History of the Russian Revolution
Regarded by many as among the most powerful works of history ever written, this book offers an unparalleled account of one of the most pivotal and hotly debated events in world history. This book, released to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the Russian Revolution, reveals, from the perspective of one of its central actors, the revolution's profoundly democratic, emancipatory character. Originally published in three parts, Trotsky's masterpiece is collected here in a single volume. It serves as the most vital and inspiring record of the Russian Revolution to date.
"During the first two months of 1917 Russia was still a Romanov monarchy. Eight months later the Bolsheviks stood at the helm. They were little known to anybody when the year began, and their leaders were still under indictment for state treason when they came to power. You will not find another such sharp turn in history especially if you remember that it involves a nation of 150 million people. It is clear that the events of 1917, whatever you think of them, deserve study."
—Leon Trotsky, from History of the Russian Revolution
"During the first two months of 1917 Russia was still a Romanov monarchy. Eight months later the Bolsheviks stood at the helm. They were little known to anybody when the year began, and their leaders were still under indictment for state treason when they came to power. You will not find another such sharp turn in history especially if you remember that it involves a nation of 150 million people. It is clear that the events of 1917, whatever you think of them, deserve study."
—Leon Trotsky, from History of the Russian Revolution
Reviews
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"The greatest history of an event that I know."
—C. L. R. James
"Justly celebrated as a towering, vivid, historically vital work."
—China Miéville, October
"The History is his crowning work, both in scale and power and as the fullest expression of his ideas on revolution. As an account of a revolution, given by one of its chief actors, it stands unique in world literature."
—Isaac Deutscher
"I would routinely smuggle copies of Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution into the USSR—so our colleagues could know a little about their own political beginnings."
—Carl Sagan"This passionate, partisan and beautifully written account by a major participant in the revolution, written during his exile on the isle of Prinkipo in Turkey, remains one of the best accounts of 1917. No counter-revolutionary, conservative or liberal, has been able to compete with this telling."
—Tariq Ali
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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."
Other books by Leon Trotsky, translated by Max Eastman
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Stalin
by Leon Trotsky -
Trotsky on Lenin
by Leon Trotsky -
Lessons of October
by Leon Trotsky -
1905
by Leon Trotsky -
History of the Russian Revolution
by Leon Trotsky
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Literature and Revolution
by Leon Trotsky