RARE 1938 LEON TROTSKY Speech 10/28/38 78 RPM Records
$
158
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Description
You’re bidding on one rare piece of the history of Bolshevism, Socialism, Trotskyism, Communism! On October 28, 1938, a mass meeting in New York celebrated the founding of the Fourth International as well as the 10th anniversary of the Trotskyist movement in the U.S. The Fourth International was intended to be a revolutionary, international alternative to the Stalinist Comintern. Leon Trotsky, then in exile in Mexico (he was murdered there on Aug. 21, 1940 by one of Stalin’s assassins), was not permitted to attend and speak, but he was able to send his speech via an audio recording. I have this recording, on two 12-inch 78 rpm shellac records made at the time! These are NOT modern reproductions—the records state “start outside” since early 78 records were played from the INSIDE (as are modern CD’s, isn’t that weird?) and they wanted to make sure the listener didn't try to start the record at the end by mistake. Hear the actual voice of Leon Trotsky!
I found the entire text of Trotsky’s speech at: http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/10/foundfi.htm
I bought these records about 30 years ago at the estate sale of a University of Michigan professor in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He must have been TERRIFIED to own them during the Communist witch hunt era. The records were hidden away in an album that should have contained Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite! In addition to the 3-part speech (one side of the two records is blank), I will be including a two-sided 78 rpm 12-inch record of Communist songs in English such as “Forward Ye Workers” and “Full Steam Ahead” (I don’t know if these are the official names of some songs, but that’s what the singers keep repeating), also hidden in the Nutcracker Suite album. The record’s label has no identification on it as to who made the recording or what year it is from. I have played all 3 records and they do not skip. The sound reproduction is quite good—I could understand everything Trotsky (speaking in English) was saying.
This may truly be a "one of a kind" item. Own a piece of political history! Hear the voice of one of the founding Bolsheviks, a year or so before an assassin murdered him. Shipping weight is 7 lbs. It is this heavy because each shellac record must be carefully bubble-wrapped and packaged in its own box within the exterior box so that the records arrive unbroken. See my other auctions for another antique recording that I believe is of Eugene Debs, founder of the Socialist Workers Party, who was imprisoned in 1917 by President Wilson for his infamous “Sedition Speech” in Canton, OH. I do not yet know what speech this recording is, but I'm still searching. Debs died in 1926. This record was hidden in a sleeve from a recording of songs from "Porgy & Bess".
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