Russian Politics

Abstract

The late Russian historian Dmitrii Volkogonov has presented Trotsky as becoming increasingly indifferent to his homeland while in exile.¹ This view is wrong if we judge by Trotsky’s Paris writings of World War One. Although he subsequently explained his acceptance of Kievskaya Mysl’s invitation to be its war correspondent in Paris as a chance to learn more about French politics, developments in Russia were a constant source of attention. This chapter will examine Trotsky’s writings on his homeland thematically, i.e. liberalism, the government and, finally, the battle between Social-Patriotism and Social-Democracy among the workers. Each section follows Trotsky’s thoughts as they developed chronologically. Although the material has been divided in this way for the purpose of exposition, the connections which Trotsky traced between these various political strains will be stressed; most notably, how social-patriotism, through liberalism, was a link of a chain tying workers to tsarism and the war. In criticising each link of this chain Trotsky hoped he could break the chain itself, in this way fomenting the revolution.