Interlude
Sverdlov and Trotsky: Strange happenings
Sverdlov could have figured it was someone coming to pay a call by the ringing bells from the carriage or sleigh. It had been, as was perhaps to be expected, Trotsky with some potentially dire news.
The Cyrillic type on the paper in his hand began to blur in his vision, but Yakov Sverdlov forced himself to focus on the report. Trotsky wouldn’t have hand delivered this summary at midnight if it weren’t important. Recently shuffled from Foreign Affairs to Military Affairs, the lateral demotion had done nothing to dim Trotsky’s ambition, nor dissuade him from waking up Lenin’s right-hand man for trifles.
On the heels of two major setbacks, Trotsky was still somewhat timid in council, and wanted Sverdlov’s backing to bring up new business. Trotsky had initially opposed the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and had failed to gain anything of note at the negotiations of Brest-Litovsk, but rather the opposite.
Reaching the end of the report, Sverdlov set the paper down, removed his spectacles and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“So, the Germans are sifting through our people,” Sverdlov said. “Is that it?”
“Yes, Comrade Sverdlov,” Trotsky said.
Sverdlov opened his eyes and examined the Commissar for Defense. A man of middling height with a shock of brown hair over a prominent forehead, beakish nose and goatee, Trotsky’s eyes were bright and penetrating, even at this late hour.
“You don’t think they’re just sifting for manpower to use against the Western allies, do you?” Sverdlov said.
“No, I don’t,” Trotsky said, “though that’s one of the stories they’ve apparently put out. From what we can tell, they’re not asking anything about the Western Allies, but about ideology; how they feel about the tsar, about communism and such. Furthermore, it’s not a broad enough effort for them to recruit significant manpower. The Germans have more than a million of our people imprisoned, but they’re focusing their efforts on a few Guards regiments and maybe some Cossacks. Even if every man they’ve interviewed volunteered to fight for them, it wouldn’t be enough to make a difference in France. They can burn up twenty thousand men a day there, some days.
“At this point, my best guess is that they intend to toss the men they’ve recruited into the scale, here, to start or exacerbate a civil war.”
Sverdlov drummed the fingers of his right hand on the report.
“Right,” he agreed. “We’re the target. It’s not many men, but perhaps enough to cause trouble for us. You’re right, Leon, bring this to the committee at the next meeting. I will back you.”
“There are some other oddities, too,” Trotsky said. “Some very strange things going on.”