Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary's LifeBorn Lev Davidovich Bronstein in southern Ukraine, Trotsky was both a world-class intellectual and a man capable of the most narrow-minded ideological dogmatism. He was an effective military strategist and an adept diplomat, who staked the fate of the Bolshevik revolution on the meager foundation of a Europe-wide Communist upheaval. He was a master politician who played his cards badly in the momentous struggle for power against Stalin in the 1920s. And he was an assimilated, indifferent Jew who was among the first to foresee that Hitler's triumph would mean disaster for his fellow European Jews, and that Stalin would attempt to forge an alliance with Hitler if Soviet overtures to the Western democracies failed. Here, Trotsky emerges as a brilliant and brilliantly flawed man. Rubenstein offers us a Trotsky who is mentally acute and impatient with others, one of the finest students of contemporary politics who refused to engage in the nitty-gritty of party organization in the 1920s, when Stalin was maneuvering, inexorably, toward Trotsky's own political oblivion. As Joshua Rubenstein writes in his preface, "Leon Trotsky haunts our historical memory. A preeminent revolutionary figure and a masterful writer, Trotsky led an upheaval that helped to define the contours of twentieth-century politics." In this lucid and judicious evocation of Trotsky's life, Joshua Rubenstein gives us an interpretation for the twenty-first century. |
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antisemitic army arrest attack autocracy began Beilis Black Hundred Bolsheviks Bronstein Bukharin Bund called challenge civil claimed commissar Communist Congress David Bronstein death declared defend democracy denounced dictatorship émigré Europe exile face fate followers French German Hitler idea initial insisted Iskra Jacson January Jewish Jews joined journalist Kamenev Kerensky Kremlin Kronstadt later leaders Lenin Lenin and Trotsky Leon Trotsky Lev Sedov Lev's liberal living Marxist Max Eastman memoirs Mensheviks Mexico months Moscow murder Natalia Sedova never newspaper October Odessa officials once opposition organize Paris party peasants Petrograd Soviet pogroms police political Pravda prison proletariat Provisional Government recalled refused regime remained revolution Rivera role Russia sailors Saint Petersburg Sedova Sergei Shpentzer Siberia Social Democrats Socialist Revolutionaries Sokolovskaya Soviet Union Stalin struggle took trial Trotsky wrote Trotsky's Trotskyists tsar tsar’s tsarist Ukraine wanted weeks Western wife workers York Zinaida Zinoviev Zionism