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Problems of Everyday Life: Creating the Foundations for a New Society in Revolutionary Russia

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Leon Trotsky, the founder of the Red Army, commisar of the Russian army and navy, not only was a brilliant politician, he was also a brillian journalist. Evidence of his journalistic prowess is the wonderful compilation of Trosky's writings & speeches, "Problems of Everyday Life". The title would suggest that he is to some degree a philosopher, but as he writes early in the book, the opinions stated in the book are by no means original.

In this particular work, Trotsky describes a large spectrum of subjects that people in his position(arguably one of the most powerful politicians of the twentieth century), would have considered insignificant. The name of some of the chapters provides a glimpse of what I am talking about. Here is a name of a chapter in Part I, "Vodka, the Church, and the Cinema". In this chapter, Trotsky states that as opposed to abolishing religion by force, the state should persuade individuals to leave their religious sect for more realistic alternatives(and in this case, he says the cinema is a solid alternative). Another name of a chapter is, "the struggle for cultured speech". In this chapter, Trotsky says the Russian language likely has the most profane and disgusting terms of any language(clearly he didn't know English to the extent he thought!), and he provides a program that could be used to eliminate the usage of such disgusting terms. In another chapter, which presently eludes my mind, Trotsky explains why individuals should opt for cremation, as opposed to Christian burials.

Conversely, the book is sectioned off into four parts, 1.Problems of Everyday Life, 2.Education and Culture, 3.Science and Technology, 4.The Materilist Outlook. And as the name of the sections would suggest, the book is rich in opinions & observations. To a potential reader, I would definitely suggest this very insightful work, it's the equivalant of reading a book on etiquette, science, literature, etc, by a real genius(similar to Einstien's "Ideas and Observations"). Even if you disagree with Trotsky's materialist outlook on life, and his theory of permanent revolution, read this book, it will almost certainly make a positive impact on your relations with friends, relatives, and of course, adversaries.

This is not a "self-help" book, or a psychiatry book that tries to make you accept things no matter how grim they get in society around you-- unlike other books that popped up when I searched the database for "problems of everyday life." This collection of articles by Leon Trotsky, a central leader of the Russian Revolution in its early years, is much more challenging and interesting.

It was first written for the millions of workers and young people who were inspired to join the heroic struggles to overthrow the Czarist social order in Russia and take first steps towards building a socialist society. Full of a wonderful sense of respect for each individual and the capacities of ordinary men and women to work together to overcome society's ills. Takes up the challenges of illiteracy; real education in sciences, art, literature; punctuality and accuracy in work; of overcoming alcoholism and superstition -- not as an individual escape or salvation but as necessary and possible steps to be tackled in forging a new society.

A sample of the contents: "Vodka, the Church, and the Cinema," "Civility and Politeness as a Necessary Lubricant in Daily Relations," "The Newspaper and Its Readers," "Leninism and Library Work," "Radio, Science, Technology and Society," "Young People, Study Politics!"

Don't miss it!

These articles and speeches struggle against the corrupting and degrading aspects of capitalist culture that remained in Russia after the Russian revolution.

Here, Trotsky talks about the importance of fun and amusement for workers freed of moralizing and paternalistic pedagogy. Here, Trotsky explains why young people must study politics, fight for a bigger role in society, and look to world struggles. Here, Trotsky explains the importance of attention to detail, libraries, punctuality, and getting rid of profanity.
This is a good book to read today. We all need to the clean out the filth of capitalist culture that has wedged its way into the pores of our everyday life.

While this book is sometimes not directly available from Amazon, it is always available from BooksfromPathfinder, which you can reach by clicking on New and Used further up this page.

Sometimes those of us embattled socialists still trying to propagandize for the socialist worldview get so totally caught up in that fight that we at times neglect the goals of our efforts. No so Leon Trotsky who, despite being in a continual fight inside the Russian Communist Party in the 1920's to save and extend the Russian Revolution, from time to time put out essays and gave speeches on behalf of that goal. The book under review contains a wide ranging selection of some of the everyday issues and examples of the aspirational messages given him at the time. Although some of those issues are particular to the Russian situation at the time due to the underdevelopment of Russian society (and unfortunately now, in the post-Soviet era, as well) some of the aspirational essays should be taken to heart by socialists working today.

Generally when educated people speak of culture they are referring to "high culture", the arts and the like. Trotsky was not unaware of that distinction and wrote many enduring essays elsewhere on the subjects of literature and the arts. Here Trotsky looks at the deeper meaning of culture for the mass of society. That is, those characteristics and manners of behavior that would lead to a more educated workforce, a more enlightened population and that would give the fight for a socialist society a gigantic push forward. Thus, he writes about the problems of endemic alcoholism, illiteracy, swearing, the fight against religious superstition, the fight for cleanliness and promptness and the like. Except in a mocking manner most cultural writers do not take such issues seriously except to distance themselves from the habits of the under- classes. Yet here was a big-time intellectual, revolutionary leader and in this reviewer's opinion an exemplar of communist man harping on the necessity of acquiring just such virtues.

Part of the compilation in this book is also taken up with Trotsky's daydreaming in print about how a future socialist and later communist classless society might look. He did not neglect the importance of using the preexisting industrial apparatus left from capitalism as the starting point. He also presents many interesting predictions about the use of technology, including nuclear technology, and mass communications to make the transition easier. However, Trotsky's dreams certainly do not include a theory of "barrack communism", that is, the equality of all citizens based on scarcity or return to a more primitive form of society. On the contrary, Trotsky's communist future is explicitly based on abundance so that the question of daily survival is taken off the agenda for the mass of humankind. Then society will, as a matter of course, develop many great political thinkers, literary writer and other types of geniuses and put the geniuses of past societies in the shade. Yes, I can get behind goals like that. Yes, those are what the goals of socialism are all about.

I started to read this book in an attempt to get a better idea of the revolutionary and communinistic atmosphere in the Soviet. Maybe it is just me, but I could not finish this book. It is extremely hard to read and not too interesting, in my opinion. I may recommend a different book on Trotsky and the revolution...