Forum Post: Trotsky: A scientific and historical view of revolution
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 28, 2011, 12:24 p.m. EST by SandyEnglish
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The term "revolution" is being used in relation the struggle for social equality that is now emerging in the US and around the world, and rightly so. But revolutions are real historical phenomenon and obey certain laws. They must be studied by participants.
Leon Trotsky, the leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917 with Lenin and the man lead the fight against Stalinism, delivered this speech before a meeting of Social-Democratic students in Copenhagen on November 27, 1932,
It is a concise presentation of the main driving forces of the Russian Revolution. Trotsky defends the gains of October 1917, explains how it occurred ("Why did the proletarian revolution conquer in one of the most backward countries in Europe?") and addresses those who doubt the revolution because of its great costs ("Has the October Revolution stood the test of time?"). He illustrates the role of the peasantry, the national question, the war, and the Bolshevik Party; but more broadly, he evaluates the role of the October Revolution, not only in Russian and European, but world history.
"As distinguished from the processes of nature, a revolution is made by human beings and through human beings. But in the course of revolution, too, men act under the influence of social conditions which are not freely chosen by them but are handed down from the past and imperatively point out the road which they must follow. For this reason, and only for this reason, a revolution follows certain laws."
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