Trotsky, Leon

(Lyov Davidovich Bronstein) (1879-1940) a leading member of the Russian BOLSHEVIK Party which he joined during the 1917 Revolution. He was Commissar of War during the civil war which followed, but after the death of LENIN in 1924, he was increasingly in conflict with STALIN, resulting in his exile from the USSR in 1929. In exile he became a leading Marxist critic of the policies of the USSR, developing in The Revolution Betrayed the notion of a degenerated workers’ state, dominated by a parasitic bureaucratic caste. In 1938 he formed the Fourth International as a means of continuing the commitment to revolutionary COMMUNISM centred around parties based on pre-Stalinist principles.

Trotsky is accepted as a major writer within the Marxist tradition. His 1905 and History of the Russian Revolution are seen, even by critics, as brilliant analyses. His major contributions to Marxist theory are the theories of PERMANENT REVOLUTION and combined and uneven development, in which he argued that not all societies have to go through a stage of mature CAPITALISM to achieve SOCIALISM.

In exile in Mexico, Trotsky was murdered by an agent of Stalin. Since his death his political legacy is evident in various, often relatively marginal, political organizations committed to Trotskyism. See MARXISM.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000

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References in periodicals archive

Puesto que ya por entonces se habia constituido en los Estados Unidos un comite para la defensa de Leon Trotsky, conformado por intelectuales y ciudadanos de las mas altas calidades morales y sin compromisos politicos a favor o en contra de Trotsky, se formo a partir de este una Comision Internacional de Investigacion para examinar las acusaciones hechas contra Trotsky y su hijo en los procesos de Moscu y se nombro como presidente de dicha comision al filosofo y educador norteamericano John Dewey.

LOS PROCESOS DE MOSCU: MENTIRA Y PROPAGANDA. EL CASO TROTSKY DESDE LA PERSPECTIVA DE LA COMISION DEWEY

While the literature on Leon Trotsky could fill rows of bookshelves, (13) the amount of writing on his German political allies is negligible.

A transnational friendship in the age of extremes: Leon Trotsky and the Pfemferts

(1) In general, the existing biographies of Trotskii are extensive; see, e.g., the bibliographies compiled by Wolfgang and Petra Lubitz, working on online "Trotskyana" for the project "Lubitz' Leon Trotsky Bibliography," which contains around 16,000 title records (http://www.

Lev Trotskii as the mirror of the Russian Revolution

I mean that they are a party openly and proudly inspired by the writings of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. They don't believe Parliamentary democracy as we know it can significantly improve society, and look forward instead to the day when the working class "collectively seize control of...

Salma should have respect she deserves

In Defense of Leon Trotsky. Oak Park, MI: Mehring Books, 2010.

North, David. In Defense of Leon Trotsky

First published in 1971, this reprinted edition consists of 24 articles by Leon Trotsky on the fascist movement in Germany, written from 1930-1932 (with one article from 1940), as he asserted all his powers of persuasion to stir the German workers to rise up against the fascists before they took power.

The struggle against fascism in Germany. (reprint, 1971)

Oxford University's Robert Service completes his trilogy of the three most significant early Soviet leaders with the first biography of Leon Trotsky not written by an acolyte.

Trotsky: A Biography

Ramon Mercader was a KGB-hired Spanish communist, who was sent to kill Leon Trotsky with an icepick in Mexico in 1940.

Russian hit squad on the hunt for double agent

1940: Leon Trotsky, exiled Bolshevik leader who found asylum in Mexico, died after being struck several blows on the head with an ice pick wielded by Ramon Mercader, an agent for Soviet dictator Stalin.

ON THIS DAY IN ..

In communist Russia the man used to falsify images, deleting fools like Leon Trotsky out of photographs where he was pictured with Lenin, revising historical events as they saw fit.

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