Moia Zhizn: Opyt Avtolitografii. [My Life. An attempt at an autobiography].

the first edition

The rare first edition of Trotsky's My Life: An Attempt at an autobiography, written in the first year of his exile in Turkey. In 1929, Trotsky had been declared an enemy of the state and accused of leading a counter-revolutionary movement. This autobiography was an attempt to interpret the events which lead to his own personal defeat and provides a fascinating insight in to his life and political struggles which are not touched on in History of the Russian Revolution (published a year later).

Trotsky did not intend the work to benefit his own image but to salvage the legacy of everything he had worked towards. Indeed, he wrote in the introduction, 'In my personal life there were no events deserving public attention in themselves. All the more or less unusual episodes in my life are bound up with the revolutionary struggle, and derive their significance from it. This alone justifies the appearance of my autobiography'.

First edition, 2 vols; 8vo (19.5 x 14 cm), 326, [1]; 338, [1] pp., bound in blue cloth with original upper wrappers and spines pasted on, in very good condition.