Revolutionary practitioner, theorist, factional chief, sparkling writer,
'ladies' man' (e.g., his affair with Frieda Kahlo), icon of the Revolution,
anti-Jewish Jew, philosopher of everyday life, grand seigneur of his household,
father and hunted victim, Trotsky lived a brilliant life in extraordinary times.
Robert Service draws on hitherto unexamined archives and on his profound
understanding of Russian history to draw a portrait of the man and his legacy,
revealing that though his followers have represented Trotsky as a pure
revolutionary soul and a powerful intellect unjustly hounded into exile by
Stalin and his henchmen. The reality is very different, as this masterful and
compelling biography reveals.