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"The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky is a biography of Marxist revolutionary, Soviet politician, and founding leader of the Red Army Leon Trotsky (1879-1940). Although Trotsky was a major participant in Russia's 1917 Revolution, he was scapegoated during Stalin's murderous rise to power, which replaced the ideals of Communism with an iron-fist dictatorship. In 1940 Trotsky was assassinated, allegedly on Stalin's orders. Unlike other biographies, The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky is unique in that it is by two people close Trotsky: his widow Natalia Sedova Trotsky (who was also a Bolshevik) and Victor Serge, a revolutionary and novelist. An index rounds out this "must-read" for anyone studying Trotsky's life and philosophy, or major figures in modern Russian history. Highly recommended, especially for public and college library collections."
—Midwest Book Review"Serge and Sedova pack a great amount of detail into less than 300 pages, especially when discussing Trotsky’s life from 1917 onward. Less comprehensive than Isaac Deutscher’s well-known "Trotsky trilogy," it is a more approachable introduction and offers a more personal touch than Deutscher can provide, especially when Sedova—whose words appear in quotations—speaks."
—Jason Shulman, Democratic Left
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"The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky is a biography of Marxist revolutionary, Soviet politician, and founding leader of the Red Army Leon Trotsky (1879-1940). Although Trotsky was a major participant in Russia's 1917 Revolution, he was scapegoated during Stalin's murderous rise to power, which replaced the ideals of Communism with an iron-fist dictatorship. In 1940 Trotsky was assassinated, allegedly on Stalin's orders. Unlike other biographies, The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky is unique in that it is by two people close Trotsky: his widow Natalia Sedova Trotsky (who was also a Bolshevik) and Victor Serge, a revolutionary and novelist. An index rounds out this "must-read" for anyone studying Trotsky's life and philosophy, or major figures in modern Russian history. Highly recommended, especially for public and college library collections."
Midwest Book Review
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The Death Agony of the Monarchy: Russia on the Eve of Revolution
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated a hundred years ago today, bringing to an end three centuries of Romanov rule. In this extract from his History of the Russian Revolution, Trotsky describes the final days of Imperial Russia. Incompetent, vain, and almost comically ignorant of the historic events unfolding around it, the Tsarist regime fell, in Trotsky's words, "like rotten fruit."
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Victor Serge, The Unconquered
William Giraldi for The Baffler
Some writers are destined to have two deaths—the first in life, and the second in memory. The lucky ones can be resurrected from that second death by cultural circumstance and the aid of overseeing angels, irked by injustice, believing these Lazaruses should be helped from their tombs. In 2004, Susan Sontag opened her essay “Unextinguished” with this query, much to the present case: “How to explain the obscurity of one of the most compelling of twentieth-century ethical and literary heroes, Victor Serge?”
Other books by Natalia Ivanovna Sedova and Victor Serge
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Year One of the Russian Revolution
by Victor Serge -
Witness to the German Revolution
by Victor Serge -
Revolution In Danger
by Victor Serge