Trotsky: A Photographic Biography

As an uncritically admiring life of the Russian revolutionary, King's biography is rather predictable. But the many rare photographs in this extended photo-essay make the book worthwhile. Pictures recreate Trotsky's boyhood, his years of Siberian exile and jail and the erudite intellectual's transformation into Red Army commander. There are battle scenes from the Civil War, shots of the Bolsheviks crushing the Kronstadt sailors uprising, bitter mementos from Trotsky's exile in Turkey, France and Norway, his welcome into Mexico by Diego Rivera and his bold expose of Stalin's frame-up trial. Trotsky's assassination and funeral fill the last solemn chapter. Reproductions of political caricatures, posters, film clips and pamphlets add interest. One of the most memorable photographs shows Stalin brooding over Lenin's corpse at the latter's funeral. (December