Introduction by Joe Attard

The Russian Revolution of 1905 went off like a bombshell, blowing apart all scepticism about the fighting potential of the Russian masses toiling under the heel of tsarist absolutism. While the workers were ultimately crushed after a year of open combat with tsarism, they laid the foundations for even greater battles to come.

Leon Trotsky was virtually alone in understanding the real significance of 1905, which catalysed ideas he had already been developing into his greatest theoretical contribution: the permanent revolution.

There is a dialectical relationship between individuals, ideas and events. Lev Davidovich Bronstein (the birthname of ‘Leon Trotsky’) entered revolutionary activity as a teenager. But it was only after the 1905 Revolution, in which he personally led the St. Petersburg Soviet, that the mature ‘Trotsky’ emerged.

1905 was also when the young Russian working class entered decisively onto the stage of history. In a sense, Trotsky and the Russian proletariat made their first great leap in unison. Twelve years later, the process set in motion by the ‘dress rehearsal revolution’ would return on a higher level. As Trotsky later wrote:

In 1905, the working class was still too weak to seize power; but subsequent events forced it to gain maturity and strength. […] The proletariat came to power in 1917 with the help of the experience acquired by its older generation in 1905.

Joe Attard
From ‘Trotsky, 1905 and the Permanent Revolution’, Marxist.com
26 June 2026