The Life and Death of Trotsky
By Robert Payne
Leon Trotsky was a Jew, a Russian, a European, a cosmopolitan. Handsome, eloquent and possessing physical courage and grace of manner, his revolutionary passion and brilliance inspired a nation of millions to rebellion. Like Napoleon he dared to do impossible things, and like Napoleon he was deeply troubled when he learned that not everyone admired him. He was a man of contradictions. Here is the story of a truly fraught life.