Die wirkliche Lage in Russland — Leon Trotsky

Leo Trotzki (Leon Trotsky)
Translated by Wilhelm Cremer
Avalun-Verlag · Hellerau bei Dresden · [1928]
First Avalun Edition · First Printing
Spuriously designated “Autorisierte Ausgabe” by the publisher

The Book:
The first Avalun edition, first printing of Leon Trotsky’s Die wirkliche Lage in Russland (The Real Situation in Russia), translated into German by Wilhelm Cremer and issued without a printed publication date, conventionally dated [1928]. The volume assembles documents and writings of the Left Opposition from Trotsky’s struggle against Stalin’s consolidation of power. Although Avalun-Verlag explicitly presented the publication as an “Autorisierte Ausgabe”—an authorized edition—Trotsky subsequently denied having authorized it. 286 numbered pages followed by an unnumbered contents leaf headed “Inhalt,” printed recto and verso. Original beige/gray publisher’s cloth lettered in orange-red, with red-stained top edge and original ribbon marker.

Condition:
Good+. The text block remains complete, cohesive, and readable with moderate age toning and no ownership markings or restoration observed. The original publisher’s cloth and stamped lettering remain present, together with the red-stained top edge and ribbon marker. The binding exhibits substantial structural wear, including extensive splitting and lifting of the spine cloth, fraying and loss at the spine ends, cracked hinges with exposed mull, and partial separation of the text block from the case. The boards remain attached. Despite the binding deterioration, the volume remains complete and readable.

Story Of The Book

This book calls itself authorized. Trotsky said it was nothing of the kind.

Die wirkliche Lage in Russland appeared during Trotsky’s struggle against Stalin’s consolidation of power. By the late 1920s, the Left Opposition had been defeated within the Communist Party, Trotsky had been expelled from the party and sent into internal exile, and the political space for organized opposition to Stalin was rapidly disappearing.

Avalun-Verlag brought Trotsky’s arguments and documents of the Left Opposition to German readers during that confrontation. But the publisher created a controversy of its own.

The book identifies itself as an “Autorisierte Ausgabe.” In an April 1929 letter, however, Trotsky denied having any relationship with Avalun-Verlag. He stated that there had been no contract, that he had received neither royalties nor an author’s copy, and that he rejected both the translation and the title.

That makes the publication more complicated than an ordinary unauthorized edition.

Avalun circulated the writings of a political dissident while claiming an authority from that dissident that he said it never possessed.

The publisher therefore became part of the history contained inside the book. It helped circulate material suppressed within the Soviet Union while simultaneously overriding Trotsky’s control over how that material was translated, assembled, titled, and presented to readers.

Why It’s In The Collection

Die wirkliche Lage in Russland belongs in Consigned to Darkness because it preserves two struggles over control of ideas within the same physical object.

The first was political. Trotsky was losing his struggle against Stalin as independent opposition within the Soviet system became increasingly dangerous. The documents and writings gathered here preserve arguments produced during that confrontation and carried them to readers outside the Soviet Union.

The second struggle concerned authorship itself.

Avalun presented the volume as authorized. Trotsky said it was not.

That contradiction makes this edition particularly important to the collection. A publisher could preserve and circulate politically endangered ideas while simultaneously disregarding the author’s authority over their publication.

This copy also appears to preserve that controversy at its beginning. Bibliographic evidence identifies the undated, 286-page Avalun publication without a numbered Tausend designation as the first Avalun edition, conventionally dated [1928]. Later impressions explicitly identify themselves as 8.–12. Tausend, 11.–16. Tausend, and 17.–22. Tausend. This copy contains no Tausend or other numbered-impression statement.

It therefore corresponds to the original Avalun publication—the edition already in circulation when Trotsky rejected the publisher’s claim of authorization in 1929.

Sometimes preserving a dissident voice and respecting the dissident’s control over that voice are not the same thing. This book preserves the collision between the two.

Collection Categories: Anti-Authoritarianism · Anti-Totalitarianism · Political Dissent · Political History · Exile & Émigré Literature · Publication-Event Object

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Authentication Evidence

• Title page identifies Die wirkliche Lage in Russland by Leo Trotzki and Avalun-Verlag, Hellerau bei Dresden, as publisher.

• Translation is credited to Wilhelm Cremer.

• Title-page verso explicitly identifies the volume as an “Autorisierte Ausgabe” and records production by Rossberg’sche Buchdruckerei, Leipzig.

• The volume itself contains no printed publication date.

• The volume contains 286 numbered pages followed by an unnumbered contents leaf headed “Inhalt,” printed recto and verso.

• Original beige/gray publisher’s cloth with orange-red stamping, red-stained top edge, and ribbon marker are retained.

• Physical examination confirms that no Tausend/Tsd. or other numbered-impression designation appears anywhere in this copy.

• Bibliographic evidence records the first Avalun edition as an undated 286-page publication conventionally dated [1928]. Later Avalun impressions are specifically identified as 8.–12. Tausend, 11.–16. Tausend, and 17.–22. Tausend.

• Specialist antiquarian cataloguing cites Mehnert II, C 86; Sammlung Kerssemakers 7876; and Bibliothek Stein K1388 for the Avalun publication.

• The absence of a numbered-impression statement, together with the Avalun imprint, Wilhelm Cremer translation, Rossberg printer statement, correct collation, and original publisher’s binding, supports identification as the First Avalun Edition · First Printing, conventionally dated [1928].

• Trotsky subsequently denied authorizing Avalun’s publication, stating that he had no contractual relationship with the publisher and had received neither royalties nor author’s copies; the printed “Autorisierte Ausgabe” designation is therefore treated as the publisher’s claim rather than an accepted statement of authorization.

• No evidence of rebinding, facsimile title page, replacement leaves, or modern reproduction is observed.