In the late 1930s, Leo Trotsky worked on the biography of Joseph Stalin. In it, he unfolds Stalin's personality before the reader, highlighting its limitations and his rejection of systematic theoretical work, which prevented him throughout his life from fully embracing the expansive worldview of Marxism. Trotsky demonstrates that Stalin did not play a significant role during the preparatory period of the October Revolution of 1917, but rather followed the process of idea generation and debate from the sidelines. Stalin's time only began after the end of the Civil War, following the consolidation of power, which coincided with defeats of the international labor movement. The growing state apparatus found in Stalin a leader who knew no moral scruples or ideological reservations, and his characteristic rejection of substantive debate completed Stalin's suitability as the executor of the Thermidor. The first seven chapters cover Stalin's youth, his affiliation with the Social Democracy, the time of war and exile, and Stalin's role in 1917. The subsequent chapters were compiled and published from Trotsky's notes and fragments by Charles Malamuth, a translator of Trotsky's works into English. Leo Trotsky was unable to complete this biography of Stalin, as he was murdered in Mexico in August 1940 by an agent of the Stalinist secret police.