[2]: 17 This was published after the death of Vladimir Lenin which triggered a power struggle within military, bureaucratic, legislative bodies within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
General Secretary Joseph Stalin formed a political alliance with Lev Kamenev, Grigory Zinoviev and Nikolai Bukharin, who opposed Trotsky within the Politburo and the Central Committee.
Stalin's bloc pursued an isolationist policy referred to as Socialism in One Country, which emphasized placing economic development before world revolution.
[6] Biographer, Isaac Deutscher, stated that Trotsky explicitly supported revolution through proletarian internationalism but was opposed to achieving this via military conquest.
[7] Deutscher made references to his documented opposition to the war with Poland in 1920, his proposed armistice with the Entente and temperance with staging anti-British revolts in the Middle East.