The Russian Revolution of 1905 "produced a strong upsurge of the proletarian movement in Europe" and "has drawn the people of Asia into political life," wrote Lean Trotsky in 1908. Trotsky describes the "Young Turk Revolution" and how European powers circled the rotting Ottoman Empire "like so many hungry dogs" ... the 1905-11 "Constitutional Revolution" in Iran ... the fight to end pogroms of the Jews in Romania ... and the devastation inflicted on workers and peasants during the 1912-13 Balkan wars on the eve of World War I. Book jacket.