Leon Trotsky Speaks

By Leon Trotsky

Book Overview

The major political questions of the 20th century, discussed by an outstanding communist leader. Includes a defense of the right to revolution, made in 1906 in the prisoner's dock of the tsarist... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873482220
• ISBN13: 9780873482226
• Release Date: January 1972
• Publisher: Pathfinder
• Length: 427 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Organizing and Defending a Revolution

Organizing and Defending a RevolutionLeon Trotsky was a participant in the most significant class battles of the 20th century. This book collects some of Trotsky's key speeches and writings from the Russian Revolution, and his effort to defend it even when persecuted by the Stalin gang that usurped power and murdered the revolution's leaders. It is a great introduction to the Russian revolution and to Trotsky's other works. Read about how the Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies (Trotsky was the President) organized the insurrection; the revolutionary government's efforts to lead working people forward; how Stalin undermined the Soviet Union by seeking a pact with Hitler.

Speeches of a working class leader in action

I found a lot to be learned from this collection of talks, reports and declarations by this leader of the Russian Revolution, given in wildly different settings to different audiences, over decades of revolutionary working class struggle. Above all, you see Trotsky appealing to, educating, and inspiring workers and peasants with an understanding of the challenges they faced and a confidence in their ability to take on unprecedented historical tasks. His speech in a Czarist court defending the workers councils (Soviets) of the 1905 Russian revolution is of the same spirit as Nelson Mandela or Fidel Castro when they in turn were on trial by their oppressors. Read the messages and transcripts of speeches given during the whirlwind of the October Revolution in Russia-- a working class leader in day-by-day action. And especially worth studying, Trotsky's talks to gatherings of workers, soldiers, and party members analyzing the changing relations between the major world powers and between the toiling and exploiting classes of those nations, and the different policies pursued by the new Soviet government as these circumstances changed-- you'll learn a lot about how society works and what it takes to really change it.

Passion, Reason, Power to find our way out

Trotsky was a great orator, a great writer, but above all he was impassioned by his faith in the power of working people to change the world, a vision he never lost. This is where the power of these great speeches comes from. Read them and learn how to harness that power for today's fights. The speeches here don't appeal to cheap emotion, nor do they appeal to fancy phraseology, they appeal to reason, they appeal to history, they appeal to the power of working people to change the world. Read these speeches not for history, but for how their ideas can be used to fight our way out of the disaster modern capitalism has left the world in, and to find a way out for the peoples in the former Stalinized countries.

Attests to Trotsky's genius.

If you're reading this review, you probably already own, or have read some of Trotsky's writings. Which means I don't have to expound to you his genius as a theorist and literary critic. What I will do is explain how this book further displays Trotsky's remarkable abilities.Most educated people have a rudimentary knowledge of Trotsky's life, and are well aware of the fact he was one of the greatest orators of the twentieth century. But what 'Leon Trotsky Speaks' does, is succintly show the reader "why" Trotsky was a great orator. 'Trotsky speaks' is an anthology of Trotsky's speeches from the first Russian Revolution of 1905, to his years of exile in the 1930's. When I opened the book, I was absolutely dumbfounded by the incredible length of his speeches, every speech of his would take hours to recite, which is remarkable, the longest I can give a speech before having my voice go hoarse is about half-an hour. Not only were his speeches long, they are interesting, just reading the speeches, I realize why audiences were captivated by his words. Although I write from a biased position, being a Trotskist, I highly recommend this book, not only will it improve your understanding of Trotsky's genius, it will also give an aspiring speechwriter a flawless orator to emulate.