When Lenin died and the Russian Revolution began to devour its leaders, Trotsky survived longer than most as an exile in Mexico, until his assassination in 1940.
The Essential Trotsky
, first published in 1963, demonstrates the significance of this innovative and radical thinker’s contribution to the Bolshevik success, the magnetism of his personality, and also a certain tragic heroism discernible throughout his life.
The History of the Russian Revolution
to Brest-Litovsk
was written immediately after the events it describes, when Trotsky was attending the negotiations that extracted Russia from the First World War;
The Lessons of October
, an answer to his opponents in 1924, matches Lenin in power of analysis; and
Stalin Falsifies History
, written in 1927, presents the beginning of the distorting process by which Stalin secured his position, and defeated a range of attitudes, many more benign than his own, towards the future of the Revolution. This is a fascinating reissue that will be of value to students with an interest in early-twentieth century Russia, the Russian Revolution and the writings of Trotsky more generally.