Leon Trotsky and the Natural History of Revolutions

In his recent works Trotsky draws frequent parallels between the Russian Revolution and earlier revolutions. Those parallels are intended to fit into the Marxian pattern of the inexorable history process whereby, through ceaseless class struggle, a classless society will eventually be attained. Yet Trotsky also gives great weight as a factor in revolutionary action to the moral and intellectual character of individual leaders, attributing to Kerensky's weakness and to Lenin's strength respectively a large degree of responsability for the temporary check and the eventual success of the 1917 movement. He maintains, however, that personalities become important only when and in so far as they embody "the objective necessity" of the historical action they propose. He nevertheless considers that historic personality reacts upon, as well as grows out of, social conditions. That concession leads him to recognize the possibility that a mere accident may sometimes determine the success of failure of a revolutionary outburst. In general he insists, however, that events "obey their own laws," two of the most important being the law of combined development and the law of unevenness. The present author questions whether there are such "laws" and maintains that, in appealing to historic laws at all, Trotsky impairs his attack upon his opponents as weaklings and traitors. The author also questions the validity of several of Trostky's historical analogies, particularly the comparison of the present Russian regime to the Thermidorian Reaction of the French Revolution. Trotsky's unnecessarily abstruse discussion of "dual power" is likewise criticized as involving inexact comparisons. Yet his books contain some historical analogies that are illuminating. Moreover, Trotsky's analysis or revolutionary "causes" seems to be comprehensive and satisfactory, even if some of his other genralizations are less happy. The author concludes that Trotsky's efforts to force the history of the Russian Revolution into an "inevitable schematism" have not, on the whole, increased the otherwise great value of his books as historical documents

Action (physics) · Duty · Economics · Epistemology · Parallels · Political science · Power (physics) · Sociology · Anarchism and Radical Politics · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Political theory and Gramsci

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