Terrorism and communism

'Terrorism and Communism' is a polemical work defending the use of revolutionary terror as a necessary tool for establishing and defending the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Trotsky argues that the violence employed by the Bolsheviks was justified in the face of counter-revolutionary forces and the defense of the socialist state.

He critiques the pacifist and democratic socialists who opposed the use of terror, asserting that their principles were incompatible with the realities of class struggle.

The book provides a theoretical justification for the Red Terror and the suppression of dissent in the early years of the Soviet Union.

It remains a controversial and influential text in the history of revolutionary thought.