When is the ETOL going to be finished? What are its completion goals?
In a broad sense, the Encyclopedia of Trotskyism Online is one of those projects that will never be “finished”. Given that its subject matter is a living movement — unlike, say, the Soviet Union, which existed between 1917 and 1991 — new documents and new entries will continue to be produced. In the more immediate sense, our aim is to provide some hundreds of key entries in the course of 1998, and expand the project with further entries, as well as translations in other languages, by 1999. Documentary materials are constantly added to the ETOL (as well as to the TIA), but it’s hard to foresee when, say, all of Trotsky writings will be available in English, first, and then in other languages. Even harder is to put a date for the day when all of the Trotskyist publications will have been reproduced in digital format. We have specific aims and goals for the expansion of the ETOL, but we can’t have a definite plan with precise deadlines.
