Trotsky for Beginners

This book is a great starting point for Trotsky and at the same time a friendly introduction to the often confusing political situation in Russia during the period of the Alexander II's death and the Bolshevik revolution until Stalin. It integrates primary sources from contemporaries, including Bolsheviks and Trotsky himself, and some secondary source from historians that are particularly informative. The book weaves through humorous and brief summaries of some stages of Trotsky's life (particularly his early life and conversion to Marxism) yet this is redeemed by its concise and very useful segments on complex issues such as Marxist ideology, the role of the Comintern, the various congresses of the Soviets/Communist party and united frontism. I found that the illustrations were actually quite useful and not simply humorous in many cases, such as the 'hear no evil, etc.' monkeys in the section on the power struggle. However, it is after all a beginner's guide and the sections on Trotsky's role in the 1917 insurrection was lacking, as well as the Civil War. Nevertheless, I still recommend this book to high school students studying Trotsky and general Soviet history as an introductory text, and Trotsky enthusiasts regardless of their level of education as both an informative text and ultimately an entertaining read.

When history and political movements are taught in the west and the subject is communism and the Bolshevik revolution, the emphasis is on the actions and thoughts of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. It is a rare occasion when Leon Trotsky is mentioned in any capacity other than his being the target of Stalin's loyalists, who referred to their enemies as practitioners of Trotskyism. This is historically unjustified, as Trotsky was clearly the most intellectually gifted of the Bolshevik leaders, it was his effective organization of the Red Army that allowed the revolution to survive when it was being besieged from all sides. While this book is constructed using cartoons and occasionally humorous text, it still manages to teach a great deal about the Bolshevik revolutionary movement in the Russian Empire and the role that Leon Trotsky played in it. It cannot serve as a primary source, but it will prove valuable as a secondary and more lighthearted resource in courses covering communism and the Stalinist state.

My favorite page of this book is page 84, which has some small print at the bottom of the page, "Lenin sees Trotsky's position as attractive but too risky." The illustration shows a three-way argument among the leaders of the Bolshevik Central Committee on how to get an immediate armistice with Germany in World War One, for which Trotsky had been sent to Brest-Litovsk to negotiate peace at the end of November 1917. Somehow, page 82 reported, "The Allied Powers are desperately against Russia signing a separate peace with Germany." Trotsky's position in the argument on page 84 nicely avoided the possibility of conflict with the Allied Powers, "Prolong the negotiations. No war - No Peace - till the German workers revolt!" According to page 83, "The peace delegation at Brest-Litovsk distributed pamphlets to the German soldiers." The cartoon shows a soldier looking at a page and exclaiming, "It says - shoot your officers!!" The Germans might not have been used to reading that kind of thing, but there is a historical Who's Who on pages 168 to 173 which shows how much support there was for this when someone's idea of justice supported it. The Who's Who contains anarchist activists like Vera Zasulich, a Narodnik militant who "Shot and wounded the Governor of St. Petersburg, General Tepov" [which might not be spelled correctly] because a Narodnik student "was flogged for failing to remove his hat in Trepov's presence. Her trial and acquittal by the jury caused a sensation and was popularly supported." (p. 173). Back on page 76, following a cartoon that looks a lot like some famous painting of the last supper, there is even a picture of Joseph Stalin, who praised Trotsky in Pravda for the "practical organisation of the insurrection" (The October Revolution) only 84 years ago in November 1917, but the picture is saying, "I said that? No - you must be thinking of some other Stalin!" The humor of history is perfect for a cartoon book like this, which is history at a level which everybody ought to be able to understand. Unfortunately for the Soviets, they were probably not aware of the work of the young Karl Kraus in Vienna during this period, who observed, "Satires which the censor understands are rightly prohibited." This book is too true to be considered satire in a thoroughly comic society like our own.

Lev Davydovich Bronstein A.K.A. Leon Trotsky was certainly a very complicated figure as this book shows. Early on he opposed Lenin's conception of the hierarchal, tightly centralized working class party and was very active in the Petersburg Soviet of 1905. Lenin accepted Trotsky's view of "permenant revolution" after the February 1917 revolution and Trotsky joined forces with him to oppose the liberals and leftists in the workers and soldiers soviet who supported handing over power to the liberal bourgeoisie, in the case of the leftists apparently because they thought the bourgeoisie should have their revolution first. The Bolsheviks won overwhelming majorities in the soviets accros the nation. They seized power from the liberals and then proceeded to liquidate their opposition which seemed to be excused by Trotsky on the ground of centralising power in order to fight the Whites and the imperialist invaders and the especially brutal "war communism" was instituted. Trotsky directed the violent repression of the workers and sailors at Kronstadt in 1921. He pretty much played the good solider, occasionally making noises about the suppression of democratic debate and the growing power of the bueracracy until Stalin consolidated his power after Lenin's death in 1924. He unwaveringly opposed Stalin who finally expelled him from the country in 1929. He was murdered under Stalin's orders in Mexico in 1940. Trotsky once in exile gave full flower to his best thinking. The bueracracy in the Soviet Union owned everything (the means of production,etc.) and would not give up power but perpetuate itself as dictatorships tend to do. Trotsky advocated destroying the bueracracy, reinstitue free debate and, according to Mr. Ali, wanted to "restore the Soviets." What this last means, I don't quite know. Does it mean he wanted to restore to them the power they held in 1917-18, as they were conceived to function during the revolution of 1905, perhaps even as the narodniks conceived them? Very interesting. Ali also points out that Trotsky saw clearly the menace of Hitlerism before just about everybody else did and advocated that the communists and social democrats join forces in a "united front" to try to stop Hitler which earned him even more violent abuse from Moscow and their sattelites in Germany. He vigorously attacked the "United Front" concept adopted at the seventh congress of the communist international in 1935 which called for Communists accross the world to join forces with social democrats and liberals in "popular fronts," effectively maintainging the status quo, which had such disasterous results in Spain during the civil war. I thought Phil Evans's illustrations were entertaining.

An excellent introduction to some very complex and confusing history. This biography of Leon Trotsky, also explores some very complex marxist theory. Historically, it covers not only Trotsky's life and idea's, but the Russian Revolution, the Russian civil war, and the usurpation of power of the fledgling workers democracy by Joseph Stalin and his co-conspiritors from the democratically elected politburo. This book is much more entertaining then the new "For Begginers" series, as it has much more artistic diversity, then the mostly cartoon, drawing style of the new books. It contains colages, and many photos of historical figures and events. Overall a great introduction to history, that is not taught in school.