The Thucydides of the Russian Revolution

Leon Trotsky’s The History of the Russian Revolution (1930) remains the best detailed introduction to the revolution, its social complexities, its narrative, and its class dynamics. Embedded within the narrative of the three-volume tome is a contribution to the development of the tools of a materialist understanding of history and a number of theoretical and analytical issues. Importantly, Trotsky shows that only through crises and interactions between masses, cadres and leaders could the revolutionary process go forward. The ultimate success of the Russian Revolution however depended on a wider context—it had to be a part of a bigger international socialist revolution.