov, a historian named Bouldgakov, as well as two children of renowned Bolshevik Party leaders.
One of them was Nadejda Joffe, the daughter of Adolf A. Joffe, a leader of Trotsky's Left Opposition who committed suicide in 1927 after Stalin refused him all medical care. The other was Egor Piatnisky, whose father was a leader of the early Communist International who later disappeared in the Stalinist camps. Both had been imprisoned in the 1930s for being what was called "children of the enemies of the people."
The speakers began their presentations by refuting the current attacks on Trotsky (not the old slanders of the Stalin era), according Broué to which Trotsky was equivalent to Stalin and would have been as ruthless a dictator as Stalin had he won the "power struggle."
They responded to the countless lies published regularly in the Soviet press, such as the one that depicts Trotsky massacring loyal Soviet Communist Party members while leading the Red Army during the Civil War. Their goal was to refute all the slanders and restore the historical truth about Trotsky's role and ideas.
Nadejda Joffe recounted childhood memories of going to school with Leon Sedov and sitting on Trotsky's lap. She remembered Trotsky as a kind and caring man. Egor Piatnisky focused on Trotsky's ideas, giving an excellent presentation of Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution.
The audience was very interesting. There were people of all ages and all walks of life. Two rows were reserved for the old-timers,