Leon Trotsky was a pivotal figure in the 1905 and October 1917 revolutions. A close ally of Vladimir Lenin, he served as Foreign Commissar, negotiating peace terms with Germany, and then as War Commissar, where he rebuilt the Red Army to win the Russian Civil War. However, after Lenin’s death, he was politically outmaneuvered by Joseph Stalin and expelled from the USSR. In exile, Trotsky continued his fierce criticism of Stalinism and advocated for “permanent revolution.” in place of Stalin’s doctrine of “socialism in one country.”
In 1940, he was assassinated in Mexico City with an ice pick by Ramon Mercader, a Stalinist agent.
Was Trotsky a Revolutionary Youth?
Born Lev Davidovich Bronstein in 1879 into a wealthy Jewish family in Yanovka, Ukraine, Trotsky was a bright child. He was educated in Odessa and Nikolayev, excelled at mathematics, read Marx, and became deeply critical of the Russian imperial regime. By 1896, he was fully committed to revolutionary activism.
At 19, he was arrested for revolutionary activity, spent two years in prison awaiting trial and in 1900 was sentenced to Siberian exile, where he immersed himself in political writings and learned of Lenin. In 1902, using a forged passport under the name “Trotsky” he escaped Siberia and fled to London to meet up with Lenin and his wife Nadezhda.
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Lenin was impressed. After a brief stint in Paris, Trotsky returned to Russia in 1905 following mass demonstrations against the Tsar, following the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). He was made President of the Petrograd Soviet and put in charge of organizing a Bolshevik-led strike and armed revolt. He was eventually arrested and deported back to Siberia but escaped before reaching his destination.
For over a decade, Trotsky lived abroad, collaborating with fellow revolutionaries, in Vienna, Paris, Berlin, and New York. When news of the February revolution broke in 1917, he hurried back to Russia via Finland, arriving in Petrograd on May 4th.
What Role Did Trotsky Play in the October Revolution?
An exceptional speaker and political strategist, Trotsky became central to the Bolshevik cause. Elected to the Bolshevik Central Committee, he played a key role in the October Revolution, directing military operations in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) and spearheading the overthrow of the Provisional Government. By November 1917, the Bolsheviks had solidified total control over the Russian capital.
The February Revolution had forced the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II but replaced him first with an aristocrat, Prince Georgy Lvov, and then with a liberal lawyer, Alexander Kerensky. The Bolsheviks stood firm and proclaimed that Russia could be controlled by its working people.
Spurred on by Lenin, in October 1917, the working people of Russia seized power. The aim was not to take over the state but to “smash” it and replace it with a new one in the name of the Russian proletariat and peasantry. Now recognized as Lenin’s closest ally, Trotsky became one of the newly minted Soviet Union‘s most prominent figures.
When Was Trotsky in Power?
Trotsky’s legacy in power is defined by his leadership of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War (1918-1921). As Commissar of War, he transformed the Red Army from a disorganized rabble into a disciplined military machine, ensuring Bolshevik victory over the White Army and foreign intervention, and securing the revolution.
As Foreign Commissar, Trotsky famously published the secret treaties of the great imperialist powers. He was instrumental in negotiating the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918), ending Russian participation in WWI. A committed internationalist, he also co-founded the Communist International (Comintern), an organization dedicated to forwarding proletarian revolution across the globe.
However, after Lenin died in 1924, his influence waned. A fierce opponent of Stalin’s bureaucratic consolidation of power and elimination of “inner-party” democracy, Trotsky criticized Stalin’s shift towards “socialism in one country” as a betrayal of Marxist principles. Trotsky was arrested in 1928 on Stalin’s orders and sent to “internal exile” in Kazakstan, and the following year, expelled from the USSR altogether.
When Was Trotsky in Exile?
Sitting in exile from the USSR in Istanbul, Turkey, Trotsky wrote his acclaimed History of the Russian Revolution (1930). Moving from Turkey to France and Norway, he continued to write and publish prolifically and organize with comrades. In 1936 he published The Revolution Betrayed, a radical critique of the Soviet Union under Stalin.
Trotsky settled in Mexico City in 1937 at the invitation of Diego Rivera and Frida Khalo (with whom he had an affair), he remained politically active but increasingly isolated. Stalin finally caught up with him on August 20th, 1940. Brutally attacked with an ice pick by Ramon Mercader, a Stalinist agent, Trotsky died of his wounds the next day.
Leon Trotsky’s death marked the end of a revolutionary life. Today, some see him as a heroic, radical, and original thinker in the Marxist tradition. Others, particularly in Putin’s Russia, blame him – and thus the Jews– for the atrocities associated with the revolution (Rubenstein, 2017). While his legacy is uncertain, he remains, without doubt, a crucial figure in the rise of communism as a historical force.
