Edited and introduced by David Cotterill
Leon Trotsky and Victor Serge stand as authentic representatives of the Russian Revolution's finest moments: Leon Trotsky in his role as founder of the Red Army, inspiring victory in the civil war that followed the revolution, and Victor Serge as exemplar of the rank and file militant. Both men fought to maintain the finest traditions of that revolution during the political struggles that followed the death of Lenin and the rise of Stalin. Both were eventually driven into permanent and painful exile.
The Serge-Trotsky Papers draws on the personal correspondence and polemical writings -many published in English here for the first time-exchanged by these two extraordinary figures as they continued in exile to debate the struggle to create a new revolutionary international. Their letters, sometimes effusive, sometimes sharply critical, always compelling, provide a unique insight into the competing verities of the Trotskyist opposition in exile. The result is a unique insight into the relationship between two remarkable individuals at a critical juncture in European politics.