>>2686256I second this. Trotsky is a damn good writer in general, but History of the Russian Revolution is on still another level. Trotsky proves that Marxist history doesn't have to be strictly about statistics showing class formation and so on; instead he writes a vivid narrative history that puts the reader right in the middle of historic events, in a way which reminds me of John Reed's Ten Days That Shook the World.
Then at the end of each chapter, he pulls out the statistics showing class formation and draws theoretical lessons from what took place. I actually think that the narrative Trotsky spins is very misleading in places (especially the stress he places on Lenin's April Theses being a supposed turning point for the party), but he tells it so damn well that I wholeheartedly recommend the book anyway.
>>2685701Opposition to the Big Bang theory isn't just a Trotskyist thing, it's just that Alan Woods, permanent founder-leader of the most prominent Trot party today, opposes it on the basis of Engels' explicit philosophical opposition to a god-created finite universe (which in turn goes back to Holbach etc etc). In doing so he's following a long tradition of Marxists that are skeptical of the concept. I haven't studied this specifically, but I'm pretty damn sure that the Soviet academy under Stalin was also opposed to the Big Bang theory.
I fully support Woods speaking out against against cosmological orthodoxy (which is based on a lot less empirical evidence than you'd assume). What I oppose is being required to accept Woods's philosophy as some sort of prerequisite for political unity. Being forced to accept the great leader's views on subjects as distant as cosmology is an absurd example of everything that's wrong with socialist organizations today.
>>2686487>>2686526Having read a lot of Trotsky, that is absolutely something I could see him doing.