The aim of Lessons of October was to expose how the faction within the Communist International was politically responsible for the missed opportunity and failure of the German Revolution of 1923, by bringing out the essential lessons of the October Revolution. Here Trotsky's seminal work is presented in full.

"John Reed’s Ten Days that Shook the World represents one of the 20th Century’s greatest political-literary achievements, being one of the first book length eye-witness accounts of the great Russian October Revolution."

"The soldiers will teach the workers how to handle arms. The wholesale arming of the people and the abolition of the regular army is a task which we must not lose sight of for a single minute"

"We must now set about building a proletarian socialist state in Russia. Long live the world socialist revolution!"

"Long live the revolution of workers, soldiers and peasants!"

"The government is tottering. It must be given the death blow at all costs. To delay action is fatal."

"To doubt now that the majority of the people are following and will follow the Bolsheviks is shameful vacillation and in practice is the abandoning of all the principles of proletarian revolutionism, the complete renunciation of Bolshevism."

 "The position was clear—either Kornilov's dictatorship or the dictatorship of the proletariat and the poorer strata of the peasantry."

"We now have the majority behind us. Politically, the situation is fully ripe for taking power."

"The success of both the Russian and the world revolution depends on two or three days' fighting."

"We must mobilise all forces to convince the workers and soldiers that it is absolutely imperative to wage a last, desperate and decisive fight for the overthrow of the Kerensky government."

"The crisis has matured. The whole future of the Russian revolution is at stake. The honour of the Bolshevik Party is in question. The whole future of the international workers' revolution for socialism is at stake."

"Here we have strike-breaking in the full sense of the term."

"Written by Lenin, October 6-8 (19-21), 1917"

"Difficult times. A hard task. A grave betrayal."

"All the best forces of the Party must be sent to the factories and barracks to explain to the masses their task and, taking their mood correctly in account, choose the proper moment for overthrowing the Kerensky government."

"Victory is certain, and the chances are ten to one that it will be a bloodless victory."

"Neither the workers in the cities nor the soldiers at the front can tolerate this military suppression of the just struggle of the peasants for the land."

"The Petrograd Soviet and the Bolsheviks have declared war on the government. But the government has an army, and is preparing systematically." Written to Smilga, Chairman Of The Regional Committee Of The Army, Navy And Workers Of Finland. 

"Discontent, indignation and wrath are growing in the army, among the peasantry and among the workers. The "coalition" of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks with the bourgeoisie, promising everything and fulfilling nothing, is irritating the masses, is opening their eyes, is pushing them towards insurrection."