Leon Trotsky was a man of thought and action. His dream of a utopian society built on Marxism
crumbled around him yet he never gave up on his ideals. When he was sidelined by the power hungry
Josef Stalin he wielded his pen to expose the despot to the world, knowing full well
that in doing so he was signing his death warrant. In today’s Biographics, we discover the
man who was Leon Trotsky. Beginnings The man who is known to history as Leon Trotsky
was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein on November 7th, 1879. His parents, David and Anna were farmers in
the Ukrainian village of Yankova. David had built himself from nothing to become
one of the most successful farmers in the region. Lev was the fifth child born to the Bronstein’s. During his first eight years he was kept on
the farm and instructed by his parents. The language spoken was Surzhyk, a mixture
of Russian and Ukrainian. Then, at the age of eight, he was sent to
a private Ukrainian-Jewish private school in Odessa, Ukraine. Lev struggled during his first year at school
as he was not familiar with the vernacular of Jewish Yiddish that was spoken. In time, though, he improved and proved himself
a capable student. He quickly learned to speak Russian and fell
in love with Russian literature. After two years at the private school, Lev
was transferred to a state-run school Russian school. At St. Paul’s High School, he excelled to
be one of the top students. However, he proved to be an independent thinker
which sometimes led to run ins with his teachers. His reading of such intellectual giants as
Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky gave him the knowledge to challenge things that other
students accepted about the order of society, which caused frustratioin for his long suffering
instructors. Graduating from school at the age of 17, Lev
moved to the Ukrainian port town of Nikolayev, close to the Black Sea. He lived with two relatives while he decided
what to do with his life. Nikolayev at that time was a center of revolutionary
dissent and the teenage Lev soon began to mingle with this radical crowd. Becoming a Revolutionary
Within a few months of arriving at Nikolayev, Lev met a young woman by the name of Aleksandra
Sokolovskaya. She was six years older than Lev and well
versed in revolutionary leftist politics. Lev later recalled that he was attracted to
Aleksandra because she was the only person who was able to defeat him in a debate. The subject at issue was Marxism and whether
it would be the best thing for Russian society. Lev argued against it, but his every argument
was deftly destroyed by the wit and wisdom of Aleksandra. Lev found himself falling in love with Aleksandra. But, hardly before the relationship could
get established, he was thrown in jail. The cause of his imprisonment in January 1898
was his involvement in a demonstration of striking union members. Over the next two years, he was regularly
thrown in jail for short spells as a result of his involvement in public demonstrations. In 1900, Lev and Alexsandra were married. Shortly after the wedding, Alexsandra was
banished to Siberia for four years as a result of her own radical activities. Her new husband went right along with her. They ended up in the Siberian village of Ust
Kut. Over the next two years as they eked out a
living in this cold, harsh terrain, the couple had two children, the girls Zenaida and Nina. After two years of this exile, Lev had had
enough. He was ready to make his escape. By now his wife had fully converted him to
Marxist Communism and he was determined to get out of this purgatory to become active
in the revolutionary cause. It was resolved that Alexsandra would remain
in Siberia with the two young children. Becoming Trotsky
Lev travelled to the Irkutsk region of Siberia. There he got hold of a stolen passport. It was then that he assumed his new name,
scribbling it on the pages of his fake passport – Leon Trotsky. He made his way to London eager to learn at
the feet of the founder of Russian Marxism, Vladimir Lenin. The two men developed an immediate bond. Lenin took Trotsky on as his apprentice, setting
him to work as a writer for his Communist newspaper, Iskra. Within a couple of months of his arrival,
Lenin sent him out on a fundraising and publicity tour of Europe to promote the newspaper and
the Communist cause. On the Paris leg of the tour, he met a young
woman by the name of Natalia Sedova. Despite still being married to Aleksandra,
he and Natalia soon became man and wife. She returned with him to London and they set
up house there. Not long after his return from Europe, Trotsky
attended the Second Congress of the Democratic Workers Party in London. The main topic of discussion was the recent
split in Russia in the communist party between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. The Mensheviks were the more moderate of the
two factions who envisioned a gradual transition to communism. The Bolsheviks, however, were far more radical. They intended to dismantle the current system
immediately and replace it with full on Communism. They were fully prepared to stage a violent
uprising in order to achieve their means. The names of these factions tell us about
their levels of support. The word Menshevik means ‘men of the minority’
while Bolsheviks translates as ‘men of the majority.’ Lenin was in favour of the Bolsheviks. At the congress meeting, he explained that
the Bolsheviks needed to create a centralized power structure from which they could control
and direct the common people. This idea was very troubling to Trotsky, who
saw it a replacement of the type of capitalist control of the masses that they were trying
to get rid of. For many years thereafter, he tried to bridge
the divide between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. 1905 Revolution
In 1905, Russia suffered a humiliating defeat against the Japanese in the Battle of Tsushima. It left the Russian economy in ruins and led
to mass demonstrations. On January 22nd, 1905, a peaceful demonstration
gathered outside of Tsar’s Nicholas’ Winter Palace. Nicholas reacted by sending in the cavalry. The demonstrators were routed, with hundreds
being killed in the street. The people were outraged. In the Bolshevik ranks, however, celebrations
were occurring. They saw this as the spark that would bring
on the great communist revolution. Ove the following months, protests grew larger,
morphing into the general strike of October, 1905. Over that period of time, the Bolshevik’s
were busy organizing the resistance. Both Lenin and Trotsky had relocated to St.
Petersburg. Trotsky began organizing special worker’s
assemblies. These groups were designed to take control
of regions that were to be governed by a worker’s council. The Russian word for council is soviet. Trotsky set up the first soviet in St Petersburg,
with he serving as its chairman. In short order the region was surrounded by
the Tsarist army and Trotsky taken into captivity. He was held in prison for nearly a year before
being put on trial. Defending the charge of leading an armed rebellion,
Trotsky gave an impressive speech in which he laid out the benefits of Marxism. It was in vain, however, as he was convicted
and exiled to Siberia. Pravda
Trotsky determine that there was no way that he was returning to the Siberian wilderness. In January, 1907 he escaped while being transported
to his place of banishment. For a second time he headed for London. Within weeks, though, he relocated to Vienna,
Austria. He began working for the Communist propaganda
newspaper, Pravda. Financing the ongoing publication of Pravda
was a constant challenge. In 1909, Trotsky requested that the Bolshevik
Central Committee inject funds to keep the paper going. Lenin, now at the head of the Bolsheviks,
agreed but only on the condition that a Bolshevik be put in place as assistant editor. This meant that the moderate views which Trotsky
had managed to infuse into the paper were no longer going to be acceptable. From 1910 onwards, Pravda became the mouthpiece
of Bolshevik communism. Tensions between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks
continued to cause division. In 1912, Lenin instigated a purge to remove
the moderate voices. Trotsky remained in opposition to the more
radical actions of the Bolsheviks, such as armed robberies of banks to finance the party. He organised a unification conference to bring
the factions together, but this was a failure. Deportations
Throughout 1912, Trotsky wrote for a number of radical Russian and Ukrainian newspapers. In September of that year, he was sent on
assignment to cover the Balkan war. When World War One broke out, he moved from
Austria to Switzerland and then to Paris. From his base there, he wrote anti-war diatribes
in which he described the injustice of the workers of the world being forced to kill
each other at the beckoning of their rulers. The French government were not impressed with
this anti-war stance and had Trotsky deported on March 31st, 1916. Trotsky made his way to Spain, but his writings
led to his deportation from that country also. He ended up in the United States. He arrived in New York on January 13th, 1917. He settled into a small room in the Bronx
and began writing for several Russian newspapers. A month after his arrival in the US, Trotsky
received the news that Tsar Nicholas had been overthrown. He decided to return to play his part in the
history that was unfolding. On March 27th, 1917, Trotsky sailed from New
York harbor on board the SS Kristianiafjord. However, the ship was intercepted by the British
Navy at Halifax, Nova Scotia and Trotsky was held in an internment camp for a month. Through the intervention of the Russian foreign
minister, he was released to continue on to Russia. The October Revolution Following the ousting of Tsar Nicholas, a
supposedly neutral provisional government was put in place until a more permanent government
could be established. Trotsky arrived in St. Petersburg on May 17th,
1917. He soon became a popular speaker at town halls
and factories as the various political elements vied for power. His catchphrase embodied the 3 key tenets
of his revolutionary vision . . . Distrust the bourgeoisie, control our own
leaders and have confidence in our own revolutionary forces. The Bolsheviks struggled for more radical
changes than the State Government, or Dhuma, envisioned. Trotsky aligned himself with the Bolsheviks. He was arrested on August 7th for his involvement
in a Bolshevik demonstration and spent 40 days in prison. On October 8th, with Bolshevik support gaining
ascendancy, Trotsky was voted governor of the St Petersburg soviet for the second time. By the end of the year the Provisional Government
had failed. It was superseded by the Bolsheviks, with
Lenin at their head. The second most powerful man in the party
was Leon Trotsky. Pulling Out of the War
An immediate focus for the Bolshevik government was to get Russia out of the war. This task was handed to Trotsky along with
the title of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs. On December 2nd, 1917, the Bolsheviks signed
a ceasefire with the allied central powers of Germany, Austro-Hungary and Turkey. Talks then began between Trotsky and the central
powers delegates to work out an armistice agreement. The Germans, in particular, drove a hard bargain. They demanded that the Russians give up any
claim to Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, as well as parts of Latvia and Belorussia. Trotsky was taken back by the demands, but
he also knew that he had little choice. The Bolsheviks had campaigned on a platform
of getting Russia out of the war and all of Russia was demanding just that. Trotsky related the demands to Lenin, adding
that he felt they had no choice but to agree. Lenin was of the same opinion. But when the rest of the Bolshevik government
heard the demands they were infuriated. They managed to convince both Trotsky and
Lenin not to sign the armistice. In the end, Trotsky decided to simply pull
out of the hostilities without the benefit of an armistice agreement. He explained . . .
We declare we end the war but not sign a peace. They will be unable to make an offensive against
us. If they attack us, our position will be no
worse than now. It was a gamble that Trotsky would immediately
regret. On February 18th, 1918 Austria and German
forces invaded Russia. They found the borders completely undefended. On hearing the news, Trotsky was dumbfounded. He sent a message to the German ambassador,
stating . . . We request clarification of this misunderstanding. But there was no misunderstanding. The very next day Trotsky was commanded by
Lenin to accept the original German conditions for the armistice. Civil War
With Russia now out of the war, Trotsky was made commander in chief of the Russian armed
forces. A crisis occurred when the Czechoslovak legions
returning from the war revolted against the Bolshevik government. The resistance grew into what became known
as the White Army. When he heard that the outpost of Kazan had
fallen to this opposition, Trotsky hopped on a train and headed for the area to assess
the situation for himself. His train only made it to Sviyazhsk, where
it was forced to turn back. But before they could get out of town, White
Army forces had surrounded Trotsky’s contingent. For twenty-five days they were forced to fend
off the assault until they were finally able to break out and return to St Petersburg. With the White Army challenging then from
the east, the Bolsheviks also faced pressure from the north as a Finnish group known as
the White Guard sought to rescue Tsar Nicholas and his family from captivity. The group were on the verge of taking control
of the town of Yekaterinburg, which is where the royal family were being held captive. Then the order came through to kill the entire
royal family. With this terrible deed done, the Bolsheviks
were ousted from the town. However, the White Guard was too late to save
Nicholas or his family. At the beginning of 1919, Russia was in state
of crisis. Civil wars had racked the country and now
disease, famine and poverty decimated the population. Meanwhile European powers hovered around like
vultures ready to devour the Russian corpse. By October, the White Army had almost total
control and were pressing at the gates of St Petersburg. The Soviet government ordered a full-scale
retreat from the capital but Trotsky strongly disagreed. He rallied his supporters to resist to the
last man. Trotsky’s bravery, persistence and strong
personality turned the tide. The Soviet forces dug in and managed to push
back the White Army. St Petersburg was safe and the tide of the
civil war began to change in favour of the Bolsheviks. By the end of 1920, the White Army had been
concentrated in Siberia. The Soviets had survived to see off their
enemies and cement their leadership. However, in May 1922, their leader and visionary
Vladimir Lenin had a massive stroke. Trotsky would have seemed to have been the
natural successor. However, there was another member of the Bolshevik
power structure who had other ideas – his name was Josef Stalin. Stalin VS Trotsky
Josef Stalin was a streetfighter and a thug who had cajoled his way to becoming the general
secretary of the Soviet Union by the time that Lenin had died. The position didn’t hold any real power,
with all of his actions being controlled by the executive committee, or Politburo. By the end of 1922, Lenin had recovered sufficiently
to send a note to the Politburo giving his thoughts on a successor. He stated that Trotsky was a stronger personality
than Stalin, but that he was too prone to acting unilaterally without consulting the
rest of the council. As for Stalin, Trotsky considered him to be
too rude, too ruthless and too intolerant. Lenin held on until January 21st 1924. During that time, it became clear to Stalin
that the dying leader favoured Trotsky over him. This led him to embark on a ruthless campaign
to discredit Trotsky. He claimed that Trotsky was trying to cause
divisions within the party by trying to push out the old guard in favour of younger members
who were more inclined to his will. Stalin managed to have a book that Trotsky
had written in 1923 banned from sale as being anti-Leninist even though it was nothing of
the kind. The open and constant criticisms of Trotsky
resulted in the loss of his two offices as Chairman of the War Council and People’s
Commissar of War and Navy. After spending almost all of 1925 without
a job, Trotsky was recalled in 1926 and given three roles. However, Stalin interfered so much that he
resigned from two of them, only retaining the position of Chairman of the Concessions
Committee. Banished
But Stalin was not through with Trotsky yet. On November 12th, 1927 he had him expelled
from the Communist Party and then exiled to Kazakhstan. Then three months later he was completed banned
from living in the Soviet Union. Soviet Guards forced him onto a train, yet
would not tell him where he was going. After going on a hunger strike, he was finally
informed that he was headed for Turkey. This enraged Trotsky, who was convinced that
the anti-Communist regime there would have him executed immediately. He sent of a message to the Central Committee
requesting a change of heart, but there was no response. Surprisingly, the Turks treated Trotsky with
the greatest respect. He was giving a home to live in with his wife
Natalia and their son Lev. From his new base, he began writing about
the situation within the Soviet Union and, specifically, the failings of Stalin. He didn’t hold back, writing the following
in an article titled ‘What is Stalin?’ . . .
His political horizon is extremely narrow . . . he has the mentality of a dogged empiricist,
devoid of creative imagination. These writings were published in newspapers
around the world. Knowing what we do now about Stalin’s personality,
it is a wonder that he didn’t have Trotsky killed immediately. But to have done so would have been to bring
the condemnation of the world down on Stalin. As a result, he sought to shut Trotsky up
by sending him deeper into exile. The Turks received orders to remove Trotsky
to the island of Prinkipo. After a year there he managed to get political
asylum in France. The French would not allow Trotsky to live
in Paris, so he settled into the coastal community of Royan. He spent almost two years there. But then French-Soviet relations improved
and the government was pressured to deport him. For a year he stayed in Norway with journalist
Konrad Knudsen. While there he wrote The Revolution Betrayed
which further highlighted the failings of Josef Stalin. A furious Stalin pressured the Norwegian government
and Trotsky was, once more, deported. He and his wife and son now headed for Trotsky’s
final destination – Mexico. For just over two years, from January 1937
and April 1939, they lived with artists Diego Rivera and wife Frida Kahlo. During that time, Trotsky had an affair with
Frida, even though his wife and son were also living under the same roof. In April, 1939, the Trotsky’s moved into
their own home a few streets away from Diego and Frida. It was here that he wrote his strongest attack
on Stalin yet. The article was titled ‘Hitler and Stalin’. In it he wrote about Stalin’s hypocrisy
in signing a non-aggression pact with Hitler . . .
Over the last three years, Stalin has labelled every one of Lenin’s comrades in arms agents
of Hitler ... Having destroyed the army Party and decapitated the army, Stalin is now openly
advancing his candidature as Hitler’s chief agent. Stalin’s Revenge
By now Trotsky was convinced that Stalin would soon silence him. On February 27th, 1940 he wrote ‘Trotsky’s
Testament’ in which defended himself as a loyal Party member. In the mid-1940s Trotsky’s house was swarmed
by members of the Russian secret police, the NKVD. Trotsky’s guards managed to fight them off. Following the failed assassination attempt,
Trotsky wrote an article titled "Stalin Seeks My Death" on June 8th, 1940, in which he stated
that another assassination attempt was certain. A month later, on August 20th, 1940 a man
walked into Trotsky’ study and buried an ice pick into his head. Trotsky did not die immediately. Rather, he fought the attacker until his bodyguards
were able to come in and subdue him. Trotsky was rushed to the local hospital. According to James P. Cannon, the secretary
of the Socialist Workers Party (USA), Trotsky's last words were "I will not survive this attack. Stalin has finally accomplished the task he
attempted unsuccessfully before." He died the next day.
