^^^^ CB: I'd say _The State and Revolution_ is a good one to read in conjunction with "Reds", especially for fundamental principles from Marx such as "dictatorship of the proletariat". Lenin's wife, Krupskaya's _Reminisences_ would probably give some of the equivalent of biography for Lenin.
^^^^ As for the word Trotskist, that's a mistake. Trotsky spent pages trying to get his reader to understand this was a Stalinist word, used to deform and distort understanding of what Trotsky had said and done.- As far as I could tell, there was no such thing as Trotskism. In the un-informed US mind it sounds like some form of anarchism. From Trotsky's point of view what he wrote about and did was direct contact, understanding, and collaberation with the working urban and rural masses within their ad hoc (Soviets) organizations. That was his method of mobilization CG
^^^^^ CB: I think the word dissing them is "Trotskyites". "ist" is sort of more respectable. Trotskyists themselves use it. I think Trotsky considered himself a Leninist. I think Trotskyists claim combined and uneven development and "permanent revolution" theory as unique contributions of Trotsky to Marxism. "Permanent revolution" comes from a specific statement by Marx. Trotsky didn't join the Bolsheviks until 1917.
^^^^^ I am of course certain the actual experience must have been many fold greater than just reading about it. And that excitment, its desparation and promise looming on the horizon of some immediate future was precisely what I wanted to see and didn't.
Well the movie couldn't capture that. It couldn't because the writing and production people had never read or experienced anything like it and neither had the actors/actresses. I assume they had to read Ten Days. But they had no center to work from no matter how good they were at their job. -CG
^^^^ CB: I kind of thought the portrayal of the meeting of the workers' soviet meeting by the factory, with the giant sergeant of arms, may have conveyed some of the feeling of same.