August 31, 2012
"Historical truth is not a lady in waiting on national pride."

— Leon Trotsky

August 21, 2012

Who’s ever wanted to hear Trotsky speaking in English?

Trotsky addressing Stalin’s Moscow Trials c.1937 (in English)

August 21, 2012
"I shall die a proletarian revolutionist, a Marxist, a dialectical materialist, and, consequently, an irreconcilable atheist. My faith in the communist future of mankind is not less ardent, indeed it is firmer today, than it was in the days of my youth.
I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
[W]hatever may be the circumstances of my death I shall die with unshaken faith in the communist future. This faith in man and in his future gives me even now such power of resistance as cannot be given by any religion."

Leon Trotsky, 1940

It’s 72 years to the day since Trotsky was assassinated, and so I thought I’d put this back on my blog, it’s really rather haunting.

(via its-london-calling)

7:24pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZDZu3yRslMOQ
  
Filed under: Trotsky Leon Trotsky 
August 7, 2012
"Vladimir Ilyich and I went for a long walk around London. From a bridge, Lenin pointed out Westminster and some other famous buildings. I don’t remember the exact words he used, but what he conveyed was: “This is their famous Westminster,” and “their” referred of course not to the English but to the ruling classes. This implication, which was not in the least emphasized, but coming as it did from the very innermost depths of the man, and expressed more by the tone of his voice than by anything else, was always present, whether Lenin was speaking of the treasures of culture, of new achievements, of the wealth of books in the British Museum, of the information of the larger European newspapers, or, years later, of German artillery or French aviation. They know this or they have that, they have made this or achieved that – but what enemies they are! To his eyes, the invisible shadow of the ruling classes always overlay the whole of human culture – a shadow that was as real to him as daylight."

— Leon Trotsky, My Life (via fifty-grades-of-che)

(via e-schatology)

August 1, 2012
"I shall die a proletarian revolutionist, a Marxist, a dialectical materialist, and, consequently, an irreconcilable atheist. My faith in the communist future of mankind is not less ardent, indeed it is firmer today, than it was in the days of my youth.
I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
[W]hatever may be the circumstances of my death I shall die with unshaken faith in the communist future. This faith in man and in his future gives me even now such power of resistance as cannot be given by any religion."

Leon Trotsky, 1940

This was the last extract in the Trotsky anthology I’ve been reading since my internet went down on Monday, and if anything, it’s given me a more intense admiration of Trotsky as a person than I had before. 

7:22pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZDZu3yQYWn0F
  
Filed under: Trotsky Leon Trotsky 
April 2, 2012
"As long as I breathe I hope. As long as I breathe I shall fight for the future, that radiant future, in which man, strong and beautiful, will become master of the drifting stream of his history and will direct it towards the boundless horizons of beauty, joy and happiness!"

— Leon Trotsky (via youruniverseislovelyhubble)

(Source: chubbymunster)