Perviy Kanal's Trotsky and the “Atlanticisation” of Leon Trotsky's Legacy *

Trotsky , an eight‐part miniseries made in 2017 for the centenary of the Russian Revolution, has recently been made available on Netflix for global audiences. This article analyses Trotsky through the theoretical lens of neo‐Eurasianism, especially as developed by the political theorist Aleksandr Dugin. Dugin's philosophy posits a civilisational divide between the “Atlantic” values of secularism, open markets, cosmopolitanism and sexual profligacy represented by the Anglo‐Atlantic cultural sphere, and the “Eurasian” values of authoritarianism, cultural conservatism and religious nationalism present in a revived Russia. I argue that Trotsky 's interpretation of Leon Trotsky's legacy reflects the popularisation of Dugin's neo‐Eurasianist political philosophy in Russia. The article covers some of the key historical events depicted in Trotsky , discussing their accuracy with reference to existing academic biographies of Leon Trotsky. I then discuss the series’ apparent fixation on the Jewish heritage of Trotsky (who was born Lev Bronstein), which has been the focus of much of the media coverage of the series, before addressing the fraught place that Trotsky occupies in Russian historical memory. I then move on to a discussion of the political philosophy of neo‐Eurasianism and its relevance and application to the political climate of modern Russia. Finally, I consider what Dugin has said about Trotsky himself. Despite (or perhaps because of) its distortions of history, the series serves as a fascinating reflection of the values and political climate of modern Russia.