Books

A Political Biography

THE PROPHET ARMED (TROTSKY: 1879-1921), by Isaac Deutscher. Oxford University Press, New York. 528 pp. $6.

Stalin is “waiting in the wings” as Mr. Deutscher concludes this first half of what is to be a two-volume biography of Leon Trotsky. It is the year 1921. The revolution has, by fair means or foul, weathered a series of wracking trials; and it is plunging into others which will witness its destruction in the triumph of absolute dictatorship. The leaders of the revolution are still its heroes—Lenin, Trotsky, their colleagues. Having held onto victory against fantastic odds, they and the revolution with them, will perish —Lenin dying in 1924, fearful of bureaucratism’s menace; the others, most of them, victims of assassination at the hands of the “committee man.” Significantly, too, it is the year in which the Bolshevik Party, with whatever misgivings, outlaws oppositional groupings. Calling his last chapter “Defeat in Victory,” Mr. Deutscher closes the book at this point, with the introduction of the New Economic Policy and the suppression of the Workers’ Opposition. A second volume, to be called “The Prophet Unarmed,” will conclude the biography.

On the face of it, the biographer has planned his structure exceedingly well. Yet a multitude of questions nag their way into mind, and they compel suspension of a full discussion of this study until the appearance of its second half. There is no question that Mr. Deutscher has performed a prodigious job of research and presentation. It is difficult to imagine that any future biographer will unearth significant material on Trotsky’s life that Mr. Deutscher has overlooked, or supersede this volume in breadth.

Trotsky was, as Mr. Deutscher details, one of the literary giants of our times. He wrote extensively on subjects ranging from poetry to military science, and wrote with consummate skill. His autobiography, My Life, and the monumental History of the Russian Revolution, to mention but two particularly relevant works, are masterpieces in their respective genres. Inevitably, comparison with Trotsky’s own abundant work suggests itself. Yet it is a measure of Mr. Deutscher’s achievement that his work is fresh, a tribute to scholarship and objectivity. Neither idolatrous, nor carpingly critical, Mr. Deutscher explores every facet of Trotsky’s development and genius against the background of Russia’s revolutionary movement. Though the prevailing tone of the book is admiration and respect, there is no effort to conceal or minimize what are in his view failings. Mr. Deutscher is steeped in the knowledge of his material. Inasmuch as Trotsky has been vilified more, perhaps, than any man in history, The Prophet Armed commends itself if only in the respect that it sets the record straight. It commends ...