Berezovo: A Revolutionary Russian Epic

The more the thought about it, the more he cursed himself for his stupidity. As a consequence of his own indiscretions Alexandra’s brothers, Illya and Grigory, had become a potential threat. He became convinced that his betrayal was inevitable, unless he acted swiftly. But what should he do? He could not risk promoting them within the Union in compensation for his treatment of their sister. Nothing was more easily recognised than the payments of personal debts with political plums, and they were already founder members of the Union and Grigori a cell leader. Neither could he drum them from the fledgling organisation without running the risk that they might rally the other founder members and succeed, in turn, driving him out into the political wilderness where he would be suspected by comrades and the police alike. There seemed to be no alternative but to foreswear his liaisons and hope that, in time, the brothers would forgive him. In the meantime, he would have to keep a watchful eye on both of them. He became silent in their company; so much so that they began to be concerned about his health. As fate would have it, their first betrayal had not come from Alexandra’s brothers, but indirectly from the rat Shrentzel.

Shrentzel! The very memory of his name made him grimace. With hindsight he had realised that it had been foolish to suspect Grigory or Illya. They had spent so much time together that he could have accounted for their movements at most times of the day or night. Besides, in such young faces, the merest dissembling would have pronounced their guilt. But a little rat like Shrentzel, what was he? More importantly, who was he? Merely a courier, scuttling between one of their cells and their headquarters; and of course, the local Okhrana contact.

How amateur it had all been! When he thought of the cells, each containing at least twenty people, he felt ashamed. They were far too large; too much like bunches of swollen ripe berries shouting out to the authorities, “Pick us! Pick us!” If he had to start all over again, he would make each cell a quarter of the size, with a maximum strength of six members. Yet, given the time, and the place, and as poor in resources as they were, the South Russia Workers Union had been the only centre of organised revolutionary activity for thousands of versts and had claimed several successes, filling factories with revolutionary propaganda and pillorying local capitalists in its broadsheets. Until then the O had stayed its hand, perhaps incredulous that this agitation had come from such a bunch of idealistic pups.

Thinking now about the Shrentzel affair, Trotsky admitted that Nicolai had been correct: revolution followed laws of its own as much as did physics or chemistry. The organisation of illegal activities necessarily required clandestine conspiracy. Just as logically, it followed that once a conspiracy had been formed, the opposition would seek to infiltrate this conspiracy and so the problem of identification of traitors would inevitably arise.

Once Shrentzel had been identified without doubt as being a police spy he was given only the most innocuous of material to deliver while the five leaders of the union debated what to do with him. After several unhappy and protracted discussions they had narrowed their choices down to four options. They could obtain a photograph of Shrentzel and publish it anonymously, branding him as a police spy, thus ensuring that he found no further work or support in the area. They could send him on the most important run of all, taking what he thought was secret material downriver on the night packet to Odessa, during which he would be beaten up and thrown overboard; ostensibly the hapless victim of a drunken brawl. They could use him to play a double game with the O and feed them back false information which would eventually alert the secret police that their informer had been blown. And, of course, they could put him on trial and execute him. What they could not do was to ignore the threat that he posed.

It had become the greatest test of his leadership of the union and, like all leaders before him, he had discovered that he had to find the answer alone. For two days and nights he had turned the problem over in his mind, rejecting one solution as too ineffectual, another as too drastic. After all, they were communists, not gangsters. On the third day, he had sent messages to Ziv, Alexandra, Illya and Grigori telling them to meet at the rooms of Mukhin, an old comrade they could trust. Shrentzel would also be summoned there, under the pretext of receiving another parcel of pamphlets, and his problem resolved. More than that, he would not tell them; only to Mukhin did he reveal his true intentions.