Aug. 26, Over twelve years ago—on February 1, 1924 to be exact—the then British Government under Mr.
Ramsay MacDonald recognized the Soviet Government. Less than a fortnight earlier, Vladimir Lenin, the father of the Soviet regime, had qualified for the ap otheosis in the Red Square accorded to him by his admiringly grateful followers. Among his papers were found the notes which came to be known his political will. They showed recognition of the danger of disunity after his death. Between Josef! Stalin and Leon Trotsky lay differences which were destined to falsify the grandiloquent proclamation by the Communist Party on the morrow of Lenin's death:
Lenin is dead, but he lives on in the soul of each member of the party. Each member of the party a particle of Lenin. Our entire Coramunist family is the collective incarnation of him.
Lenin's notes were more realist. They saw the need for increasing the membership of the Central Committee to 150 in order to prevent the threatened division arising from the rivalry of Stalin and Trotsky. That rivalry dated from 1919 and had been kept within bounds only by the exercise of Lenin's overriding authority. Stalin, as Secretary-General, had, wrote Lenin: gathered into his hand an immense power, and I am not certain that he will always employ sufiicent prudence in the exercise of it.
Trotsky was described as "not! remarkable for very great ability" yot he the most capable man of the: present Central Committee, but he'
much too inclined to over-assurance and is, besides, attracted to the purely administrative side of Stalin met the publication of these notes by an astute resignation which was promptly declined. He remained in office and the struggle between him and Trotsky became one-sided for behind Stalin rallied practically the—whole _party. Gregory Zinovieff and Leo Kamenev.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.