[STALIN, Joseph (1878-1953), his copy]. Trotsky, Leon (1879-1940). In Russian: The Problems of the Civil War. Leningrad: Priboi, 1924.

8vo, 40 pp, original printed wrappers (small stain or repair on lower margin of front wrapper). STALIN'S COPY, WITH NUMEROUS MARGINAL ANNOTATIONS AND UNDERLININGS in pencil in his hand. With his library stamp "J. V. Stalin" on title-page.STALIN'S OWN COPY, WITH CRITICAL ANNOTATIONS, OF A RARE PAMPHLET WRITTEN BY HIS RIVAL TROTSKY IN 1924--THE YEAR OF LENIN'S DEATHThis rare pamphlet discusses Trotsky's thoughts and philosophy concerning the Russian Civil War. It was published the same year of Lenin's death, which opened the way for a power struggle between Stalin and Trotsky, who had been favored to succeed Lenin. Stalin has annotated the margins with mostly critical comments on five pages, as well as a few markings elsewhere. The significant annotations are as follows:Page 3: Stalin underlines text reading: "I've said this in various speeches" and adds "find out."Page 4: Stalin underlines: "compose a universal encyclopedia, or leadership, or textbook, or list with questions about civil war, following, first of all containing armed revolt, just like the highness moment of Revolution" Stalin's comment is a Russian equivalent of "Bullshit."Page 5: Stalin underlines a lengthy section discussing revolt, and adds: "analogy but not close."Page 6: Stalin underlines: "Even though, without regulations, military knowledge that is brought together in one, is under the conceivable leadership of armies. Not in a peaceful time or in a conflict" Stalin adds: "One thing is war army, another thing political army."Page 7: Stalin underlines: "Correspondence with this regulation of a Civil War-will conventionally call our work by this name, should fall apart, minimum, into three parts: Section about preparation about armed revolt, section about just revolt, and the last section about fortifying the victory." Stalin has added the numerals "1" and "2" in the appropriate sections for emphasis.RARE: According to online auction databases only one other copy of a Trotsky pamphlet annotated by Stalin has appeared on the market.

Property from the Robert L. McKay Collection, North Tustin, California