“That is the Trotskyite point of view, comrade,” said the Frenchman. “I too used to think that Trotsky was right in his attacks upon Stalin as an unscrupulous and diabolical dictator. But I am convinced now that Trotsky is wrong. He is too purely intellectual, too much of a theorist. Trotsky is not a practical statesman.”
Flagg excitedly thumped the table. “I am not a Trotskyite. Trotsky is a Communist. I am not a Communist. Trotsky believes in the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, even though it is crucifying him. I don’t believe in any dictatorship. But Trotsky is a great intellect and I believe he should have the right to speak to the world. Jerusalem had its Jeremiahs and Troy its Cassandras. But the Stalinites are making use of the Popular Front to silence and persecute all those who are opposed to them. They make tools of the near-sighted liberals to do their dirty work. They have revived the Inquisition; they have a blacklist of organizations and individuals: teachers, ministers, labor leaders, ordinary workers, doctors, publishers, editors, artists and writers—all those whom they cannot dominate or influence. My dear Sir, the Popular Front is a fraud and the prostitute of Stalin. God save the world from the Popular Front.”
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