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August 10, 2009 | Recorded on July 28, 2009
audio, video, and blogs » uncommon knowledge

Trotsky per Hitchens and Service

with guests Christopher Hitchens and Robert Service
interviewed by Peter M. Robinson
Christopher Hitchens and Robert Service

Leon Trotsky, one of the leading figures of the Russian October Revolution, remains a controversial figure.

For many, Trotsky’s assassination in Mexico marked a tragedy in Soviet history, cutting off the possibility of a humane version of communism taking hold in Russia, with Trotsky himself arguing that he would have held back the tides of arbitrary rule and terror. But is that so? In answering this question and others about Trotsky’s ideas, political defeat, and exile, Hitchens and Service speak to the very nature of communist ideology.(35:56) Video transcript