Leon Trotsky Speaks

The major political questions of the 20th century, discussed by an outstanding communist leader. Includes a defense of the right to revolution, made in 1906 in the prisoner's dock of the tsarist courts; speeches as a leader of the revolutionary government following the Bolshevik-led revolution; and "I Stake My Life", Trotsky's 1937 defense of his 20-year Bolshevik course and challenge to the organizers of Joseph Stalin's frame-up trials.

Revolutionary practitioner, theorist, factional chief, sparkling writer, ‘ladies’ man’ (e.g., his affair with Frieda Kahlo), icon of the Revolution, anti-Jewish Jew, philosopher of everyday life, grand seigneur of his household, father and hunted victim, Trotsky lived a brilliant life in extraordinary times. Robert Service draws on hitherto unexamined archives and on his profound understanding of Russian history to draw a portrait of the man and his legacy, revealing that though his followers have represented Trotsky as a pure revolutionary soul and a powerful intellect unjustly hounded into exile by Stalin and his henchmen. The reality is very different, as this masterful and compelling biography reveals.

Discusses the formation and history of the Red Army, 1918-1923.

A biography of Leon Trotsky by two of his close friends and collaborators

The name "Leon Trotsky" is a controversial one: for some it sparks anger, and they view him as a betrayer, a hypocrite, and a totalitarian. For others the name inspires admiration, seeing the man as a revolutionary knight battling an outdated, oppressive Imperial dynasty. However you view him, Trotsky was a strong leader of Soviets and one of the most important figures of twentieth-century Communism. He played an essential role as commander of the Red Army on the side of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution, before he was challenged and eventually defeated by his rival Joseph Stalin. Deported from Russia, Trotsky lived the rest of his life in exile until Stalin finally located him and had him executed. In "Leon Trotsky," Paul Le Blanc interweaves dramatic historical events with Trotsky's multi-faceted personality, and explores his involvement with Soviet bureaucracy, the Spanish Civil War, and the rise of Hitler in the years before World War II. Despite his removal from the Soviet Union, Trotsky continued to fight for his early Communist tradition, which eventually became referred to as Trotskyism. This balanced portrait of Trotsky and his life will be invaluable to history students, scholars, or anyone with an interest in political history and extraordinary lives.

Fourteen volumes covering the period of Trotsky's exile from the Soviet Union in 1929 until his assassination at Stalin's orders in 1940.