A must for anyone who wants to know who Trotsky

In his review of the French translation of this work, published recently, the great French historian Benjamin Stora wrote: "Based on an imposing mass of archives, the British historian Robert Service draws up an uncompromising portrait of the founder of the Red Army. " And he adds: "Trotsky's supporters and admirers would be wrong to miss such a book." I fully endorsed these two judgments. I bought the book because an original VO is generally preferable to a translation. But people who do not read English easily - and Robert Service style is a little thick - certainly like in the French translation.