Statesman.
As the military conductor of the October Revolution and the Civil War, Trotsky was the most charismatic and popular man after Lenin. Also Lenin’s most obvious successor, until Stalin outwitted and destroyed him.
Background
Lived: 1879-1940.
Lev Davydovich Bronstein was born in a family of rich Ukrainian Jewish farmer. He was an excellent pupil in Odessa but was exiled for Marxist views. He became a Menshevik who tried to unify the Social Democratic Labour Party.
Trotsky was a brilliant orator. He was elected head of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers’ Delegates in 1905.
October Revolution
After the February Revolution he joined the Bolsheviks. As the head of the new Petrograd Soviet, he became Lenin’s most trusted ally.
The tactical military operations of the October Revolution were conducted entirely by Trotsky. In Lenin’s first government Trotsky was made a Foreign Minister.
Russian Civil War
Trotsky was the founder of the Red Army. He successfully recruited imperial war commanders whose expertise generally helped win the war.
Rise of Stalin
Trotsky was so confident of his succession to Lenin that he left Stalin’s secret power struggle maneuvers completely unnoticed.
Stalin used every opportunity to undermine Trotsky’s reputation. Trotsky missed Lenin’s funeral, because Stalin allegedly had told him the wrong date.
Stalin soon began criticizing Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution (Trotskyism). He accomplished Trotsky’s elimination of political life and exiled him in 1928.
Death
In 1940 Stalin’s NKVD agent Spanish communist Ramon Mercader murdered Trotsky in his house in Mexico with an ice axe.
Leon Trotsky
Statesman.
As the military conductor of the October Revolution and the Civil War, Trotsky was the most charismatic and popular man after Lenin. Also Lenin’s most obvious successor, until Stalin outwitted and destroyed him.
Background
Lived: 1879-1940.
Lev Davydovich Bronstein was born in a family of rich Ukrainian Jewish farmer. He was an excellent pupil in Odessa but was exiled for Marxist views. He became a Menshevik who tried to unify the Social Democratic Labour Party.
Trotsky was a brilliant orator. He was elected head of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers’ Delegates in 1905.
October Revolution
After the February Revolution he joined the Bolsheviks. As the head of the new Petrograd Soviet, he became Lenin’s most trusted ally.
The tactical military operations of the October Revolution were conducted entirely by Trotsky. In Lenin’s first government Trotsky was made a Foreign Minister.
Russian Civil War
Trotsky was the founder of the Red Army. He successfully recruited imperial war commanders whose expertise generally helped win the war.
Rise of Stalin
Trotsky was so confident of his succession to Lenin that he left Stalin’s secret power struggle maneuvers completely unnoticed.
Stalin used every opportunity to undermine Trotsky’s reputation. Trotsky missed Lenin’s funeral, because Stalin allegedly had told him the wrong date.
Stalin soon began criticizing Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution (Trotskyism). He accomplished Trotsky’s elimination of political life and exiled him in 1928.
Death
In 1940 Stalin’s NKVD agent Spanish communist Ramon Mercader murdered Trotsky in his house in Mexico with an ice axe.
Lev Kamenev