Soviet newspaper interviews touring American Trotskyists

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2 SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1989 The following article appeared on page 12 of Moskovskiya Novosti (MN) issue No. 13, dated March 26, 1989.

MN has been in the forefront of the campaign for more openness, or glasnost, and has become known for offering more open discussions on more issues than most Soviet periodicals. Printed in a run of approximately 250,000 Russian-language copies in the U.S.S.R., MN also appears abroad, published in translation into a number of foreign languages.

Contrary to the normal practice, this article was excluded from the English-language publication, called Moscow News. In what could not have been an accident, the corresponding space on page 12 of the Englishlanguage paper carried an article entitled "Why Siberian Pravda Criticizes MN," the opening sentence of which reads: "The newspaper Pravda differs, depending on where you read it."

This is what should have been in that space. We are indebted to Trotsky bibliographer Louis Sinclair for bringing this article to our attention.

—Marilyn Vogt-Downey, co-chair U.S. Moscow Trials Campaign Committee one year for $8.

6 months for $4 Name Address City State Zip Tel.

American Delegation Delivers to Moscow a Petition From the Descendants of Trotsky "We, the undersigned, the grandson and great-grandchildren of the Russian revolutionary Marxist Lev Davidovich Bronstein, known as Lev [Leon] Trotsky ... request that all the slander and false criminal charges raised against him on the direct orders of Stalin be officially withdrawn from our grandfather and great-grandfather, his family, and his comrades in struggle....

"We also request that the works of Leon Trotsky, which represent a valuable collection of historic and contemporary Marxist study and thought be freely published in the Soviet The letter with this petition, signed by direct descendants of Trotsky who live in Mexico, was brought to Moscow by four Icio:

intri members of the "Moscow Trials Committee" in the U.S.A., which is studying the crimes of Stalinism. Joining them was Vladimir Kibalchich, the son of Viktor Serge, a Russian revolutionary well known in the West, who was repressed by Stalin for participating in the "Left Opposition."

"In recent months, a whole number of well-known party activists repressed under Stalin have been restored to a place of honor," said Carl Finamore, a journalist from the radical American newspaper Socialist Action. "It seems to us that the time has come to do the same with respect to Trotsky, regardless of what one may think of his political views. All that is necessary is to affirm, for example, that the charge made against him that he conspired to murder the top Soviet leaders was a lie."

"Every person must have the opportunity independently to judge Trotsky's views, after volumes—and become familiar with precisely what he meant by 'permanent revolution.' As it is now, people in the Soviet Union to a significant degree are still under the influence of the view of Trotsky that was formulated by Stalin himself," was the opinion of social activist and the director of the "Campaign in Support of Palestine," Ralph Schoenman.

Members of the American group sought a meeting with Trotsky's granddaughter Aleksandra of Moscow; however they learned that she had died literally on the eve of their arrival.—Andrei Bezruchenko