Deviationist Perceptions of the Balkan Wars: Leon Trotsky and Otto Neurath

Abstract

The chapter deals with Leon Trotsky and Otto Neurath as contemporary observers of the Balkan Wars. Both were sent into the Balkan region as correspondents to describe, analyze, and explain the warfare to their readers at home in Tsarist Russia and in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a fellow of the Carnegie Endowment, Neurath aimed to document and analyze the economy in the Balkan region in the context of his peculiar theory of war economy. Trotsky had been asked by the editor of the newspaper “Kievan thought” to go to the Balkans as special correspondent. Both men developed deviationist approaches with respect to their own countries. While Neurath opposed Austria’s anti-Serbian politics and propaganda, Trotsky pseudonymously attacked the converse policies pursued by the Russian press and politics.