The renewed promotion of Victor Serge—by anarchists, the pseudo-left, liberal academics, and the entire spectrum of anti-Trotskyist intellectual circles—requires a clear and honest political assessment. Republishing and celebrating Life and Death of Leon Trotsky is not just a literary act; it is a political move intended to distort the history of the October Revolution, undermine Bolshevism, and diminish Trotsky’s revolutionary legacy.
Serge’s biography reveals more about Serge’s personal political downfall than about Leon Trotsky’s life and lasting historical impact. While this is true, the wider implications are even more significant. His later writings act as a political weapon born from defeat, demoralisation, and capitulation to bourgeois ideas. Today, they serve the same purpose as in the 1940s: to hide the class struggle behind Stalinism and to obscure the clear, principled divide between Bolshevism and its Thermidorian opponents.
The Political Degeneration of Victor Serge: From Bolshevik to Fellow‑Traveller of the Bourgeoisie
Victor Serge’s early revolutionary history is undisputed. He joined the Bolsheviks in 1919, when Petrograd was starving and under siege, and he held significant roles within the Communist International. He faced imprisonment and exile during Stalin’s rule. His novels, particularly The Case of Comrade Tulayev, vividly portray bureaucratic terror. However, Serge’s tragedy is not a literary issue but a political one.
The setbacks of the 1930s profoundly affected him. The rise of Hitler, the betrayal of the Spanish Revolution, the Moscow Trials, the Stalin-Hitler Pact, and Trotsky’s assassination didn’t inspire in Serge the steadfastness of a Trotskyist; instead, they led to a loss of political direction. However, Serge was among those who “held on for a long time, but he did not hold on to the end.”
The key indicator of this collapse is Serge’s infamous letter to André Malraux, written just six days before his death, in which he pledged support to Charles de Gaulle. This document highlights the gravity of his betrayal: “A man who had once manned a submachine gun post in defence of the Bolshevik Revolution ended his life supporting a bourgeois French general.” This isn’t merely a biographical detail; it reflects the political perspective from which Life and Death of Leon Trotsky was authored.
II. Trotsky’s Break with Serge: A Necessary Political Separation
Political reasons, not personal ones, drove the split between Trotsky and Serge. Trotsky severed ties because Serge shifted towards centrism—succumbing to vacillation, moralism, and political impressionism that typically surface during reactionary periods. Serge’s attempts at conciliation with the “left” critics of Bolshevism, his flirtation with anarchism, and his increasing doubts about the dictatorship of the proletariat directly conflicted with the core principles of the Fourth International.
Trotsky recognised that opposing Stalinism demanded a clear understanding of Bolshevism’s historical role. Meanwhile, Serge increasingly argued that the origins of Stalinist terror stemmed directly from the October Revolution. This idea is a core theme of the entire “god that failed” genre, and Serge emerged as one of its earliest and most refined proponents.
The Theoretical Bankruptcy of Life and Death of Leon Trotsky
Serge’s biography reflects the doubts and moral introspection that characterised his later years. It quotes Serge asking, “Could we have misunderstood something crucial?” “Did we achieve the opposite of our intentions?” “Have we neglected man and his soul?” These questions are not typical of a Marxist. They reveal a man who has forsaken historical materialism and turned towards petty-bourgeois moral philosophy.
The biography serves a political purpose: it subtly links Bolshevism with Stalinism, revolutionary violence with bureaucratic terror, and Lenin with his executioners. As noted, “Serge’s late writings blur this distinction.” This conflation is deliberate, forming the ideological basis of Cold War anti-communism. It explains why the American right favoured Serge, the New York Review of Books, and the post-Trotskyist intellectual circle.
IV. Why Serge Is Useful to the Pseudo‑Left Today
The renewed interest in Serge today is driven more by political reasons than literary value. Groups such as the International Socialist Tendency, anarchist publishers, liberal academics, and the pseudo-left support Serge because he provides a left-leaning justification for opposing Bolshevism. This allows them to appear aligned with the revolutionary tradition while avoiding its core principles: the dictatorship of the proletariat, the necessity of a vanguard party, the legitimacy of revolutionary violence, and the fundamental doctrines of Trotskyism. “Serge is utilised to challenge the more severe aspects of Bolshevik policy… and to imply that the divide between Leninism and Stalinism was less pronounced than Trotsky claimed.” This encapsulates the political strategy behind the entire effort.
V. What Should Be Read Instead: The Marxist Tradition Against Demoralisation
Despite Serge’s discouraging moralism, the Marxist tradition remains robust. Trotsky’s My Life, as noted by David North in a recent article, is “an enduring contribution to Marxism and world literature.” Works such as In Defence of Marxism and The Revolution Betrayed provide essential theoretical frameworks for interpreting Stalinism as a counterrevolutionary bureaucracy rather than as a continuation of Bolshevism.
Despite its centrist biases, Deutscher’s trilogy is grounded in careful historical scholarship rather than existential doubt. Pierre Broué’s biography remains the most comprehensive historical account of Trotsky’s life. All these works approach the subject from a perspective rooted in historical materialism, unlike the despairing self-examination of a defeated thinker.
Conclusion: Serge’s Biography as a Political Warning
Serge’s biography “tells us more about Serge’s own political disintegration than about the life and enduring importance of Leon Trotsky.” While this is accurate, the political meaning extends beyond that. “Life and Death of Leon Trotsky” by Serge is not just a flawed book; it symbolises a wider trend: the decline of parts of the intelligentsia from Marxism in response to historical setbacks. It serves as a warning of the consequences when revolutionary ideals shift to moralism, when in-depth historical analysis gives way to existential uncertainty, and when the class struggle is replaced by a focus on the “soul.”
The task today is not to rehabilitate Serge, but to understand the political forces that shaped him—and to reject the use of his writings as a weapon against the revolutionary legacy of Leon Trotsky and the program of the Fourth International.
A Trumpet of Sedition 