During the 1917 Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky acted as a key lieutenant to Vladimir Lenin. Trotsky organized the Red Army and successfully resisted all attempts to overthrow the fledgling Communist government.

One of Trotsky’s bitterest enemies was Joseph Stalin, another intimate of Lenin’s. When Lenin died in 1924, Stalin outmaneuvered Trotsky for leadership of the Soviet Union.

Long before he ordered Trotsky’s assassination in 1940, Stalin turned his former rival into an official non-person. Trotsky was:

• Airbrushed from photos showing him sitting or standing close to Lenin;
• Written out of Soviet history textbooks;
• Depicted in print and documentary films as seeking to overturn the Revolution—and assassinate Stalin.

Leon Trotsky

Stalin made certain his image in Soviet history was entirely different.

• In the 1930s, he was portrayed as the modest, all-wise, energetic builder of a new Communist world.
• After 1945, he was depicted as the architect of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War II.

No “historian” dared mention that:

• For almost 30 years, through purges and starvation caused by enforced collections of farmers’ crops, he had slaughtered 20 to 60 million people;
• His wholesale purges of the Red Army in the 1930s had made the country vulnerable to the German attack in 1941;
• His 1939 “nonaggression” pact with Adolf Hitler secretly divided Poland between them—and brought German troops literally to the Russian border. 

Joseph Stalin

After Stalin died on March 5, 1953, his status in Soviet history drastically changed.

• Thousands of his portraits—displayed on streets and in buildings throughout the Soviet Union—suddenly came down;
• In 1956, his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, secretly denounced him as a psychotic butcher and bungler who had almost wrecked the country.

So those Americans with a sense of history were undoubtedly stunned to learn that Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy plans to airbrush the two impeachments against former President Donald J. Trump. 

In June, McCarthy had suggested on nationwide television that Trump might not be the best GOP Presidential candidate in 2024.

And Trump was furious: “He needs to endorse me—today!” Trump fumed to his staff on his way to a campaign event in New Hampshire.

But McCarthy wasn’t ready to do that.

He was, however, ready to secretly promise that the House would vote to expunge the two impeachments against the former president.   

Kevin McCarthy

The first of these had occurred on December 10, 2019.

Democratic leaders in the House voted to send two Articles of Impeachment to the House Judiciary Committee.

Their purpose: To remove Donald J. Trump from office as the 45th President of the United States.

Article 1: Abuse of Power: For pressuring Ukraine to assist him in his re-election campaign by damaging former Vice President Joe Biden, his possible Democratic rival.

Article 2: Obstruction of Congress: For obstructing Congress by blocking testimony and refusing to provide documents in response to House subpoenas in the impeachment inquiry.

On February 5, 2020, Trump was acquitted on both counts by the Senate, as Republicans refused to convict.   

The second impeachment occurred on January 11, 2021, one week before his term expired. This time there was only one article filed: 

Article 1: Incitement of Insurrection: “Donald John Trump engaged in high Crimes and Misdemeanors by inciting violence against the Government of the United States.”   

The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump started on February 9, 2021. On February 13, he was once again acquitted because Republicans refused to convict him.

Donald Trump

McCarthy’s promise to expunge the two impeachments against Trump bought him time. It allowed him to avoid a public war with Trump, who had ensured he became House Speaker in January. 

But it also put him on a collision course with moderate Republicans and Trump’s fanatical supporters.

Some moderate Republicans don’t want to revisit Trump’s impeachments. For them, the Trump era is ancient history. And they realize that, for millions of Americans, it’s toxic history as well.

Nor are they the only ones who hold such reservations. Some Constitutionally-minded conservatives doubt that the House has the Constitutional authority to erase a presidential impeachment. 

And even some hardcore Trump supporters fear that if the expungement effort fails, the media will treat it as the equivalent of a third impeachment.

But McCarthy remains Speaker by only the thinnest of margins. If—by refusing Trump’s order—he alienates the Trumpian majority in the House, he won’t be Speaker for long.

House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) has pushed for an expungement vote. In late June, she and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) pushed a resolution to clear Trump of the impeachment charges. 

So if McCarthy puts the resolution to the floor for a party-wide vote, most Republicans will sign on to avoid a public attack from Trump.

As a result, Americans may soon have cause to remember a once-popular joke among Russians: “The trouble with writing history in the Soviet Union is you never know what’s going to happen yesterday.”