Trotsky (Routledge Historical Biographies)

This new biography provides a full account of Leon Trotsky's political life, based upon a wealth of primary sources, including previously unpublished material.

Ian D. Thatcher paints a new picture of Trotsky's standing in Russian and world history. Key myths about Trotsky's heroic work as a revolutionary, especially in Russia's first revolution of 1905 and the Russian Civil War, are thrown into question. Although Trotsky had a limited understanding of crucial contemporary events such as Hitler's rise to power, he was an important thinker and politician, not least as a trenchant critic of Stalin's version of communism.

Ian D. Thatcher lectures in Modern Russian History at the University of Leicester. His previous publications include Leon Trotsky and World War One(2000) and Regime and Society in Twentieth-Century Russia(1999).