Trotskyism: Difference between revisions

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Historian [[Sheila Fitzpatrick]] has also questioned the premise of historical inevitability presented by [[conservative]] critics such as [[Robert Service (historian)|Robert Service]] in that the Soviet Union would have experienced the same "totalitarian [[despotism]] under Trotskyist rule". Fitzpatrick suggested it was implausible that Trotsky like Stalin would have launched an [[Anti-cosmopolitan campaign|anti-semitic campaign]] after [[World War II]] or initiated the [[Great Purge]]. Rather, she inferred that Trotsky would presumably have provided good [[leadership]] during the Second World War but may have struggled to maintain party cohesion as seen during the succession struggle after 1924.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fitzpatrick |first1=Sheila |title=The Old Man |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n08/sheila-fitzpatrick/the-old-man |journal=London Review of Books |language=en |date=22 April 2010|volume=32 |issue=8 }}</ref>
 
Moreover, various scholars and Western [[socialism|socialists]] have considered Trotsky to have represented a more [[democracy|democratic]] [[anti-Stalinist Left|alternative]] to Stalin with particular emphasis drawn to his activities in the pre-Civil War period and as leader of the Left Opposition.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=189–198 |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Barnett |first1=Vincent |title=A History of Russian Economic Thought |date=7 March 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-26191-8 |page=101 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s71uK9sB27AC&dq=Trotsky+alternative+historians&pg=PA101 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |pages=1–15 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Day |first1=Richard B. |title=The Blackmail of the Single Alternative: Bukharin, Trotsky and Perestrojka |journal=Studies in Soviet Thought |date=1990 |volume=40 |issue=1/3 |pages=159–188 |doi=10.1007/BF00818977 |jstor=20100543 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20100543 |issn=0039-3797}}</ref> Proponents of this view have specified further differences with Stalinism, which emerged during the succession struggle, over [[intragroup conflict|intraparty democracy]], autonomy of the [[Comintern]] and the [[Cult of personality#Soviet Union|dogmatization of Leninist orthodoxy]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Saccarelli |first1=Emanuele |title=Gramsci and Trotsky in the Shadow of Stalinism: The Political Theory and Practice of Opposition |date=28 February 2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-89980-6 |page=146 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Gramsci_and_Trotsky_in_the_Shadow_of_Sta/q8GSAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=trotsky+gramsci&printsec=frontcover |language=en}}</ref> Mandel and Deutscher maintain that his intra-party reforms from 1923-1926 would have revitalised party democratization, [[public participation|mass participation]], [[worker's self-management]] and eventually a [[multi-party]] [[socialist democracy]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mandel |first1=Ernest |title=Trotsky as Alternative |date=5 May 2020 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78960-701-7 |pages=84-86 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Trotsky_as_Alternative/xVmcEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=trotsky+as+alternative+mandel&pg=PT80&printsec=frontcover |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |pages=674-678, 826 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Prophet/YGznDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |language=en}}</ref> Trotsky also opposed the policy of [[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|forced collectivisation]] under Stalin and favoured a [[volunteering|voluntary]], gradual approach towards [[collective farming|agricultural production]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beilharz |first1=Peter |title=Trotsky, Trotskyism and the Transition to Socialism |date=19 November 2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-70651-2 |pages=1–206 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lfe-DwAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+widely+acknowledged+collectivisation&pg=PT196 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rubenstein |first1=Joshua |title=Leon Trotsky : a revolutionary's life |date=2011 |publisher=New Haven : Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13724-8 |page=161 |url=https://archive.org/details/leontrotskyrevol0000rube/page/160/mode/2up?q=forced+collectivization}}</ref> with greater tolerance for the rights of Soviet Ukrainians.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |page=637 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YGznDwAAQBAJ&q=isaac+deutscher+trotsky |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Leon Trotsky: Problem of the Ukraine (1939) |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1939/04/ukraine.html |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref> Historian [[Robert Vincent Daniels]] viewed Trotsky and the Left Opposition as a [[Anti-Stalinist Left|critical alternative]] to the Stalin-[[Bukharin]] majority in a number of areas. Daniels stated that the Left Opposition would have prioritised [[industrialisation]] but never contemplated the "[[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|violent uprooting]]" employed by Stalin and contrasted most directly with Stalinism on the issue of [[Soviet democracy|party democratization and bureaucratization]].<ref>"While Trotsky was strongly biased toward industrial development, there is little basis to suppose that he would have adopted Stalin’s forcible collectivization, slapdash economic planning, anti expert campaigns, or cultural know-nothingism. Neither Trotsky nor Bukharin would have pursued anything like Stalin’s pseudo-revolutionary 'third period' foreign policy and his connivance in the advent of Hitler, another product of his political manoeuvring against the Bukharinists".
{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=195,396 |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}</ref>