October revolution was a surprise to everyone, especially to Lenin and his bolsheviks. They were surprised that they ended up in power and they got surprised by the fact they met no serious opposition.

Comprised of what might be called theoretical politicians (who prided in scientific approach - sounds familiar right?) that were fighting for a common man but lived much better than common man (they all lived in London, Switzerland, Germany and all other exotic locations in Europe not by a lone coin but by pretty good money - again, sounds very similar to modern day politicians) this intellectual force came back to Russia where they managed to win (to their own bewilderment) and managed to stay in power (by defeating some even truly progressive movements).

As time went on Lenin soon started to become an obstacle for rising bureaucracy. Same happened to all and every old guard politician. Reason? Simple - being theoretical in nature they established all of the mechanisms of iron rule (machine is always right!) but when they started seeing that they might have been wrong and changes need to be done - oh, man, didn't you read the latest political manifesto, there is absolutely no way we can come back or change anything. Because we cannot be wrong (you said it day ago and said it is ultimate truth) then you are wrong! Machine cannot be wrong! So you are wrong and we cannot tolerate it (activism eh - again maybe too close to heart today)! And so they had to go out into exile or end up dead.

So we follow our humble Trotsky in this book as he goes from Siberia to living in the Europe and finally settling in the Mexico. During his exile Trotsky was fighting against the Stalin .... to a degree. You see, only problem Trotsky had with Stalin is that Trotsky is not ruling instead of Stalin. All the explanations Stalin gave, Trotsky seemed to confirm and accept - there must be no doubt, state machine is always right! He did not like the fact he was now targeted but he understood it because this is how things should be. Proletariat cannot take the responsibility, it needs the iron hand to rule it. And this is my problem with Trotsky - he is not that different from Stalin. It is just that he was put on high ground because he was the only one openly critiquing Stalin in these turbulent years. For everything else it was like Behemoth saying to Kraken how monstrous he is!

Author obviously supports Trotsky and has great sympathy for him. Unfortunately I dont share this sympathy because I had opportunity to see this kind of sleazy "scientific" politician practically doing nothing but always be ready for exercises in futility through long quasi philosophical discourse - for a single goal, to prove how smart he is! But this does not take away anything from the book itself. Author manages to interweave turbulent years of Revolution with Trotsky's years in Mexico and portray people he lived with and finally how GPU organized several attempts on his life. In the end sad story - because man was murdered - but also something of a let down because Trotsky was glorified for causes that are actually far away from his core politics - his goal is eternal revolution, eternal angst and eternal strife (where his [Trotsky's] machine is always right!).

For those interested in final years of Trotsky this book will be interesting. For any more details on his person there are much better and more detailed books. ( )

A strange mix of history and theatre wrapped up with a huge bias. ( )