TROTSKY
TROTSKY IT IS WITH great pleasure that we are producing here some of the photographs trom the new book Trotsky, be David King, with a commentary br James Ryan, due to be published by Basil Blackwell in October. David King's book is a re-worked edition of the photographic collection published by Penguin in the 1970s, subsequently republished in a much extended edition in France, with a text by Pierre Broué.
Despite the fact that he outlived nearly all the Old Bolsheviks', mainly victims of Stalin's purges, only fragments of Trotsky on film or sound recording survive. In attempting to get a feel of Trotsky the person, and recording the development of his life and political struggle, the photographic record is invaluable. This new book is also testimony to the immense service to the historical record done by David King in establishing the largest photographic collection of post-revolutionary Russia outside the USSR itself.
Trotsky's political legacy continues to reverberate 46 years alter his death. With the demise of Maoism, in many countries the revolutionary left continues to be "Trotskyist', cither by choice or by the accusation of Its enemies. But why Trotskyist', opposed to just Leninist' or 'Luxemburgist' or, given the recent efforts of Stephen Cohen and others, 'Bukharinist'? Indeed, there have been some in the Trotskyist movement itself who have recently questioned this continued contrality of Trotsky's legacy over that of other great revolutionarles in the thinking of the revolutionary
Trotsky, uniquely among the great socialist revolutionaries of the first part of this contury, continued to analyse and write about events until 1940, when he was assassinated by Stalin's agent. His exile from the Sovice Union in 1929 meant that he wrote, often in difficult circumstances, but also in relative frecdom. He wis thus able to observe world events and analyse them over a much more protracted phase of the imperialist cpoch than Lenin, who died in 1923, or Luxemburg, done to death in 1919, or Gramsci, imprisoned and cut off from events by the Italian fascist regime.
Trotsky's vantage point, that of one of the key leaders of the Russian revolution and of the Communist International, enabled him to observe the unfolding of the historical legacy of the Russian revolution and the post-war revolutionary upsurge in all
Trotsky with his first wife, Alexandra Sokolovskaya in 1902 before his escape from Siberia.
its splendour and tragedy. He was in a
unique position to develop and com-
plete the thcoretical and political work
begun by Lenin, Luxemburg and the
Communist International.
What then was his development of
the theories of the Communist Inter-
national, which make the most highly
developed revolutionary
"Trotskyist'? First, and most obvious,
is Trotsky's theoritation of the degen
cration of the Russian revolution and
Stalinism. Trotsky's analysis of this
process was not of course that of an
outsider but of a militant struggling to
prevent the tragedy which has marked
the whole course of political develop-
ment in the twentieth contury
Today, it is impossible to be a
revolutionary militant anywhere, of
have an understanding of the develop-
ment of world politics, without grasp-
ing the character of the
movements and the character of the
Stalinist states. Even those on the far Natalya Sedova in Munich 1904.
left whoreject Trotsky's theory of the Sovict Union theories of 'state capitalism' 'burcaucratic collectivism' from the crumbs of Trotsky's theoretical table. There is hardly any serious discussion of the Soviet Union in the world workers movement and Eastern Europe which does not deal, favourably or otherwisc, analysis. Trotsky pertormed the essential task of providing the theoretical basis for the maintenance of communist politics when Stalinism threatened to destroy them altogether. developed the theoretical heritage of the Communist International on the strategy and tactics of the struggle for capitalist countries. His work on this, detailed account of any Marxist think10 1940, Tronsky theory talise countries. Stalinist before the authorities realised he was gone.
those who hold and feed with Trotsky's Through his theory of Stalinism revolutionary Secondly, Trotsky maintained and working class power in the advanced again the work of an active militant fighting to orientate the revolutionary vanguard to the key tasks of the day, represents the most developed and er. From the foundation of the Com- munist International in 1919, through wrote on all the major struggles in the advanced capi- Probably the high points of this work are his writings on Ciermany and After the trial the defendants were sentenced to deportation to Obdorsk, a village deep inside the Arctic Circle in Siberia. Here the deportees are en-route to Obdorsk, January 1907. Trotsky is second from the left. The fourteen prisoner were guarded by 52 soldiers, who could not conceal their sympathy for the Soviet. Secret police guarded the guards. On 12 February Trotsky escaped and reached Finland
the rise of facism (collected in The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany); his general exposition of the role of the revolutionary Marxist vanguard in his critique of the Draft Programme of the Comintern (available in the book The Third International after Lenin); his writings on France both in the carly 1920s where he formulated with unparalleled precision the tactic of the united front, his analysis of the Popular Front between 1934 and 1936; and his writings on the Spanish revolution. In passing, he also wrote some of the finest Marxist analyses of the British general strike and the British labour movement.
Trotsky's work is unmatched in its concreteness and theoretical richness, in its understanding of the struggle of conflicting classes and political tendencies in advanced capitalist countries. Indeed Luxemburg and Gramsei it is virtually impossible to distinguish, whatever latter day followers might say, any general theories of the laws of motion of the struggle for working class power and the role of the revolutionary vanguard. The difference with Lenin's work is that Lenin did not live to employ the categories of his Marxist method to a long period of struggle in the adyanced capitalist countries. It was left 10 Trotsky to complete lenn's worh.
troops of the revolution. contemporary photomontage of leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution enin and Trotsky are in the third row from the bottom. Look, no Stalin.
On arrival at the Finalnd station, Petrograd, 4 May 1917, Trotsky exhorts the crowd to prepare for a workers' revolution. A Red Guard Unit in 1917. These worker volunteers were the shock
Within two and a half years Trotsky had created a Red Army of five million soldiers. This force defeated several major counter-revolutionary offensives backed by armies of fifteen countries, including Germany, Britain, France, USA and Japan. Lenin addressing a demonstration in Sverdlov Square, Moscow in 1920 while Kamenev and Trotsky await their turn to speak. Later Stalin's propagandists painted Trotsky out of this scene, attempting to delete him from the history of the revolution.
Trotsky with the principal leaders of the Left Opposition in 1927. From left to right: front row, Serebriakov, Radek, Trotsky, Boguslavsky, reobrazhensky; standing Rakovsky, Drobnis, Beloborodov, osnovsky. However brief the association of some were with the Lef Opposition it cost them all their lives at the hands of Stalin. Trotshy's third great theoretical achievement was to establish the theoretical basis for an independent struggle for power by the working class in the less developed countrics. This of course was Trotsky's famous thesis of permanent revolution, de- veloped and refined in the struggle for and reflection on the Russian revolu- tion, and subsequently claborated especially in relation to the Chinese revolution during the 1920s. It was Trotsky who most clearly saw the impossibility of the national bourgeoisic' breaking with imperial- ism in less developed countrics, and the necessity for the working class to fight for leadership of the democratic revolution which would grow over towards the task establishing working class power and socialised property relations. Finally, Trotsky (for example in his Critique of the Dratt Programme of the Comintern and the Preface of the German edition of Permanent Re- volution) established more clearly than any other thinker the dialectical unity of the world revolution — and hence the need for a world party, the l'ourth International, to fight.
TROTSKY
Trotsky's work and life speak to us directly the problems we face today in fighting for socialism; problems of retormism, of Stalinism, of bureaucracy, of socialist democracy, and of the light for working class power. Tobca Leninist' ora Luxemburgist' todav is also to be a Trotskyist. David King's book will, we hope, encourage thousands of people to study the political work of Trotsky, and join the fight to complete it. THISKY Published by Basil Blackwell,
October 9th.
rotsky's murderer, Ramon Mercader - alias Jacques Mornard - alia rank Jacson, GPU agent and son of a GPU ageni Trotsky is dead, 21 August 1940.
TESTAMENT For forty-three years of my conscious life I have remained a revolutionist: for forty-two of them I have fought under the banner of Marxism. If I had to begin all over again I would of course try to avoid this or that mistake. but the main course of my life would remain unchanged. I shall die a proletarian revolutionist, a Marxist, a dialectical materialist, and consequently an irreconcilable atheist. My faith in the communist future of
Tis not less ardent, indeed it is firmer today, than it was in the days of my youth. Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the tuture generations cleanse it of all evil. oppression and violence and enjoy it to the full. Miner: L. Trotsky Coyoacan 27 February 1940
David King has spent almost twenty years visiting friends, comrades and supporters of the great revolutionary across the world to accumulate the photographic evidence. Now, with meticulous attention to detail, this book reconstructs a life story which has been distorted, falsified and suppressed more Tamara Deutscher has provided an introduction outlining the enduring significance of Trotsky's life and work while James Ryan recounts the events and summarizes the contributions Trotsky made to political theory and practice.
International Magazine (NI 2609) (B Blackwell) Disc BB2 PJB BLACKWELL Trotsky DAVID KING Introduction: Tamara Deutscher Text: James Ryan This book is based on David King's unique collection of photographs illustrating the life and death of one of the twentieth century's most controversial political figures. Without flattery or evasion, but with insight, understanding and humour—the reader is guided through the dramatic events which took Trotsky from his birthplace in a small Ukrainian village to the head of the world's first workers' state and then, as Stalin slowly strangled the Revolution, through opposition, persecution and exile to his assassination in Mexico City by Stalin's secret police. ruthlessly than any other in history. 336 pages, £19.50 (0 631 14689 X) Basil Blackwell 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF Suite 1503, 432 Park Avenue South, New York NY 10016
TROTSKY INTHODOCTION BY TAMARA DEUTSCA COMMENTARY BY JAMES RYAN
the Nicaraguan revolution
The progress of the agrarian reform in Nicaragua mirrors the progress of the revolution itself. STUART PIPER shows the Sandinistas' new course is changing radically THE STARTING POINT form malesis of the revolution in Nicaragua is the