government prosecute one of the most sinister of the corps of Soviet agents deployed against Trotsky and his circle. In the 1950s, though he had renounced political activity, he signed on to help the U.S. He also came to accept that Trotsky, among others, laid the foundations of Soviet totalitarianism. Jean eventually realized that the supposedly inevitable proleterian revolution wasn’t, in fact, destined to happen. ![]() For Trotsky and his followers in the 1930s, the conditions included ending Stalin’s dictatorship, halting the liquidation of the revolutionary class of 1917, as well as the murderous forced collectivization of agriculture. The Soviet Union seemed to offer a plausible alternative. Apart from the evidence staring them in the face, a large body of serious theorizing said the system’s collapse was inevitable. When Jean heeded the call of revolutionary socialism, he was one of millions who were certain that capitalism was on its last legs. But people of his caliber aren’t dedicating their lives to overthrow it. ![]() More than 100 years after van Heijenoort was born in 1912, capitalism is in crisis again. Coyoacán, Mexico. ©Laure van Heijenoort, used with permission.Īs the global capitalist system tumbled over a cliff in the late 1920s, French teenager Jean van Heijenoort took the first steps toward a two-decade career as a professional revolutionary, the crucial part of it at Leon Trotsky’s side. Jean Van Heijenoort, far right, with (l to r) Trotsky Diego Rivera Natalya Trotsky Reba Hansen André Breton, surrealist writer and theoretician Frida Kahlo.
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