Trotsky’s work, translated into many languages, was widely popular among the "left" intellectuals of the West. First published in 1923, it was later banned in the USSR and published in Russia only in 1991.
The book is based on the author’s work done in fragments over many years, from 1907 to 1923.
In his forceful and highly expressive style, the author reflects on the ideological role of art— and not only literature, but also painting, theater, and even architecture— in shaping a "new" type of personality. He harshly criticizes, on the one hand, the "proletarian arrogance" of semi-literate ideologues and the representatives of the influential bohemian avant-garde who affected them and dreamed of "throwing the old culture off the ship of modernity." On the other hand, he attacks no less sharply the traditionally patriarchal preferences in art associated with Lenin and especially Stalin (though none of them is named directly in the book).