''My Life: An Attempt at an Autobiography'' (
Russian: ''Моя Жизнь'') is the name of the
Russian revolutionary
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
leader
Leon Trotsky's autobiography. The book was first published in 1930 and was written in the first year of Trotsky's exile in
Turkey. It covers the time from his youth, through the
Revolution of 1905
The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...
, the
Revolution of 1917, the
Russian Civil War up to his struggle against
Stalinism
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
and eventual expulsion from the
Communist Party.
The Russian/Soviet historian
Dmitri Volkogonov claims that Trotsky's "''My Life'', must hold pride of place as a work of remarkable self-analysis, as well as imaginative history. Although he wrote it at the relatively early age of forty-eight, soon after his deportation, his life up to then had been eventful enough to merit recording."
Before he settled with the simple title ''My Life'', Trotsky tried out several titles:
[Dmitri Volkogonov "Trotsky: The Eternal Revolutionary", page 312. ]
*''Half A Century (1879 - 1929)''
*''An Experiment in Autobiography''
*''Flood Tides and Ebb Tides: The Autobiography of a Revolutionary''
*''In the Service of the Revolution: An Experiment in Autobiography''
*''A Life of Struggle: The Autobiography of a Revolutionary''
*''To Live is to Struggle: The Autobiography of a Revolutionary''
See also
*
List of books by Leon Trotsky
Footnotes
External links
''My Life''the whole book at the
Marxists Internet Archive.
{{Authority control
1930 non-fiction books
Communist books
Political autobiographies
Works by Leon Trotsky
Books about Trotskyism