ISAAC DEUTSCHER died ten years ago this month. It is not possible to assess his work in the space of a brief article written for a weekly newspaper. That is a task which needs to be carried out in the pages of a theoretical Journal. A tribute to Deutscher is, however, Jong Many comrades who have been won to revolutionary politics over the last six years or thereabouts need to be reminded once again that Isaac Deutscher was one of us.
His work in the Fifties and Sixties did more to lay the basis for a lasting and viable tradition than all the empty rhetoric of his sectarian villifiers. He was, in our opinion, wrong on a number of important questions. But that in no way detracts from his stature as an oubstanding Marxist historian, writer of flawless English prose, and a farsighted political analyst.
The fact that Trotsky's leading role in the October Revolution is today almost nist Party intellectuals in capitalist Europe is history's own tribute to the achievements of Ísaac Deutscher.
ULTANCE was bom in Cracow oland in 1907. He came from a stron bbinical background Some of hi od with both honesty and wit in 4 Nonlewish Jew and Other Essay:
He was a militant of the Polist but was expelled in the Thirties for uicidal policies of the Comintern in Germany at the height of the Brought bit done to the le ppo positions tion. While he became a member of the Opposition remained implacably hostile to Stalin. he was nonetheless unconvinced of the need for a Fourth International. Polish delegates to the Founding Con The FL in 1914 influenced by Deutscher, votod against its Formation.
Several months before the Nazi invaSion of Poland, Deutscher left his native country and sought exile in Britain. He was seconded into the Polish army in-exile, but spent most of the war as a purnalist, Having read Marx's Capital to Deutscher suhmitted his first article to the journal: it was published and thence.
Europe bath for The Economist an The Observer It was a simulating discipline and il hrought out all his caleats as tears are shinis i cale. it to temporary analyst. develop an amazing mastery of the lan mage, displaying skills hase acquired by a fellow-Pole of th preceding generation - Joseph Conrad.
TROTSKY'S EXILE Deutscher's main project was begun in he post-sa at the start of the old war. His monumental Trotske to logy began the Herculean replying to the mountains heaped on the shoulders of the founder of the Red Army: product of alich finalien or a word Stalinist scale. The completion volumes was during a weak period remarkahle feat. were written ITSELOR DOES LET ARTIC In them was Limited to academic circles, They represented communist of cold war historians and the disgusti WICE he trilogy soon became widely recog nised, this was лов ledge at the time, as a political and literary classic.
overdue.
anti-Stalinist opposition to the 'thind Germany and The heavily references in The Economiss, La con He had It is. not casy today , not dissimilar te conditions grants from academic bodies, TOTAL establishment, Pearance: on the Soviet Union. The reactionary emigres from reactionary slander an accumulated Deutscher's achievements.
propaganda spoke a of prowess threatened semitreat him as an outcast. a botaged Tracy said: acknow eaching Russian history' balling Deutscher's appointment:
At the age of four in Cracow In the Twenties Deutsche worked. The British Intellientsin was uniformly bostile to him. He received to ersity professorships from the educaregular apon television as an authority Moscow Hritish acadominaled by the East:
Belin, Popper and their associates held They were enraged because this partiperson gut from their generation. He different language the lanHis intellectual hrent their monopoly of policies and lustory on the of post -10 Deutscher at Sussex University. Legend Tas i that tons arca penever m demne We caat lave while aci Marxist logy LANCIDES sole and honourable exception was the AtWar Crimas Tribunal with (ItorSartre, DediJer and Matarosso noted historian E.I. Carr, whio openly acknowlodged Deutscher's merits, As a Teull. Deutscher Bad to sacrilice some of his time in writing articles for the press to carn a living This meant CP intellectuals were closely tied 1o and regarded him Those who had eh thc viewed Deutscher's expressed loyalty to the tenera of classical marism as a sip al his 'dogmatisin" This is what make his achievement all the more couragepus and worthy of our unremitting respect.
THE TRILOGY in a sense it is analogous to the fin cried of Trotsky's own exile on thi sland of Prinkipo, where he wrote the Hissory of the Russian Respletion in a state of enforced solitude later his biographer would arite from similar position of isolation induced by HE DOLLUM COLUMN BAR Trotsky's History and Deutscher's tol must rank as the two fines writing within the tradition of classical marxism. It is not a puse accident that (Leff) in the Polish army in exile Isaac & Tamara Deutscher in the Sities over the last five decades the tradition which has scrupulously with a hiscorical analysis of the present tas been the tradicion of Tratsky ILLL researching his projected biography of Lenin would nave non a pouchul Counter blast to the traditions Deutscher would have written a cririen needed) and not esed the method of ugar quotation mongering so charac teristic of the Scalinists who in this wa Justified their tactics and policies of the day. His work balled by his conmitment to the namese struggle. He theew limself with great Terrout • into the ment. He addressed He audiences and they enthused him He served as a judge on the Inter TAH SEES STIOUR TOURI By Be at les opened is by tied the possibilities opened up by the return to his biography of Lenin, death struck. He was sixty years of age. The February ACCES THUNKS OR THEICES through Deutscher lished in Bengali Deutscher to capitulate thetic. for Cultural stalic:
the bureaucracies fumisbed the pountrie We are convinced that chis work of Stalinism on Lenia was initially Vict anti-mar mase. have come the enthused his Before he cous international working class was dep rived of its most pitted historiar The death was doubly tragic because by tens of thousands in under a year.
'68 in France, before the invasion of Czechoslovakia and before the Tet mili sively shified the balance of forces in He would have affected by air ines develop ments, It sa very likely that his viens on the LISSR and East Europe would have munises who were serialising hi The Unfinished Resotation in the pages of Lnerarne cow. were crished by bovier One of their 'crimes' was to be, in the words of Pravdo, publishing works by notorious 'anti-communist Deutscher! He would have seen many-of his aspirations futilled as tens of chousands or young studens and worker: flocked to join the Trorskyist move ment, thus projecting it onto the stage SETTION DOTELS Many of them had come to Tratsky UNFINISHED PROJECTS The Unfinished Revolution was puh.
languages fincludine Serbo-Croat Polish and Czechi: I was circulared in Semidar It the USSA inself. The Troisky trilons has been translated into most of the cajor langunges. His essays have been read by hundreds of thousands people.
reached his peak as a hiswhen there were TWO ASHES tebprations for non-Stalinist Marists: either to adapt to cold war pressures, or abjecriy Stalinism.
AULEIC ЯВОМСЕЕНИЯ IS However given his views on the L'SSR. namely that self-reform was possible (= gress and the Polish events of 1957) il B hardly surprising that he overestimater movemenr. He was singularly unsympa instance, to the workers" uprising in East Berlin in 1953, sceing it in perim ere postion was Imperialism. Here his position that of Bertol COMELES Brecht who, From the inside. , saw why were rebelling and saved his toay for the bureaucrats wrings of thar period display s per of Deutscher's spicacicy which constantly eluded most efused to recognise genuin socin revolutions because they did not to inte Revolilion, in particular, Deutscher's political assessment was far 11001 STOOT TOU BOUROSU have already indicated, Deutscher's thoupht was anything hel 1965 would have exercised a powerful pressure it helping him to re te butteries and origine and liberating stranglehold in the USSR, China and the Eastern Europcan Deutscher never joined the Fourth International. But he was very impor tant for it. He rook a ponscious decision I LOVEL S SON SU DrOUCHE BODE because he regarded the period in which he lived la be unfriendly to the growth parties BRINE emerged from that night and just as the light of a new sun hecame visible on the Most comrades over the last decade revolutionary politics Luouch seeiy of one sort ee amouner This is very positive, but organisition poltical edocation is totally very simple. The best way we can par unbute to Deutscher is by studying hi writings in Lie same critical Marxis way For we still have a lot to learn and . Deutscher still has a lot to teach us
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE