“Radek” by Stefan Heym, 2022
This is a novelistic treatment of the revolutionary life of Karl Radek, born 'Lolek” Karl Bernhardovich Sobelsohn. It is by turns funny, human, enlightening and ultimately tragic. Radek was a left Bolshevik and a quarrelsome ally of Lenin's who moved to Russia after the 1917 revolution and became a key figure in the RSDLP, then the CP. He usually worked in propaganda and agitation in the international field. He was a type that believed he was immune from anyone telling him what to think or write, a 'wandering Jew' who 'fit' and then didn't 'fit.'
We meet every key character of this
tumultuous time, from Armand to Zinoviev.
The story takes us from an idiotic frame-up of Radek by the German
Social Democrats; the Zimmerwald conference; on the sealed train from Zurich
with Lenin; the negotiations at Brest-Litvosk with Trotsky; the SR
assassination attempt against Lenin; the German invasion and the outbreak of
the German Revolution, in which Radek goes to Berlin as “the Bolshevik's
sharpest pen.”
There is skillful foreshadowing, as
characters, including Luxemburg, predict death and bureaucracy. We learn certain facts, such as the Spartakus
group having only 150 members when Liebknecht announced the Council Republic
from the balcony of a government palace.
Lenin is portrayed as curt and bossy, but not petty and nearly
always right. Heym has him in a 3-way
relationship with the ordinary Krupskaya and the beautiful Inessa Armand. The first failed 'solution' at Brest-Litvosk
of a unilateral peace was actually Radek's idea, not Trotsky's – good
propaganda but bad militarily. The
secret but useful role of the Swedish businessman Parvus in providing funds and
setting up the sealed train is high-lighted, but then ignored by Lenin. Heym calls Trotsky at one point “a man of
ideas, not action” just as Trotsky is selected to build the Red Army. This is a
typical slur perhaps foreshadowing further scenes, as Heym shows Radek and
Trotsky have affinities. There is the issue of the 'philistine' nature of the
German working class. Underlying it all
is the sullen and growing role of Stalin, who after Lenin's stroke, plays a
controlling role as General Secretary.
Politically the issue of war and the
international spread of the revolution are key.
Turning the capitalist war into a civil war on both sides was the
Bolshevik perspective. The spread of
councils and socialist activity – the world revolution - outside of Russia was
crucial to the successful survival of the Russian soviet state. This was
understood by nearly all at the time. It
did happen for a time in Germany, Hungary, Finland, Austria and Italy.
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| 1919 Uprising in Germany |
Radek's instincts are not always good, as he's a bit of a comic and a lateral thinker, but still a respected intellectual. He's humorous as an observer of the character and weakness of those around him and has a sharp, sarcastic tongue. The confusion and terrible stress of real politics and events is depicted in spades. The scene in which Radek addresses the first German Spartakus conference is typical, as he knows the young, naive workers watching him will be unable to make a revolution. And yet he lays out a grandiose vision of the unity of the Russian and German council powers and publicly makes up with Luxemburg, who he's had differences with for years. Radek is secretly aware of the deep naivete of their leadership too.
There is a long section on Radek's jailing in Berlin, accompanied by many witty
conversations among a whole raft of visitors, including his inquisitor. The worries and plans of sections of the
bourgeoisie are evident from his visitors.
He gains special status as the ambassador of the workers' councils in
Ukraine and a representative of Russia, so does not suffer the fate of
Luxemburg and Liebknecht. The fraught
idea of a bloc between Russia and Germany comes up several times in talks on
more than trade. At one moment Radek
hopes for, at worst, an “enlightened dictatorship” of commissars as he pursues
his various pessimistic trains of thought.
The failed attempt at another insurrection in Germany in 1923 serves as a focus. Lenin is sick and before he dies, his anti-Stalin Testament is read out to Radek by Krupskaya. After his death, the Politburo and Troika are maneuvering against each other. Radek is pursuing a love affair in secret from his long-suffering wife and child. At a 1924 meeting of the Comintern they have to blame someone for the second German failure, a botch of adventurism and lack of preparation. Radek is one of the goats. This begins his long downfall due to the machinations inside the leadership of the Soviet Party and its growing conservative bureaucracy.
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| 1937 Show Trials |
The 1927 debacle in China with Stalin's ally Chiang Kai-Chek is one last straw.
Radek first kow-tows and then resists.
Radek becomes part of the Joint Opposition with Trotsky, Zinoviev,
Kamenev, Joffe and other Old Bolsheviks. In 1927 he is
evicted from the Kremlin, thrown out of the Party, arrested and exiled to
Siberia as a 'counter-revolutionary.' After 3 years he capitulates to Stalin, serving as his jester, in a pathetic burlesque, writing
anything that will save his neck. This though secretly opposing Stalin’s sectarian policy in Germany and knowing Kirov was assassinated by Stalin as a rival and also a pretext. For his efforst he enjoys a column in Izvestia and a new apartment in Moscow. At the end he is again put on trial in 1936 and sent
into exile, and later, according to Soviet records, killed by the NKVD in camp. His servile and sarcastic paeans
to Stalin and groveling before Vyshinsky during the trial of no use.
As an aside, the introduction by Victor
Grossman, who wrote “A Socialist Defector” about East Germany, is a
dithering, confused see-saw description of the tenor of this book. Grossman has no solid political understanding
of what happened in the Soviet workers' state or even the GDR, so his comments
about Heym and Radek reflect that confusion. Essentially he gives cover to
Radek's executioner. I actually don't
understand why he was chosen to write it.
This 600 page historical novel is an
excellent summer read, even if you're not a socialist. After all, Radek was famous for his sharp jokes. It seems a dark topic but is written quite
lightly, by turns clever and erudite, amusing, romantic, grand and sprawling. It is in the great tradition of Russian literature. In fact, it might be easier to read if you are not invested in the path
and the outcome.
Prior blog reviews on this subject, use
blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 15 year archive: “Life and Fate” (Vassily Grossman); “A Socialist Defector” (Victor Grossman);
“Workers' Councils” (Pannekoek); “All Power to the Councils” (Kuhn); “October” (Mieville); “The Struggle for
Power” (Vilkova); “Tovarishchi,” “Fear” (Rybakov); “The Transitional Program.”
And I bought it at May Day Books in our excellent fiction section.
The Kultur Kommissar
August 2, 2022
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