War is the Locomotive of History

What could this mean besides War is a catalyst for change to happen?

Your doing that for History right? About Russia?
If so then yeah, just made improvements happen because war revealed what needed changing.

Doesnt really mean anything else, because the guy who said it was thinking of it as a catalyst.

Reply 2

Oladz

You could interpret it as: War can be a defining point eras and peoples in history. The way a society fights a war is a reflection of that society itself. Changes in warfare can cause changes in society.

Reply 3

username202682

atypicalsurreygirl

War is a catalyst for change

This statement, imo, is synonymous with the phrase "Revolutions are the locomotives in History"
A catalyst is something that causes an acceleration in the reaction of something.
Revolution may occur because people want change
For example.
There was growing resentment for the Aristocracy in Russia, especially the Romanov Family.
There is an argument that although the Russian revolution was inevitable, the heavy losses in World War I was the catalyst for revolution kicking off in 1917. As a result, the change was that there was no more Romanov family to rule. No more aristocracy and Russia made a transition from Autocracy to Communism.
The political, social and economical structure was the change.
The war was the catalyst.

Reply 4

OllieS

I love the title quote; I had a discussion with some friends and a teacher yesterday.

I think a really interesting aspect of it is the context. Trotsky said it after he won the Civil War - this war has pushed along history in its rightful path, almost. But also, as a locomotive is part of a train, it symbolises how Trotsky, using an actual locomotive, was acting as the locomotive of history - the armoured train he used to fight the Civil War was a symbol of the Reds who would modernise the country (not to mention the propaganda station it had on board).

Looking at evidence of revolutions we pretty much concluded war isn't the only force that makes history move (as Trotsky would have said in 1922) - ie the Iranian revolution had very little, if anything, to do with military matters. However, when there's a war, especially with a losing country, often big changes happen, making history.