DentArthurDent wrote:
Yes if Trotsky and the Left Opposition had won through we might be living in a very different world. The theory of permanent revolution has nothing to do with invading Soviet Armies(that was Stalins approach)it is about building the political conciousness of the working class, funding their parties and helping them build a principled revolutionary party so that gradually, slowly the working class forms its own state apparatus.
The theory of permanent revolution also required that revolution occur in other states, hence the USSR had an urgent need to foment revolt across Europe. Many Mensheviks (and Trotsky was, once upon a time, a Menshevik) were in favor of turning WWI into a great revolutionary war to spread Communist ideals. In any case, other countries would not like having the Soviets support Communist revolutionaries, so Trotskyist policies would most likely have led to armed conflict with other European powers. Given how effective Trotsky was as Commissar of War, it's possible that he would have been very successful fighting these other nations.
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Trotsky was not some latent Neo Bonaparte. To think that he was anything but a very principled Marxist shows a lack of knowledge.
Whether he was or was not the next Napoleon is debatable, that was the fear of people close to him in the leadership at the time who had studied history and sought to avoid the mistakes of the past. No one expected Robespierre to abuse his power the way he did during the French Revolution. To claim that Trotsky was an orthodox Marxist seems inaccurate, as he went against traditional Marxist notions on several important points, and furthermore he vacillated several times as was politically expedient. Was he principled? Perhaps. We will never know how he would have behaved had he gained the upper hand in his power struggle with Stalin.
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WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
27 Mar 2009, 9:08 pm
