Michael Hoover wrote:
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>increasingly clear that roots of above stem from stalin's surprise
>emergence as *the* major speaker at lenn's funeral...considering
>trotsky's undeniable oratorical gifts, most observers expected him
>to deliver vl's eulogy...for reasons that can only be attributed to
>lt's lack of political acumen, he was far away on duck hunt in
>caucasian mountains and missed funeral entirely...
The fact is that Trotsky, that January, was on a train to Sukhum for a medically-ordered therapeutic stay, consequent to a persistent fever and fatigue that resulted from a Siberian hunting trip the previous year. When news of Lenin's death reached him at Tiflis he wanted to return to Moscow for the funeral. However, on Stalin's orders, he was told, falsely, that the funeral had been scheduled too early for him to return in time. Accordingly, Trotsky continued on to his destination.
In any event, Trotsky would certainly not have been allowed to give the funeral oration by the Stalin-Zinoviev-Kamenev "troika" that had seized control of the politburo. (See *My Life* p.508)
Shane Mage
"immortals mortals, mortals immortals, living their deaths, dying their lives"
Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 62
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