Today is the 140th birthday of Ioseb Jughashvili, also known as Koba, but best known as Joseph Stalin: figurehead of the Soviet bureaucracy that seized control of Russia following the degeneration of the Bolshevik regime. We publish here a review (first released on John Riddell's blog) of the new, updated edition of Trotsky's biography of Stalin, originally published in 2016. In his review, John explains how the expanded and revised edition of this biography (edited by Alan Woods) "provides a more satisfactory picture of Stalin’s character" than any previous version. Although we do not agree with all of the ideas presented in the

Wellred Books proudly presents the new edition of Leon Trotsky’s My Life.Since this book was first published, it has been regarded as a unique political and literary document. Written in the first year of Trotsky’s exile in Turkey, it contains the earliest authoritative account of the rise of Stalinism and the expulsion of the Left Opposition, who heroically fought for the ideas and traditions of Lenin.

Fyodor Fyodorovich Raskolnikov was a key Bolshevik activist and a principal organiser amongst the Kronstadt Sailors, who would prove so pivotal in the Bolsheviks' seizure of power. In these remarkable memoirs, which cover the period between the February and October Revolutions in 1917, Raskolnikov gives a first-hand account of how the Bolsheviks built their forces in the navy, describes the setbacks of the July Days (during which he, alongside Trotsky, was imprisoned by Kerensky's Provisional Government), and paints a vivid picture of the October insurrection and its immediate aftermath.

We are proud to present Alan Woods' pamphlet, Art and Class Struggle, published for the first time in Farsi by the Exit Theatre Group. This company previously translated Alan's Ideas of Karl Marx. Both texts can be read here!

What really causes depression and anxiety? And how can we genuinely solve these issues? Answering these questions is the task journalist Johann Hari sets himself in his newly released book, Lost Connections. Note: while Hari makes some valid points in his book, many of his claims are exaggerated, as we explain in this follow-up article.

Since the death of Mark Fisher at the beginning of this year, there has been a small increase in appetite for his book Capitalist Realism: is there no alternative?This is unfortunate, as the book is a confused jumble of academic jargon which barely manages to describe a phenomenon first explained by Marx over 170 years ago, let alone offer any practical advice to socialists trying to change the world today.

On November 29, a meeting was held in Vitoria-Gasteiz to mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution and to launch the Spanish edition of Stalin, by Leon Trotsky, which has been published by Lucha de Clases. The meeting was addressed by Alan Woods from the International Marxist Tendency.

On Monday, 27 November, the first meeting to launch the new edition of Trotsky's masterpiece, Stalin, took place in Madrid. The event was held at the headquarters of the Friends of Unesco Club of Madrid (CAUM) in the historic Atocha street of the capital. The room was filled with about 70 people.

Stalin was the last book Leon Trotsky was writing when his murderer, Frank Jackson (AKA Ramón Mercader) took his life. On 11 November, the new, complete Mexican edition of the book was presented in front of a packed auditorium and an overspill room, at the Leon Trotsky House Museum. In an extraordinary meeting, the last, unfinished masterpiece by the legendary revolutionary and martyr of the working-class (available in English at WellRed Books) was received with great anticipation by the old militants, and with great enthusiasm by the assembled youth.

The publication in Mexico of the complete and revised edition of Leon Trotsky’s critical biography of Stalin has had a wide impact both in the book launch meeting and in the media coverage of the edition by Fontamara.

On 30 October we reported that the Spanish daily El Paíshad published a review of the new edition of Trotsky's biography of Stalin (available at WellRed Books). The review appeared prominently in the popular Sunday supplement of El País, which is read by millions of people worldwide. Today we are pleased to present an English-language translation.

Yesterday the Spanish daily El Pais carried a full spread (see images) review of the new edition of STALIN the biography written by Leon Trotsky, which was recently republished with a wealth of new material left out by the original publishers.

On 21 August 1940, Leon Trotsky, the great revolutionary leader of the October Revolution, died in Mexico, murdered by a Stalinist agent. We publish his autobiography with forewords by In Defence of Marxism editor, Alan Woods, and Trotsky's grandson, Esteban Volkov.

 La biografía inacabada de Trotsky sobre Stalin, la edición más exhaustiva jamás publicada, completada con material inédito del archivo original:
- Restaurada meticulosamente durante un período de más de 10 años 
- Cotejada con los archivos de Harvard y las ediciones anteriores en inglés, francés, ruso y español
- 115.000 palabras más que la versión original, un 30% más
- Eliminados los añadidos y distorsiones políticas del primer editor, Charles Malamud
- Introducción de Alan Woods, editor del libro y traductor del material inédito en ruso
- Más de 1.000 páginas, 2 volúmenes

On the occasion of the centenary anniversary of the October Revolution, we are proud to announce a campaign for the publication of the Italian version of last work of the revolutionary Leon Trotsky, his biography of Stalin. So far, this work has only been available in incomplete editions, distorted politically by the editing of the editor of the first edition in the ‘40s, Charles Malamuth.