{"id":28741,"date":"2021-04-12T21:50:08","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T13:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?page_id=28741"},"modified":"2021-04-12T21:50:11","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T13:50:11","slug":"a-letter-to-joseph-hansen-january-5-1940","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/a-letter-to-joseph-hansen-january-5-1940\/","title":{"rendered":"A Letter to Joseph Hansen (January 5, 1940)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"tdi_1\" class=\"tdc-zone\"><div class=\"tdc_zone tdi_2  wpb_row td-pb-row\"  >\n<style scoped>\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n.tdi_2{\r\n                    min-height: 0;\r\n                }\n<\/style><div id=\"tdi_3\" class=\"tdc-row\"><div class=\"vc_row tdi_4  wpb_row td-pb-row\" >\n<style scoped>\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n.tdi_4,\r\n                .tdi_4 .tdc-columns{\r\n                    min-height: 0;\r\n                }.tdi_4,\r\n\t\t\t\t.tdi_4 .tdc-columns{\r\n\t\t\t\t    display: block;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_4 .tdc-columns{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_4:before,\r\n\t\t\t\t.tdi_4:after{\r\n\t\t\t\t    display: table;\r\n\t\t\t\t}\n\/* inline tdc_css att - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n\n.tdi_4{\nmargin-top:50px !important;\n}\n\n.tdi_4 .td_block_wrap{ text-align:left }\n\n<\/style><div class=\"vc_column tdi_6  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span8\">\n<style scoped>\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n.tdi_6{\r\n                    vertical-align: baseline;\r\n                }.tdi_6 > .wpb_wrapper,\r\n\t\t\t\t.tdi_6 > .wpb_wrapper > .tdc-elements{\r\n\t\t\t\t    display: block;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_6 > .wpb_wrapper > .tdc-elements{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_6 > .wpb_wrapper > .vc_row_inner{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_6 > .wpb_wrapper{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t    height: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t}\n<\/style><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\" ><div class=\"wpb_wrapper wpb_text_column td_block_wrap td_block_wrap vc_column_text tdi_7  tagdiv-type td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1\"  data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_7\" >\n<style>\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n.vc_column_text > .td-element-style{\r\n\t\t\t\t\tz-index: -1;\r\n\t\t\t\t}\n<\/style><div class=\"td-fix-index\"><h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">A Letter to Joseph Hansen <span class=\"note\"><a id=\"f1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/trotsky\/idom\/dm\/13-hansen1.htm#n1\" name=\"f1\">[1]<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"information\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"info\">First Published:<\/span> Leon Trotsky, <strong>In Defense of Marxism<\/strong>, New York 1942.<br \/>\n<span class=\"info\">Checked against:<\/span> Leon Trotsky, <strong>In Defence of Marxism<\/strong>, London 1966, pp.83-88.<br \/>\nAll footnotes stem from the latter edition.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"date\" style=\"text-align: right;\">Jan. 5, 1940<\/p>\n<p class=\"fst\">Dear Joe,<\/p>\n<p class=\"fst\">Thank you for your interesting information. In the case of necessity or of advisability, Jim could publish our correspondence and that with Wright concerning the split matter. This correspondence shows our firm desire to preserve the unity of the party in spite of the sharp factional struggle. I mentioned in my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/trotsky\/idom\/dm\/10-wright1.htm\" target=\"new\" rel=\"noopener\">letter to Wright<\/a> that even as a minority the Bolshevik wing of the party should in my opinion remain disciplined and Jim answered that he wholeheartedly agreed with that view. These two quotations are decisive for the matter.<\/p>\n<p>Concerning my remarks about Finland in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/trotsky\/idom\/dm\/09-pbopp.htm\" target=\"new\" rel=\"noopener\">article on the petty-bourgeois opposition<\/a>, I will say here only a few words. Is there a principled difference between Finland and Poland \u2013 yes or no? Was the intervention of the Red Army in Poland accompanied by civil war \u2013 yes or no? The press of the Mensheviks who are very well informed thanks to their friendship with Bund and with PPS \u00e8migr\u00e8s says openly that a revolutionary wave surrounded the advance of the Red Army. And not only in Poland but also in Rumania.<\/p>\n<p>The Kremlin created the Kuusinen government with the evident purpose of supplementing the war by civil war. There was information about the beginning of the creation of a Finnish Red Army, about \u201centhusiasm\u201d of poor Finnish farmers in the occupied regions where the large land properties were confiscated, and so on. What is this if not the beginning of civil war?<\/p>\n<p>The further development of the civil war depended completely upon the advance of the Red Army. The \u201centhusiasm\u201d of the people was evidently not hot enough to produce independent insurrections of peasants and workers under the sword of the hangman Mannerheim. The retreat of the Red Army necessarily halted the elements of the civil war at the very beginning.<\/p>\n<p>If the imperialists help the Finnish bourgeoisie efficiently in defending the capitalist regime, the civil war in Finland would become for the next period impossible. But if, as is more probable, the reinforced detachments of the Red Army more successfully penetrate into the country, we will inevitably observe the process of civil war paralleling the invasion.<\/p>\n<p>We cannot foresee all the military episodes, the ups and downs of purely tactical interest, but they don\u2019t change the general \u201cstrategical\u201d line of events. In this case as in all others, the opposition makes a purely conjunctural and impressionistic policy instead of a principled one.<\/p>\n<p>(It is not necessary to repeat that the civil war in Finland as was the case in Poland would have a limited, semi-stifled nature and that it can, in the next stage, go over into a civil war between the Finnish masses and the Moscow bureaucracy. We know this at least as clearly as the opposition and we openly warn the masses. But we analyze the process as it is and we don\u2019t identify the first stage with the second One.)<\/p>\n<p>With warm wishes and greetings for all friends,<\/p>\n<p class=\"author\">L. TROTSKY<\/p>\n<p class=\"fst\">Coyoacan, D.F.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"section\" \/>\n<h3>Notes<\/h3>\n<p class=\"endnote\"><a id=\"n1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/trotsky\/idom\/dm\/13-hansen1.htm#f1\" name=\"n1\">1.<\/a> This letter was written by Trotsky in English.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"vc_column tdi_9  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span4 td-is-sticky\">\n<style scoped>\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n.tdi_9{\r\n                    vertical-align: baseline;\r\n                }.tdi_9 > .wpb_wrapper,\r\n\t\t\t\t.tdi_9 > .wpb_wrapper > .tdc-elements{\r\n\t\t\t\t    display: block;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_9 > .wpb_wrapper > .tdc-elements{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_9 > .wpb_wrapper > .vc_row_inner{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_9 > .wpb_wrapper{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t    height: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t}\n<\/style><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\" data-sticky-enabled-on=\"W3RydWUsdHJ1ZSx0cnVlLHRydWVd\" data-sticky-offset=\"20\" data-sticky-is-width-auto=\"W2ZhbHNlLGZhbHNlLGZhbHNlLGZhbHNlXQ==\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper td_block_wrap vc_widget_sidebar tdi_11 \" ><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":13,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-28741","page","type-page","status-publish"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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