MOSCOW'S ATTITUDE 157
nto practice if Communism were to remain the foundation
}f the Soviet State. In a letter of recantation which must
produce a deep impression on any reader, one of Trotsky's oldest
and most obstinate adherents, Sosnovsky, recently admitted1
that Stalin smashed the collegiate constitution of the party in
order to make himself the sole ruler of Russia, and that it was
he alone who could have carried through the collectivization
of the peasants. "We revolted against both/' Sosnovsky wrote;
"to-day we see that, but for Stalin's action, the party and the
system would now be ruined. I therefore capitulate—" (to
summarize the last part of the letter) "and I am one of the last
to do so: I surrender because, unlike others who did so before
me, I need not disguise the fact that our view has become
bankrupt at every point. I ask for pardon."
Now what is the ultimate ideal of Stalin, this unquestioned
ruler over the territory and population of a state embracing
one-sixth of the entire world? It is to bring about Communism
in industry and agriculture; to embody the "pure doctrine" of
Lenin, despite all sacrifices, despite human hecatombs, despite
fearful distress and unceasing toil inflicted on millions. But
this can only be done if the giant industrial concerns already
erected survive to form a new and stable foundation for Russia's
industry.
This is Stalin's general line, pursued and determined with
full and rigorous consistency by Stalin and Stalin alone. Other
leaders of the Communist Opposition, headed by Trotsky, •
objected, because they were firmly convinced that the vast
difficulties of agricultural communization and the attendant
struggle with the peasantry would prove unsurmountable in
practice. It is significant that to-day, when the Soviet regime
remains unshaken in spite of famine and numberless deaths,
these men return penitently to the fold one after another and
openly confess their error. At the^same time they rejoice at
Stalin's victory, since it has proved the capacity of the Soviet
1 Pravday February 27,1934.