Leon Trotsky, politician: “Socialism means a leap from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom”
This quote originally belongs to the thinker Friedrich Engels, but the defender of Marxism also coined it
Born in 1879, Leon Trotsky was a politician and Marxist revolutionary who played a key role in the Russian Civil War and the establishment of the Soviet Union. He became president of the Saint Petersburg Soviet on October 6, 1905. Three years earlier he had gone into exile. In 1917 he joined the Bolsheviks and was also elected president of the Petrograd Soviet. Finally, he went into exile and died in 1940.
Trotsky was one of the main defenders of Marxism. In one of his speeches, he uttered a quote that originally belonged to Friedrich Engels, but which he himself coined. It stated that “socialism means a leap from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom”. Below, we break down the meaning of this reflection.
What is the realm of necessity and freedom, according to Trotsky?
First of all, when Trotsky speaks of the realm of necessity, he is referring to the state in which human beings are subject to all kinds of economic laws, taxes, scarcity, and the struggle to survive in this world. That is, to capitalism, in which all people are completely alienated from their own control.
Then, he mentions the leap to freedom. That is, Marxism. For Trotsky, this does not mean doing whatever each person prefers and what suits them best at any given moment, but rather that their actions are in the service of the rest of the community and humanity. According to the Russian thinker, it must be human beings themselves who build their own history and legacy.
Thus, it is not history that shapes its citizens, but rather the citizens who shape their different histories. For Trotsky, this would not be possible if humanity does not adapt to socialism and its different ideas. Only in this way, according to the Russian thinker, will freedom be a possibility.
