Trotsky, Permanent Revolution, and Eastern Europe Ateş Uslu There is a tendency to reduce Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution to its aspect of “Stalin- Trotsky debate”. Thus, Trotsky’s revolutionary strategy is discussed as a merely doctrinal issue, and its historical context is neglected. The paper’s main aim is to contribute to the historicisation of the debates on Trotsky’s theory, and to analyse, in this aim, Trotsky’s revolutionary theory and practice in its relationship with the context of Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe (i.e., the region covering Poland, eastern confines of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as Estonia and Latvia) was, in the late 19th century, a complex of nationalities, and was geographically related to Central and Western Europe. All these characteristics made Eastern Europe a specific context, which determined some aspects of Trotsky’s theories. In the first part, the paper analyses the specificities of Eastern Europe -i.e., the legacy of the Commonwealth of Two Nations, the characteristics of urban development, and the nexus between nationalist and socialist movements, etc. The second part is concentrated on the Revolution of 1905 and its aftermath; and the third part makes an analysis of Trotsky’s activities in Bolshevik Revolution, in the Civil War, and in the Polish War of 1919-20.