Leon Trotsky

**The Permanent Revolution** is a political theory book by communist leader Leon Trotsky. Its title is the name of the concept of permanent revolution advocated by Trotsky and Trotskyists in opposition to the concept of socialism in one country as advocated by Joseph Stalin and Stalinists. It was first published by the Left Opposition in the Russian language in Germany in 1930. (Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Permanent_Revolution))

Defending the materialist foundations of scientific socialism, Leon Trotsky responds to the rising pressures of bourgeois public opinion on the middle classes during the buildup toward U.S. entry into World War II. He explains why working people must oppose imperialist assaults on the degenerated Soviet workers state. And why only a party that fights to bring growing numbers of workers into its ranks and leadership can chart a revolutionary course. Leon Trotsky was a central leader of the Russian revolution. Forced into exile by Joseph Stalin in 1929, he was murdered by an agent of Stalin in 1940. In Defense of Marxism is a companion volume to The Struggle for a Proletarian Party by U.S. communist leader James P. Cannon.

"The historic function of fascism is to smash the working class, destroy its organisations, and stifle political liberties when the capitalists find themselves unable to govern and dominate with the help of democratic machinery." "The advanced workers must know that they will have to fight and win a struggle to the death." Writing in the heat of struggle against the rising fascist movement in Europe in the 1930s, Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky examines the origin and nature of fascism and advances a working-class strategy to combat it.

Read the 1932 English edition online at [marxists.org][1]. [1]: http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/hrr/index.htm