Letter from Leon Trotsky to the students of Edinburgh University, 7 June 1935
In 1935 Leon Trotsky was invited by Edinburgh University students to become a candidate in the Rectorial election that year.
The letter, in French, is addressed to 'Aux Etudiants de l'Universite de Edimbourg', and begins 'Chers Messieurs, Je vous suis bien reconnaissant pour votre proposition si innatendue et si flatteuse: de poser ma candidature pour le Rectorat de votre Universite...' The letter is dated 'le 7 juin 1935', and was sent to Mr. R. N. Levitt, Edinburgh.
The gist of the letter is that Trotsky was unable to accept the invitation to stand in the election. His own translation of the letter is as follows:
I am very grateful to you for your unexpected and flattering proposal to enter my candidacy for the office of Lord Rector of the University of Edinburgh. The freedom from nationalistic considerations which is revealed in this offer does great honour to the spirit of the Edinburgh students. I appreciate your confidence all the more since, in your own words, you are not daunted by the refusal of the British Government to grant me a visa. However, I do not consider myself entitled to accept your offer. The election of the Lord Rector takes place, as you say, on an apolitical basis, and your letter is signed by representatives of all shades of political opinion. But I myself occupy too definite a political position: all my active life since my youth has been devoted to the revolutionary liberation of the proletariat from the yoke of capital. I have no other claim to occupy any responsible position, I would thus consider it treasonable to the working class and disloyal to you to appear in any public sphere under any but the Bolshevik banner. I do not doubt that you will find a candidate much better suited to the traditions of your university. I wish you success in your enterprises with all my heart and remain gratefully.
The letter is signed with a flourished though faded 'L. Trotsky'.
Sources
Trotsky’s Diary in Exile, 1935 (Faber & Faber, 1958)