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Isaac Deutscher

Isaac Deutscher Biography

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“For nearly thirty years the powerful propaganda machines of Stalinism worked furiously to expunge Trotsky's name from the annals of the revolution, or to leave it there only as the synonym for arch-traitor. To the present Soviet generation, and not only to it, Trotsky's life-story is already like an ancient Egyptian sepulchre which is known to have contained the body of a great man and the record, engraved in gold, of his deeds; but tomb-robbers and ghouls have plundered and left it so empty and desolate that no trace is found of the record it once contained. The work of the tomb-robbers has, in this present instance, been so persistent that it has strongly affected the views even of independent Western historians and scholars.”

LiesPropagandaSoviet UnionStalinismLeon Trotsky
Author:Isaac Deutscher
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“By offering the educated a semblance of freedom he made the denial of real freedom even more painful and humiliating. The intelligentsia sought to avenge their betrayed hopes; the Tsar strove to tame their restive spirit; and, so, semi-liberal reforms gave way to repression and repression bred rebellion.”

EducationLibertyRussiaLiberalismCivil LibertiesIntelligentsiaTsar Of Russia
Book:The Prophet Armed: Trotsky, 1879-1921
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“[...] the foreign policy of any government [...] is a prolongation of its domestic policy. This is all to often forgotten in a period of 'summit' meetings, when the public is led to believe that three or four Big Men solve, or fail to solve, the world's predicaments according to whether they have or do not have the wisdom, the good will, or the magic wand needed for their task.”

Foreign PolicyDomestic PolicySummits
Book:Great Contest: Russia and the West
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“A man once jumped from the top floor of a burning house in which many members of his family had already perished. He managed to save his life; but as he was falling he hit a person standing down below and broke that person's legs and arms. The jumping man had no choice; yet to the man with the broken limbs he was the cause of his misfortune. If both behaved rationally, they would not become enemies.”

IfsMenPersonsChoicesFallHouseCausesEnemyHe ManBrokenArmsMembersStandingLegsBurningBrokeMisfortunesJumpingLimbsBurning HouseStanding Down
Author:Isaac Deutscher
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