The Prophet Armed: Trotsky 1879-1921

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable whitewash
Review: For nearly all its existence since Lenin's death in 1924 Trotsky (aka Lev Davidovich Bronstein) was Satan in the Bolshevik's manichean view of the world. Most of the purges of the 1930s were allegedly meant to cleanse Soviet society and its key institutions (the Communist Party, the unions, the Red Army, the intelligentsia) of the Trotskyte taint that, like some sort of Original Sin, pervaded the proletarian dictatorship. Stalin tried to erase Trotsky from the history of the Revolution. He even erased Trotsky's physical attributes, not just by killing him in 1940, half a world away, but by obliterating his likeness wherever it might have been found.

This book, published fifty years ago, tried to counter the Stalinist plot against Trotsky by vindicating his key role in the 1905 and 1917 revolutions, in the Civil War and in the establishment of the Red Army and the Soviet state. The author partially succeeds. Here we see Trotsky in all his glory, as perhaps he would have liked to be remembered, as a child prodigy who from humble rural beginnings quickly found his way in the world, as a professional revolutionary, as a brilliant polemist and orator, who even as a young man was seen as worthy counterpart to Lenin, and far above the rest of the Party, as a good hearted man who tried to promote harmony within the Party and failed at it, as a cultured, civilized "westernizer", much more appealing than the brutal Stalin, who came straight from the "log cabin" of czarist barbarism. He also came up with many good ideas, such as Lenin's New Economic Policy. Deutscher also gives us some of the darker sides to Trotsky's scintillating personna. He was proud and haughty, but brittle. He was abusive to others, often unnecessarily. He often let abstractions and daydreams take the place of reality. And he came up with many bad ideas, such as War Communism and the Militarization of Labor.

But, given Deutscher's profile (he was a Trotskyte) the book is often a competent whitewash. The author shares Trotsky's (and the Bolshevik's) worldview to a great extent, and sees the October Revolution as a worthy action. Mostly, he takes Trotskyte and Bolshevik motives as justification for their actions. He portrays opponents (such as the White Guards and nationalist Ukrainians and Poles) as illegitimate. Nowhere does the awfulness of Soviet rule, and the brutality of the Bolshevik leaders come through, except perhaps in their remarkably abusive writings. To find such bitchiness nowadays one would have to refer to the academic world, where the nastiness is commensurate to the irrelevance of that which is being discussed.

Also, the book is often not very readable as history. The author will often refer to future or past events in a single page, without indication of the precise dates, which makes this a hard book to read for someone not familiar with the October Revolution.

Having said this, a good reason to read this book is that it is beautifully written, and that the author really does get very close to his subject, which is mostly a negative in that he lacks perspective, but does bring the advantage of great liveliness which makes this a very good read. This reminds me of Preston's life of General Franco. Preston hated his subject and was unable utterly to develop any empathy with him, so the book was fairly arid and not insightful. Deutscher has the opposite defect: he gets too close, as perhaps does Nicholas Farrell to Mussolini. The ideal would be like Kershaw's Hitler or Short's Mao: far enough to look the monster in the eye, but not close enough to kiss him.

At this book's end, Trotsky is at the apex of his power, from which he would begin to slip during Lenin's final year. But this is better left to volume II, which I also hope to review.

So read the book, but don't take Deutscher at his word. Complement this with Volkogonov's Trotsky. And with Trotsky's own voluminous writings, which are often very amusing (particularly his biography of Stalin).

Rating:
Summary: Hagiography of a traitor to Russia and the revolution
Review: From the start, Trotsky always thought that revolution in any one country could only succeed if it received the active support of revolutions in other countries. But similarly, these other revolutions would also need to receive help from others: the Russian revolution could not survive without a revolution in Germany, but neither could a German revolution survive without a Russian. This mutual dependence meant that no country could ever start a revolution: it would have to wait on the success of another.
So to provoke these indispensable other revolutions, Trotsky was quite prepared to invade other countries. For example, in 1919 he wrote, "A cavalry corps of 30-40,000 horsemen must be formed to invade India."
Similarly, at Brest-Litovsk in February 1918, Trotsky made the Soviet revolution's very survival depend on the putative German revolution, risking total defeat by the German army on the throw of a revolution in Germany. He said, "We declare we end the war but do not sign a peace. They will be unable to make an offensive against us. If they attack us, our position will be no worse than now ..." This phrase-mongering did not frighten the German generals, who saw only that Trotsky was refusing to sign the offered peace. They then attacked, as he said they could not do, and seized millions of square miles of Soviet territory, making the Soviet position far worse than before.
In the 1930s, the Opposition leagued with Hitler. Churchill wrote, "The German government was in touch with important Russian personalities through the Soviet embassy in Prague. The plot aimed at overthrowing Stalin and introducing into Russia a new pro-German regime. Soviet Russia carried out a merciless but doubtless useful purge of political and economic circles. The Soviet army was purged of pro-German elements." Goebels admitted, "Stalin got rid of all the opposition circles in the Red Army and thus succeeded in making sure there were no more defeatist groups in the Army."
The Opposition fought against the programmes of industrialisation and collectivisation that made possible all the Soviet Union's heroic achievements. For instance, in April 1930, Trotsky's Bulletin of the Opposition said, "Put a stop to `mass collectivisation'. ... Put a stop to the hurdle race of industrialisation. ... Abandon the `ideals' of self-contained economy. Draw up a new variant of a plan providing for the widest possible intercourse with the world market." In 1938, Trotsky called for the collective farms to be closed down, and for Soviet enterprises to be handed over to foreign powers.
He consistently called on the Soviet people to overthrow the Soviet government when Hitler attacked. He called for a `revolutionary uprising', an `insurrection' against the Soviet government, when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. He wrote, "the impetus to the Soviet workers' revolutionary upsurge will probably be given by events outside the country." "The first social shock, external or internal, may throw the atomized Soviet Society into civil war."
He asked, "Can we expect that the Soviet Union will come out of the coming great war without defeat? To this frankly posed question, we will answer as frankly: If the war should remain only a war, the defeat of the Soviet Union would be inevitable. In a technical, economic and military sense, imperialism is incomparably more strong. If it is not paralysed by revolution in the West, imperialism will sweep away the present regime." "The defeat of the Soviet Union is inevitable in case the new war shall not provoke a new revolution. ... If we theoretically admit war without revolution, then the defeat of the Soviet Union is inevitable."
He wrote, "It would be childish to think that the Stalin bureaucracy can be removed by means of a Party or Soviet Congress. Normal, constitutional means are no longer available for the removal of the ruling clique. ... They can be compelled to hand over power to the Proletarian vanguard only by FORCE."
"Inside the Party, Stalin has put himself above all criticism and the State. It is impossible to displace him except by assassination. Every oppositionist becomes ipso facto a terrorist."
Trotsky lied to the `Dewey Commission' when he told them that that he had not been organising an underground in the Soviet Union.
The leader of Trotsky's Fourth International, Ernest Mandel, openly applauded Boris Yeltsin, the key figure in the counter-revolution that finally restored capitalism in the Soviet Union. He wrote, "The reformer Yeltsin represents the tendency which wants to reduce the gigantic state apparatus. Consequently he follows in Trotsky's footsteps."
The Socialist Workers Party backed the US-organised and funded terrorists, which spawned bin Laden, against the people of Afghanistan. "Mujehadin victory will encourage the opponents of Russian rule everywhere in the USSR and Eastern Europe."


Rating:
Summary: The Trotsky Reader
Review: Isaac Deutscher is the only one capable of writing such a great book about one of Russias' greatest man. This book is made up of three parts, three components. The Prophet Unarmed, The Prophet Armed, and the Prophet Outcast are combined to create a monumental book on a monumental man.

Rating:
Summary: The Trotsky Reader
Review: Isaac Deutscher is the only one capable of writing such a great book about one of Russias' greatest man. This book is made up of three parts, three components. The Prophet Unarmed, The Prophet Armed, and the Prophet Outcast are combined to create a monumental book on a monumental man.

Rating:
Summary: A great biography about an overlooked man
Review: Leon Trotsky would seem to most people today, simply by nature of having been a Communist and a founder of the Soviet Union, an utter irrelevance. Fifty years ago, when Deutscher published this volume of his chronicle Trotsky's life this was not the case. Trotsky was more libeled by Stalin's Soviet Union and the sycophantic Communist Parties of the Third International than any dissident has ever been by any regime. Deutscher took it upon himself to save the founder of the Red Army from an oblivion that he did not deserve, and place him in the pantheon of twentieth century giants where he belonged. The fact that his book is still in print after half a century shows that in the eyes of some portion of the reading public he succeded.

This first volume deals with Trotsky's genesis from a bookish and brilliant student to a commited revolutionary and his successful part--second only Lenin--in leading the Soviet Union to victory against the forces of reaction. The years of Trotsky's life in exile; as the flamboyant leader of the St. Petersburg Soviet during the 1905 revolution; his violent and polemical disagreements with Lenin on socialist doctrine in the years before the Bolshevik seizure of power; and the often overlooked Trotsky who was a great critic of art and literature are all recounted with utter beauty. This biography reads like the best fiction because of Deutscher's unbelievable control over the English language--he did not begin using the language on a regular basis until after his thirteith year.

Overall, for anyone interested in the beginning of that great experiment gone awry that has rightfully been consigned ash heap of history--Soviet socialism--this book is an absolute must. The Trotsky who was responsible for birthing the Soviet Union rightfully appears to the reader, especially in light of the state's collapse in 1991, as one who would have ensured that it would still exist today in a form that would have made the priveleged and the exploiters of the world quack with a fear that the murderous Stalinists never dreamed of--and without all the murder. Oh Brave world that never was!!

Rating:
Summary: Great and very informative book
Review: This is a great and very informative book, you never get tired of reading it

Rating:
Summary: An excellent biography. Get this book and the other 2.
Review: This is an excellent biography of Trotsky, and, despite the fact it takes up 3 books, it makes up excellent reading and gives one understanding of not just the life of Trotsky, but the reason for many of the peculiar changes that happened in the USSR in it's early days. It leaves the reader quite well informed, and one gets to meet quite a few revolutionaries through the book, including Zasulich, Axelrod, Plekhanov, and Parvus. Get it!