Product Description
Autobiographical account by a leader of the October 1917 Russian revolution, the Soviet Red Army, and the battle initiated by Lenin against the Stalinist bureaucracy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Leaves you wihing you were there!
My Life is a fascinating book. I was most attracted to the style in which Trotsky took responsibity for his mistakes. He didn't try to blame others for what happened at Kronstadt. My Life is a wonderful show of a great and bizarre life. Since the McCarthy era, it has become fashionable to slander revolutionaries or look for "Physcological" motives. My Life is written from a bias, but it certainly has none of taint of an author who tries to discredit someone smarter than them. My Life also show Trotsky as a complete person- bound by unbreakable ties to an idea. My Life is written as many different things- half autobiography and half history of the revolution. The only thing I found bad about My Life is how absorbed it is in its time. My Life is entertaining and readable, and includes some rather funny incidents- like Trotsky naming his socks after Soviet leaders. The only fault is that My Life requires a basic understanding of events to be fully understood. For instance, if you haven't the foggiest what permenant revolution is, you may need to find out. My Life is idea-based, and challenges readers to discover those ideas- and then to do something about them. Buy the book-it is worth a $1,000

The Making of a Revolutionary
Today we expect ourpolitical memoir writers to take part in a game of show and tell about the most intimate details of their private personal lives on their road to celebrity. Refreshingly, you will find no such tantalizing details in Russian Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky's memoir written in 1930 just after Stalin had exiled him to Turkey. Instead you will find a thoughtful political self-examination by a man trying to draw the lessons of his fall from power in order to set his future political agenda. This task is in accord with his stated conception of his role as an individual agent at service in the historical struggle toward a socialist future. Thus, underlying the selection of events highlighted in the memoir such as the rise of the revolutionary wave in Russia in 1905 and 1917, the devastation to the socialist program of World War I and the degeneration of the Russian Revolution especially after Lenin's death and the failure of the German Revolution of 1923 is a sense of urgency about the need for continued struggle for a socialist future. It also provides a platform as well for polemics against those foes and former supporters who have either abandoned or betrayed that struggle.

At the beginning of the 21st century when socialist political programs are in decline it is hard to imagine the spirit that drove Trotsky to dedicate his whole life to the fight for a socialist society. However, at the beginning of the 20th century he represented only the most consistent and audacious of a revolutionary generation of Eastern Europeans and Russians who set out to change the history of the 20th century. It was as if the best and brightest of that generation were afraid, for better or worse, not to take part in the revolutionary political struggles that would shape the modern world. As Trotsky notes this element was lacking, with the exceptions of Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and precious few others, in the Western labor movement. Trotsky using his own experiences tells the story of the creation of this revolutionary cadre with care and generally proper proportions.

Many of the events such as the disputes within the Russian revolutionary movement, the attempts by the Western Powers to overthrow the Bolsheviks in the Civil War after their seizure of power and the struggle of the various tendencies inside the Russian Communist Party and in the Communist International discussed in the book may not be familiar to today's audience. Nevertheless one can still learn something from the strength of Trotsky's commitment to his cause and the fight to preserve his personal and political integrity against overwhelming odds.As the organizer of the October Revolution, creator of the Red Army in the Civil War, orator, writer and fighter Trotsky he was one of the most feared men of the early 20thcentury to friend and foe alike.Nevertheless, I do not believe that he took his personal fall from power as a world historic tragedy. Moreover, he does not gloss over his political mistakes. While one would not want to be on the receiving end of his rapier tongue neither does he generally do personal injustice to his various political opponents.Politicians, revolutionary or otherwise, in our times should take note.

Politics drives this brilliant autobiography

This is many books in one. A fine autobiography from a literary point of view, a historical document with brilliant insights into the time period and major players, and, most important, a rich and sustained polemic in favor of a life of commitment to revolutionary, working class politics. Trotsky dedicated his later life to keeping alive the continuity of Lenin and the Russian Revolution, and what a fascinating, courageous life it was, full of prison, exile, escape, insurrection, and more exile. Trotsky was an inspiring man of action, one of two or three figures who matter most to the working class. The politics of the working class struggle for total human emancipation is the piston that drives both the man and his autobiography.If not available from Amazon, booksfrompathfinder will have it. Click on "New and Used" near the top of the page.

Life is Beautiful when you fight to change the world!
The phrase "Life is Beautiful" in the Italian film came from Leon Trotkys's last testament. It was written in exile in Mexico.At the time Trotsky's friends, family, and comrades were being harassed, slandered and murdered by Stalin, when he himself faced imminent assasination. He also faced death from the growing illnesses that had slowed him. Yet, in his testament he proclaimed that life is beautiful. Life must be cleansed of the evil and garbage Capitalism and Stalinism have left to this world.

Read this book and you will see how Trotsky's life became valuable for him because he decided to fight oppression, decided to learn about the world to fight, and never stopped fighting. Maybe your life can be beautiful if you read this book, and decide to fight like Trotsky did.

The introduction by the late Joseph Hansen Trotsky's secretary in Mexico is worth the price of the book. Joe explains how the household and work center in Mexico functioned, about how Trotsky valued hard work, but also valued celebrating comrades birthdays, hobbies like raising rabbits, trips to sites of Mexican history. Reading this also tells you how Joe organized the staff at World Outlook/ Intercontinental Press, working with him was one of the great privileges of my life.

In these pages and memoirs of Trotsky by Joe, George Novack, Farrell Dobbs, and other comrades who knew Trotskty, you could find how serious Trotsky enjoyed and embraced life. In Turkey if he wanted to go fishing, he went to sea with Turkish fishers in their trawlers. If he wanted to raise rabbits as a hobby, he soon was taking care of something bordered on a commercial rabbit farm.Both in valuing work--chained to his desk was the term Trotsky passed down--and valuing parties and celebrations of new people coming onto the staff and leaving, Trotsky made his life beautiful.

Read this book, valued as much as a literary work as a political statement, and learn how you can make your life beautiful.

Against mystification.
When I decided to write this review, I had to choose between the various reasons why it's so beautiful and important. But, above all, I think that, in a world where the necessity of Marxist was supposedly to be more deeply felt than ever, what repels most people that would be liable to lend an ear to it is the repelling Stalinist mythology of the revolutionary as the relentless, ruthless, single-minded, google-eyed fanatical. Trotsky, on the contrary begins by assessing that, although his life was out of the ordinary, he neverthless remained a men with a penchant for a well-ordered ordinary life; that he found pleasure in seeing a well-ordered table or a well-kept fence; that he didn't becomne a revolutionary out of a feeling of opression, but because of being faced with a life that, although prosperous, offered him nothing but grey drudgery and no opprtunity for individual achievement; that he, like all revolutionaries, was a man like any other. I think that would be reason enough to commend this modern classic to the reader of today, outside from the wonderful style, the importance of the events narrated and so much else. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

The Making of a Revolutionary
Today we expect political memoir writers to take part in a game of show and tell about the most intimate details of their private personal lives on their road to celebrity. Refreshingly, you will find no such tantalizing details in Russian Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky's memoir written in 1930 just after Stalin had exiled him to Turkey. Instead you will find a thoughtful political self-examination by a man trying to draw the lessons of his fall from power in order to set his future political agenda. This task is in accord with his stated conception of his role as an individual agent at service in the historical struggle toward a socialist future. Thus, underlying the selection of events highlighted in the memoir such as the rise of the revolutionary wave in Russia in 1905 and 1917, the devastation to the socialist program of World War I and the degeneration of the Russian Revolution especially after Lenin's death and the failure of the German Revolution of 1923 is a sense of urgency about the need for continued struggle for a socialist future. It also provides a platform as well for polemics against those foes and former supporters who have either abandoned or betrayed that struggle.

At the beginning of the 21st century when socialist political programs are in decline it is hard to imagine the spirit that drove Trotsky to dedicate his whole life to the fight for a socialist society. However, at the beginning of the 20th century he represented only the most consistent and audacious of a revolutionary generation of Eastern Europeans and Russians who set out to change the history of the 20th century. It was as if the best and brightest of that generation were afraid, for better or worse, not to take part in the political struggles that would shape the modern world. As Trotsky notes this element was lacking, with the exceptions of Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and precious few others, in the Western labor movement. Trotsky using his own experiences tells the story of the creation of this revolutionary cadre with care and generally proper proportions.

Many of the events such as the disputes within the Russian revolutionary movement, the attempts by the Western Powers to overthrow the Bolsheviks in the Civil War after their seizure of power and the struggle of the various tendencies inside the Russian Communist Party and in the Communist International discussed in the book may not be familiar to today's audience. Nevertheless one can still learn something from the strength of Trotsky's commitment to his cause and the fight to preserve his personal and political integrity against overwhelming odds.As the organizer of the October Revolution, creator of the Red Army in the Civil War, orator, writer and fighter Trotsky he was one of the most feared men of the early 20thcentury to friend and foe alike.Nevertheless, I do not believe that he took his personal fall from power as a world historic tragedy. Moreover, he does not gloss over his political mistakes.Nordoes he generally do personal injustice to his various political opponents although I would not want to have been subject to his rapier wit and pen.Politicians, revolutionary or otherwise, in our times should take note.
... Read more

Book Description
This book by Leon Trotsky makes a profound analysis and evaluation of Stalinism and the Soviet burreacracy.It was written in 1936 before Trotsky was murdered in Mexico by Stalin's secret police.Trotsky's thinking prophesied the collapse of the Soviet Union 60 years before it happened.This collapse was instigated by the buffon and drunk Boris Yeltsin as his leadership has led to the 'new oligarchy' in Russia.Trotsky was a very important leader in the October Revolution and it is thought that Lenin wanted him to take the leadership rather than the tyrant Stalin.This book is very impotant reading to everyone interest in Marxist theory and the history of Russia.A Collector's Edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Worthwhile for the insights for people with open minds, and revolutionaries too
I decided I wanted to explore Trotsky. I began by reading Isaac Duetscher's Prophet Armed, and then this book. In my distant past I read about the Revolution mainly through the eyes Anarchists (Emma Goldman among them), Rosa Luxembourg, and atMaknho (spelling?), and have alsoread a little Lenin (such as State and Revolution) for a political science college course, a long time ago.My guess and my rough experience is disciplined revolutionary elites must be filled with cadres who are focused and narrow and can bring great danger because they are eager to follow and very often do not reflect. A great movement is apt to commit acts as bad as many of the ones they fight. Revolutions and wars more often than not bring terrible things to and from all sides.

I sympathize with the 1917 Russian Revolution. The orders of the day, from the Czars to the Robber Barons were unjust, not free, not equal. For the majority of people, ordidnary people who worked for a living,racial and ethnic minorities (in particular ways) throughout the world, and women have not enjoyed freedom and democracy. This is more sharpley true if we go back to 1917, and examine the world as it was then. To be sure, freedom and democracy, declared as the foundations of many countries, were never more than formal or were facades, more a decoration than a reality anywhere.So imagine having a revolution for the lower class, the proletariat, and having it be Interantionalist and universal.

That is what happened in Russia, it was the first workers republic that existed for any longer than a few weeks or months. From this book and the earlier book, things did not happen well at all. These Revolutionaries had an opportunity and they took it, and this book tells the story very well of what then happened.I can gather from the whole of it that it was not quite the right place or time for it to be a good revolution. Trotsky's belief is that Socialism requires the abundance of production of the most productive Capitalist country's, so there is enough for the abundance to go around for everyone. It was also true that ounce this abundance and socialism was achieved, 'the State would begin to wilt away'.Classes are empowered by limited resources. People want to be on top where there is great need. When Socialism is achieved, authority, the police and strong armed methods of running things would not be needed because there was no one on top who had to be protected from the people below who had much less than they needed. (Just as Trotksy was proclaiming this wonderful world of human production and abundance, I immediately reflected about the limitations nature puts on us if we are not to destroy our world, but that is not a subject very many were thinking about in 1936. Back to the book Russia was not close in anyway to where such Socialism or the Revolution could succeed, and never by itself. However, it was the right place to have something different that can survive, being so huge and having the physcical attributes that buried Napoleon's army and would bury Hitler's as well. This gets to the core of Trotsky's theory of the Permanent Revolution. If the Revolution to succeed, or one that is worthy, It requires revolutions in at least some of the highest developed abundant Capitalist countries by the working class to achieve socialism, and aid poor Russia in it's development out of the pit and toward socialism.

Getting back to the beginning of the Revolution. Trotsky, the devoted Revolutionary, at this point was willing to commit some brutal acts, but not more brutal than most other welders of power under similar circmstances all over the world. It appears later, still as one of the major leaders, he fought hard and vocally for better things until he was driven out of power and into exile, and continued until he was assasinated 11 years later. I think this was in keeping with whom Trotsky the man was. He was reflective and critical, and he was for a revolution for the sake of all humanity. He was against Totalitarianism and reducing art and literature to be an instrument of Regime. he was insightful enough to recognize how a priveleged bureaucracy where industry was state owned,(but where there was a great lack of abundanceand a great amount for the priveleged to have to protect) became a ruthless ruling class.

One thing I recognized about the Revolution Betrayed is how it can in fact be taken more than one way. I can read between the lines how conservativesupporters of the Capitalist ruling class could and did use Trotksy's very perceptive ideas for their own purposes. However Trotsky was a revolutionary Communist and he wrote in defense of Communists and the Communist revolution, and he was writing in favor ofCommunists such as his friend Lenin.Lenin was a very interesting man, whom I cannot judge because have not read enough of or about him. I do understand, to use an metaphor of this book, that Lenin was not like Stalin, he was not the Bonapartist face of a bureaucratic class sponsored totalitarian dictactorship. Whatever hope there is the honor and future of Communism, maybe springs from this book, which is a defense of the Communist Revolution and a comdemnation of Stalinism Totalitarianism by one of the great Communists. Maybe it stands like Atlas in keeping it from being obliterated.

In closing, I cannot descibe myself as a Trotskist or any other kind of
-IST, I do appreciate the man, but I am not going to make him into an idol to be worshipped. I also realize he was a man of war, he had a tough side.This is a very educating and worthwhile book, and I look forward to reading some more of his books. One negative, I don't know if the translator is to blame, but his style of writing is sometimes a little difficult, and I found myself having to read carefully, sometimes rereading a confusing expressed phrase to understand what he was writing.

Trotsky and E.H. Carr
If one wants to understand contemporary world politics then one ought to read this book.The Russian Revolution WAS and IS the most important event of the 20th century. Trotsky, the consumate Marxist, explains to us the whole story from the inside ---looking out. I might add that as a companion to Trotsky's works one should read the British historian E.H. Carr'sHistory of the Russian Revolution. Carr was no Marxist but gives us as a view of the revolution from the outside--- looking in.
ET Seattle

A revolutionary retrospective
A reader of 'The Revolution Betrayed' will find invaluable insight into the 'intellectual response' of a leading Soviet politician. Trotsky was a very important contributor to the theoretical idiom which frames the 'conceptual creation' of the USSR. He had a part to play in many critical phases of the October Revolution and Civil War, organizing and propagandizing, enforcing harsh discipline and imposing his theoretical brand of Marxism on the Soviet State. His distinguished position in Lenin's party is beyond debate. Reading this text gives the reader a deeper analytical impression into the changes and transformations that occurred in the highest echelons of the Soviet bureaucracy, as Stalin began to accrue power. Indispensable reading for anybody with an interest in Russia history.

Revolutions revisited
In my humble opinion, Trotsky's "Revolution Betrayed" is the best analysis of not only the Russian revolution, but revolutions in general. I have studied revolutions in the modern world quite extensively, and re-reading this book at this particular time in history was a true eye-opener - again. To be simplistic, revolutions do not provide lasting success when nothing is to be gained.Those who rise against existing power expect to be rewarded, not with poverty, but with a certain degree of wealth and privilege. If there is nothing to be distributed, then what is the use in fighting?Stalin unfortunately stepped in at the right place, at the right time. Not good for the outcome of that revolution, not good for socialism, but good for Stalin's kind of power.

A few years ago I visited Komsomolsk, Stalin's "Youth" city. It was decaying, a pitiful sight to behold. Buildings on ultra-wide neglected avenues in need of repair, high weeds everywhere, crime uncontrolled. Power gone bad?

Stalin and his compulsive bureaucracy were feared all over Europe. Blessed with clear early childhood memories that include the conversation of adults, I vividly remember my grandmother's fear of Stalin discussed with friends and family members.They witnessed the rise of this awful bureaucracy next door, word of the killings and the horrible brutality didn't just dribble out, it flowed out. I want to say thatthe Stalinist bureaucracy is unique, but all bureaucracies are designed to increase continuously and feed of themselves, and exist everywhere in the world. And people flock to them for employment, protection, security, in great masses, because bureaucracies deliver security. And if people do not fly into bureaucratic arms directly, they deal with them on a daily basis. There is no getting away from that apparatus of suffocation, nowhere.

Bureaucracy does not have to be bad, and Trotsky dwells on the need for leadership from within the workers, the suppressed, creating a bureaucracy that is just and fair.Is that ever possible? I believe that capitalism and bureaucracy are a contradiction, and unless corruption reigns, they cannot coexist. What comes next?

Trotsky's book raises more questions than it answers, but I am sure it was written for that purpose as well as enlightening the scholar of his interpretation of a betrayed revolution. And where do we go from here?

Trotsky: Mass Murderer and Liar
You know, I hate to burst the bubble of devoted Trotskyites across the globe, but Trotsky was just as responsible for Stalin's rule as anyone. For Leon to blame Stalin is the height of hypocrisy. Without Lenin's apparatus of social repression and Trotsky's apparatus of military dictatorship, Stalin would never have been.
The Russian Revolution was never a win for workers. It destroyed them, some 4 million at Lenin's hands, 30 million by Stalin, and 65 million by Mao Tse-tung.

No policy or ideology that denies the soul can ever succeed. And communism does just that. By denying that which makes humans humans, it can bring only suffering. ... Read more

Book Description
The propertied classes have always laid the charge of "terrorism" on those leading the struggle against exploitation and oppression. But it has been the terror of the capitalist rulers against which an outraged majority eventually rises. Trotsky explains why the working class is the only social force capable of leading the toiling majority in overthrowing the capitalist exploiters and beginning the construction of a new society and why individual terrorism--whatever its intention--relegates the workers to the role of spectators and opens the workers movement to provocation and victimization.

Also available in: Farsi ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Leon Trotsky:Marxism and Terrorism
In "Marxism and Terrorism," Trotsky disparages people (mostly Anarchists) who seek to bring about the revolution prematurely by staging acts of "terrorism" such as assassinations of factory-owning capitalists and local politicians, or the bombing of factories.He says that such actions only move public opinion in favor of the capitalists, while the assassinated persons are easily and quickly replaced, and the oppressive social system itself remains largely unaffected.In Trotsky's own words, here is the situation which follows from an overt terrorist attack by an angry member of the working class: "The smoke from the explosion clears away, the successor of the murdered minister makes his appearance, life again settles into the old rut, the wheel of capitalist exploitation turns as before; only police repression grows more savage and brazen" (p. 10).Trotsky's perspective--which is also, in this case, Marx's--is that history is inevitably moving toward communism all on its own.The more the workers are exploited, the greater will be the number of people who side with them.Eventually, according to Marx and Trotsky, worker exploitation will become so bad that a critical mass of the people will see the "true face" of the for-profit economic system, and will take over the state in order to put in place a different economic system where everyone has ownership.Trying to speed up this inevitable historical occurrence by staging small-scale terrorist attacks is not just ineffective, but actually counterproductive, says Trotsky.

Probably the most striking thing about these writings, for me, was the realization of just how badly original Marxist thought has been distorted by the Latin American revolutionaries, beginning with Castro and Guevara.When you read this, it's almost as if Trotsky is speaking out directly *against* these groups, albeit 40+ years before they ever came to exist!The Latin American theory of GPP ("Prolonged Popular War") and Guevara's theory of FOCO warfare were both built on the idea that a tiny group of determined Marxist individuals can successfully foment a revolution.How?By taking to the countryside and staging hit-and-run attacks on government outposts (which is in fact exactly what was done by Castro's Cuban rebels).But such attacks almost perfectly fit Trotsky's definition of "terrorism," which as already noted he thought to be entirely counterproductive.

In a single twenty minute sitting, this tiny volume really helped to consolidate all that I've learned about Marx and Marxism over the past couple of months.I *highly* recommend it as a starting point for the student of history who is interested in understanding Marxism (which every student of history should be).It may be the best $3.50 I've ever spent on a book!

Edited to add: another book you should check out for concise exposition of radical political theories such as socialism and anarchism is The Great Political Theories, Vol. 2, by Michael Curtis.It's succinct and it's only $7.99 on Amazon.It's also considered somewhat of a classic for introducing undergraduate students to political philosophy.And a free online resource that is great for introducing Anarchism is the Anarchist FAQ (just google "Anarchist FAQ" and you'll see it, it's published by over a hundred different websites).

A good case for the left opposition
Title is misleading.Trotsky tries to point out how the state reacts to individual terrorism (political assasinations).His condemnation of terrorism by both the state and those who call themselves from the left is a wonderful reader.

Their hypocrisy on terrorism
Most people are concerned with finding eternal truths. Certainly preservation of the only form of intelligent life we know of is a noble aim, in other words the survival of our species. Yet something horrible happened in human history about six thousand years ago, and we became "a house divided against ourselves." And as long as society remains unjust, rebels who fight for freedom and equality will be defending ourselves against slanders of violence. Real revolutionaries abhor and denounce indiscriminant terrorism, because it is both immoral and counterproductive. September 11, 2001, was a classic case in point. Even though the choice of targets laid bare the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as monuments to ruthless avarice and violence, such acts do nothing whatsoever to unite or mobilize the exploited in their own liberation. But they DO however immediately mobilize the exploiters to deepen oppression and violence: Kabul was bombed that same night, and both Afghanistan and Iraq were devastated by wars, and the White House frantically scours for its next target. Trotsky denounced the grotesque hypocrisy of those who sermonize pacifism to the exploited while managing to not notice that the wealthy employ us to kill each other to protect their ownership of resources and manufacturing. Consider this book as a companion to Trotsky's pamphlet, Marxism and Terrorism, with a cogent explanation on why individual terrorism relegates workers to the role of spectators while opening their movement to provocation and victimization.

Howto fight oppression and dictatorship
This collection of articles by Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky is an important contribution to the discussion on how to fight against an inhumane and brutal ruling order. It discusses the social roots of terrorism, and argues strongly that it is an obstacle to developing the organized leadership necessary for millions of toilers to take destiny in their own hands and transform society for the good of all humanity. Trotsky bases his observations on the long history of terror in Czarist Russia, and counterposes it to the successful mass revolutionary struggle led by the Bolsheviks that did topple the Czarist regime, established a workers and peasants government and overthrow capitalism.

This pamphlet also includes two articles from the 1930s. One explains why Trotsky and other revolutionary opponents of the Stalinist dictatorship that developed in the Soviet Union did not resort to terror. Another discusses Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish youth who assassinated a Nazi official in Paris in 1938.Trotsky identifies with the emotions that led to Grynzspanýs act and calls for workers protests to stop the French government from executing him. But he argues ýto all those capable of self-sacrifice in the struggle against despotism and bestiality: Seek another road! Not the lone revolutionary avenger but only a great revolutionary mass movement can free the oppressed.ý

Other valuable writings by Trotsky on this question include:ýHow the Workers in Austria Should Fight Hitler,ý ýIndividual Terror and Mass Terror,ý and ýA Revolutionary, not a Terroristý all from Writings of Leon Trotsky, 1935-36. See also, Their Morals and Ours and History of the Russian Revolution, by Trotsky, and The Changing Face of U.S. Politics, by Jack Barnes.

The bankruptcy of terrorism
... This collection of essays by one of the leading revolutionaries of the 20th century provides a much-needed critical perspective on terrorism.Not from a moralizing point of view, but to show that by relying on individual ýheroicý acts of violence like assassinations of government leaders, terrorist tactics ignore and devalue the masses of people as the most important agent of their own liberation.Though his examples are drawn from Hapsburg Austria, Tsarist Russia and Nazi Germany, when you read his words, you can easily see the relevance to liberation struggles taking place today from Palestine to Ireland to the Philippines.I especially like the way that Trotsky sympathizes with the hatred of the gross injustice that breeds terrorism, but at the same time explains that individual terrorist tactics are doomed to fail. ... Read more

Book Description
Writing in the heat of struggle against the rise of fascism in Germany, France, and Spain in the 1930s, communist leader Leon Trotsky examines the class origins and character of fascist movements. Building on foundations laid by the Communist International in Lenin's time, Trotsky advances a working-class strategy to combat and defeat this malignant danger. (pamphlet)

Also available in: French ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Fascism: yesterday and today
Is fascism some type of irrational mass hysteria?Leon Trotsky argues no.The rise to power of Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco was a result of the regular workings of the capitalist system and the failure of the workers and farmers of their countries to wage an effective fight to replace it.Trotsky, a leader of the Russian revolution who was exiled, and later murdered by Joseph Stalin, denounces the failure of both the class-collaborationist Social Democracy and the sectarian and corrupt Communist Party to rise to the task.
Trotsky de-mystifies the hold that fascist ideology gained over masses of desperate middle-class elements in these countries, and the decisive support given to these movements by the biggest capitalists of their time.And he demonstrates how fascism can be fought by an effective revolutionary leadership, and how the continuing rule of capital will inevitably create similar fascist menaces as long as it exists.

Written for the battleground
Trotsky collected the materials in this pamphlet and had them published under this title in the 1930s when the struggle with Fascism was raging around the world. There is a great modern introduction, and footnotes to make the current reader familiar.This was not written for academics, historians, or critics, but as a tool for workers to fight Fascism in the streets, in the plants, and in battle. This tool we need now. Too many people are disoriented by the idea that Fascism is some strange product of history. Trotsky shows what is becoming all too obvious in so many countries today, that Fascism is a permanent threat as long as capitalists and workers struggle.

While Amazon may say this book is not available from time to time, it is always available from Pathfinder's Amazon z-shop which you can reach by clicking on new and used at the time of this web page.

Not About The Past:About The Present And Future
One of the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky's greatest contributions to the modern labor movement is this hot little pamphlet.He explains that fascist mass movements are thugs and terrorists organized to be last ditch defense line for the profiteers as their system implodes. These movements are being built in embryo in US ( Patrick Buchanan) and all big capitalist powers except Japan ( for now). As the Yankee Empire marches towards war and sweeping blows to democratic rights, if you oppose this hypocritical march toward barbarism and world war and want to do something serious about it, you'd better buy and read this pamphlet.

Trotsky's writings through the filter of Pathfinder
"Fascism, what it is and how to fight it" is presented as a work by Leon Trotsky, but is in fact an assemblage of excerpts from various of Trotsky's writings, collected and ordered by Sara Lobman and printed by the Pathfinder Press.The original source for each passage is cited in a footnote.Other footnotes, apparently written by Ms. Lobman to make Trotsky's references more familiar, give historically useful facts such as "The Jacobins were the revolutionary petty-bourgeois forces in the French Revolution of 1789."As a short introduction to Trotsky's thought, it can serve its purpose provided one is already versed in Marxist rhetoric.

The best book on anti-fascism!
I thought that this was a great book because it gets into the heart of fascism and tells you how to fight against it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Trotsky way ahead of his time on question of racism
When the great Black revolutionary leader Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam in 1964, he stated that he and his followers were ready to join hands with anyone, no matter what their skin color, to rid the earth of the miserable system of oppression and exploitation that had kept Black people down.The Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialist Alliance, known then as Trotskyists, were eager to do so.Whereas the Trotskyists appreciated Malcolm's politics and publicized his speeches in the Militant newspaper and later through Pathfinder Press, the Stalinized Communist Party was hostile to Black nationalism.This book does a great job of showing how Trotsky helped lead his supporters in the US to a proper appreciation of the importance of viewing Blacks as an oppressed nation within the US.In the 1930s, the largely white and better-paid workers in the Socialist Workers Party found it difficult to see clearly how important the question of the oppression of Blacks was.They tended to assume that once capitalism was overthrown, racism would just fade away. It took Bolshevik leaders from thousands of miles away to set them on the right course.Trotsky argued that Blacks had to decide for themselves what their destiny would be as an oppressed nation, just as the Bolsheviks supported the right of oppressed peoples within former Czarist Russia to self-determination. As the result of conversations between US revolutionaries and Trotsky, when Malcolm X came along, over twenty years later, these revolutionaries were ready to join hands with him.

A Historical View of Marxism & the Fight against Racism
"We can and we must find a way to the consciousness of the Negro workers, the Chinese workers, the Indian workers and all the oppressed in the human ocean of the colored races to whom belongs the decisive work in the development of mankind."- Leon Trotsky, June, 1932.
This book is the record of meetings that Trotsky, leader of the opposition to Joseph Stalin, held in exile in Turkey and Mexico with his followers. Their purpose was to hammer out a Marxist position on the struggle for Black liberation in the U.S. and to campaign against the racism that divided the working class.
Readers of this book can gain an understanding of the historical depth of Black oppression, and how an alliance of white and Black workers can be won. Trotsky was in agreement with Lenin on the defense of the right of oppressed nations to self-determination.

Trotsky predicts role of Black worker
This book from the 1930s pierces right to the heart of American politics today. In these discussions with communists active in the labor movement, Trotsky defended the ideas of Black nationalism long before they were understood by American political activists. Trotsky emphasized that for good reason many Black workers saw white workers as part of the system of oppression.Communists-white and Black-must be in the front ranks of the fight for Black rights, up to and including support for a Black party that fights for an independent Black nation. He pointed out that an independent Black nation is not a threat to workers who are white-- it is a threat to the common enemy, imperialism. His language is quite strong on this point. He said that no worker who fears or shrinks from the Black fight for self-determination can rightly call him or herself a communist. In the late 1930s, Trotsky predicted the vanguard role of Black workers and the emergence of leaders of the caliber of Malcolm X. If not available from Amazon, booksfrompathfinder will have it. Click on "new and used" near the top of the page. ... Read more

Book Description
Few political figures of the twentieth century have aroused as much controversy as the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Trotsky's extraordinary life and extensive writings have left an indelible mark on revolutionary conscience, yet there was a danger that his name would disappear from history. Originally published in 1954, Deutscher's magisterial three-volume biography was the first major publication to counter the powerful Stalinist propaganda machine. In this definitive biography Trotsky emerges in his real stature, as the most heroic, and ultimately tragic, character of the Russian Revolution. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

a sweeping, penetrating masterpiece
This last of 3 volumes in Deutscher's biography caps an astonishing and captivating historiographical achievement. Deutscher weaves together character study, drama, and historical narrative to give an authoritative account of Trotsky's tragic final years, as the great leader waged a rearguard ideological struggle in the face of an avalanche of Stalinist harassment, slander, repression and murder. Simultaneously, Deutscher lays bare the blunders and disasters of the Communist International under Stalin's leadership, making clear how inexorably these failures followed from Stalin's deadened bureaucratic-centralistsocialism.

Deutscher's deft handling of the facts, personalities, ideas, and situations of the time is simply unparallelled, and makes for a tremendously enjoyable and informative read. His account of Trotsky's last hours left me in awed tears.

Essential material for anyone exploring the question of where socialism went wrong in the 20th century.

DEFEATED,BUT UNBOWED
THIS YEAR MARKS THE 66TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ASSASSINATION OF LEON TROTSKY-ONE OF HISTORY'S GREAT REVOLUTIONARIES. IT IS THEREFORE FITTING TO REVIEW THE THREE VOLUME WORK OF HIS DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHER, THE PROPHET ARMED, THE PROPHET UNARMED, THE OUTCAST.

Isaac Deutscher's three-volume biography of the great Russian Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky although written over one half century ago remains the standard biography of the man. Although this writer disagrees , as I believe that Trotsky himself would have, about the appropriateness ofthetitle of prophet and its underlying premise that a tragic hero had fallen defeated in a worthy cause, the vast sum of work produced and researched makes up for those basically literary differences. Deutscher, himself, became in the end an adversary of Trotsky's politics around his differing interpretation ofthe historic role ofStalinism and the fate of the Fourth International but he makes those differences clear and in general theydoes not mar the work. I do not believe even with the eventual full opening of all the old Soviet-era files any future biographer will dramatically increase our knowledge about Trotsky and his revolutionary struggles. Moreover, as I have mentioned elsewhere in other reviews while he has not been historically fully vindicated he is in no need of any certificate of revolutionary good conduct.

At the beginning of the 21st century when the validity of socialist political programs as tools for change is in apparent decline or disregarded as utopian it may be hard to imagine the spirit that drove Trotsky to dedicate his whole life to the fight for a socialist society. However, at the beginning of the 20th century he represented only the one of the most consistent and audacious of a revolutionary generation of mainly Eastern Europeans and Russians who set out to change the history of the 20th century. It was as if the best and brightest of that generation were afraid, for better or worse, not to take part in the political struggles that would shape the modern world. As Trotsky noted elsewhere this element was missing, with the exceptions of Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and precious few others, in the Western labor movement. Deutscher using Trotsky's own experiences tells the story of the creation of this revolutionary cadre with care and generally proper proportions. Here are some highlights militant leftists should think about.

On the face of it Trotsky's personal profile does not stand out as that of a born revolutionary. Born of a hard working, eventually prosperous Jewish farming family in the Ukraine (of all places) there is something anomalous about his eventual political occupation. Always a vociferous reader, good writer and top student under other circumstances he would have found easy success, as others did, in the bourgeois academy, if not in Russia then in Western Europe. But there is the rub; it was the intolerable and personally repellant political and cultural conditions of Czarist Russia in the late 19th century that eventually drove Trotsky to the revolutionary movement- first as a `ragtag' populist and then to his life long dedication to orthodox Marxism. As noted above, a glance at the biographies of Eastern European revolutionary leaders such as Lenin, Martov, Christian Rakovsky, Bukharin and others shows that Trotsky was hardly alone in his anger at the status quo. And the determination to something about it.

For those who argue, as many did in the New Left in the 1960's, that the most oppressed are the most revolutionary the lives of the Russian and Eastern European revolutionaries provide a cautionary note. The most oppressed, those most in need of the benefits of socialist revolution, are mainly wrapped up in the sheer struggle for survival and do not enter the political arena until late, if at all. Even a quick glance at the biographies of the secondary leadership of various revolutionary movements, actual revolutionary workers who formed the links to the working class , generally show skilled or semi-skilled workers striving to better themselves rather than the most downtrodden lumpenproletarian elements. The sailors of Kronstadt and the Putilov workers in Saint Petersburg come to mind. The point is that `the wild boys and girls' of the street do not lead revolutions; they simply do not have the staying power. On this point, militants can also take Trotsky's biography as a case study of what it takes to stay the course in the difficult struggle to create a new social order. While the Russian revolutionary movement, like the later New Left mentioned above,had more than its share of dropouts, especially after the failure of the 1905 revolution, it is notably how many stayed with the movement under much more difficult circumstances than we ever faced. For better or worst, and I think for the better, that is how revolutions are made.

Once Trotsky made the transition to Marxism he became embroiled in the struggles to create a unity Russian Social Democratic Party, a party of the whole class, or at least a party representing the historic interests of that class. This led him to participate in the famous Bolshevik/Menshevik struggle in 1903 which defined what the party would be, its program, its methods of work and who would qualify for membership. The shorthand for this fight can be stated as the battle between the `hards' (Bolsheviks, who stood for a party of professional revolutionaries) and the `softs' (Mensheviks, who stood for a looser conception of party membership) although those terms do not do full justice to these fights. Strangely, given his later attitudes, Trotsky stood with the `softs', the Mensheviks, in the initial fight in 1903. Although Trotskyalmost immediately afterward broke from that faction I do not believe that his position in the 1903fight contradicted the impulseshe exhibited throughout his career- personally `libertarian', for lack of a better word , and politically hard in the clutch.

Even a cursory glance at most of Trotsky's career indicates that it was not spent in organizational in-fighting, or at least not successfully. Trotsky stands out as the consummate free-lancer. More than one biographer has noted this condition, including his definitive biographer Isaac Deutscher. Let me make a couple of points to take the edge of this characterization though. In that 1903 fight mentioned above Trotsky did fight against Economism (the tendency to only fight over trade union issuesand not fight overtly political struggles against the Czarist regime) and he did fight against Bundism (the tendency for one group, in this case the Jewish workers, to set the political agenda for that particular group).Moreover, he most certainly favored a centralized organization. These were the key issues at that time. Furthermore, the controversial organizational question did not preclude the very strong notion that a `big tent' unitary party was necessary. The `big tent' German Social Democratic model held very strong sway among the Russian revolutionaries for a long time, including Lenin's Bolsheviks. The long and short of it was that Trotsky was not an organization man, per se. He knew how to organize revolutions, armies, Internationals, economies and so on when he needed to but on a day to day basis no. Thus, to compare or contrast him to Lenin and his very different successes is unfair. Both have an honorable place in the revolutionary movement; it is just a different place.

When Trotsky proved himself right.
This is perhaps the most "weak" part of the "Prophet" trilogy, in that Deutscher thought Trotsky's opposition to Stalin was, at the time it happened, useless, as Stalinism was the necessary mechanism of modernization that made a future fully-fledeged socialist society possible. Now, amid the smouldring ruins of Stalinism and with the former Soviet bloc reduced to a sorry parody of compradore capitalism of the Latin American style, one can be certain that, in the long run, Trotsky was right, after all, but then Deutscher puts his case so throughly that one can see precisely in what he was wrong and therefore how Trotsky managed to make so outstanding and unexpected a prevision as the final demise of Stalinism. Only that makes this book a necessary reading.

The Passion of Leon Trotsky
The last ten years of Trotaky's life was one of exile and assassination, an account worthy of the death of Jesus and Socrates.Mme Trotsky even remarked that her husband when mortally wounded look like Jesus taken down from the cross in an El Greco.

It remains to me still incomprehensible that so many Communists and supporters of Communism did not come to Trotsky's defense and aid, allowing that thug Stalin to persecute him, to destroy his followers in morale and in life, and finally to send an assassin to finish him off.Granted that Trotsky's position against Stalin and in favor of the Soviet Union was perhaps too sophisticated for most Communists to rally to, he was after all still the greatest Communist figure after Lenin and perhaps even including Lenin.

Trotsky would of course have been horrified to learn of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but had he led the Soviet Union after Lenin much might have been different and better for all concerned.He certainly was more right than Stalin about Hitler, about China, and about the dangers of extremist collectivization and industrialization, even though collectivization of agriculture and rapid industrialization were program he had initially advanced against the hesitations of Stalin.

In the end Bolshevism has in Trotsky its hero and prophet which nothing can really take away.

This reprint series, others have correctly noted, is marked by numerous typos and other errors.

Brian Wayne Wells, Esquire, reviews "The Prophet Outcast"
This is the final volume of Isaac Deutscher'sfamous three-volume biography of Leon Trotsky, the great Russian revolutionary.Deutscher's biography is the standard biography of Trotsky by which all other biographies of Trosky are measured.

Picking up the life of Trotsky from the time of his first exile from the Soviet Union in 1929, this book carries the story of the later portion of Trotsky's life all the way to his murder in Mexico in 1940.

Deutscher's writing is enticing and holds the interest of the reader.The book is also wonderfully indexed and serves as a guide to the voluminous writing of Leon Trosky during the last phase of his life. ... Read more

Book Description

"Roll over Derrida: Literature and Revolution is back in print. Nothing in the postmodern canon comes close to the intellectual grandeur of Trotsky's vision of art and literature in an age of revolution, or his extraordinary meditations on the popular ownership of culture."-Mike Davis

Customer Reviews (2)

The Struggle for Revolutionary Culture
Trotsky once wrote that of the three great tragedies in life- hunger, sex and death- revolutionary Marxism, which was the driving force behind his life and work, mainly concerned itself with the struggle against hunger. That observation contains an essential truth about the central thrust of the Marxist tradition. However, as Trotsky demonstrates here, Marxist methodology cannot and should not be reduced to an analysis of and prescription for that single struggle. Here Trotsky takes on an aspect of the struggle for mass cultural development.

In a healthy post-capitalist society mass cultural development would be greatly expanded and encouraged. If the task of socialism were merely to vastly expand economic equality, in a sense, it would be a relativity simple task for a healthy socialist society in concert with other like-minded societies to provide general economic equality with a little tweaking after vanquishing the capitalism mode of production. What Marxism aims for, and Trotsky defends here, is a prospect that with the end of class society and economic and social injustice the capacity of individual human beings to reach new heights of intellectual and creative development should flourish. That is the thought that underpins Trotsky's work here as he analyzes various trends in Russian literature in the immediate aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917. In short, Marxism is certainly not a method to be followed in order to write great literature but it does allow one to set that literature in its social context and interrelatedness.

You will find no Deconstructionist or other fashionable literary criticism here. Quite the contrary. Here Trotsky uses his finely tuned skill as a Marxist to great effect as he analyzes the various trends of literature as they were affected (or not affected) by the October Revolution and sniffs out what in false in some of the literary trends. Mainly, at the time of writing, the jury was still out about the prospects of many of these trends. He analyzes many of the trends that became important later in the century in world literature, like futurismconstructivism, and others- some of which have disappeared and some of which still survive.

The most important and lasting polemic which Trotsky raised here, however, was the fight against the proponents of `proletarian culture'. The argument put forth by this trend maintained that since the Soviet Union was a workers state those who wrote about working class themes or were workers themselves should, in the interest of cultural development, be given special status and encouragement (read: a monopoly on the literary front).Trotsky makes short shrift of this argument by noting that, in theory at least as its turned out, the proletarian state was only a transitional state and therefore no lasting `proletarian culture' would have time to develop. Although history did not turn out to prove Trotsky correct the polemic is still relevant to any theory of mass cultural development.


One of the results of the publication of this book is that many intellectuals, particularly Western intellectuals, based some of their sympathy for Trotsky, the man and fallen hero on his literary analysis and his ability to write. This was particularly true during the 1930's here in America where those who were anti-Stalinist but were repelled by the vacuity of the Socialist Party were drawn to him. A few, like James T. Farrell (Studs Lonigan trilogy), did this mostly honorably. Most, like Dwight MacDonald and Sidney Hooks, etc. did not and simply used that temporary sympathy as a way station on their way to anti-Communism. Such is the nature of the political struggle.

A note for the politically- inclined who read this book. Trotsky wrote this book in 1923-24 at the time of Lenin's death and later while the struggle for succession by Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev was in full swing. While Trotsky did not recognize it until later (nor did others, for that matter) this period represented the close of the rising tide of the revolution. Hereafter, the people who ruled the Soviet Union, the purposes for which they ruled and the manner in which they ruled changed dramatically. In short, Thermidor in the classical French revolutionary expression was victorious. Given his political position why the hell was Trotsky writing a book on literary trends in post-revolutionary society at that time?

One of the most important books of the 20th Century
This is simply one of the most important books of the 20th Century. Trotsky wrote this book at the request of Lenin who edited it. They saw fighting against those who wanted to impose a so-called "proletarian" culture as the official culture of the Soviet Union, as a threat to a real Marxist understanding of culture. Judging culture by its explicit politics, rather than by its expression of human life, Trotsky explains, is as far from Marxism as you can get. Trotsky explains that even some of the most reactionary minded writers have create some of the most stirringly real and vibrant literature, how to road to real socialism will come by giving working people full and free access to the best and the worst of the literature and art that capitalism has produced.No one who reads this book will think that the garbage that passed for cultural theory in the Soviet Union under Stalin and his successors or under Mao and his successors has anything to do with socialism or Marxism ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A book that changed my life
I borrowed this book in 1966 from a friend because I liked the cover of the old 1950s British edition. It changed my life, just as it caused James P. Cannon and other leaders of the US Communist movement who accidentally received a copy in 1928 to launch a struggle for Trotsky's ideas. Let it change yours. Workers and farmers parties in the USA, the revolution in China, how to fight fascism, the world economy and politics, all of these things are discussed, not abstractly, but as a defense of what Lenin and the original Comintern had given the workers of the world, what Stalin tried to take away. The ideas and lessons are needed in today's fights. ... Read more

Book Description
A primer on revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky andhis courageous fight against Stalinism. Fifth booklet in the Red Banner Reader series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Greatly underrated
The fact that Trotsky tried to devise a revolutionary strategy to cope with the issues aroused by the existence of a Popular Front government in 1930s France made this collection of short pieces and pamphlets to remain consistently out of fashion for the next 70 years, as Marxists tended more and more to make a fetish out of Liberal Bourgeois political forms. Therefore the relevance of this book, as a discussion of the shortcomings of said Bourgeois Democracy in terms of the overall sclerosis imposed by it on the Body Politic.

Rich lessons from struggles in the 1930s
Paris, February 1934: tens of thousands of rightists attempted to overthrow the French government in a violent demonstration. The Radical government was soon replaced with a Bonapartist ruler. How could the powerful working class movement respond? The French Communist Party was moving to the "Peoples Front" alliance with the Socialists and the Radicals, in reflection of Stalin's search for alliances with one or other of the imperialist powers moving towards war to redivide the world. Together with the Socialists, the Stalinists politically disoriented the French workers. Six years on from the 1934 demonstrations, Hitler was able to crush France, and the fascist Petain ascended to power. "Leon Trotsky on France", a collection of writings from throughout those six years, brings the light of Marxism and the experience of the Russian Revolution to bear in showing the way for workers seeking a revolutionary way forward. As the 21st century takes us deeper into a situation like the 1930s -- economic depression, political volatility and instability, rapidly sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry, the rise of ultrarightist forces -- the lessons of the 1930s loom large. With each passing year, books like this one are becoming more relevant for workers and fighters for social justice.

Depression, fascism, war-- how can workers fight back?
More than a history text, this is a compelling day-by-day analysis of the great political developments in France during the 1930s depression-- and incisive arguments for what working class parties needed-- and failed -- to do to fight their way victoriously out of the crisis. The brutal economic depression and the crisis of capitalist political rule, the approaching world war, the fascist uprising in 1934, the rise of Bonapartist-police state regimes, the great workers strike wave of 1936, the stakes in organizing a workers militia, the political basis for alliances in working class struggles-- all are explained clearly and logically, with the aim of helping working people understand and organize to defend their interests.

Trotsky writes with the experience of a leader of the 1917 Russian Revolution and the early years of building an international communist workers movement. He was particularly familiar with the French workers movement from years in exile before 1917, and spent time in France in the 1930s after being expelled from the Soviet Union by Stalin and his henchmen-- this experience helping him give rich political detail to his writings.

Above all, the questions posed here do not belong just to the 1930s. The perspectives of the capitalists, the petty-bourgeoisie, the workers and the peasants, and the question of leadership of the working class, of the forging of a revolutionary party with a correct program and the confidence to act are issues for today and tomorrow. Trotsky's writings here are invaluable in helping understand and organize in today's world.

Fighting for the lives of French workers
Best part of the book -- Part Two: A Program for the French Revolution. For anyone who has had to deal with trade union brass who caution that the union membership must be careful not to alienate the friendly wing of management, for anyone who has had to suffer through debates in parties such as Canada's New Democratic Party, this book helps straighten things out clearly. As Europe thrashed its way through the 1930s, socialist revolution or fascist victory was put on the agenda in country after country. Trotsky goes over all the key issues as they arose concretely in France: elections and picket lines, workers armed defense versus reliance on the middle class, the relationship of general strike to the fight for a revolutionary change in government, how to win over the farmers. He hammers away at the fact that while capitalism was degenerating before everyone's eyes, nothing was automatic, nothing would inevitably change for the better without conscious action and organization by the powerful French working class. He pointed out that he was fighting for the lives of French workers who went into the streets in strike waves, who occupied their workplaces, who fought the police and fascist gangs over and over throughout the decade. And went down to defeat. Difficult to read simply as a historical document since so many issues are of burning relevance today.

preparing for the struggles of the future
France in the 1930s was wracked by mass struggles by workers, fascist, monarchist and other right-wing conspiracies two futures: the future of war, Nazi occupation and the Petain regime that aped fascism, and a victory of workers and farmers like the one in Russia in 1917 and Cuba in 1960s. Battles went on that could have prevented World War two, prevented fascism in Spain, and more.
Trotsky's advice here is not just directed to analyzing the big questions, but also discussing how small groups of revolutionists were affected by these big events, how they could deepen their role in the mass struggle.
With war, and what some call a gathering world depression looming in front of working people around the world, the same questions before French workers in the 1930s are coming before workers, youth, farmers and others who want to fight today.We are fortunate to read these writings by Trotsky to fight to avoid a future of war and fascism. ... Read more

Book Description
Prom Preface:

"During the first two months of 1917 Russia was still a Romanov monarchy. Eight months later the Bolsheviks stood at the helm. They were little know to anybody when the year began, and their leaders were still under indictment for state treason when they came to power. You will not find another such sharp turn in history - especially if you remember that it involves a nation of 150 million people. It is clear that the events of 1917, whatever you think of them, deserve study. The history of a revolution, like every other history, ought first of all to tell what happened and how. That, however, is little enough. From the very telling it ought to become clear why it happened thus and not otherwise. Events can neither be regarded as a series of adventures, nor strung on the thread of a preconceived moral. They must obey their own laws. The discovery of these laws is the author's task. The most indubitable feature of a revolution is the direct interference of the masses in historical events. In ordinary times the state, be it monarchical or democratic, elevates itself above the nation, and history is made by specialists in that line of business - kings, ministers, bureaucrats, parliamentarians, journalists. But at those crucial moments when the old order becomes no longer endurable to the masses, they break over the barriers excluding them from the political arena, sweep aside their traditional representatives, and create by their own interference the initial groundwork for a new r?gime. Whether this is good or bad we leave to the judgement of moralists. We ourselves will take the facts as they are given by the objective course of development. The history of a revolution is for us first of all a history of the forcible entrance of the masses into the realm of rulership over their own destiny. In a society that is seized by revolution classes are in conflict. It is perfectly clear, however, that the changes introduced between the beginning and the end of a revolution in the economic bases of the society and its social substratum of classes, are not sufficient to explain the course of the revolution itself, which can overthrow in a short interval age-old institutions, create new ones, and again overthrow them. The dynamic of revolutionary events is directly determined by swift, intense and passionate changes in the psychology of classes which have already formed themselves before the revolution. The point is that society does not change its institutions as need arises, the way a mechanic changes his instruments. On the contrary, society actually takes the institutions which hang upon it as given once for all. For decades the oppositional criticism is nothing more than a safety valve for mass dissatisfaction, a condition of the stability of the social structure."

Book Description
"Permanent revolution" calls Leon Trotsky to mind as surely as "relativity" does Albert Einstein. In their originality and scope, these two famous theories have a symmetry. Leon Trotsky was a leading Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. He was a central leader of the Russian revolution and an influential politician in the early days of the Soviet Union. He was Commissar for Foreign Affairs, founder and commander of the Red Army and Commissar of War.He led the struggle against Stalin'sbureaucratization of the Soviet Union inthe 1920s. Trotsky was expelled from theCommunist Party and deported from theSoviet Union in the Great Purge.As the founder of the Fourth International, he continued in exile to encourage workers and oppressed peoples to unite against capitalism, and for socialist revolution. PRAISE FOR 'THE PERMANENT REVOLUTION'I'm very much of Trotsky's line - the permanent revolution. - Hugo Chavez, President of VenezuelaTrotsky's writings on the permanent revolution are the theoretical mainspring of proletarian revolutionary strategy and are an obligatory study for all who aspire to lead the working-class in the struggle for socialism, whether in the capitalist countries of the West or in the backward colonial countries.- Li Fu-jen, co-founder, Communist League of ChinaThe whole essence of Trotsky's theory of the permanent revolution lies in the idea that the colonial bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie of the backward countries are incapable of carrying out the tasks of the bourgeois democratic revolution. - Ted Grant, editor, Militant ... Read more

Product Description
744 pages. Transcript of Trotsky's seven days of testimony before an international commission of inquiry, unmasking Stalin's Moscow frame-up trials of 1936-37. Introduction, Forward, Photos, Index. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Presenting the revolutionary heart of Marxism
One of history's greatest [...] was Stalin's claim that his murderous bureaucracy spoke for Marxism, communism, and the working class. THE CASE OF LEON TROTSKY is must reading today because it is not only most powerful rebuttal of Stalin's lies--but it stands as a great example of what real Marxism was and is. In this book, Trotsky presents his record of activity and the great ideas that he acted on. Trotsky's life and work are part of the link connecting the revolutionary communism of Lenin to the generations of the present and future. Today, no one takes seriously the pretences of Stalin and his heirs in Moscow and Peking. Now, authentic Marxism can step forward without having to explain how different it is from the Stalinist counterfeits. And this book is a wonderful place to begin the study, for a new generation of students. The ideas are presented with eloquence and with the drama of a court room setting, because Trotsky was answering questions and presenting testimony before the distinguished Dewey Commission.

The principles and experiences of the Bolsheviks
Essential to anyone interested in revolutionary, principled politics the Case of Leon Trotsky explains the most fundamental questions of revolutionary Marxist politics and modern history: How did the Bolsheviks conquer power? Why did Stalin prevail? Why do Marxists reject individual terrorism ? What was the relationship between Lenin and Trotsky and Stalin and Lenin? How did Stalin pave the way for Hitler's victory? What is Stalinism? What is Fascism? Why did Franco vanguish the Spanish Republic?

This is the text of Leon Trotsky's historic seven-day testimony to the commission led by American philosopher and educator John Dewey in 1937 that investigated the charges of the Stalin's Moscow frameup trials against Trotsky. Trotsky pledged to place himself into the hands of the Soviet Government if this tribunal or a court of extradition convicted him of any of the monsterous charges Stalin laid against him.

Though his native language was Russian, Trotsky submitted to the cross examination in English, the language of most of the committee members. Despite the gravity of the questions before him and his struggle with the English language, Trotsky's wit and imagination break through time and time again. Trotsky is no fuzzy radical; he is always precise, scientific, and workman-like and often eloquent.

... Read more

Book Description

Published for the ninetieth anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, this edition of Leon Trotsky's masterpiece, with a new foreword by Ahmed Shawki, tells the epic story of the remarkable events that transformed the history of Russia-and the world-forever.

Customer Reviews (10)

One of the best books ever written about revolution
In spite of its length, I've read this book several times. It isn't just a widely acclaimed historic and literary masterpiece, written by a leading participant in the events he describes. It isn't just vividly written and thoroughly researched.

More importantly, it's one of the best books ever written about revolution, as relevant today as ever.

The most important conclusion that emerges is the crucial role of a revolutionary party with an overwhelmingly working class membership, leadership and political orientation: a party that has trained itself in the many years of partial struggles that precede a revolutionary crisis; studied together the lessons of past revolutionary struggles throughout the world; and done everything possible to educate broader layers of workers in those lessons.

(The point is illustrated both positively and negatively. More than once, Lenin had to turn to the Bolshevik's working class rank and file against wavering intellectuals in the party leadership.)

Please don't be put off by the first chapter, the driest and most difficult in the book. The basic idea is that capitalism arrived late in Russia, imported from abroad in the form of huge factories, which laid the basis for the rapid development of a strong, militant labor movement. As a result, the emerging capitalist class was reluctant to mobilize the masses against the feudal nobles and landlords that stood in their way, for fear that the aroused workers might turn on the capitalists themselves.

Under the impact of war and economic crisis, the resulting mixture of different forms of class oppression exploded in a combined revolt of workers, farmers, and oppressed nationalities, destroying both feudalism and capitalism by the time it was through.

Several postcripts:

(1) If you're wondering