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Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky . Trotsky considered himself an Orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik - Leninist , arguing for the establishment of a Vanguard Party . His politics differed sharply from those of Stalinism , most importantly in declaring the need for an international " Permanent Revolution ". Numerous groups around the world continue to describe themselves as Trotskyist, although they have diverse interpretations of Trotsky's writings. Probably the consensus English term for adherents is 'Trotskyist'. "Trotskyite" and more recently "Trot" (the latter particularly in Britain and Canada) are used pejoratively. DEFINITION James P. Cannon in his 1942 book '' History Of American Trotskyism '' wrote that "Trotskyism is not a new movement, a new doctrine, but the restoration, the revival of genuine Marxism as it was expounded and practiced in the Russian revolution and in the early days of the Communist International." However, Trotskyism can be distinguished from other Marxist theories by four key elements.
On the Political Spectrum of Marxism , Trotskyists are considered to be on the left. They supported democratic rights in the USSR,Figes, Orlando, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924'', p803, Pimlico (1997) opposed political deals with the imperialist powers, and advocated a spreading of the revolution throughout Europe and the East. ORIGINS OF TROTSKYISM AND THE 1905 RUSSIAN REVOLUTION According to Trotsky, the term 'Trotskyism' was coined by Pavel Milyukov , (sometimes transliterated as 'Paul Miliukoff'), the ideological leader of the Constitutional Democratic party (Kadets) in Russia. Milyukov waged a bitter war against 'Trotskyism' "as early as 1905", Trotsky argues.Trotsky, Leon, ''My Life'', p230 and 294, Penguin, Harmondsworth, (1971) Trotsky was elected chairman of the St. Petersburg Soviet during the 1905 Russian Revolution. He pursued a policy of Proletarian Revolution at a time when other socialist trends advocated a transition to a "bourgeois" (capitalist) regime to replace the essentially feudal Romanov state. It was during this year that Trotsky developed the theory of Permanent Revolution , as it later became known (see below). In ''1905'', Trotsky quotes from a postscript to a book by Milyukov, ''The elections to the second state Duma'', published no later than May 1907: Milyukov suggests that the "democratic public" supported Trotsky's policy of the overthrow of the Romanov regime alongside a workers' revolution to overthrow the capitalist owners of industry, support for strike action and the establishment of democratically elected workers' councils or "soviets". THEORY OF PERMANENT REVOLUTION , 1919]] See Also: Permanent Revolution In 1905, Trotsky formulated a theory that became known as the Trotskyist theory of Permanent Revolution . It may be considered one of the defining characteristics of Trotskyism. Until 1905, Marxists had only shown how a revolution in a European capitalist society could lead to a socialist one. But this excluded countries such as Russia. Russia in 1905 was widely considered to have not yet established a capitalist society, but was instead largely feudal with a small, weak and powerless capitalist class. The theory of Permanent Revolution addressed the question of how such feudal regimes were to be overthrown, and how socialism could be established given the lack of economic prerequisites. Revolutions in Britain in the 17th Century and in France in 1789 abolished feudalism, establishing the basic requisites for the development of capitalism. But Trotsky argues that these revolutions would not be repeated in Russia. In ''Results and Prospects'', written in 1906, in which Trotsky outlines his theory in detail, he argues: "History does not repeat itself. However much one may compare the Russian Revolution with the Great French Revolution, the former can never be transformed into a repetition of the latter." Trotsky, Leon, ''Results and Prospects'', p 184 , New Park publications (1962) In the French Revolution Of 1789 , France experienced what Marxists called a “bourgeois-democratic revolution” – a regime was established where the bourgeoisie overthrew feudalism and ruled though certain democratic parliamentary institutions (although not necessarily instituting universal franchise). But, Trotsky argues, countries like Russia had no "enlightened, active" revolutionary bourgeoisie which could play the same role. In fact, even by the time of the European revolutions of 1848, Trotsky argued, "the bourgeoisie was already unable to play a comparable role. It did not want and was not able to undertake the revolutionary liquidation of the social system that stood in its path to power." The theory of Permanent Revolution considers that in many countries today which are thought to have not yet completed their bourgeois-democratic revolution, the capitalist class oppose the creation of any revolutionary situation, in the first instance because they fear stirring the working class into fighting for its own revolutionary aspirations against their exploitation by capitalism. The working class, although a small minority in a predominantly peasant based society, were organised in vast factories owned by the capitalist class, in large working class districts. During the Russian Revolution of 1905 the capitalist class found it necessary to ally with reactionary elements such as the essentially feudal landlords and ultimately the existing Czarist Russian state forces, in order to protect their ownership of their property, in the form of the factories, banks, and so forth, from expropriation by the revolutionary working class. According to the theory of Permanent Revolution, therefore, in economically backward countries the capitalist class are weak and incapable of carrying through revolutionary change. Trotsky further argues that since a majority of branches of industry in Russia were originated under the direct influence of government measures, sometimes even with the help of Government subsidies, the capitalist class was again tied to the ruling elite. In addition, the capitalist class were subservient to European capital. Trotsky, Leon, ''Results and Prospects'', pp 174-7 , New Park publications (1962) Instead, Trotsky argued, only the 'proletariat' or working class were capable of achieving the tasks of that 'bourgeois' revolution. The theory of Permanent Revolution considers that the peasantry as a whole cannot take on this task, because it is a heterogeneous grouping, including the rich peasants who employ rural workers and aspire to landlordism as well as the poor peasants who aspire to own more land. Trotsky argues: “All historical experience... shows that the peasantry are absolutely incapable of taking up an independent political role.” Trotsky, Leon, ''Results and Prospects'', p 204-5 , New Park publications (1962) Although only a small minority in Russian society, the proletariat would emancipate the peasantry and thus "secure the support of the peasantry" as part of that revolution, on whose support it will rely. Trotsky, Leon, ''Results and Prospects'', p 204-5 , New Park publications (1962). Trotsky adds that the revolution must raise the cultural and political consciousness of the peasantry. But the proletariat, in order to improve their own conditions, will find it necessary to create a revolution of their own, which would accomplish both the bourgeois and then the socialist revolutions. Yet, according to classical Marxism, capitalist conditions prepare the basis for socialism, while a peasant based country such as Russia prepares the ground ultimately only for a development of capitalism. Trotsky argued that a new socialist state and economy would not be able to hold out against the pressures of a hostile capitalist world, as well as the internal pressures of its backward economy, unless socialist revolutions quickly took hold in other countries as well. TROTSKYISM AND THE 1917 RUSSIAN REVOLUTION In 1905, Trotsky argues that once it became clear that the Tsar's army would not come out in support of the workers, it was necessary to retreat.Trotsky, Leon, ''1905'', Pelican books, (1971) p217 ff In 1917, Trotsky was again elected chairman of the Petrograd soviet, but this time led the Military Revolutionary Committee which had the allegiance of the Petrograd garrison, carried through the October 1917 insurrection. Stalin wrote: As a result of his role in the Russian Revolution of 1917, the theory of Permanent Revolution was embraced by the young Soviet state until 1924. The Russian revolution of 1917 was marked by two revolutions: the relatively spontaneous February 1917 revolution, and the 25 October 1917 seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, who had that day won the leadership of the Petrograd soviet. Before the February 1917 Russian revolution, Lenin had formulated a slogan calling for the 'democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry', but after the February revolution, through his April theses, had called for "all power to the Soviets". Lenin nevertheless continued to emphasise however (as did Trotsky also) the classical Marxist position that the peasantry formed a basis for the development of capitalism, not socialism. "Peasant farming continues to be... an extremely broad and very sound, deep-rooted basis for capitalism, a basis on which capitalism persists or arises anew in a bitter struggle against communism." Lenin ''Economics and Politics in the era of the dictatorship of the proletariat'', October 30, 1919, Collected works, Vol 30, p109 But also before February 1917, Trotsky had not understood the importance of a Bolshevik style organisation. Once the February 1917 Russian revolution had broken out Trotsky now realised the importance of a Bolshevik organisation, and joined the Bolsheviks. Despite the fact that many, like Stalin, saw Trotsky's role in the October 1917 Russian revolution as central, Trotsky says that without Lenin and the Bolshevik party the October revolution of 1917 would not have taken place. As a result, since 1917 Trotskyism as a political theory is fully committed to a Leninist style of Democratic Centralist party organisation, which Trotskyists argue must not to be confused with the party organisation as it developed under Stalin. Trotsky had previously suggested that Lenin's method of organisation would lead to a dictatorship, but it is important to emphasise that after 1917 orthodox Trotskyists (following Trotsky) argue that the degeneration of the Soviet Union (see below) led to the loss of democracy, not the Bolshevik style of organisation. Lenin's outlook had always been that the Russian revolution would need to stimulate a Socialist revolution in western Europe in order that this socialist society would then come to the aid of the Russian revolution and enable Russia to advance towards socialism. "We have stressed in a good many written works, in all our public utterances, and in all our statements in the press that... the socialist revolution can triumph only on two conditions. First, if it is given timely support by a socialist revolution in one or several advanced countries." Lenin, speaking at the Tenth Congress of the RCP(B), March 15, 1921, Collected works, Vol 32, p215. This outlook matched precisely Trotsky's theory of Permanent Revolution. Trotsky's Permanent Revolution had foreseen that the working class would not stop at the bourgeois democratic stage of the revolution, but proceed towards a workers' state, as happened in 1917. In 1917, Lenin changed his attitude to Trotsky's theory of Permanent Revolution and after the October revolution it was adopted by the Bolsheviks. Deutscher, Isaac, ''Stalin'', p285, Penguin, (1966) THE 'LEGEND OF TROTSKYISM' In ''The Stalin School of Falsification'', Trotsky argues that what he calls the "legend of Trotskyism" was formulated by , University Of London , is one of the UK's leading modern Russian historians During 1922-24, Lenin suffered a series of strokes and became increasingly incapacitated. Before his death in 1924, Lenin had demanded that Stalin be removed from his position of General Secretary, but his notes remained suppressed until 1956. Lenin, Collected works, Vol 36, pp593-98: "Stalin is too rude and this defect...becomes intolerable in a Secretary-General. That is why I suggest that the comrades think about a way of removing stalin from that post...it is a detail which can assume decisive importance." Zinoviev and Kamenev broke with Stalin in 1925 and joined Trotsky in 1926 in what was known as the United Opposition . Trotsky, Leon, ''The Stalin School of Falsification'', pp89ff, Pathfinder (1971) In 1926, Stalin allied with Bukharin who then led the campaign against "Trotskyism". In ''The Stalin School of Falsification'', Trotsky quotes Bukharin's 1918 pamphlet, ''From the Collapse of Czarism to the Fall of the Bourgeoisie'', which was re-printed by the party publishing house, Proletari, in 1923. In this pamphlet, Bukharin explains and embraces Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution, writing: "The Russian proletariat is confronted more sharply than ever before with the problem of the international revolution ... The grand total of relationships which have arisen in Europe leads to this inevitable conclusion. Thus, the ''permanent revolution in Russia is passing into the European proletarian revolution.''" Yet it is common knowledge, Trotsky argues, that three years later, in 1926, "Bukharin was the chief and indeed the sole theoretician of the entire campaign against 'Trotskyism', summed up in the struggle against the theory of the permanent revolution." Trotsky, Leon, ''The Stalin School of Falsification'', pp78ff, Pathfinder (1971) Trotsky wrote that the Left Opposition grew in influence throughout the 1920s, attempting to reform the Communist Party. But in 1927 Stalin declared "civil war" against them:
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