First Published: Socialist Appeal, Vol. IV No. 32, 10 August 1940, p. 1.
Transcription/HTML Markup: Einde O’Callaghan.
Copyleft: Leon Trotsky Internet Archive (www.marxists.org) 2020. Creative Commons (Attribute & Share-alike).
(The following statement was issued by Leon Trotsky to the United Press.)
Molotov’s latest speech confirms that the Kremlin continues to be a satellite of Berlin and Rome. The Communist leaders in various countries have calmed their parties with promises that tomorrow if not today Moscow will turn towards the “democracies.” Molotov’s speech belies these promises. Five years of “anti-fascist” Peoples’ Fronts are definitely unmasked as charlatanism. Moscow’s foreign policy is determined by power politics and not by political principles.
Molotov, it is true, tried to cover the present Kremlin policy with anti-imperialist phraseology. But its falseness strikes one’s eyes. Molotov unmasked England’s wish to retain her colonies. But he kept silent about Germany’s and Italy’s wish to take them. He spoke about the imperialism of Japan and the United States but he didn’t find a word of condemnation for Hitler’s banditry and Mussolini’s jackal politics. Even more, he underlined for the first time that the German-Soviet pact assured free hands to Hitler. This unilateral and thoroughly sham “fight” against imperialism only reveals that Moscow’s politics is not independent but serves the interests of one imperialism against the other.
An increase in population of 23,000,000 doesn’t solve the problem of the security of the USSR. The victory of Hitler-Mussolini over Great Britain would immediately place the move towards the east on the order of the day for German imperialism. It would at once become clear that in following the line of least resistance the Kremlin oligarchy only accumulated difficulties and dangers.
Coyoacan, D.F.
August 2, 1940
Last updated on: 23 May 2019