History of the Russian Revolution

Tackling this marvellous but massive book is a challenge – but it is also very rewarding.

Marxism is often accused of being “deterministic”, that is, of focusing on historical forces and classes and of ignoring individuals. But this is an unfair criticism. After all, Marx himself said that it is people who make history, “but they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves...”

This dialectic of the interaction between objective circumstances and subjective human action is at the core of this book.

So in Chapter One we have Trotsky applying the law of uneven and combined development to Russia’s history; and throughout the book Trotsky shows how class forces underlie political activities and attitudes.

But we also see show more the crucial importance of the actions of individuals. One example of this is the vital role played by Lenin (and by Trotsky himself, of course). Another example is the Cossack, sent to suppress a demonstration, who winked at one of the workers, thus showing that the Cossacks would not violently put down the revolutionary workers.

Trotsky was in exile when he wrote this book. He had gone from being one of the key leaders of the revolution in 1917 to being a fierce critic of Stalin’s bureaucratic tyranny, arguing for a new revolution by Russia’s workers to overthrow Stalin’s dictatorship.

Unfortunately, Trotsky clung to the view that Russia under Stalin was a “degenerated workers’ state”. In fact I find much more convincing the theory that was first fully developed by Tony Cliff: that Stalinist Russia was a bureaucratic state capitalist society, as were the other so-called “communist” regimes that appeared later.

But despite this weakness, Trotsky did keep alive the fundamental Marxist idea that socialism must be based on internationalism and workers’ democracy. (The “dictatorship of the proletariat” was meant to mean the DEMOCRATIC control of society by the working class, not a small group ruling OVER the working class.)

Lenin and Trotsky saw the soviets (democratic workers’ councils) as being the form that working class rule would take, and in this book Trotsky gives us a wonderful description of the relationship between individuals, the Bolshevik Party, the soviets, and the masses. show less

Well written and very informative, this is the ultimate account of the Russian revolution by an eyewitness and major player. To be enjoyed with The Red Wheel 1917 by Solgenitsin

I said of 'My Life' that if you only read one book by Trostky then that is the one to read. If you read one other then this is it. But my guess is any one who reads my life with an open mind will be gagging to move onto this masterpiece of historical writing.

Both a fine example of how to write history and how to make it.

First source author. Trotsky was pivotal in the success of the revolution and the beginning of the USSR.

During the first two months of 1917 Russia was still a Romanov monarchy. Eight months later the Bols....

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