One Plus One

By 1902, the Romanov dynasty has been ruling Russia with an iron fist for centuries, and the Russian Revolution is still more than a decade off. In the countryside, millions of peasants live and work in squalor. Life in the cities is little better. And the two men who together will engineer the country’s radical transformation into a Marxist state still live a continent apart. Leon Trotsky is a young political dissident recently exiled to Siberia when someone hands him a newly published pamphlet. It’s by a 32-year-old Russian revolutionary living in Switzerland, and it’s called “What Is to Be Done?” The pamphlet calls for the creation of a Russian Marxist political party to lead the country’s workers in a violent socialist revolution. The author is Vladimir Lenin. Trotsky doesn’t yet know Lenin, but he’ll abandon his family and cross a continent to find him.

It’s 1903, and the Russian Marxist movement is ready to answer Vladimir Lenin’s call to unite into a single party. Lenin is looking to become the de facto leader of the new party, but he’s not the only one in the running. Many of his comrades favor his emerging rival Julius Martov, so Lenin is relying on his new silver-tongued acolyte Leon Trotsky to help him bend the party to his will. But Trotsky isn’t willing to be anyone’s pawn. And when a fissure rips through the new party, Lenin and Trotsky find themselves on opposite sides of the divide – just as public opposition to the Russian tsar sparks bloodshed on the streets of St. Petersburg.

It’s early 1917. Europe is a warzone, and Marxist rivals Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky haven’t spoken in years. Their would-be revolution has stalled. Lenin is confined to neutral Switzerland, where the Bolsheviks are struggling to stay afloat. Trotsky is across the Atlantic, holed up in New York and far removed from the revolutionary fight. But back in Russia, the long war with Germany and her allies is taking its toll. The tsar is losing his grip on power. That’s about to give Lenin and Trotsky a new opportunity to stoke revolution — but if the two men are going to seize their chance, they need to get back to Russia and find a way to reunite.

The time for revolution has come. It’s August 1917 and Russia’s provisional government is facing a military coup. Russian troops are closing in on Petrograd and the army’s supreme commander is ignoring the government’s orders to halt the advance. With its grip on power looking shaky, the government knows there’s only one force it can turn to: Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky’s Bolsheviks. But by freeing and rearming the Bolsheviks, the provisional government is about to sign its own death certificate. Because once Lenin and Trotsky have helped prevent the military coup, they’re going to turn their guns on the provisional government and seize power at last.

It’s 1918 and Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky’s new socialist government is under threat. Generals loyal to the tsar are plotting, forming armies to overthrow the Bolsheviks. The shadow of famine is falling across the nation as food shortages grow. Rival socialist groups are still active and opposed to Lenin and Trotsky’s regime. And to the west the Russian army manning the World War I battlefront is disintegrating fast. The world’s first Marxist regime is fragile, and it’s up to Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky to see off the threats to its existence. But now that they’ve taken power, Lenin and Trotsky’s old differences are starting to resurface just when they need to be more united than ever.

It’s 1920 and in Russia, public opposition to Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky’s communist government is spreading. Oppression, censorship and – above all – famine is stirring up discontent. Even those who once stood ready to fight to bring the communists to power now want them gone. But even as the duo face down the latest threats to their rule, their alliance is starting to fray. Lenin and the rest of the party are growing frustrated with Trotsky’s unwillingness to tow the party line. And that’s going to give Joseph Stalin the chance he needs to prise the two men apart and clear the path for his own rise to power.

Hosts Faith Salie and Rico Galiano discuss what it’s been like to work on the show together as One Plus One prepares to go on hiatus. Liz Dolan, the co-host of Wondery’s Safe for Work, joins the show to talk with Faith and Rico about what they’ve learned from the personal and professional collaborations in their lives. Plus, the duo will dish out some advice about creating a great creative collaboration.