Leon Trotsky: Basic Information

Leon Trotsky

Leon Davidovich Trotsky, born Leon Davidovich Bronstein, is one of the most well known personae and revolutionaries present in Russia and had a major role in the events leading up to and during the October Revolution of 1917. He was a Bolshevik influenced heavily by Marxist ideology. Furthermore, Leon Trotsky was one of the most dominant [besides Lenin] political figures in the early Soviet Union [1919 Ð'- 1924] until his downfall, perpetrated by political rival, Stalin and his allies, after Lenin's death.

Trotsky was born in Yanovka, Ukraine on the 7th of November, 1879 to a wealthy, yet uneducated Jewish father who was a farmer and his wife. Leon was named after an uncle who incidentally was involved in a plot to explode the Imperial Railway Carriage a month later. As his family was moderately wealthy he was able to be educated at an Odessa schooling institution. However, it was not until 1896 that Leon Trotsky became involved in politics, let alone socialism. In 1896, Trotsky became increasingly attracted to the ideas published by Marx and gradually became a Marxist. It was because of his ideology that Leon was arrested in 1898 to await trial and was sentenced to exile in Siberia in 1900 and in 1902 he managed to escape using a passport under his well known pseudonym Leon Trotsky. Under this pseudonym he moved to London and became one of the editors of Isrka where he became acquainted and collaborated with Lenin until the Social Democrats schism of 1903 where he became spokesman for the Mensheviks, the opponents of the Bolsheviks. In 1905 he returned to Russia and became the Chairman of the St. Petersburg Soviet but returning to this role he was identified as having a role in the 1905 Revolution and was again exiled to Siberia, again in 1907 he moved to London and would not return to Russia until 1917 to take his role in the October Revolution and the formation of the Bolshevik Government. Trotsky was again exiled by his Bolshevik opponents in 1928 and would finally settle in Mexico City in 1939 where he would be murdered with an ice pick by Stalinist Agent, RamÐ"Ñ-n Mercader.

Trotsky's ideas form the basis of the political ideology of Trotskyism Ð'- an ideology opposed to Stalinism. Trotsky and his supporters regarded themselves as working in opposition to both capitalism and Stalinism. He advocated proletarian revolution as set out in his theory of permanent revolution, and believed that a workers' state would not be able to hold out against the pressures of a hostile capitalist world unless socialist revolutions quickly took hold in other countries as well. In addition to this he argued that socialism without democratic participation could not work and so concluded that the U.S.S.R. was in fact a degenerated workers state rather than a socialist one. Furthermore, he regarded himself as an internationalist which in turn made him focus on the world revolution rather than events at home in Russia

Although Trotsky had a role in the 1905 Revolution as Chairman of the St. Petersburg Soviet, his main contribution to the revolution was his organisation and planning of the October Revolution in 1917. It was Trotsky himself who had drafted the plans for the overthrow and coup d'Ð"©tat against the Provisional Government and when Lenin gave the order for the coup to begin, it was Trotsky who directed the Red Guards in the seizure of key installations and strategic points in Petrograd. This seizure effectively allowed the Bolsheviks to seize power from the Provisional Government and in turn set a stable platform for the new Bolshevik Government to begin its administration. Furthermore, Trotsky's Red Guard was essential in stabilizing the nation and neutralizing any resistance to the new government. He molded the Red Guard into a formidable and cohesive armed force which was able to withstand continued White counter-attacks from 1918 to 1921. Thus, Trotsky can be attributed with helping orchestrate the coup d'Ð"©tat which became the October Revolution and with consolidating power for the Bolshevik party.

However, there were to be repercussions from Trotsky's involvement in the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Due to his involvement during 1905, Trotsky was exiled numerous times and did not return to Russia until 1917. Nonetheless, after the October Revolution, Trotsky was catapulted to being second in line in Lenin's socialist state and thus had much opposition, primarily from Stalin and his allies Ð'- who considered him to be a threat as he was thought to be the heir to the leadership of the Soviet UnionÐ'- as they wanted to become leaders of the Soviet Union themselves. Furthermore, his radical ideology made him a target for traditional Bolsheviks who saw him as a reminder of a more unstable period which was not needed anymore. This opposition finally ended in his assassination by RamÐ"Ñ-n Mercader, a Stalinist agent.

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