1923: What Is Proletarian Culture, and Is It Possible?

On the eve of the Second World War, when mankind was locked in a life and death struggle in every continent, Trotsky found time to write a manifesto in collaboration with the famous surrealist Andre Breton calling for the complete freedom of art.

Sep 12, 2015 · Despite the reconversions of these intellectuals to capitalism and Stalinism, the two great incarnations of reaction in our time, Trotsky’s remarks on the relations of art and politics retain their validity and urgency.

Apr 20, 2021 · Art is created on the basis of a continual everyday, cultural, ideological inter-relationship between a class and its artists. Between the aristocracy or the bourgeoisie and their artists there was no split in daily life.

In terms of culture and art, Trotsky was becoming deeply pessimistic in the late 1930s about the "civilizing" role of high art as fascism marched forward. In a manifesto "Towards a Free Revolutionary Art," addressed to a project begun by surrealist Andre Breton and muralist Diego Rivera, Trotsky worried over the total demise of civilization:

Jul 1, 2011 · Through delimiting the autonomous formalism of art Trotsky is able to construct an adequate image of cultural and political prospects previously unseen. Would Trotsky have been able to glean, concretely even, that the peasant world was in the process of withering away without literary investigation? Almost certainly.

He did not neglect literature and art as evident from his book, Literature & Revolution and his writings collected and edited by Paul N. Siegel under the title Leon Trotsky on Literature and Art. It was but natural for such a versatile genius to take due note of culture.

Aug 31, 2020 · This article aims to rescue an important debate raised by Leon Trotsky in his book Literature and Revolution (1924), which deals with the relationship between art and politics.

Introduction to Trotsky's writings on Art and Culture. Together with this article by Alan Woods we are providing our readers with the on-line sources of Trotsky's writings on Art, Culture and Revolution. Where these are not available we give the reference to the printed text. Communist Policy Toward Art (essay)

Leon Trotsky, from Literature and Revolution (1924) The error of the “Lef,” at least of some of its theorists, app ears to us in its most generalized form, when they make an ultimatum for the fusion of art with life.