1905 (book)

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1905
Author Leon Trotsky
Original title1905
TranslatorAnya Bostock (English)
Language Russian
Genre Nonfiction
Publisher Penguin Books (England)
Publication date
1908
Publication place Soviet Union
Media typePrint

1905 is a historical account of the First Russian Revolution written by Soviet leader, Leon Trotsky. The book surveyed a number of historical developments in Tsarist Russia such as the emergence of Russian capitalism, the relationship of social democracy with the political parties and the significance of the Soviet worker's deputies. [1] [2]

Contents

Background

The Soviet of Workers' Deputies of St. Petersburg in 1905, Trotsky in the center. The soviets were an early example of a workers council. Lev Trotsky 1906-3.3 V1.jpg
The Soviet of Workers' Deputies of St. Petersburg in 1905, Trotsky in the center. The soviets were an early example of a workers council.

Trotsky had assumed a central role in the 1905 revolution [3] and served as the Chairman of the Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Delegates in which he wrote several proclamations urging for improved economic conditions, political rights and the use of strike action against the Tsarist regime on behalf of workers. [4] Old Bolshevik Anatoly Lunacharsky viewed Trotsky as the best prepared among the Social-Democratic leaders during the 1905–07 revolution and stated that he "emerged from the revolution having acquired an enormous degree of popularity, whereas neither Lenin nor Martov had effectively gained any at all". [5] In the aftermath of the forestalled revolution, the Tsarist police arrested him in December 1905. [6] After again escaping Tsarist Russia for continental Europe, for a decade Trotsky politically transitioned from supporting the Menshevik wing of the RSDLP to advocating for the unity of the warring factions in 1913 with the establishment of the Mezhraiontsy, the Interdistrict Organization of United Social Democrats. [7]

Historical evaluation

The book has been commended for its historical value in chronicling the political developments and weight of social forces in the 1905 revolution. [2] [8] [9] Historian, Ian Thatcher wrote that Trotsky established himself as a historian of the Russian Revolution with the book and the themes featured in 1905 would later be re-examined in his magnum opus, The History of the Russian Revolution . [10] Notwithstanding, other reviewers have noted that the book was not written to provide a balanced or definitive overview of the period as the focus of the book is centred on St.Petersburg and from the perspective of Trotsky on events. [2]

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References

  1. ↑ Trotsky, Leon (January 15, 2017). 1905. Haymarket Books. pp. 7–15. ISBN   978-1-60846-736-5.
  2. 1 2 3 Davies, David A. (December 1973). "1905. By Leon Trotsky. Translated by Anya Bostock. Studies in the Third World Books. New York: Random House, 1971. xxi, 488 pp. $15.00". Slavic Review. 32 (4): 817–818. doi:10.2307/2495516. ISSN   0037-6779.
  3. ↑ "A prolific writer and a spellbinding orator, he was a central figure in the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the October Revolution of 1917, the organizer and leader of the Red Army in the Russian Civil War, the heir apparent to Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, and the arch enemy and then vanquished foe of Joseph Stalin in the succession struggle after Lenin's death".Patenaude, Betrand (September 21, 2017). "Trotsky and Trotskyism" in The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 1, World Revolution and Socialism in One Country 1917–1941. Cambridge University Press. p. 189. ISBN   978-1-108-21041-6.
  4. ↑ Thatcher, Ian D. (June 27, 2005). Trotsky. Routledge. pp. 1–264. ISBN   978-1-134-57214-4.
  5. ↑ Lunacharsky, Anatoly Vasilievich (1968). Revolutionary Silhouettes. Hill and Wang. p. 61.
  6. ↑ For Trotsky's activity in the St. Petersburg Soviet, see Gerald D. Suhr, 1905 in St. Petersburg: Labor, Society, and Revolution. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1989; pp. 338–345, 362–366, and 398–402 passim.
  7. ↑ Vladimir Iu. Cherniaev, "Trotsky", in Edward Acton, Vladimir Iu. Cherniaev, and William G. Rosenberg (eds.), Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914–1921. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1997; p. 190.
  8. ↑ Wolfe, Bertram D. (1961). "Leon Trotsky as Historian". Slavic Review. 20 (3): 495–502. doi:10.2307/3000510. JSTOR   3000510.
  9. ↑ White, James D. (July 3, 2021). "Leon Trotsky and Soviet Historiography of the Russian Revolution (1918–1931)". Revolutionary Russia. 34 (2): 276–295. doi: 10.1080/09546545.2021.1983938 .
  10. ↑ Heywood, Anthony J.; Smele, Jonathan D. (April 3, 2013). The Russian Revolution of 1905: Centenary Perspectives. Routledge. pp. 241–243. ISBN   978-1-134-25329-6.
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