Neue Freie Presse
- The Defeated Opposition in Soviet Russia.
- The Healing of the World.
- Before Important Decisions in Rome.
This Vienna front page carried a correspondent's analysis of the defeated opposition in Soviet Russia. He argued that the latest struggle showed new features: all oppositional forces had united behind a common tactic, and Zinoviev had brought the personal element into the fight. Within the bloc, he wrote, only Trotskyism supplied a firm programme and ideological basis. A telegram from Rome described Mussolini stepping onto the balcony of the Palazzo Chigi after war volunteers gave him a consecrated sword. He told the crowd that this was no time for speeches and promised that the next day they would have the deeds they demanded. Armin T. Wegner's feature opened with a tired Rabindranath Tagore in a quiet Berlin hotel. The poet had just come back from visiting his son in hospital, partway through a crowded European tour to win support for his new university at Santiniketan.
Translation
The Defeated Opposition in Soviet Russia.
There have been oppositions within the party before. But the opposition's latest struggle shows numerous new features. Above all, the union of all oppositional forces in a common tactic. Then, more strongly than before, the emergence of the personal element. This personal element was brought into the struggle above all by Zinoviev. One must keep the composition of the opposition bloc clearly in view. Only Trotskyism has a firm programme, an ideological basis. It also took over the intellectual leadership of the movement. The …
The Healing of the World.
The empty hotel corridors breathed calm. Tagore had just returned from the hospital after visiting his son, who had been obliged to undergo an appendix operation in Berlin. Having arrived from Munich only during the night, the Indian poet gave a somewhat exhausted impression, for this journey, which he had undertaken to Europe to win support for the university he had newly founded at Santiniketan near Calcutta, had taken him in a few weeks through numerous foreign and German cities.
Before Important Decisions in Rome.
When this morning a delegation of war volunteers presented Mussolini with a sword that had been solemnly consecrated at the so-called Altar of Caesar in the Forum, he, called for repeatedly by the crowd, stepped out onto the balcony of the Palazzo Chigi and said briefly: "I have three things to tell you: first, I thank you for your greeting; second, now is not the moment to make speeches; and third, tomorrow you will have the deeds you demand."
Context
How the United Opposition formed and lost in 1926
The correspondent's "opposition bloc" is the group historians call the United Opposition. It took shape in 1926 when the Left Opposition led by Leon Trotsky merged with the New Opposition led by Grigory Zinoviev and his ally Lev Kamenev. Among its demands were greater freedom of expression inside the Communist Party and the dismantling of the New Economic Policy. In October 1926 Stalin's supporters voted Trotsky out of the Politburo. In his report to the Fifteenth Party Conference, Stalin dealt with the statement the opposition leaders signed on 16 October and remarked that it was usually described as a capitulation. This is the defeat the Vienna headline refers to. The defeat was not yet final, however. The opposition went on campaigning, and its members were expelled from the party at the Fifteenth Party Congress in December 1927.
Stalin's conference report and the Vienna analysis
The Neue Freie Presse analysis appeared on the same day Pravda began printing Stalin's report to the Fifteenth All-Union Party Conference, which ran in the issues of 5 and 6 November 1926. The two accounts agree on several points. Stalin told the conference that Zinoviev, already at the Fourteenth Party Congress, had given the signal for rallying all opposition trends into a single force. He also claimed that the bloc had met a determined rebuff from the mass of party members. The Vienna correspondent likewise stressed the union of all oppositional forces and blamed Zinoviev for the personal tone of the fight. The two diverge on Trotskyism. The paper credited it with the only firm programme and ideological basis in the bloc, while Stalin dismissed the bloc as unprincipled and predicted that it was bound to disintegrate. Stalin's report was the winning side's account, and its claims about the verdict of ordinary party members reflect that position.
Four attempts on Mussolini in 1925–26
The balcony scene in the Rome telegram followed a series of attempts on Mussolini's life. On 4 November 1925 Tito Zaniboni was arrested for plotting to shoot him from a hotel overlooking the Palazzo Chigi, where Mussolini had planned to give a balcony speech. On 7 April 1926 Violet Gibson fired a pistol at him and the bullet grazed his nose. On 11 September 1926 the anarchist marble worker Gino Lucetti threw a bomb at his limousine at Porta Pia in Rome. On 31 October 1926 a shot was fired at Mussolini as he rode in an open car through Bologna, and a 15-year-old boy, Anteo Zamboni, was lynched on the spot. The terrorism scholar J. Bowyer Bell later judged that the boy was likely innocent and that the affair was either a put-up job or a plot among Fascists. The crowd cheering Mussolini at the Palazzo Chigi had gathered only a few days after Bologna.
The promised deeds: emergency laws after Bologna
Mussolini's promise of deeds "tomorrow" foreshadowed the legislation that followed the Bologna attempt. After 31 October the Italian government swiftly enacted a swath of repressive measures, and all political parties, associations and organisations opposed to the regime were dissolved. On 25 November 1926 the Law for the Defence of the State set up a Special Tribunal to try "enemies of the state" and restored the death penalty. The Bologna attempt also led to laws creating Mussolini's secret police, the organisation known as OVRA, founded in 1927. The excerpt translated here records only the promise, under a headline anticipating important decisions. The State Defence Law came about three weeks later.
Original
Die besiegte Opposition in Sowjetrußland.
Schon früher gab es Oppositionen in der Partei. Aber der letzte Kampf der Opposition zeigt zahlreiche neue Momente. Vor allem die Vereinigung aller oppositionellen Kräfte zu gemeinsamer Taktik Dann stärker als bisher das Hervortreten des Persönlichen. Dieses Persönliche ist vor allem von Sinowjew in den Kampf hereingebracht worden. Man muß sich die Zusammensetzung des oppositionellen Blockes deutlich vor Augen halten. Ein festes Programm, eine ideelle Basis hat nur der Trotzkismus. Er übernahm auch die geistige Führung der Bewegung Die
Die Heilung der Welt.
Die leeren Hotelgänge atmeten Ruhe. Tagore war soeben aus dem Krankenhause von einem Besuch seines Sohnes zurückgekehrt, der gezwungen war, sich in Berlin einer Blinddarmoperation zu unterziehen. Erst in der Nacht von München gekommen, machte der indische Dichter einen etwas erschöpften Eindruck, denn diese Reise, die er nach Europa unternahm, um für seine in Santiniketan bei Kalkutta neu gegründete Universität zu werben, hat ihn in wenigen Wochen durch zahlreiche ausländische und deutsche Städte geführt.
Vor wichtigen Entscheidungen in Rom.
Als heute vormittag eine Abordnung von Kriegsfreiwilligen ein am sogenannten Altar des Cäsar auf dem Forum feierlich geweihtes Schwert Mussolini überreichte, trat dieser, von der Menge wiederholt gerufen, auf den Balkon des Palazzo Chigi und sagte kurz: " Ich habe euch dreierlei zu sagen: erstens danke ich euch für euren Gruß, zweitens i [?] t jetzt nicht der Augenblick, Reden zu halten, und drittens werdet ihr morgen die Taten haben, die i [?] r verlangt. "