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About this quote

What does it mean?
The author compares insurrection to art, suggesting it follows specific rules or laws.
In plain terms
Rising up follows rules like art does.
What can you take from it?
Successful uprisings require skill and following specific rules.

Where it applies

  • revolutionary planning
  • tactical analysis

Putting it to work

  • strategic planning
  • historical study

Questions to consider

  • Can politics be treated as art?
  • What laws guide uprisings?

Another view

Comparing violence to art can romanticize conflict.

More from Leon Trotsky

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  2. In inner-party politics, these methods lead, as we shall yet see, to this: the party organization substitutes itself for the party, the central committee subst…

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  3. In Stalin each [Soviet bureaucrat] easily finds himself. But Stalin also finds in each one a small part of his own spirit. Stalin is the personification of the…

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