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Results and Prospects and the Permanent Revolution
Leon Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army.
After leading a failed struggle of the Left Opposition against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and the increasing role of bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, Trotsky was successively removed from power, expelled from the Communist Party, deported from the Soviet Union and assassinated on Stalin's orders. An early advocate of Red Army intervention against European fascism, Trotsky also opposed Stalin's non-aggression pact with Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s.
As the head of the Fourth International, Trotsky continued in exile to oppose the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, and was eventually assassinated in Mexico, by Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent. Trotsky's ideas thus form the basis of Trotskyism, a major school of Marxist thought that is opposed to the theories of Stalinism. He was one of the few Soviet political figures who was never rehabilitated by the government of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Trotsky's conception of Permanent Revolution is based on his understanding, drawing on the work of the founder of Russian Marxism Georgy Plekhanov, that in 'backward' countries the tasks of the Bourgeois Democratic Revolution could not be achieved by the bourgeoisie itself. This conception was first developed by Trotsky in collaboration with Alexander Parvus in late 1904–1905. The relevant articles were later collected in Trotsky's books 1905 and in Permanent Revolution, which also contains his essay "Results and Prospects". First publication of Results & Prospects was in St. Petersburg in 1906, shortly after the 1905 first Russian workers’ revolution, lead in large part by Trotsky himself. The first English translation was published by the Communist International in 1921.
This edition of Trotsky’s Results and Prospects is specially formatted with a Table of Contents.
After leading a failed struggle of the Left Opposition against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and the increasing role of bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, Trotsky was successively removed from power, expelled from the Communist Party, deported from the Soviet Union and assassinated on Stalin's orders. An early advocate of Red Army intervention against European fascism, Trotsky also opposed Stalin's non-aggression pact with Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s.
As the head of the Fourth International, Trotsky continued in exile to oppose the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, and was eventually assassinated in Mexico, by Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent. Trotsky's ideas thus form the basis of Trotskyism, a major school of Marxist thought that is opposed to the theories of Stalinism. He was one of the few Soviet political figures who was never rehabilitated by the government of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Trotsky's conception of Permanent Revolution is based on his understanding, drawing on the work of the founder of Russian Marxism Georgy Plekhanov, that in 'backward' countries the tasks of the Bourgeois Democratic Revolution could not be achieved by the bourgeoisie itself. This conception was first developed by Trotsky in collaboration with Alexander Parvus in late 1904–1905. The relevant articles were later collected in Trotsky's books 1905 and in Permanent Revolution, which also contains his essay "Results and Prospects". First publication of Results & Prospects was in St. Petersburg in 1906, shortly after the 1905 first Russian workers’ revolution, lead in large part by Trotsky himself. The first English translation was published by the Communist International in 1921.
This edition of Trotsky’s Results and Prospects is specially formatted with a Table of Contents.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1906
About the author
Leon Trotsky
1,116 books842 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 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 14, 2025
When the left experiences the kind of catastrophic drubbing we faced in the general election last month, comrades can find reorientation by returning to the classics. By reading Lenin, Trotsky, Luxembourg, Gramsci et al. we remind ourselves that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Giants who also failed miserably to smash capitalism and, for the most part, were routinely dispatched by the forces of bourgeois reaction. So I turned to Results and Prospects over the Christmas hols.
If you've spent any time infused in Trotskyist organisation (guilty - soz), the description of the strategy of permanent revolution contained in these pages may already feel like second nature to you - cadre tend to absorb these ideas through osmosis. It feels familiar to read this little book for the first time. Read on regardless! The earnest promise of impending workers' power in our current time of defeat, will be all the more deliciously heart-rending. It's a real page turner. So, comrades, treat yourself to a flick through R&P and allow yourself to dissolve into the morass of melancholia. Available on marxists.org.
If you've spent any time infused in Trotskyist organisation (guilty - soz), the description of the strategy of permanent revolution contained in these pages may already feel like second nature to you - cadre tend to absorb these ideas through osmosis. It feels familiar to read this little book for the first time. Read on regardless! The earnest promise of impending workers' power in our current time of defeat, will be all the more deliciously heart-rending. It's a real page turner. So, comrades, treat yourself to a flick through R&P and allow yourself to dissolve into the morass of melancholia. Available on marxists.org.
July 11, 2026
Trotsky's specific contribution to the debates after 1905 was not that the bourgeoisie were untrustworthy, that the Russian revolution could 'skip stages', that the working class should lead, or that the Russian revolution could spark socialist revolution in the West; all of these were orthodox positions in the Second International. Trotsky's specific contribution was the following: the revolution will *necessarily* be led by the working class, the RSDLP had to in this circumstance take power in the revolution, the working class in power cannot help but enact socialist measures, and by this fact it will have to govern alone against the peasantry, as it was understood at the time that the peasants would be hostile to socialist measures. The way of resolving this situation is to hope for the West European proletariat to come to the Russian proletariat's aid, hence the stress on international revolution.
To Bolsheviks, this would have sounded alarm bells. Lenin was particularly alert to the possibility of the Russian revolution being led by a class other than the proletariat. The proletariat will certainly be revolutionary, but it could be reduced to a participant in and not leader of the revolution. The key issue was to forge an alliance of the proletariat and peasantry in the struggle for state power. The only condition on which the revolution would be 'limited' to being democratic and not socialist was that the peasantry ought to be enlisted in the dictatorship. The story was not just that economic determinism about Russian backwardness reduced the horizons of the Bolsheviks. Rather, the Bolsheviks were keenly alert to the strategic requirements, based in concrete assessment, of proletarian leadership of the people in the revolution. At a time when the Bolsheviks were trying to convince peasants that they had nothing to fear from Social Democracy, Trotsky was saying that a revolution led by the working class and RSDLP would inevitably screw over the peasants. It's easy to see why Bolsheviks rejected it. Lenin did not at the time read Results and Prospects but was aware of the argument that the working class in power cannot help but enact socialist measures. He thought this view a reactionary utopia for the reasons mentioned.
Trotsky's assessment of the peasants was that they were a scattered mass and could not be a political force in their own right, the peasants in the revolution would inevitably as an amorphous mass lump themselves behind the proletariat in the initial revolution only to turn on the proletariat later. Lenin in contrast was extremely enthusiastic about the revolutionary potential of the peasantry, and took them seriously as a political force with which an alliance had to be forged consciously and strategically. An orientation to the peasantry as a key ally of the proletariat had its basis in Marxist orthodoxy but was a defining feature of Bolshevism for its entire existence.
The only people who toyed with Trotsky's theory in the revolutionary process were Martynov, Dan, and the St Petersburg Mensheviks in the soviet, who toyed with the idea of an exclusively workers' government. The thing that united Menshevism was not a love for the bourgeoisie; left Mensheviks thought that the bourgeoisie were not trustworthy leaders of the coming revolution. Martov always thought that only the working class could be trusted to fight for democracy. The issue was that if *only* the working class could be trusted, it would be isolated if it took power and thereby would be defeated. What united the Mensheviks was opposition to the RSDLP taking power in a bourgeois revolution, and hostility to the peasantry. Trotsky was not simply a Menshevik, as he was for the RSDLP taking power, but his conception of how that would happen in the radical atmosphere of 1905 presented an apparently radical way of continuing to eschew the struggle for proletarian leadership of the people. In this way, Trotsky's theory was a form of radical economism: it was an enthusiastic endorsement of spontaneous revolutionary upsurges by workers which abdicated the political and strategic struggle for proletarian hegemony in the revolution. Lenin thought it more class conscious that workers understand their task as being to lead the people, and therefore that the revolution's tasks are democratic, rather than any sense that workers should be concerned only with their own particular movement.
The only instance I've found of Lenin explicitly discussing 'Trotsky's theory' is in his November 1915 article 'On the Two Lines in the Revolution'. There Lenin presents Trotsky's theory as centrist, characteristic of Trotsky's centrist positions on questions of imperialist war and the Zimmerwald bloc. Lenin argues that "[f]rom the Bolsheviks Trotsky's original theory has borrowed their call for a decisive proletarian revolutionary struggle and for the conquest of political power by the proletariat, while from the Mensheviks it has borrowed "repudiation" of the peasantry's role." Ironically, Lenin presents Trotsky's theory as not too far ahead of things, but instead as increasingly out of date; where Trotsky argues that the peasantry are increasingly fragmenting and therefore are not a revolutionary force in their own right, Lenin sees the peasantry and petty-bourgeoisie as becoming increasingly revolutionary in the context of imperialist war, a key condition on which the proletariat may successfully lead a revolution of the whole people in Russia. Rejection of the task of leading the people means rejecting the struggle for hegemony: "Trotsky is in fact helping the liberal-labour politicians in Russia, who by "repudiation" of the role of the peasantry understand a refusal to raise up the peasants for the revolution!"
The terms on which Lenin becomes convinced that the Russian revolution will be a socialist revolution was his coming to see that, in the conjuncture of imperialist war and revolution, the whole people, led by the proletarian vanguard, may be enlisted in the socialist revolution, not only in the democratic revolution. At least part of the peasantry were to be enlisted in the socialist dictatorship. This is the meaning behind Lenin's argument in 1918, which only he made, that the soviets represented a higher form of democracy, where democracy in the Marxist tradition always concerned the whole people. This was not an adoption of Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution.
To Bolsheviks, this would have sounded alarm bells. Lenin was particularly alert to the possibility of the Russian revolution being led by a class other than the proletariat. The proletariat will certainly be revolutionary, but it could be reduced to a participant in and not leader of the revolution. The key issue was to forge an alliance of the proletariat and peasantry in the struggle for state power. The only condition on which the revolution would be 'limited' to being democratic and not socialist was that the peasantry ought to be enlisted in the dictatorship. The story was not just that economic determinism about Russian backwardness reduced the horizons of the Bolsheviks. Rather, the Bolsheviks were keenly alert to the strategic requirements, based in concrete assessment, of proletarian leadership of the people in the revolution. At a time when the Bolsheviks were trying to convince peasants that they had nothing to fear from Social Democracy, Trotsky was saying that a revolution led by the working class and RSDLP would inevitably screw over the peasants. It's easy to see why Bolsheviks rejected it. Lenin did not at the time read Results and Prospects but was aware of the argument that the working class in power cannot help but enact socialist measures. He thought this view a reactionary utopia for the reasons mentioned.
Trotsky's assessment of the peasants was that they were a scattered mass and could not be a political force in their own right, the peasants in the revolution would inevitably as an amorphous mass lump themselves behind the proletariat in the initial revolution only to turn on the proletariat later. Lenin in contrast was extremely enthusiastic about the revolutionary potential of the peasantry, and took them seriously as a political force with which an alliance had to be forged consciously and strategically. An orientation to the peasantry as a key ally of the proletariat had its basis in Marxist orthodoxy but was a defining feature of Bolshevism for its entire existence.
The only people who toyed with Trotsky's theory in the revolutionary process were Martynov, Dan, and the St Petersburg Mensheviks in the soviet, who toyed with the idea of an exclusively workers' government. The thing that united Menshevism was not a love for the bourgeoisie; left Mensheviks thought that the bourgeoisie were not trustworthy leaders of the coming revolution. Martov always thought that only the working class could be trusted to fight for democracy. The issue was that if *only* the working class could be trusted, it would be isolated if it took power and thereby would be defeated. What united the Mensheviks was opposition to the RSDLP taking power in a bourgeois revolution, and hostility to the peasantry. Trotsky was not simply a Menshevik, as he was for the RSDLP taking power, but his conception of how that would happen in the radical atmosphere of 1905 presented an apparently radical way of continuing to eschew the struggle for proletarian leadership of the people. In this way, Trotsky's theory was a form of radical economism: it was an enthusiastic endorsement of spontaneous revolutionary upsurges by workers which abdicated the political and strategic struggle for proletarian hegemony in the revolution. Lenin thought it more class conscious that workers understand their task as being to lead the people, and therefore that the revolution's tasks are democratic, rather than any sense that workers should be concerned only with their own particular movement.
The only instance I've found of Lenin explicitly discussing 'Trotsky's theory' is in his November 1915 article 'On the Two Lines in the Revolution'. There Lenin presents Trotsky's theory as centrist, characteristic of Trotsky's centrist positions on questions of imperialist war and the Zimmerwald bloc. Lenin argues that "[f]rom the Bolsheviks Trotsky's original theory has borrowed their call for a decisive proletarian revolutionary struggle and for the conquest of political power by the proletariat, while from the Mensheviks it has borrowed "repudiation" of the peasantry's role." Ironically, Lenin presents Trotsky's theory as not too far ahead of things, but instead as increasingly out of date; where Trotsky argues that the peasantry are increasingly fragmenting and therefore are not a revolutionary force in their own right, Lenin sees the peasantry and petty-bourgeoisie as becoming increasingly revolutionary in the context of imperialist war, a key condition on which the proletariat may successfully lead a revolution of the whole people in Russia. Rejection of the task of leading the people means rejecting the struggle for hegemony: "Trotsky is in fact helping the liberal-labour politicians in Russia, who by "repudiation" of the role of the peasantry understand a refusal to raise up the peasants for the revolution!"
The terms on which Lenin becomes convinced that the Russian revolution will be a socialist revolution was his coming to see that, in the conjuncture of imperialist war and revolution, the whole people, led by the proletarian vanguard, may be enlisted in the socialist revolution, not only in the democratic revolution. At least part of the peasantry were to be enlisted in the socialist dictatorship. This is the meaning behind Lenin's argument in 1918, which only he made, that the soviets represented a higher form of democracy, where democracy in the Marxist tradition always concerned the whole people. This was not an adoption of Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution.
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September 1, 2025Interesting. His argument for why Russia can skip the bourgeois-democracy stage of development of a prolonged revolutionary government seems compelling enough to me. Why should the class who would conceivably actually drive the revolution hand power back to Russia’s undeveloped bourgeoisie? Because you’re a nerd and a loser and you think that’s what Marx thought had to happen? Yeah right. Another flawless debate club win for Trostky.
If for no other reason, i have so much respect for Trotsky for naming this theory the Theory of Permanent Revolution. That’s so awesome. Doesn’t really matter what it’s about at that point.
In the forward, published 15 years later (1919), Trotsky brags that all of of his predictions came true and that he was right about everything. This is right around where he stops being right about anything. I think this is a little bit goated of him.
If for no other reason, i have so much respect for Trotsky for naming this theory the Theory of Permanent Revolution. That’s so awesome. Doesn’t really matter what it’s about at that point.
In the forward, published 15 years later (1919), Trotsky brags that all of of his predictions came true and that he was right about everything. This is right around where he stops being right about anything. I think this is a little bit goated of him.
April 19, 2018
The first half of the text is an impressive exposition of how one may apply the Marxist method to the specific conditions (in this case, Russia) of a given geographic delineation. In this sense it is impressive and useful as a text. The second half of the text, however, provides more predictions than analysis. In his enthusiasm for Russia's vanguard position, he ignores the the specificity of European conditions, and accompanies this with a high number of predictions about Europe that lack any sense of rigor, particularly in ignoring the political complexity of European states and their ability to outmaneuver the working class. While Trotsky can't be singlehandedly blamed for this, it is noteworthy that like other intellectuals at the time assuming the question of European (his analysis of Poland is disastrous!) revolution as inevitable proved to be a nightmare. His selective application of what he calls the Marxist method, then, is the biggest internal contradiction of the text.
November 4, 2021
Trotsky the idealist: "Socialism does not aim at creating a socialist psychology as a pre-requisite to socialism but at creating socialist conditions of life as a pre-requisite to socialist psychology."
Socialism, as a movement, is a revolutionary process: that process inflicts on the minds of the people who are taking part of it. So yeah, the socialist psychology has a previous one: revolutionary. And this one is needed as a "pre-requisite" to create the socialist conditions of life.
Even one could argue that the ashes of the capitalist system are going to be somewhat alive in socialism: one has to work with the best elements of the previous historical moments.
Socialism, as a movement, is a revolutionary process: that process inflicts on the minds of the people who are taking part of it. So yeah, the socialist psychology has a previous one: revolutionary. And this one is needed as a "pre-requisite" to create the socialist conditions of life.
Even one could argue that the ashes of the capitalist system are going to be somewhat alive in socialism: one has to work with the best elements of the previous historical moments.
May 7, 2023
Second time reading, and understood/appreciated so much more having now studied more of the context in which this was written (especially the 1925 Chinese Revolution).
Would thoroughly recommend; especially to any serious "Marxist-Leninist" who I think would be shocked to read what Trotsky and Lenin really thought in 1905 and 1917+ (compared to what Stalin says about them), and pleasantly surprised to see a real Leninist method on display throughout Trotsky's polemic.
Would thoroughly recommend; especially to any serious "Marxist-Leninist" who I think would be shocked to read what Trotsky and Lenin really thought in 1905 and 1917+ (compared to what Stalin says about them), and pleasantly surprised to see a real Leninist method on display throughout Trotsky's polemic.
January 15, 2025
I don't understand how Trots can throw their weight behind this theory when it has been so thoroughly disproven by history.
December 13, 2025
ooh baby 0_0
oooh baby oooh O_O
oooh baby oooh O_O
April 23, 2026
Sometimes Marxism _is_ a crystal ball.
to-keep-reference
February 17, 2016En Resultados y Perspectivas expuso las ideas que defendería el resto de su vida.
Trotsky Para Principiantes Pág.43
Trotsky Para Principiantes Pág.43
May 13, 2015
amazing predictions of what happened in 1917 and beyond - written in 1906!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews