My Life: An Attempt at an Autobiography (Dover Value Editions) [Paperback]

Leon Trotsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 2007 | Series: Dover Value Editions

This priceless historical document by the Bolshevik leader features firsthand accounts from the top levels of the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Trotsky chronicles the struggle to consolidate a government run by workers and peasants, along with the rift between Lenin and Stalin and its political consequences.

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications; Dover Ed edition (June 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486456099
• ISBN-13: 978-0486456096
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #288,711 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Making of a Revolutionary, February 13, 2006

By 

Alfred Johnson (boston, ma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My life: An attempt at an autobiography (Hardcover)

Today we expect political memoir writers to take part in a game of show and tell about the most intimate details of their private personal lives on their road to celebrity. Refreshingly, you will find no such tantalizing details in Russian Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky's memoir written in 1930 just after Stalin had exiled him to Turkey. Instead you will find a thoughtful political self-examination by a man trying to draw the lessons of his fall from power in order to set his future political agenda. This task is in accord with his stated conception of his role as an individual agent at service in the historical struggle toward a socialist future. Thus, underlying the selection of events highlighted in the memoir such as the rise of the revolutionary wave in Russia in 1905 and 1917, the devastation to the socialist program of World War I and the degeneration of the Russian Revolution especially after Lenin's death and the failure of the German Revolution of 1923 is a sense of urgency about the need for continued struggle for a socialist future. It also provides a platform as well for polemics against those foes and former supporters who have either abandoned or betrayed that struggle.

At the beginning of the 21st century when socialist political programs are in decline it is hard to imagine the spirit that drove Trotsky to dedicate his whole life to the fight for a socialist society. However, at the beginning of the 20th century he represented only the most consistent and audacious of a revolutionary generation of Eastern Europeans and Russians who set out to change the history of the 20th century. It was as if the best and brightest of that generation were afraid, for better or worse, not to take part in the political struggles that would shape the modern world. As Trotsky notes this element was lacking, with the exceptions of Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and precious few others, in the Western labor movement. Trotsky using his own experiences tells the story of the creation of this revolutionary cadre with care and generally proper proportions.

Many of the events such as the disputes within the Russian revolutionary movement, the attempts by the Western Powers to overthrow the Bolsheviks in the Civil War after their seizure of power and the struggle of the various tendencies inside the Russian Communist Party and in the Communist International discussed in the book may not be familiar to today's audience. Nevertheless one can still learn something from the strength of Trotsky's commitment to his cause and the fight to preserve his personal and political integrity against overwhelming odds. As the organizer of the October Revolution, creator of the Red Army in the Civil War, orator, writer and fighter Trotsky he was one of the most feared men of the early 20th century to friend and foe alike. Nevertheless, I do not believe that he took his personal fall from power as a world historic tragedy. Moreover, he does not gloss over his political mistakes. Nor does he generally do personal injustice to his various political opponents although I would not want to have been subject to his rapier wit and pen. Politicians, revolutionary or otherwise, in our times should take note.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Summary of My Life, February 1, 2011

By 

Danny - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Life: An Attempt at an Autobiography (Dover Value Editions) (Paperback)

This literary work is a good compliment to any Marxist/Communist collection. It contained everything that I was hoping for: An additional perspective of the aspirations of the political far left. Personal insight of the social and political atmosphere around the turn of the 20th century. Lenin's background and his relationship with the author. The politically sensitive history of Europe during WWI. A brief summary of the Red's rise to power and the Russian Civil War that followed. Stalin's secret to success that transformed The U.S.S.R. to a fascist state. The political climate at the eve of the global depression. And of course the boundaries of the civil freedom provided by a bourgeois influenced democracy.
If there is any complaint about the book, it would be the lack of being self critical. Although he admitted to committing errors he would rarely dissect those issues.