The book was recently reissued under an incorrect title: In Defense of Terrorism. In it Trotsky in no way defends what is currently understood as terrorism, but rather demonstrates the working class’s absolute need, in those revolutionary periods where it must either win or die, to show itself strong and capable of using all the harshness of war . . . In it he refutes Karl Kautsky’s criticisms of Bolshevism in the name of a democratic socialism that refused to accept any form of
