The wings of Empire

If you're curious about how the battle between Leon Trotsky and Josef Stalin played out in the early years of the Russian Revolution, I've never seen a better illustration of it than the second half of the series The Wings of Empire, below. The entire series details the years 1913 to 1921 in Russia, and brilliantly captures the exciting dynamics of this period of extreme upheaveal in Russian history. The second half focuses specifically on the communist takeover led by Lenin and Trotsky, initially assisted by the Kaiser's Germany, and eventually takes in the escalating confrontation between Trotsky and Stalin for power. If you ever thought that Trotsky was a "soft" leader compared to Stalin, this series should totally dispel that illusion. It was Leon Trotsky who instituted the Soviet Gulag and mass killings, it was Leon Trotsky who ordered the Tsar and his entire family to be executed. Stalin was at this period little more than a high level bureaucrat keeping records and amassing information, and that's exactly how Trotsky treated him. The crux of this existential conflict betweent these two young, ambitious, brilliant and powerful men is summarized in a stunning scene in which Trotsky gives Stalin a public dressing down for being too big for his boots. Trotsky tells Stalin that he is merely a pawn on the great chessboard of Soviet power. When Stalin walks away a colleague asks him what that was all about. Stalin's reply? He smiles and says "Comrade Trotsky has challenged me to play a game of chess with him. I've accepted." This dynamic between the quiet, calm, calculating Josef Stalin -- never flustered, always thoughtful and reserved -- and the histrionic but brilliant Leon Trotsky is most compelling, as we see Stalin slowly evolve his web of power almost invisibly to his arrogant adversary, Trotsky. In my view, anyway, the real issue that decides the result of this contest is simply that Stalin was much, much tougher than Trotsky. Stalin had had an extremely difficult life. Born into the family of a moderately successful shoemaker and small businessman, who eventually fell on hard times, and ended up dying in a drunken brawl as a destitute alcholic, Stalin was nutured by his loving mother, who hoped he would become an Orthodox Priest. Stalin had a useless left arm, and was just five foot three inches tall. A crippled dwarf basically. It's surprising he survived at all, in the incredibly rough environment of his native Georgia, and in cruel and backward Tsarist Russia. But, survive he did, and did study to be a priest, and even wrote some good poetry in his teens that is still included in compilations of Georgian verse. He left the seminary with a license to teach, but not to be a priest, he rebelled against the tyrannical brotherhood, and became a practicing communist. He led the life of a wandering revolutionary and gangster, in and out of prison, spending years surviving entirely on his own north of the arctic circle in Siberia. He became a master of manipulation and survival. These skills proved invaluable. In contrast, Leon Trotsky had led a life of comparative privilege, the son of wealthy Jewish Russian parents, well educated, becoming a professional writer and journalist. Trotsky wrote and spoke brilliantly, better than Stalin certainly, but, writing and speaking were all Trotsky really knew how to do. He never had a chance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By9_IkJKbzs #history #philosophyofhistory #russia #communism #ussr #stalin #lenin #trotsky #film #movies #politicalscience #russianrevolution