Since Lenin Died

work by Eastman

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July 13, 2026

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Since Lenin Died is a 1925 book by American radical writer Max Eastman. The book details the power struggle within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union following Vladimir Lenin's incapacitation and death in 1924. Eastman focuses on the rivalry between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin, highlighting Lenin's "Testament" which warned against Stalin's accumulation of power and suggested his removal as party secretary-general. The book critiques the subversion of the revolution's original purpose by corrupt leaders and the subsequent rise of Stalin's dictatorship.123

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Lenin’s Testament
…it and published them in Since Lenin Died in 1925, and The New York Times printed the entire testament, obtained indirectly through Krupskaya, who had joined the opposition against Stalin, in October 1926. Within the Soviet Union, however, it was not generally known and thus did little to retard Stalin’s…
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…it and published them in Since Lenin Died in 1925, and The New York Times printed the entire testament, obtained indirectly through Krupskaya, who had joined the opposition against Stalin, in October 1926. Within the Soviet Union, however, it was not generally known and thus did little to retard Stalin’s…
Read More