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The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany
Writing in the heat of struggle against the rising Nazi movement, a central leader of the Russian revolution examines the class roots of fascism and advances a revolutionary strategy to combat it.
632 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
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About the author
Leon Trotsky
1,091 books801 followersSee also Лев Троцкий
Russian theoretician Leon Trotsky or Leon Trotski, originally Lev Davidovitch Bronstein, led the Bolshevik of 1917, wrote Literature and Revolution in 1924, opposed the authoritarianism of Joseph Stalin, and emphasized world; therefore later, the Communist party in 1927 expelled him and in 1929 banished him, but he included the autobiographical My Life in 1930, and the behest murdered him in exile in Mexico.
The exile of Leon Trotsky in 1929 marked rule of Joseph Stalin.
People better know this Marxist. In October 1917, he ranked second only to Vladimir Lenin. During the early days of the Soviet Union, he served first as commissar of people for foreign affairs and as the founder and commander of the Red Army and of war. He also ranked among the first members of the Politburo.
After a failed struggle of the left against the policies and rise in the 1920s, the increasing role of bureaucracy in the Soviet Union deported Trotsky. An early advocate of intervention of Army of Red against European fascism, Trotsky also agreed on peace with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. As the head of the fourth International, Trotsky continued to the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, and Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent, eventually assassinated him. From Marxism, his separate ideas form the basis of Trotskyism, a term, coined as early as 1905. Ideas of Trotsky constitute a major school of Marxist. The Soviet administration never rehabilitated him and few other political figures.
Russian theoretician Leon Trotsky or Leon Trotski, originally Lev Davidovitch Bronstein, led the Bolshevik of 1917, wrote Literature and Revolution in 1924, opposed the authoritarianism of Joseph Stalin, and emphasized world; therefore later, the Communist party in 1927 expelled him and in 1929 banished him, but he included the autobiographical My Life in 1930, and the behest murdered him in exile in Mexico.
The exile of Leon Trotsky in 1929 marked rule of Joseph Stalin.
People better know this Marxist. In October 1917, he ranked second only to Vladimir Lenin. During the early days of the Soviet Union, he served first as commissar of people for foreign affairs and as the founder and commander of the Red Army and of war. He also ranked among the first members of the Politburo.
After a failed struggle of the left against the policies and rise in the 1920s, the increasing role of bureaucracy in the Soviet Union deported Trotsky. An early advocate of intervention of Army of Red against European fascism, Trotsky also agreed on peace with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. As the head of the fourth International, Trotsky continued to the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, and Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent, eventually assassinated him. From Marxism, his separate ideas form the basis of Trotskyism, a term, coined as early as 1905. Ideas of Trotsky constitute a major school of Marxist. The Soviet administration never rehabilitated him and few other political figures.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 23, 2013
Trotsky wrote this while he was in exile. Lenin was dead, and Stalin had come to power in the Soviet Union, striking a death knell for world revolution as he moved to consolidate the gains that the working class had won and establish an elite, privileged power structure, corrupt and bureaucratic.
In Germany, the revolutionaries, courageous to the bitter end, were rounded up and for the most part, exterminated.
Trotsky offers a convincing argument regarding the causes of fascism. He does not see this as mass hysteria or a "quasi-religious" movement, to quote others on the topic, but one with a purely economic basis.
It is not light reading. It is an historical treasure and possibly instruction for what the future may hold if the students of the past are not wary and careful. The best way to read it is with the television set off and some sticky notes or a highlighter in your hand.
I was stunned to see I had not reviewed this sooner, as I have read it multiple times. Alongside the work of Daniel Guerin, I consider this the best analysis of the causes of fascism ever written.
In Germany, the revolutionaries, courageous to the bitter end, were rounded up and for the most part, exterminated.
Trotsky offers a convincing argument regarding the causes of fascism. He does not see this as mass hysteria or a "quasi-religious" movement, to quote others on the topic, but one with a purely economic basis.
It is not light reading. It is an historical treasure and possibly instruction for what the future may hold if the students of the past are not wary and careful. The best way to read it is with the television set off and some sticky notes or a highlighter in your hand.
I was stunned to see I had not reviewed this sooner, as I have read it multiple times. Alongside the work of Daniel Guerin, I consider this the best analysis of the causes of fascism ever written.
February 27, 2025
Tragically relevant.
August 1, 2022
One of the best pieces of Marxist thought I've ever read. A masterful application of Marxism to a novel set of problems. Terrifying how relevant it is again today. Capitalism continues its slow decay post-2008, limping along like a zombie, dragging pestilence and environmental collapse in its wake. The "masses of the crazed petty-bourgeoise," suffering, but incapable of developing a coherent analysis, are again on the move, the filth of their political thought rapidly congealing into a global movement. Be sure that when the UN projects 700 million displaced by climate change in Africa alone by 2030, fascism's future is as bright as humanity's future is grim. Trotsky's thought still points the way out - the self-activity of the international working class.
September 13, 2024
If you want to understand the nature of fascism; its origins, its social base, its funders, its historic mission, and most importantly, how it can be defeated, this is an essential starting-point. It also contains the now famous 'Hitler Particle' quote.
December 17, 2022
Simply brilliant. Best collection of Trotsky’s writing on fascism, and essential for anyone who wants to understand fascism both as an ideology and a historical phenomenon.
August 22, 2025
Not really much that was new in here for me, but for most people, I'd probably consider this fairly essential for understanding the nazi rise to power.
October 31, 2025
This is the most important collection of Trotsky's writings on fascism and how to defeat it, although there is also much to be found in On France, The Spanish Revolution, and some of the Trotsky Writings Series. Ernest Mandel wrote an introduction which is a historiography of writings on fascism. Some may find it interesting, but it really doesn't serve as an introduction to the book. Especially now, with so many years past, and so many people who have no idea what Marxism is, and think of politics only in electoral terms, it doesn't tell them what they need to know.
The introductory sections written by the editors for each section of the book are helpful, but they tend to focus too much on the elections, not on the violent confrontations taking place. Trotsky remarks somewhere that it's nice to have Communist members of Parliament, but it's more important to note the rise of the Nazi vote, and still more important to build a joint defense group with the Social Democrats against Nazi physical attacks on the workers movement, on Jews, and all the rest.
The early chapters of the book were written when Trotsky's Left Opposition considered itself a faction of the Communist International and its component parts. The Stalinist policy is wrong across the board, but when a turn is announced, Trotsky wrongly assumes that it will include junking the "theory of social fascism," which states that the Social Democrats are a form of fascism and are a bigger danger than the Nazis! The Social Democrats have a bourgeois outlook, but absolutely not a fascist one, and they are also victims of the Nazi attacks. Most of the unions are closer to the Social Democrats than to the Communist Party. Trotsky pushes again and again for the need to approach the Social Democrats both on the level of their leaders and the rank and file on the necessity of a joint defense.
One of the leftist online magazines ran an article claiming that Trotsky would have supported Hillary Clinton against Trump, and not Bernie Sanders. But every single analogy the writer used was incorrect. (1) Trump was not a fascist; (2) Trotsky never supported any bourgeois candidates for any office, and never would have supported Sanders or Clinton, both members of the imperialist Democratic Party; (3) the united front that Trotsky proposed had nothing whatever to do with elections! He was talking about a fighting force, using defensive formulations as he always advised, but ready to prevent Nazi assaults on headquarters' of the workers' movement of any working-class tendency. Trump supporters didn't attack the unions or the headquarters of groups claiming to be Marxist.
[In passing I should note that some kind of an electoral agreement could in principle have been worked out between the CP and the Social Democrats but given the huge hostility in the CP against the Social Democrats, Trotsky did not propose that].
The line of the Stalinists changed from ultraleftism to opportunism. And in time the Left Opposition ended its framework as a faction of the Communist International. I will not attempt to explain the entire book; just to say that one can't read it without a good knowledge of Marxism and of European history. Even if Pathfinder was able to improve the editorial notes in the book, which isn't possible right now, it still would not be comprehensible to people who think that politics = elections.
This problem exists with much Marxist writing today, but I would suggest that Fascism and Big Business, written by the French libertarian-socialist Daniel Guerin, who wrote in his introduction to the 1965 French edition that "In this immense comparison I was undertaking, the writings of Leon Trotsky on Germany and France serves as a guide," is for most today a better place to start. Then read Trotsky's writings.
The introductory sections written by the editors for each section of the book are helpful, but they tend to focus too much on the elections, not on the violent confrontations taking place. Trotsky remarks somewhere that it's nice to have Communist members of Parliament, but it's more important to note the rise of the Nazi vote, and still more important to build a joint defense group with the Social Democrats against Nazi physical attacks on the workers movement, on Jews, and all the rest.
The early chapters of the book were written when Trotsky's Left Opposition considered itself a faction of the Communist International and its component parts. The Stalinist policy is wrong across the board, but when a turn is announced, Trotsky wrongly assumes that it will include junking the "theory of social fascism," which states that the Social Democrats are a form of fascism and are a bigger danger than the Nazis! The Social Democrats have a bourgeois outlook, but absolutely not a fascist one, and they are also victims of the Nazi attacks. Most of the unions are closer to the Social Democrats than to the Communist Party. Trotsky pushes again and again for the need to approach the Social Democrats both on the level of their leaders and the rank and file on the necessity of a joint defense.
One of the leftist online magazines ran an article claiming that Trotsky would have supported Hillary Clinton against Trump, and not Bernie Sanders. But every single analogy the writer used was incorrect. (1) Trump was not a fascist; (2) Trotsky never supported any bourgeois candidates for any office, and never would have supported Sanders or Clinton, both members of the imperialist Democratic Party; (3) the united front that Trotsky proposed had nothing whatever to do with elections! He was talking about a fighting force, using defensive formulations as he always advised, but ready to prevent Nazi assaults on headquarters' of the workers' movement of any working-class tendency. Trump supporters didn't attack the unions or the headquarters of groups claiming to be Marxist.
[In passing I should note that some kind of an electoral agreement could in principle have been worked out between the CP and the Social Democrats but given the huge hostility in the CP against the Social Democrats, Trotsky did not propose that].
The line of the Stalinists changed from ultraleftism to opportunism. And in time the Left Opposition ended its framework as a faction of the Communist International. I will not attempt to explain the entire book; just to say that one can't read it without a good knowledge of Marxism and of European history. Even if Pathfinder was able to improve the editorial notes in the book, which isn't possible right now, it still would not be comprehensible to people who think that politics = elections.
This problem exists with much Marxist writing today, but I would suggest that Fascism and Big Business, written by the French libertarian-socialist Daniel Guerin, who wrote in his introduction to the 1965 French edition that "In this immense comparison I was undertaking, the writings of Leon Trotsky on Germany and France serves as a guide," is for most today a better place to start. Then read Trotsky's writings.
October 21, 2008
Sadly, this book is as relevant today as when it was written.
April 5, 2013
Trotsky's brilliant analysis of what happens when capitalism hits a roadblock and morphs into fascism.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews