Tag Archives: isaac deutscher

divine claims from the secular spirits

Guides for the perplexed? The narcissism of small differences? Christopher Hitchens did write a book called Be Prepared for the Worst. So, even in an atheist like Hitchens there is a little ping somewhere. There is a famous quote by … Continue reading

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trotsky: the jargon of the trojan horse?

It was all the young, impatient, implacable todays since the beginning of time shouting down the tired, timid old yesterdays… Trotsky was still in exile in New York when the March Revolution overthrew the czarist regime in 1917. He rushed … Continue reading

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a very red riding in the hood

The element of heroic myth in Leon Trotsky’s career was no less marked during the Russian Civil War, when as the Soviet Commisar for War he lived for more than two years in his famous armored train, dashing from one … Continue reading

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orational arts: convincing the young turks of legitimacy

Thebeginning of the twentieth century in Russia saw Trotsky spending two years in various prisons before being sentenced to exile in Siberia. After another two years he escaped, getting away from Siberia on a false passport, in which he had … Continue reading

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trotsky between kitsch and killing

Is Leon Trotsky relevant today? There is a continuing fascination with American “cultural Trotskyism” , a kind of aesthetic elitism in contradiction with the masses of “unwashed” it is to lead. Almost a pathological hatred toward the peasant and an … Continue reading

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the ballad of trotsky: revolution of disavowal

There was a rise, there was a fall. Though a Stalinist secret agent, Raymond Mercader, drove a pickaxe through his brain, the theories of communism were remarkably not consigned to the scrapheap of history as had been assumed. Trotsky always … Continue reading

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1984…sweeping away the stark absolutes of individual character

George Orwell had lost the power to believe. Who could blame him? The original reviews of George Orwell’s 1984 seemed to justify the complaints of Trotskyites such as Isaac Deutscher, who saw the American press run with the common gambit … Continue reading

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