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Quote by Leon Trotsky

“At the present time, it is of course still impossible to foresee to any precise degree just what sections of the field of history will be illuminated and just how much light will be cast by a materialist investigation which would proceed from a more concrete study of the capitalist curve and the interrelationship between the latter and all the aspects of social life. Conquests that may be attained on this road can be determined only as the result of such an investigation itself, which must be more systematic, more orderly than those historical materialist excursions hitherto undertaken. In any case, such an approach to modern history promises to enrich the theory of historical materialism with conquests far more precious than the extremely dubious speculative juggling with the concepts and terms of the materialist method that has, under the pens of some of our Marxists, transplanted the methods of formalism into the domain of the materialist dialectic, and has led to reducing the task to rendering definitions and classifications more precise and to splitting empty abstractions into four equally empty parts; it has, in short, adulterated Marxism by means of the indecently elegant mannerisms of Kantian epigones. It is a silly thing indeed endlessly to sharpen and resharpen an instrument to chip away Marxist steel, when the task is to apply the instrument in working over the raw material!”

Quote by Leon Trotsky

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Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and theorist, one of the key figures in Marxist theory. Born on November 7, 1879, and died on August 21, 1940. Trotsky played a significant role in the Russian Revolution, being one of the founders of the Bolshevik Party and a close comrade of Lenin. He was involved in the political struggles after the revolution and eventually fell out with Stalin, leading to his exile and eventual assassination. more

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