Ideologically a communist, he developed a variant of Marxism which has become known as Trotskyism. Born to a wealthy Ukrainian-Jewish family in Yanovka (present-day Bereslavka in Ukraine), Trotsky embraced Marxism after moving to Nikolayev in 1896.
Raymond Molinier wrote that Trotsky spoke French fluently. == Early political activities and life (1896–1917) == === Revolutionary activity and imprisonment (1896–1898) === Trotsky became involved in revolutionary activities in 1896 after moving to the harbor town of Nikolayev (now Mykolaiv) on the Ukrainian coast of the Black Sea.
Instead of pursuing a mathematics degree, Trotsky helped organize the South Russian Workers' Union in Nikolayev in early 1897.
In 1898 Tsarist authorities arrested him for revolutionary activities and subsequently exiled him to Siberia.
Using the name "Lvov", he wrote and printed leaflets and proclamations, distributed revolutionary pamphlets, and popularized socialist ideas among industrial workers and revolutionary students. In January 1898, more than 200 members of the union, including Trotsky, were arrested.
Two months into his imprisonment, on 1–3 March 1898, the first Congress of the newly formed Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) was held.
He became aware of the differences within the party, which had been decimated by arrests in 1898 and 1899.
Natalia Sedova sometimes signed her name "Sedova-Trotskaya". ===Split with Lenin (1903–1904)=== In the meantime, after a period of secret police repression and internal confusion that followed the First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898, Iskra succeeded in convening the party's Second Congress in London in August 1903.
Then the congress discussed the position of the Jewish Bund, which had co-founded the RSDLP in 1898 but wanted to remain autonomous within the party. Shortly after that, the pro-Iskra delegates split into two factions.
From then on Trotsky identified as a member of the party. ===First marriage and Siberian exile (1899–1902)=== While in the prison in Moscow, in the summer of 1899, Trotsky married Aleksandra Sokolovskaya (1872–1938), a fellow Marxist.
He became aware of the differences within the party, which had been decimated by arrests in 1898 and 1899.
The wedding ceremony was performed by a Jewish chaplain. In 1900, he was sentenced to four years in exile in Siberia.
The latter position was expressed by the London-based newspaper Iskra, (The Spark,) which was founded in 1900.
He escaped from Siberia in 1902 and moved to London, where he befriended Vladimir Lenin.
Trotsky quickly sided with the Iskra position and began writing for the paper. In the summer of 1902, at the urging of his wife Aleksandra, Trotsky escaped from Siberia hidden in a load of hay on a wagon.
But from then on, he participated in its meetings in an advisory capacity, which earned him Plekhanov's enmity. In late 1902, Trotsky met Natalia Sedova (1882 – 1962), who soon became his companion.
During the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party 1903 ideological split he sided with Julius Martov's Mensheviks against Lenin's Bolsheviks.
In March 1903 Lenin wrote: Because of Plekhanov's opposition, Trotsky did not become a full member of the board.
They married in 1903, and she was with him until his death.
Natalia Sedova sometimes signed her name "Sedova-Trotskaya". ===Split with Lenin (1903–1904)=== In the meantime, after a period of secret police repression and internal confusion that followed the First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898, Iskra succeeded in convening the party's Second Congress in London in August 1903.
During 1903 and 1904, many members changed sides in the factions.
During 1903 and 1904, many members changed sides in the factions.
Trotsky left the Mensheviks in September 1904 over their insistence on an alliance with Russian liberals and their opposition to a reconciliation with Lenin and the Bolsheviks. From 1904 until 1917, Trotsky described himself as a "non-factional social democrat".
He worked between 1904 and 1917, trying to reconcile different groups within the party, which resulted in many clashes with Lenin and other prominent party members.
During these years, Trotsky began developing his theory of permanent revolution and developed a close working relationship with Alexander Parvus in 1904–07. During their split, Lenin referred to Trotsky as a "Judas", a "scoundrel" and a "swine". ===1905 revolution and trial (1905–1906)=== The unrest and agitation against the Russian government came to a head in Saint Petersburg on 3 January 1905 (Julian Calendar), when a strike broke out at the Putilov Works in the city.
Trotsky first developed this conception in collaboration with Alexander Parvus in late 1904–1905.
Trotsky helped organize the failed Russian Revolution of 1905, after which he was again arrested and exiled to Siberia.
During these years, Trotsky began developing his theory of permanent revolution and developed a close working relationship with Alexander Parvus in 1904–07. During their split, Lenin referred to Trotsky as a "Judas", a "scoundrel" and a "swine". ===1905 revolution and trial (1905–1906)=== The unrest and agitation against the Russian government came to a head in Saint Petersburg on 3 January 1905 (Julian Calendar), when a strike broke out at the Putilov Works in the city.
This single strike grew into a general strike, and by 7 January 1905, there were 140,000 strikers in Saint Petersburg. On Sunday, 9 January 1905, Father Georgi Gapon led a peaceful procession of citizens through the streets to the Winter Palace to beseech the Tsar for food and relief from the oppressive government.
Sunday, 9 January 1905, became known as Bloody Sunday. Following the events of Bloody Sunday, Trotsky secretly returned to Russia in February 1905, by way of Kyiv.
There he worked on fleshing out his theory of permanent revolution. On 19 September 1905, the typesetters at the Ivan Sytin's printing house in Moscow went out on strike for shorter hours and higher pay.
On 2 October 1905, the typesetters in printing shops in Saint Petersburg decided to strike in support of the Moscow strikers.
On 7 October 1905, the railway workers of the Moscow–Kazan Railway went out on strike.
Amid the resulting confusion, Trotsky returned from Finland to Saint Petersburg on 15 October 1905.
Trotsky also co-founded, together with Parvus and Julius Martov and other Mensheviks, “Nachalo" ("The Beginning"), which also proved to be a very successful newspaper in the revolutionary atmosphere of Saint Petersburg in 1905. Just before Trotsky's return, the Mensheviks had independently come up with the same idea that Trotsky had: an elected non-party revolutionary organization representing the capital's workers, the first Soviet ("Council") of Workers.
He did much of the actual work at the Soviet and, after Khrustalev-Nosar's arrest on 26 November 1905, was elected its chairman.
Both the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks split multiple times after the failure of the 1905–1907 revolution.
The relevant articles were later collected in Trotsky's books 1905 and in "Permanent Revolution", which also contains his essay "Results and Prospects." Some Trotskyists have argued that the state of the Third World shows that capitalism offers no way forward for underdeveloped countries, thus again proving the central tenet of the theory. ===United front=== Trotsky was a central figure in the Comintern during its first four congresses.
They had two children together, Lev Sedov (24 February 1906 – 16 February 1938) and Sergei Sedov (21 March 1908 – 29 October 1937), both of whom would predecease their parents.
Trotsky and other Soviet leaders were tried in 1906 on charges of supporting an armed rebellion.
On 4 October 1906 he was convicted and sentenced to internal exile to Siberia. ===Second emigration (1907–1914)=== While en route to exile in Obdorsk, Siberia, in January 1907, Trotsky escaped at Berezov and once again made his way to London.
On 4 October 1906 he was convicted and sentenced to internal exile to Siberia. ===Second emigration (1907–1914)=== While en route to exile in Obdorsk, Siberia, in January 1907, Trotsky escaped at Berezov and once again made his way to London.
They had two children together, Lev Sedov (24 February 1906 – 16 February 1938) and Sergei Sedov (21 March 1908 – 29 October 1937), both of whom would predecease their parents.
For the next seven years, he often took part in the activities of the Austrian Social Democratic Party and, occasionally, of the German Social Democratic Party. In Vienna, Trotsky became close to Adolph Joffe, his friend for the next 20 years, who introduced him to psychoanalysis. In October 1908 he was asked to join the editorial staff of Pravda ("Truth"), a bi-weekly, Russian-language social democratic paper for Russian workers, which he co-edited with Adolph Joffe and Matvey Skobelev.
Trotsky approached the Russian Central Committee to seek financial backing for the newspaper throughout 1909.
A majority of Bolsheviks controlled the Central Committee in 1910.
When various Bolshevik and Menshevik factions tried to re-unite at the January 1910 RSDLP Central Committee meeting in Paris over Lenin's objections, Trotsky's Pravda was made a party-financed 'central organ'.
Lev Kamenev, Trotsky's brother-in-law, was added to the editorial board from the Bolsheviks, but the unification attempts failed in August 1910.
Shortly after Lenin's death in 1924, the letter was found and publicized by Trotsky's opponents within the Communist Party to portray him as Lenin's enemy. The 1910s was a period of heightened tension within the RSDLP, leading to numerous frictions between Trotsky, the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.
The Chinese Revolution began on 10 October 1911, resulting in the abdication of the Chinese Emperor, Puyi, on 12 February 1912.
Trotsky continued publishing Pravda for another two years until it finally folded in April 1912. The Bolsheviks started a new workers-oriented newspaper in Saint Petersburg on 22 April 1912 and also called it Pravda.
These actions had been banned by the 5th Congress, but were continued by the Bolsheviks. In January 1912, the majority of the Bolshevik faction, led by Lenin, as well as a few defecting Mensheviks, held a conference in Prague and decided to break away from the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, and formed a new party, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks).
In response, Trotsky organized a "unification" conference of social democratic factions in Vienna in August 1912 (a.k.a.
In September 1912, Kievskaya Mysl sent him to the Balkans as its war correspondent, where he covered the two Balkan Wars for the next year.
The Chinese Revolution began on 10 October 1911, resulting in the abdication of the Chinese Emperor, Puyi, on 12 February 1912.
Trotsky was so upset by what he saw as a usurpation of his newspaper's name that in April 1913, he wrote a letter to Nikolay Chkheidze, a Menshevik leader, bitterly denouncing Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
On 3 August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, in which Austria-Hungary fought against the Russian Empire, Trotsky was forced to flee Vienna for neutral Switzerland to avoid arrest as a Russian émigré. ===World War I (1914–1917)=== The outbreak of World War I caused a sudden realignment within the RSDLP and other European social democratic parties over the issues of war, revolution, pacifism and internationalism.
He wrote a book opposing the war, The War and the International, and the pro-war position taken by the European social democratic parties, primarily the German party. As a war correspondent for the Kievskaya Mysl, Trotsky moved to France on 19 November 1914.
In January 1915 in Paris, he began editing (at first with Martov, who soon resigned as the paper moved to the left) Nashe Slovo ("Our Word"), an internationalist socialist newspaper.
At first opposed, in the end Lenin voted for Trotsky's resolution to avoid a split among anti-war socialists. On 31 March 1916, Trotsky was deported from France to Spain for his anti-war activities.
Spanish authorities did not want him and deported him to the United States on 25 December 1916.
After the 1917 February Revolution brought an end to the Tsarist monarchy, Trotsky returned to Russia and became a leader in the Bolshevik faction.
As chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, he played a key role in the October Revolution of November 1917 which overthrew the new Provisional Government. Once in government, Trotsky initially held the post of Commissar for Foreign Affairs and became directly involved in the 1917-1918 Brest-Litovsk negotiations with Germany as Russia pulled out of the First World War.
From March 1918 to January 1925 Trotsky headed the Red Army as People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and played a vital role in the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922.
Regarding his sons' surnames, Trotsky later explained that after the 1917 revolution: Trotsky never used the name "Sedov" either privately or publicly.
Trotsky left the Mensheviks in September 1904 over their insistence on an alliance with Russian liberals and their opposition to a reconciliation with Lenin and the Bolsheviks. From 1904 until 1917, Trotsky described himself as a "non-factional social democrat".
He worked between 1904 and 1917, trying to reconcile different groups within the party, which resulted in many clashes with Lenin and other prominent party members.
He arrived in New York City on 13 January 1917.
He also made speeches to Russian émigrés. Trotsky was living in New York City when the February Revolution of 1917 overthrew Tsar Nicholas II.
He left New York on 27 March 1917, but his ship, the SS Kristianiafjord, was intercepted by British naval officials in Canada at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Back in Russia, after initial hesitation and facing pressure from the workers' and peasants' Soviets, the Russian foreign minister Pavel Milyukov was compelled to demand the release of Trotsky as a Russian citizen, and the British government freed him on 29 April 1917. He reached Russia on 17 May 1917.
At the First Congress of Soviets in June, he was elected a member of the first All-Russian Central Executive Committee ("VTsIK") from the Mezhraiontsy faction. After an unsuccessful pro-Bolshevik uprising in Saint Petersburg, Trotsky was arrested on 7 August 1917.
He sided with Lenin against Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev when the Bolshevik Central Committee discussed staging an armed uprising, and he led the efforts to overthrow the Provisional Government headed by Aleksandr Kerensky. The following summary of Trotsky's role in 1917 was written by Stalin in Pravda, 6 November 1918.
Although this passage was quoted in Stalin's book The October Revolution (1934), it was expunged from Stalin's Works (1949). After the success of the uprising on 7–8 November 1917, Trotsky led the efforts to repel a counter-attack by Cossacks under General Pyotr Krasnov and other troops still loyal to the overthrown Provisional Government at Gatchina.
By the end of 1917, Trotsky was unquestionably the second man in the Bolshevik Party after Lenin.
Therefore Trotsky replaced Joffe as the leader of the Soviet delegation during the peace negotiations in Brest-Litovsk from 22 December 1917 to 10 February 1918.
Yet in October 1924, Trotsky published Lessons of October, an extensive summary of the events of the 1917 revolution. In it, he described Zinoviev's and Kamenev's opposition to the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, something that the two would have preferred be left unmentioned.
Their criticism of Trotsky was concentrated in three areas: Trotsky's disagreements and conflicts with Lenin and the Bolsheviks prior to 1917. Trotsky's alleged distortion of the events of 1917 in order to emphasise his role and diminish the roles played by other Bolsheviks. Trotsky's harsh treatment of his subordinates and other alleged mistakes during the Russian Civil War. Trotsky was again sick and unable to respond while his opponents mobilised all of their resources to denounce him.
From March 1918 to January 1925 Trotsky headed the Red Army as People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and played a vital role in the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922.
He sided with Lenin against Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev when the Bolshevik Central Committee discussed staging an armed uprising, and he led the efforts to overthrow the Provisional Government headed by Aleksandr Kerensky. The following summary of Trotsky's role in 1917 was written by Stalin in Pravda, 6 November 1918.
Therefore Trotsky replaced Joffe as the leader of the Soviet delegation during the peace negotiations in Brest-Litovsk from 22 December 1917 to 10 February 1918.
Left Communists, led by Nikolai Bukharin, continued to believe that there could be no peace between a Soviet republic and a capitalist country and that only a revolutionary war leading to a pan-European Soviet republic would bring a durable peace. They cited the successes of the newly formed (15 January 1918) voluntary Red Army against Polish forces of Gen.
Lenin did not mind prolonging the negotiating process for maximum propaganda effect, but, from January 1918 on, advocated signing a separate peace treaty if faced with a German ultimatum.
Trotsky wrote in 1925: Throughout January and February 1918, Lenin's position was supported by 7 members of the Bolshevik Central Committee and Bukharin's by 4.
When he could no longer delay the negotiations, he withdrew from the talks on 10 February 1918, refusing to sign on Germany's harsh terms. After a brief hiatus, the Central Powers notified the Soviet government that they would no longer observe the truce after 17 February.
On the evening of 18 February 1918, Trotsky and his supporters in the committee abstained, and Lenin's proposal was accepted 7–4.
But in the end, the committee again voted 7–4 on 23 February 1918; the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on 3 March and ratified on 15 March 1918.
Since Trotsky was so closely associated with the policy previously followed by the Soviet delegation at Brest-Litovsk, he resigned from his position as Commissar for Foreign Affairs to remove a potential obstacle to the new policy. === Head of the Red Army (spring 1918) === The failure of the recently formed Red Army to resist the German offensive in February 1918 revealed its weaknesses: insufficient numbers, lack of knowledgeable officers, and near absence of coordination and subordination.
In May–June 1918, the Czechoslovak Legions en route from European Russia to Vladivostok rose against the Soviet government.
As he later wrote in his autobiography: In response to Fanya Kaplan's failed assassination of Lenin on 30 August 1918, and to the successful assassination of the Petrograd Cheka chief Moisei Uritsky on 17 August 1918, the Bolsheviks instructed Felix Dzerzhinsky to commence a Red Terror, announced in the 1 September 1918 issue of the Krasnaya Gazeta (Red Gazette).
Lenin commented on this: In September 1918, the Bolshevik government, facing continuous military difficulties, declared what amounted to martial law and reorganized the Red Army.
Trotsky and Vatsetis had clashed earlier in 1918, while Vatsetis and Trotsky's adviser Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich were also on unfriendly terms.
Trotsky appointed former imperial general Pavel Pavlovich Sytin to command the Southern Front, but in early October 1918 Stalin refused to accept him and so he was recalled from the front.
Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov tried to make Trotsky and Stalin reconcile, but their meeting proved unsuccessful. ==== 1919 ==== Throughout late 1918 and early 1919, there were a number of attacks on Trotsky's leadership of the Red Army, including veiled accusations in newspaper articles inspired by Stalin and a direct attack by the Military Opposition at the VIIIth Party Congress in March 1919.
He became one of the seven members of the first Bolshevik Politburo in 1919. After the death of Lenin (January 1924) and the rise of Joseph Stalin, Trotsky lost his government positions; he was eventually expelled from the Soviet Union in February 1929.
Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov tried to make Trotsky and Stalin reconcile, but their meeting proved unsuccessful. ==== 1919 ==== Throughout late 1918 and early 1919, there were a number of attacks on Trotsky's leadership of the Red Army, including veiled accusations in newspaper articles inspired by Stalin and a direct attack by the Military Opposition at the VIIIth Party Congress in March 1919.
Trotsky, who had earlier had conflicts with the leadership of the Eastern Front, including a temporary removal of Kamenev in May 1919, supported Vācietis. At the 3–4 July Central Committee meeting, after a heated exchange, the majority supported Kamenev and Smilga against Vācietis and Trotsky.
A year later, Smilga and Tukhachevsky were defeated during the Battle of Warsaw, but Trotsky refused this opportunity to pay Smilga back, which earned him Smilga's friendship and later his support during the intra-Party battles of the 1920s. By October 1919, the government was in the worst crisis of the Civil War: Denikin's troops approached Tula and Moscow from the south, and General Nikolay Yudenich's troops approached Petrograd from the west.
Trotsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his actions in Petrograd. ====1920==== With the defeat of Denikin and Yudenich in late 1919, the Soviet government's emphasis shifted to the economy.
Trotsky spent the winter of 1919–20 in the Urals region trying to restart its economy.
A year later, Smilga and Tukhachevsky were defeated during the Battle of Warsaw, but Trotsky refused this opportunity to pay Smilga back, which earned him Smilga's friendship and later his support during the intra-Party battles of the 1920s. By October 1919, the government was in the worst crisis of the Civil War: Denikin's troops approached Tula and Moscow from the south, and General Nikolay Yudenich's troops approached Petrograd from the west.
A false rumor of his assassination circulated in Germany and the international press on New Year's Day 1920.
It was not until early 1921, due to economic collapse and social uprisings, that Lenin and the rest of the Bolshevik leadership abandoned War Communism in favor of the New Economic Policy. In early 1920, Soviet–Polish tensions eventually led to the Polish–Soviet War.
Back in Moscow, Trotsky again argued for a peace treaty, and this time prevailed. ===Trade union debate (1920–1921)=== In late 1920, after the Bolsheviks won the Civil War and before the Eighth and Ninth Congress of Soviets, the Communist Party had a heated and increasingly acrimonious debate over the role of trade unions in the Soviet Union.
In 1920, the Kuomintang opened relations with Soviet Russia.
It was not until early 1921, due to economic collapse and social uprisings, that Lenin and the rest of the Bolshevik leadership abandoned War Communism in favor of the New Economic Policy. In early 1920, Soviet–Polish tensions eventually led to the Polish–Soviet War.
The Central Committee was split almost evenly between Lenin's and Trotsky's supporters, with all three Secretaries of the Central Committee (Krestinsky, Yevgeny Preobrazhensky and Leonid Serebryakov) supporting Trotsky. At a meeting of his faction at the Tenth Party Congress in March 1921, Lenin's faction won a decisive victory, and a number of Trotsky's supporters (including all three secretaries of the Central Committee) lost their leadership positions.
From 1921 onwards, the united front, a method of uniting revolutionaries and reformists in the common struggle while winning some of the workers to revolution, was the central tactic put forward by the Comintern after the defeat of the German revolution. After he was exiled and politically marginalized by Stalinism, Trotsky continued to argue for a united front against fascism in Germany and Spain.
He had three strokes between 25 May 1922 and 9 March 1923, which caused paralysis, loss of speech and finally death on 21 January 1924.
With Lenin increasingly sidelined throughout 1922, Stalin was elevated to the newly created position of the Central Committee general secretary.
In mid-July 1922, Kamenev wrote a letter to the recovering Lenin to the effect that "(the Central Committee) is throwing or is ready to throw a good cannon overboard".
As part of this effort, on 11 September 1922 Lenin proposed that Trotsky become his deputy at the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom).
The Politburo approved the proposal, but Trotsky "categorically refused". In late 1922, Trotsky secured an alliance with Lenin against Stalin and the emerging Soviet bureaucracy.
He had three strokes between 25 May 1922 and 9 March 1923, which caused paralysis, loss of speech and finally death on 21 January 1924.
The alliance proved effective on the issue of foreign trade but was hindered by Lenin's progressing illness. In January 1923, Lenin amended his Testament to suggest that Stalin should be removed as the party's general secretary, while also mildly criticising Trotsky and other Bolshevik leaders.
In March 1923, days before his third stroke, Lenin asked Trotsky to denounce Stalin and his so-called "Great-Russian nationalistic campaign" at the XIIth Party Congress. At the XIIth Party Congress in April 1923, however, just after Lenin's final stroke, Trotsky did not raise the issue.
This upset the troika, already infuriated by Karl Radek's article, "Leon Trotsky – Organiser of Victory" published in Pravda on 14 March 1923.
On 8 October 1923 Trotsky sent a letter to the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission, attributing these difficulties to lack of intra-Party democracy.
Trotsky's control over the military was undermined by reassigning his deputy, Ephraim Sklyansky, and appointing Mikhail Frunze, who was being groomed to take Trotsky's place. At the thirteenth Party Congress in May, Trotsky delivered a conciliatory speech: In the meantime, the Left Opposition, which had coagulated somewhat unexpectedly in late 1923 and lacked a definite platform aside from general dissatisfaction with the intra-Party "regime", began to crystallise.
He became one of the seven members of the first Bolshevik Politburo in 1919. After the death of Lenin (January 1924) and the rise of Joseph Stalin, Trotsky lost his government positions; he was eventually expelled from the Soviet Union in February 1929.
Shortly after Lenin's death in 1924, the letter was found and publicized by Trotsky's opponents within the Communist Party to portray him as Lenin's enemy. The 1910s was a period of heightened tension within the RSDLP, leading to numerous frictions between Trotsky, the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.
He had three strokes between 25 May 1922 and 9 March 1923, which caused paralysis, loss of speech and finally death on 21 January 1924.
The troika used his letter as an excuse to launch a campaign against Trotsky, accusing him of factionalism, setting "the youth against the fundamental generation of old revolutionary Bolsheviks" and other sins. Trotsky defended his position in a series of seven letters which were collected as The New Course in January 1924.
The discussion lasted most of December and January until the XIIIth Party Conference of 16–18 January 1924.
On his way, he learned about Lenin's death on 21 January 1924.
Many commentators speculated after the fact that Trotsky's absence from Moscow in the days following Lenin's death contributed to his eventual loss to Stalin, although Trotsky generally discounted the significance of his absence. ===After Lenin's death (1924)=== There was little overt political disagreement within the Soviet leadership throughout most of 1924.
On the question of world revolution, Trotsky and Karl Radek saw a period of stability in Europe while Stalin and Zinoviev confidently predicted an "acceleration" of revolution in Western Europe in 1924.
Yet in October 1924, Trotsky published Lessons of October, an extensive summary of the events of the 1917 revolution. In it, he described Zinoviev's and Kamenev's opposition to the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, something that the two would have preferred be left unmentioned.
From March 1918 to January 1925 Trotsky headed the Red Army as People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and played a vital role in the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922.
Trotsky wrote in 1925: Throughout January and February 1918, Lenin's position was supported by 7 members of the Bolshevik Central Committee and Bukharin's by 4.
They succeeded in damaging his military reputation so much that he was forced to resign as People's Commissar of Army and Fleet Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council on 6 January 1925.
Trotsky kept his Politburo seat, but was effectively put on probation. ===A year in the wilderness (1925)=== For Trotsky, 1925 was a difficult year.
In May 1925, he was given three posts: chairman of the Concessions Committee, head of the electro-technical board, and chairman of the scientific-technical board of industry.
Later in the year, Trotsky resigned his two technical positions (maintaining Stalin-instigated interference and sabotage) and concentrated on his work in the Concessions Committee. In one of the few political developments that affected Trotsky in 1925, the circumstances of the controversy over Lenin's Testament were described by American Marxist Max Eastman in his book Since Lenin Died (1925).
The struggle became open at the September 1925 meeting of the Central Committee and came to a head at the XIV Party Congress in December 1925.
The opposition remained united against Stalin throughout 1926 and 1927, especially on the issue of the Chinese Revolution.
At the XV Party Conference in October 1926, Trotsky could barely speak because of interruptions and catcalls, and at the end of the Conference he lost his Politburo seat.
Trotsky's 14-year-old grandson, Vsevolod Platonovich "Esteban" Volkov (born 7 March 1926), was shot in the foot.
The opposition remained united against Stalin throughout 1926 and 1927, especially on the issue of the Chinese Revolution.
In 1927, Stalin started using the GPU (Soviet secret police) to infiltrate and discredit the opposition.
Attacks against the United Opposition quickly increased in volatility and ferocity afterwards. ===Defeat and exile (1927–1928)=== In October 1927, Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Central Committee.
When the United Opposition tried to organize independent demonstrations commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Bolshevik seizure of power in November 1927, the demonstrators were dispersed by force and Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Communist Party on 12 November.
Their leading supporters, from Kamenev down, were expelled in December 1927 by the XV Party Congress, which paved the way for mass expulsions of rank-and-file oppositionists as well as internal exile of opposition leaders in early 1928. During this time Trotsky gave the eulogy at the funeral of his friend, the Soviet diplomat Adolph Joffe, in November 1927.
They had two daughters, Zinaida (1901 – 5 January 1933) and Nina (1902 – 9 June 1928), both born in Siberia. In Siberia, Trotsky studied philosophy.
Nina Nevelson died from tuberculosis in 1928, cared for in her last months by her older sister.
Their leading supporters, from Kamenev down, were expelled in December 1927 by the XV Party Congress, which paved the way for mass expulsions of rank-and-file oppositionists as well as internal exile of opposition leaders in early 1928. During this time Trotsky gave the eulogy at the funeral of his friend, the Soviet diplomat Adolph Joffe, in November 1927.
Trotsky was exiled to Alma Ata, Kazakhstan on 31 January 1928.
Cannon, a long-time leading member of the American communist movement, had supported Trotsky in the struggle against Stalinism since he had first read Trotsky's criticisms of the Soviet Union in 1928.
He became one of the seven members of the first Bolshevik Politburo in 1919. After the death of Lenin (January 1924) and the rise of Joseph Stalin, Trotsky lost his government positions; he was eventually expelled from the Soviet Union in February 1929.
He was expelled from the Soviet Union to Turkey in February 1929, accompanied by his wife Natalia Sedova and their eldest son, Lev. ===Fate of Left Oppositionists after Trotsky's exile (1929–1941)=== After Trotsky's expulsion from the Soviet Union, Trotskyists within the Soviet Union began to waver.
Between 1929 and 1932, most leading members of the Left Opposition surrendered to Stalin, "admitted their mistakes" and were reinstated in the Communist Party.
One initial exception to this was Christian Rakovsky, who inspired Trotsky between 1929 and 1934 with his refusal to capitulate as state suppression of any remaining opposition to Stalin increased by the year.
Also among the Medvedev Forest victims was Trotsky's sister/Kamenev's first wife, Olga Kameneva. ==Exile (1929–1940)== In February 1929, Trotsky was deported from the Soviet Union to his new exile in Turkey.
In April 1929, Trotsky, his wife and son were moved to the island of Büyükada (aka Prinkipo) by the Turkish authorities.
Between 1929 and 1932, most leading members of the Left Opposition surrendered to Stalin, "admitted their mistakes" and were reinstated in the Communist Party.
In late 1932, Rakovsky had failed with an attempt to flee the Soviet Union and was exiled to Yakutia in March 1933.
In 1932, Trotsky entered via a port into the fascist Kingdom of Italy on his way to a socialist conference in Denmark.
By the end of 1932, Trotsky had alledgedly joined a conspiratorial political bloc with the anti-Stalin opposition inside the USSR.
Historian Pierre Broué concluded that the bloc dissolved in early 1933, since some of its members like Zinoviev and Kamenev joined Stalin again, and because there were no letters in the Trotsky Harvard archive mentioning the bloc after 1932.
They had two daughters, Zinaida (1901 – 5 January 1933) and Nina (1902 – 9 June 1928), both born in Siberia. In Siberia, Trotsky studied philosophy.
Suffering also from tuberculosis and depression, Zinaida committed suicide in 1933.
In late 1932, Rakovsky had failed with an attempt to flee the Soviet Union and was exiled to Yakutia in March 1933.
Historian Pierre Broué concluded that the bloc dissolved in early 1933, since some of its members like Zinoviev and Kamenev joined Stalin again, and because there were no letters in the Trotsky Harvard archive mentioning the bloc after 1932.
In July 1933, Trotsky was offered asylum in France by Prime Minister Édouard Daladier.
From July 1933 to February 1934, Trotsky and his wife lived in Royan.
One initial exception to this was Christian Rakovsky, who inspired Trotsky between 1929 and 1934 with his refusal to capitulate as state suppression of any remaining opposition to Stalin increased by the year.
Rakovsky was the last prominent Trotskyist to capitulate to Stalin in April 1934, when Rakovsky formally "admitted his mistakes" (his letter to Pravda, titled There Should Be No Mercy, depicted Trotsky and his supporters as "agents of the German Gestapo").
From July 1933 to February 1934, Trotsky and his wife lived in Royan.
Following the 6 February 1934 crisis in France, the French minister of internal affairs, Albert Sarraut, signed a decree to deport Trotsky from France.
Aleksandra disappeared in 1935 during the Great Purges in the Soviet Union under Stalin and was murdered by Stalinist forces three years later. === First emigration and second marriage (1902–1903) === Until this point in his life, Trotsky had used his birth name: Lev (Leon) Bronstein.
Rakovsky was appointed to high office in the Commissariat for Health and allowed to return to Moscow, also serving as Soviet ambassador to Japan in 1935.
Accordingly, the French authorities instructed Trotsky to move to a residence in the tiny village of Barbizon under the strict surveillance of the French police, where Trotsky found his contact with the outside world to be even worse than during his exile in Turkey. In May 1935, soon after the French government had agreed the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance with the Soviet Union government, Trotsky was officially told that he was no longer welcome in France.
However, Rakovsky was cited in allegations involving the killing of Sergey Kirov, and was arrested and imprisoned in late 1937, during the Great Purge. Almost all Trotskyists who were still within the Soviet Union's borders were executed in the Great Purges of 1936–1938, although Rakovsky survived until the Medvedev Forest massacre of September 1941, where he was shot dead along with 156 other prisoners on Stalin's orders, less than three months into the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union.
In the summer of 1936, Trotsky's asylum was increasingly made a political issue by the fascist Nasjonal Samling, led by Vidkun Quisling, along with an increase in pressure from the Soviet government on the Norwegian authorities.
On 5 August 1936, Knudsen's house was burgled by fascists from the Nasjonal Samling while Trotsky and his wife were out on a seashore trip with Knudsen and his wife.
Although the perpetrators were caught and put on trial, the "evidence" obtained in the burglary was used by the government to make claims against Trotsky. On 14 August 1936, the Soviet Press Agency TASS announced the discovery of a "Trotskyist–Zinovievist" plot and the imminent start of the Trial of the Sixteen accused.
The accused were sentenced to death, including Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, and executed on 25 August 1936.
On 26 August 1936, eight policemen arrived at Knudsen's house demanding that Trotsky sign new conditions for residing in Norway.
Only Trotsky's lawyers and the Norwegian Labour Party Parliamentary leader, Olav Scheflo, were permitted to visit. From October 1936, even the outdoor walks were prohibited for Trotsky and his wife. Trotsky did eventually manage to smuggle out one letter on 18 December 1936, titled The Moscow "Confessions".
On 19 December 1936, Trotsky and his wife were deported from Norway after being put on the Norwegian oil tanker Ruth, under guard by Jonas Lie.
This organization was short-lived and ended before 1940. === Moscow show trials === In August 1936, the first Moscow show trial of the so-called "Trotskyite–Zinovievite Terrorist Center" was staged in front of an international audience.
They had two children together, Lev Sedov (24 February 1906 – 16 February 1938) and Sergei Sedov (21 March 1908 – 29 October 1937), both of whom would predecease their parents.
However, Rakovsky was cited in allegations involving the killing of Sergey Kirov, and was arrested and imprisoned in late 1937, during the Great Purge. Almost all Trotskyists who were still within the Soviet Union's borders were executed in the Great Purges of 1936–1938, although Rakovsky survived until the Medvedev Forest massacre of September 1941, where he was shot dead along with 156 other prisoners on Stalin's orders, less than three months into the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union.
The second show trial of Karl Radek, Grigori Sokolnikov, Yuri Pyatakov and 14 others, took place in January 1937, during which more alleged conspiracies and crimes were linked to Trotsky.
In April 1937, an independent "Commission of Inquiry" into the charges made against Trotsky and others at the "Moscow Trials" was held in Coyoacán, with John Dewey as chairman.
His son, Sergei Sedov, who died in 1937, was rehabilitated in 1988, as was Nikolai Bukharin.
In 1938 Trotsky and his supporters founded the Fourth International in opposition to Stalin's Comintern.
They had two children together, Lev Sedov (24 February 1906 – 16 February 1938) and Sergei Sedov (21 March 1908 – 29 October 1937), both of whom would predecease their parents.
Among his other supporters was Chen Duxiu, founder of the Chinese Communist Party. While in Mexico, Trotsky worked with André Breton and Diego Rivera to write the Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art, which inspired the creation of the organization, the International Federation of Independent Revolutionary Art (FIARI) in 1938.
He said: In 1938, Trotsky and his supporters founded the Fourth International, which was intended to be a revolutionary and internationalist alternative to the Stalinist Comintern. ===Dies Committee=== Towards the end of 1939, Trotsky agreed to go to the United States to appear as a witness before the Dies Committee of the House of Representatives, a forerunner of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
His final move was a few blocks away to a residence on Avenida Viena in April 1939, following a break with Rivera. Trotsky wrote prolifically while in exile, penning several key works, including his History of the Russian Revolution (1930) and The Revolution Betrayed (1936), a critique of the Soviet Union under Stalinism.
He said: In 1938, Trotsky and his supporters founded the Fourth International, which was intended to be a revolutionary and internationalist alternative to the Stalinist Comintern. ===Dies Committee=== Towards the end of 1939, Trotsky agreed to go to the United States to appear as a witness before the Dies Committee of the House of Representatives, a forerunner of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
On hearing about it, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union immediately accused Trotsky of being in the pay of the oil magnates and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. ===Final months=== After quarreling with Diego Rivera, Trotsky moved to his final residence on Avenida Viena in April 1939.
After forcefully denying Stalin's accusations that he had betrayed the working class, he thanked his friends and above all his wife, Natalia Sedova, for their loyal support: ==Assassination== After a failed attempt to have Trotsky murdered in March 1939, Stalin assigned the overall organization of implementing the task to the NKVD officer Pavel Sudoplatov, who, in turn, co-opted Nahum Eitingon.
Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky (), was a Ukrainian-Russian Marxist revolutionary, political theorist and politician.
After surviving multiple attempts on his life, Trotsky was assassinated in August 1940 in Mexico City by Ramón Mercader, a Soviet NKVD agent.
This organization was short-lived and ended before 1940. === Moscow show trials === In August 1936, the first Moscow show trial of the so-called "Trotskyite–Zinovievite Terrorist Center" was staged in front of an international audience.
On 27 February 1940, Trotsky wrote a document known as "Trotsky's Testament", in which he expressed his final thoughts and feelings for posterity.
and Mexico. On 24 May 1940, Trotsky survived a raid on his villa by armed assassins led by the NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich and Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros.
Following the failed assassination attempt, Trotsky wrote an article titled "Stalin Seeks My Death" on 8 June 1940, in which he stated that another assassination attempt was certain. On 20 August 1940, Trotsky was attacked in his study by Spanish-born NKVD agent Ramón Mercader, who used an ice axe as a weapon. A mountaineering ice axe has a narrow end, called the pick, and a flat wide end called the adze.
Trotsky was then taken to a hospital and operated on, surviving for more than a day, but dying, at the age of 60, on 21 August 1940 from exsanguination and shock.
However, Rakovsky was cited in allegations involving the killing of Sergey Kirov, and was arrested and imprisoned in late 1937, during the Great Purge. Almost all Trotskyists who were still within the Soviet Union's borders were executed in the Great Purges of 1936–1938, although Rakovsky survived until the Medvedev Forest massacre of September 1941, where he was shot dead along with 156 other prisoners on Stalin's orders, less than three months into the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union.
But when he had been released from jail in 1960 and arrived to the USSR in 1961 Leonid Brezhnev signed a sentence to award Ramon Ivanovich Lopez with the Order of Lenin, the Gold Star of the Hero, and the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union "for the special deed".
But when he had been released from jail in 1960 and arrived to the USSR in 1961 Leonid Brezhnev signed a sentence to award Ramon Ivanovich Lopez with the Order of Lenin, the Gold Star of the Hero, and the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union "for the special deed".
But from then on, he participated in its meetings in an advisory capacity, which earned him Plekhanov's enmity. In late 1902, Trotsky met Natalia Sedova (1882 – 1962), who soon became his companion.
Beginning in 1989, Trotsky's books, forbidden until 1987, were published in the Soviet Union. Trotsky was rehabilitated on 16 June 2001 by the General Prosecutor's Office (Certificates of Rehabilitation No.
His son, Sergei Sedov, who died in 1937, was rehabilitated in 1988, as was Nikolai Bukharin.
Beginning in 1989, Trotsky's books, forbidden until 1987, were published in the Soviet Union. Trotsky was rehabilitated on 16 June 2001 by the General Prosecutor's Office (Certificates of Rehabilitation No.
Beginning in 1989, Trotsky's books, forbidden until 1987, were published in the Soviet Union. Trotsky was rehabilitated on 16 June 2001 by the General Prosecutor's Office (Certificates of Rehabilitation No.
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