The name Leon Trotsky is a controversial one. For some, he was a betrayer or a totalitarian. For others, he was a revolutionary knight battling an oppressive system. However you view him, Trotsky was a one of the most important gures of twentieth-century Communism. A leader of the 1917 Bolshevik insurrection in Russia, he organized and led the Red Army to victory in the Russian Civil War - but was challenged and eventually defeated by his rival Joseph Stalin. Trotsky lived the rest of his life in exile until Stalin nally had him killed.In Leon Trotsky, Paul Le Blanc delves deep to understand Trotskys complex character, relationships, actions and ideas. Interweaving dramatic historical events with Trotskys multi-faceted personality, this book explores his involvement with and opposition to the Soviet bureaucracy, and his efforts to revitalize the revolutionary wing of the labour movement. Revealed here are his urgent warnings of Hitlers rise and the spread of fascism, his penetrating understanding of the French Popular Front and the Spanish Civil War, and his analysis of the ominous beginnings of the Second World War. Throughout, Trotsky remained animated by the early ideals of the Communist tradition.

The name Leon Trotsky is a controversial one. For some, he was a betrayer or a totalitarian. For others, he was a revolutionary knight battling an oppressive system. However you view him, Trotsky was a one of the most important gures of twentieth-century Communism. A leader of the 1917 Bolshevik insurrection in Russia, he organized and led the Red Army to victory in the Russian Civil War - but was challenged and eventually defeated by his rival Joseph Stalin. Trotsky lived the rest of his life in exile until Stalin nally had him killed.In Leon Trotsky, Paul Le Blanc delves deep to understand Trotskys complex character, relationships, actions and ideas. Interweaving dramatic historical events with Trotskys multi-faceted personality, this book explores his involvement with and opposition to the Soviet bureaucracy, and his efforts to revitalize the revolutionary wing of the labour movement. Revealed here are his urgent warnings of Hitlers rise and the spread of fascism, his penetrating understanding of the French Popular Front and the Spanish Civil War, and his analysis of the ominous beginnings of the Second World War. Throughout, Trotsky remained animated by the early ideals of the Communist tradition.