Life and Death of Leon Trotsky

by Victor Serge, Natalia Ivanovna Sedova, Richard Greeman (Introduction)

This book provides an invaluable picture of Leon Trotsky's intimate experience as both a leader of, and outcast exile from, the Russian Revolution. Victor Serge and Natalia Sedova's portrait brings alive in a new way Trotsky's extraordinary life.

Genres: History, Biography, Politics, Nonfiction, Russia, Russian Literature, Russian Revolution

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Victor Lvovich Kibalchich (В.Л. Кибальчич) was born in exile in 1890 and died in exile in 1947. He is better known as Victor Serge, a Russian revolutionary and Francophone writer. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks five months after arriving in Petrograd in January 1919, and later worked for the newly founded Comintern as a journalist, editor and translator. He was openly critical of the Soviet regime, but remained loyal to the ideals of socialism until his death.

After time spent in France, Belgium, Russia and Spain, Serge was forced to live out the rest of his life in Mexico, with no country he could call home. Serge's health had been badly damaged by his periods of imprisonment in France and Russia, but he continued to write until he died of heart attack, in Mexico city on 17 November 1947. Having no nationality, no Mexican cemetery could legally take his body, so he was buried as a 'Spanish Republican.'

Reviews

[Nativeabuse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant biography of Trotsky, written by his wife and one of his best friends. They give the indepth details and the feels he had, that you just won't get from other books written about him.

I love all the extremely minor details they give about his life, that I simply have not read anywhere else. They really fill in the gaps between the big historical events nicely.

I would highly recommend this book to people interested in Trotsky.

[Christos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ενδιαφέρουσα αν και νομίζω λίγο αντισυμβατική συγγραφικά βιογραφία, σε σημεία δεν μπορούσα να καταλάβω αν η αφήγηση ανήκει στον Βίκτορ Σέρζ ή τη Ναταλία Σέντοβα, σύζυγο του Τρότσκι. Κατά μεγάλο της μέρος μοιάζει σαν εξιστόρηση της Οκτωβριανής επανάστασης και όσων την ακολούθησαν, αλλά δεν θα μπορούσε να είναι και διαφορετικά. Το γεγονός ότι γράφτηκε από ανθρώπους που έζησαν από πρώτο χέρι τα γεγονότα και όταν αυτά ήταν πολύ πρόσφατα την καθιστά μια πολύ σημαντική καταγραφή. Όποιος ενδιαφέρεται για αυτό το κομμάτι της ιστορίας αξίζει σίγουρα να τη διαβάσει.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best short biography of Leon Trotsky, filled with extensive quotation from Natalia Sedova, both Trotsky’s partner and a revolutionary herself. The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky, co-written by her and Victor Serge, restores her rightful place as a central figure and actor in this story.

While Isaac Deutscher’s massive and magisterial three volume biography quite rightly remains the landmark and go-to biography of Trotsky (despite stiff competition from the likes of Pierre Broué’s substantial, more recent French language biography, a product of additional and independent historical research - unfortunately yet to be translated into English) this work serves as an excellent introduction to Trotsky’s life and times, filled with tidbits that will please those already familiar with the story of Trotsky.

The two appendixes by Serge included in this updated volume - ‘In Memory of Leon Trotsky’, a moving tribute, and an unpublished manuscript criticising in strong terms Trotsky’s work ‘Their Morals and Ours’ are a fine addition;

highlighting what Serge regarded as Trotsky’s greatest strengths and weaknesses from an independent revolutionary Marxist perspective.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good introduction to the life and work of Trotsky, very engagingly written. It should be followed by a reading of Trotsky's Revolution Betrayed and My Life, and How the GPU Murdered Trotsky https://mehring.com/product/how-the-g...

[Marina the Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite boring. Skipped, then dropped it.

[Daniel Polansky]

I read this book.

[Elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok so research wise, this book deserves five stars. It's broken down into subsections and it's a primary source, so basically a gold mine. As far as the time period, it's easy to understand. However, from a literary perspective I could barely keep up with the names- I would only recommend this book if you are well versed with the Russian Revolution. To be fair, I actually did not fully read the ending just because it had no prevalence to my research. Yet, that being said the content I did mark up and took notes on will be very very helpful with my essay.

[Keith W · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting but ultimately tragic book, not just because Leon Trotsky was assassinated on Stalin’s orders but because, to get through the book, you have to read about all of the false charges, phony trials and summary executions of loyal Bolsheviks that occurred in the Soviet Union in the late 1920’s and during the 1930’s. There is an immediacy to the way the story is told and the information is presented that makes you feel as if you are experiencing history just as Trotsky did and that makes for an exciting reading experience. I have two criticisms of the book. One is that it is sometimes difficult to tell whether what you are reading is Victor Serge’s narrative or Natalia Sedova Trotsky’s first-hand recollection of events and experiences. Several times I had to stop, go back and re-read a section because Serge’s narrative suddenly became Mrs. Trotsky’s remembrances and the differences in tone and focus were a bit confusing. My second criticism is that the book frequently mentions and criticizes “Bonapartism” without explaining just what that is. A definition is finally given on page 262 but that is only about 40 pages from the end of the book. However, these are small criticisms. This is a fascinating account of Trotsky’s life, thought and actions that I recommend to anyone interested in 20th Century Russian history.