Leon Trotsky wrote this autobiography while in exile in Turkey, following his expulsion from the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin. The narrative traces his development from a childhood in a Jewish farming family in Ukraine to his emergence as a key Marxist theoretician and leader of the Red Army. He details his arrests under the tsarist regime, his escape from Siberia, and the organizational mechanics of the 1917 October Revolution. The text emphasizes his theory of Permanent Revolution and provides a chronological account of the internal power struggles within the Politburo that led to his political isolation and eventual banishment.
This book serves historians and students of political theory who require a primary account of the transition from the Russian Empire to the Soviet state. Readers analyze the text to understand the tactical disagreements between Trotsky and his rivals regarding the future of international socialism. By following this personal history, the reader gains a technical perspective on insurrectionary planning and the bureaucratic shifts that altered the governance of the USSR. It provides a record of one man’s attempt to justify his historical role against the official revisions sanctioned by the state that rejected him.
- Published
- 1930
- Language
- EN
