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Trotskyism

Leon Trotsky, after whom Trotskyism is named.
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Trotskyism (Russian: Троцкизм, Trotskizm) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual[1][2] Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an orthodox Marxist, a revolutionary Marxist, and a Bolshevik–Leninist as well as a follower of Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Karl Liebknecht, and Rosa Luxemburg. His relations with Lenin have been a source of intense historical debate.[3][4] However, on balance, scholarly opinion among a range of prominent historians and political scientists such as E.H. Carr, Isaac Deutscher, Moshe Lewin, Ronald Suny, Richard B. Day and W. Bruce Lincoln was that Lenin’s desired “heir” would have been a collective responsibility in which Trotsky was placed in "an important role and within which Stalin would be dramatically demoted (if not removed)".[5]

Trotsky advocated for a decentralized form of economic planning,[6] worker's control of production,[7][8] elected representation of Soviet socialist parties,[9][10] mass soviet democratization,[11][12][13] the tactic of a united front against far-right parties,[14] cultural autonomy for artistic movements,[15] voluntary collectivisation,[16][17] a transitional program[18] and socialist internationalism.[19] He supported founding a vanguard party of the proletariat, and a dictatorship of the proletariat (as opposed to the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie", which Marxists argue is a major component of capitalism) based on working-class self-emancipation and council democracy. Trotsky also adhered to scientific socialism and viewed this as a conscious expression of historical processes.[20] Trotskyists are critical of Stalinism as they oppose Joseph Stalin's theory of socialism in one country in favour of Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution. Trotskyists criticize the bureaucracy and anti-democratic current developed in the Soviet Union under Stalin.

Despite their ideological disputes, Trotsky and Lenin were close personally prior to the London Congress of Social Democrats in 1903 and during the First World War. Lenin and Trotsky were close ideologically and personally during the Russian Revolution and its aftermath. Trotskyists and some others call Trotsky its "co-leader".[note 1][21] This was also alluded to by Rosa Luxemburg.[22] Lenin himself never mentioned the concept of "Trotskyism" after Trotsky became a member of the Bolshevik party.[23] Trotsky was the Red Army's paramount leader in the Revolutionary period's direct aftermath. Trotsky initially opposed some aspects of Leninism[24][25] but eventually concluded that unity between the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks was impossible and joined the Bolsheviks. Trotsky played a leading role with Lenin in the October Revolution. Lenin and Trotsky were also both honorary presidents of the Third International.[26] Trotskyists have traditionally drawn upon Lenin's testament and his alliance with Trotsky in 1922–23 against the Soviet bureaucracy as primary evidence that Lenin sought to remove Stalin from the position of General Secretary.[27] Various historians have also cited Lenin's proposal to appoint Trotsky Vice-Chairman of the Soviet Union as further evidence that he intended Trotsky to be his successor as head of government.[28][29][30][31][32]

In 1927, Trotsky was purged from the Communist Party and Soviet politics. In October, by order of Stalin,[33] Trotsky was removed from power and, in November, expelled from the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (aka: VKP(b)). He was exiled to Alma-Ata (now Almaty) in January 1928 and then expelled from the USSR in February 1929. As the head of the Fourth International, Trotsky continued in exile to oppose what he termed the degenerated workers' state in the USSR. On 20 August 1940, Trotsky was attacked in Mexico City by Ramón Mercader, a Spanish-born NKVD agent, and died the next day in a hospital. His murder is considered a political assassination. Almost all Trotskyists within the VKP(b) were executed in the Great Purges of 1937–1938, effectively removing all of Trotsky's internal influence in the USSR. Nikita Khrushchev had come to power as head of the Communist Party in Ukraine, signing lists of other Trotskyists to be executed. Trotsky and the party of Trotskyists were still recognized as enemies of the USSR during Khrushchev's rule of the USSR after 1956.[34] Trotsky's Fourth International was established in the French Third Republic in 1938 when Trotskyists argued that the Comintern or Third International had become irretrievably "lost to Stalinism" and thus incapable of leading the international working class to political power.[35]

  1. ^ Traverso, Enzo (19 October 2021). Revolution: An Intellectual History. Verso Books. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-83976-333-5.
  2. ^ Blackledge, Paul (2006). "Leon Trotsky's Contribution to the Marxist Theory of History". Studies in East European Thought. 58 (1): 1–31. doi:10.1007/s11212-005-3677-z. JSTOR 20099925. S2CID 85504744.
  3. ^ Swain 2014, pp. 1–10.
  4. ^ North 2010, pp. 52–90.
  5. ^ Blanc, Paul Le (15 April 2015). Leon Trotsky. Reaktion Books. pp. 1–30. ISBN 978-1-78023-471-7.
  6. ^ Twiss, Thomas M. (8 May 2014). Trotsky and the Problem of Soviet Bureaucracy. BRILL. pp. 105–106. ISBN 978-90-04-26953-8.
  7. ^ Wiles, Peter (14 June 2023). The Soviet Economy on the Brink of Reform: Essays in Honor of Alec Nove. Taylor & Francis. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-000-88190-5.
  8. ^ "Leon Trotsky: Workers' Control of Production (1931)". www.marxists.org.
  9. ^ Deutscher 2015, p. 293.
  10. ^ Trotsky 1991, p. 218.
  11. ^ Wiles, Peter (14 June 2023). The Soviet Economy on the Brink of Reform: Essays in Honor of Alec Nove. Taylor & Francis. pp. 25–40. ISBN 978-1-000-88190-5.
  12. ^ Knei-Paz 1978, pp. 207–215.
  13. ^ Mandel, Ernest (5 May 2020). Trotsky as Alternative. Verso Books. pp. 84–86. ISBN 978-1-78960-701-7.
  14. ^ Ticktin 1992, p. 227.
  15. ^ Eagleton, Terry (7 March 2013). Marxism and Literary Criticism. Routledge. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-134-94783-6.
  16. ^ Beilharz 2019, pp. 196–197.
  17. ^ Rubenstein 2011, p. 161.
  18. ^ Löwy, Michael (2005). The Theory of Revolution in the Young Marx. Haymarket Books. p. 191. ISBN 978-1-931859-19-6.
  19. ^ Cox, Michael (1992). "Trotsky and His Interpreters; or, Will the Real Leon Trotsky Please Stand up?". The Russian Review. 51 (1): 84–102. doi:10.2307/131248. JSTOR 131248.
  20. ^ Trotsky 2019, p. 138.
  21. ^ "Revolutionary Communist Party: Revolutionary in Name Only". Workers Vanguard. No. 823. 2 April 2004. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  22. ^ Luxemburg, Rosa. "Fundamental Significance of the Russian Revolution". The Russian Revolution – via Marxists Internet Archive.
  23. ^ Rogovin, Vadim Zakharovich (2021). Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years. Mehring Books. p. 281. ISBN 978-1-893638-97-6.
  24. ^ Trotsky, Leon. Our Political Tasks. Translated by New Park Publications. New Park Publications. Retrieved 29 June 2020 – via Marxists Internet Archive.
  25. ^ Lenin, Vladimir (1974) [21 January 1932]. "Judas Trotsky's Blush of Shame". Lenin Collected Works. Vol. 17. Translated by Cox, Dora. Moscow: Progress Publishers. p. 45. Retrieved 29 June 2020 – via Marxists Internet Archive.
  26. ^ Deutscher 2015, p. 605.
  27. ^ Woods, Alan; Grant, Ted (1976). Lenin and Trotsky – What they really stood for. Wellred Books. pp. 95–107, 108–123, 185–219.
  28. ^ Danilov, Victor; Porter, Cathy (1990). "We Are Starting to Learn about Trotsky". History Workshop (29): 136–146. ISSN 0309-2984. JSTOR 4288968.
  29. ^ Daniels 2008, p. 438.
  30. ^ Watson, Derek (27 July 2016). Molotov and Soviet Government: Sovnarkom, 1930-41. Springer. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-349-24848-3.
  31. ^ Deutscher, Isaac (1965). The prophet unarmed: Trotsky, 1921-1929. New York, Vintage Books. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-394-70747-1.
  32. ^ Dziewanowski, M. K. (2003). Russia in the twentieth century. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-13-097852-3.
  33. ^ "Stalin banishes Trotsky – Jan 11, 1928". History.com. 21 July 2010. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
  34. ^ Taubman, William (2003). Khrushchev: The Man and His Era. Simon & Schuster. pp. 56–57. ISBN 978-0-393-32484-6.
  35. ^ Trotsky, Leon (May–June 1938). "The Transitional Program". Bulletin of the Opposition. Retrieved 5 November 2008 – via Marxists Internet Archive.


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