Editing Defeatism (section)

== Revolutionary defeatism ==
[[Revolutionary defeatism]] is a related idea, made most prominent by [[Vladimir Lenin]], that establishes that the [[proletariat]] cannot win or gain in a capitalist war. Instead, according to Lenin, the true enemy of the proletariat is the imperialist leaders who send their lower classes into battle. Workers would gain more from their own nations' defeats, he argued, if the war could be turned into civil war and then international revolution.<ref>Appignanesi, Richard (1977) ''Lenin For Beginners'', p. 118. Writers and Readers Cooperative, London. {{ISBN|0906386039}}.</ref>

According to political scientist Baruch Knei-Paz, [[Leon Trotsky]]'s theory of "[[Permanent revolution#Leon Trotsky|permanent revolution]]" was misrepresented by Stalin as defeatist and adventurist during the succession struggle; Knei-Paz writes that in fact Trotsky encouraged revolutions in Europe but did not propose "reckless confrontations" with the capitalist world.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knei-Paz |first1=Baruch |title=The Social and Political Thought of Leon Trotsky |date=1978 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-827234-2 |page=343 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xQXIhQzoFtIC&q=political+thought+of+leon+trotsky |language=en}}</ref>