Actually, the decision was not only expedient but necessary. The severity of this summary justice showed the world that we would continue to fight mercilessly, stopping at nothing. The execution of the Tsar's family was needed not only in order to frighten, horrify, and dishearten the enemy but also in order to shake up our own ranks, to show them that there was no turning back, that ahead lay either complete victory or complete ruin.
Leon TrotskyThe initiative of the Five Year Plan and of the accelerated collectivization belongs entirely to the Left Opposition, in uninterrupted and sharp struggles with the Stalinists. Not having the possibility of occupying myself here with long historical researches, I will limit myself to a single illustration. The Dnieprostroy is considered with right as the highest achievement of Soviet industrialization. Yet [Joseph] Stalin and his followers ([Clim] Voroshilov and others) a few months before the beginning of the work were decided opponents of the Dnieprostroy plan.
Leon TrotskyIt is also false that the revolution ripens and comes to development only in the national soil.
Leon TrotskyAs long as human labor power, and, consequently, life itself, remain articles of sale and purchase, of exploitation and robbery, the principle of the โsacredness of human lifeโ remains a shameful lie, uttered with the object of keeping the oppressed slaves in their chains.
Leon Trotsky