In Defence of October

• Why and How did the Russian revolution take place?
• How did the working class come to power in a backward country?
• Has the revolution stood the test of time?

In Defence of October was a speech delivered by Leon Trotsky in exile in Copenhagen in 1932, on the fifteenth anniversary of the Russian revolution. It turned out to be his last public speech before his murder by a Stalinist assasin in 1940. He clearly outlines the roots of the revolution, the role of the Bolshevik Party, and explains the historical justification of the revolution, despite the subsequent crimes of Stalinism, in showing the working class internationally the road to the overthrow of Capitalism.