This new biography provides a full account of Leon Trotsky''s political life, based upon a wealth of primary sources, including previously unpublished material.

Ian D. Thatcher paints a new picture of Trotsky''s standing in Russian and world history. Key myths about Trotsky''s heroic work as a revolutionary, especially in Russia''s first revolution of 1905 and the Russian Civil War, are thrown into question. Although Trotsky had a limited understanding of crucial contemporary events such as Hitler''s rise to power, he was an important thinker and politician, not least as a trenchant critic of Stalin''s version of communism.