Leon Trotsky

As readers of this space may know I make no bones about being an admirer of the work of Leon Trotsky (see all my reviews). I also believe that the definitive biography of the man is Isaac Deutscher's s three-volume set. Nevertheless, others have written biographies on Trotsky that are either less balanced than Deutscher's or come at it from a different angle with a different ax to grind. Irving Howe's, self-defined quasi-biography is a standard social-democratic take on Trotsky's life and work. The late Mr. Howe, long time editor of the social democratic political journal Dissent, takes on the huge task of attempting to whittle down one of the big figures of 20th century history against the backdrop of that mushy social-democratic `State Department' socialism that the left New York intelligentsia gravitated to in the 1950's and early 1960's in this country. That response invokes admiration for the personality and intellectual achievements of Trotsky the man while abhorring his politics, especially those pursued as a high Soviet official when he was in political power. In the process Mr. Howe demonstrates as much about his weak `socialist libertarian' politics grounded in a theory of Soviet `bureaucratic collectivism' than a serious examination into Trotsky's politics. There are some chasms that cannot be breeched and this is one of them. In classic fashion Howe sets up Trotsky's virtues early. Thus he recognizes and appreciates the early romantic revolutionary and free-lance journalist in the true Russian tradition who faced jail and exile without flinching; the brilliant, if flawed, Marxist theoretician who defied all-comers at debate and whose theory of permanent revolution set the standard for defining the strategic pace of the Russian revolution; the great organizer of the revolutionary fight for power in 1917 and later organizer of the Red Army victory in the Civil War; the premier Communist literary critic of his age; the `premature' anti-Stalinist who fought against the degeneration of the revolution; and, the lonely exile rolling the rock up the mountain despite personal tragedy and political isolation. However, my friends, Howe's biographical sketch are about an intensely political man by one who was a political opponent of everything that Trotsky stood for. Thus, all the patently obvious and necessary recognition of Trotsky as one of the great figures of the first half of the 20th century is a screen for taking Trotsky off of Olympus. And here again Howe uses all the points are there in the social democratic standard catechism. The flawed nature of Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution as applied to Russia in 1917 and also to later semi-colonial and colonial countries; the undemocratic nature of the Bolshevik seizure of power in regard to other socialist parties and civil society in general; the horrors of the Civil War which helped lead to the generation of the revolution; Trotsky's recognized tendency as a Soviet official to b