Leon Trotsky: Introduction to the Tatar-Language Edition of Problems of Everyday Life

[October 29, 1924, A letter to the Central Publishing House of the Peoples of the East. English translation in: Problems of Everyday Life and Other Writings on Culture & Science. New York, London, Sydney 1973, p. 79]

Dear Comrades:

I will, of course, be very pleased by the appearance of my book Problems of Everyday Life in the Tatar language. In writing this book, I leaned heavily on the Russian experience, and consequently did not take into account the special features characterising the ways of life among the Muslim peoples. But because the book only touches upon fundamental and general problems of everyday life, I trust that much of what is said is applicable to the daily experiences of the Tatar working masses. There is no need to say that the discussion of the problems of daily life is by no means exhausted by my book; rather, the problems have merely been posed and partially outlined.

The central task in the transformation of everyday life is the liberation of women, forced as they have been into the role of mere beasts of burden by the old conditions of the family, household, and economy. In the East, in the countries of Islam, this task is posed more acutely than anywhere else in the world. If this book succeeds in arousing or intensifying a critical interest in the problems of everyday life among the more advanced Tatar workers and peasants, its translation will have been justified in full.

With communist greetings,

L. Trotsky


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