Quickly now, because Germanicus and I want to get a good seat at the theater tonight,

they're doing a scene from the Persians, which is a very long play, and we're not going to see the whole thing.

I hope we see the scene where Xerces says, I'm beaten. It's great.

It's about a battle and fighting the Persians and

Xerces is the great king and the worthy Greeks defeat him. But, hustling on, we're going to

very quickly dispense with this item. It has to do with political assassination. Once upon a time, there were two men,

one coming from the obscure parts of Belarus, the other one coming from the obscure parts

of Georgia, not Belarus, Ukraine, obscure parts of Ukraine, obscure parts of Ukraine, that's Trotsky,

and the obscure parts of Georgia, that's Stalin.

They had different names when they were children.

Trotsky was called Bronstein, Lev Bronstein,

and Stalin was called Jugashvili.

But they shed those and took on revolutionary names.

Trotsky doesn't remember the first time he saw Stalin they he knows they were at a party conference together but it's impossible for him

to remember because Stalin was insignificant at the moment lenin was alive and lenin depended upon

trotsky as a magnificent public speaker.

This is a man without university, without the army, without money, without marriage,

all of a sudden coming alive before a room full of Bolshevik.

He'd originally been a Menshevik, but Lenin realized his talent was to wow the audience with rhetoric.

He spoke several languages.

He was self-taught very, very bright all the time, read constantly.

Was a misanthrope, did not mix well, did not go to parties, did not backslap.

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