Trotsky
Name: Leon Trotsky
Nickname/Alias: born: Lev Davidovich Bronshtein
Achievements: A leader of the Russian Revolution
Born: November 7, 1879; Yanovka, Ukraine (colony of Imperial Russia)
Died: August 20, 1940; Coyoacan, Mexico. Aged 60
Field & Discipline: Government & Politics; Revolutionary Theorist and Leader
Language: Russian
Father: David Bronshtein
Mother: Anna
Siblings: 1 brother, 1 sister
Spouse: 1) Aleksandra Sokolovskay; 2) Natalya Sedova
Cchildren: 2 daughters (by Aleksandra Sokolovskay); 2 sons (by Natalya Sedova)
Education: Private Jewish school; Gromokla School, Odessa; College in Nikolayev; University of Odessa
Major Work:
"Results and Prospects"
"History of the Russian Revolution"
"The Revolution Betrayed"
Life & Times:
Trotsky helped organize the South Russian Workers' Union and, in 1898, was convicted of revolutionary activity and imprisoned in Siberia. In 1902, he escaped, using a false passport in the name of Trotsky, which he then adopted as his underground identity.
He traveled to London, where he joined a group of Russian Social Democrats. With [collaborated with] Lenin*, he worked on the group newspaper "Iskra” (The Spark). In 1905, when unrest broke out in Russia, Trotsky left London for St. Petersburg, where he worked with the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. He was a prominent spokesman for the Soviet and was active in instigating various forms of industrial unrest. In 1906, he was again exiled to Siberia.
While in exile, Trotsky wrote "Results and Prospects", in which he set out his theory of permanent revolution. After escaping prison again, in 1907, he settled in Vienna. During the Balkan Wars (1912-13), he worked as a news correspondent. When World War I broke out, he refused to support Russia's entry.
He moved to Switzerland, then to Paris. He was expelled from France and later Spain for his anti-war sentiments and in 1917 went to New York, where he took a job on a Russian language paper, "Novy Mir” (New World).
In May, 1917, three months after the Russian revolution began, Trotsky returned to Petrograd (St. Petersburg), where he became the leader of a Menshevik splinter group. After a failed revolutionary uprising in July, he was arrested, part of a campaign against the Bolshevik leaders carried out by the liberal government under Aleksandr Kerensky. While in jail, Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks and was elected to the Bolshevik Central Committee.
Released from jail in September, 1917, he was elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. On Nov. 6, when fighting broke out between the government and the Bolsheviks, Trotsky led the Military Revolutionary Committee. By the next day, when Lenin emerged from the underground to lead the revolution, Petrograd was virtually controlled by the Bolsheviks.
Trotsky helped Lenin and the Bolsheviks stave off the Mensheviks' and Socialist Revolutionaries' attempt to form a coalition, and was made a foreign commissar in the Bolshevik government.
Next, as commissar for the army, he abandoned the revolutionary concept of a democratic force of idealists who employed guerrilla and terrorist tactics, and concentrated on building a small professional force. His ideas offended many fellow Bolsheviks, particularly when he hired former Tsarist officers. [opposed] Stalin* was a member of the ultra-left wing that opposed Trotsky, but Trotsky won, and his Red Army troops proved their competence, fighting off attacks by the anti-Communist White armies and their Cossack troops during the 1918-19 Russian civil war.
In 1919, Trotsky was one of five appointed to the Politburo, the new policy-making unit of the Communist Party. Lenin was then the undisputed leader of the Communists, but Trotsky, who was the more intellectual of the two and a brilliant administrator, was widely accepted as Lenin's immediate subordinate.
He wrote the manifesto for the Comintern (the Communist International Party) when it was established in 1919, and when the civil war ended in 1920, he attempted to introduce a more liberal economy.
The main point of contention was the role of the trade unions. Lenin wanted them to have a limited role, supervising working conditions. The left-wing wanted them to have to full control over industry. Trotsky thought the unions could take a role in the administration of industry as the representatives of central government.
The disputes put Trotsky in an uncomfortable position, and at the 10th Party Congress in March, 1921, it was clear he was losing influence. Stalin, on the other hand, was gaining influence as he built up his bureaucratic power. After Lenin had his first stroke in May, 1922, Stalin's rejection of Lenin's leadership became more pronounced.
With Lenin ailing, the party now concerned itself with finding his successor. Trotsky, up to now the accepted heir, retained the support of the mass of party members, but did not find favor with many of his colleagues in the Politburo, who were envious and resentful of him. Stalin formed an alliance with Grigor Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev.
In 1923, Lenin advised Trotsky to move against Stalin, but Trotsky did not take the advice. At the Party Congress in April, 1923, with Lenin now disabled by another stroke, Stalin increased his hold on the Central Committee and began a campaign to deprive Trotsky of all influence. Stalin's attack against the Trotskyites culminated in a denunciation of their aims at the 13th Party Conference in January, 1924. A week later, Lenin died.
The campaign against Trotsky continued throughout 1924 and, in 1925, he lost his position as war commisar. At the end of 1926, he was expelled from the Politburo, and the following year he and Zinovyev were dropped from the Central Committee and then expelled from the Party.
In 1928, Trotsky was exiled to Alma-Ata in Central Asia, and in 1929, was banished from the Soviet Union. Turkey accepted him and he went to the Turkish island of Prinkipo, where he wrote his autobiography and a history of the Russian Revolution. In 1933, he moved to France.
After the rise of Adolf Hitler and fascism took hold, he abandoned his attempt to reform the Communist international movement and called on his followers to set up their own revolutionary parties and form a Fourth International.
In 1935, he was forced to leave France and went to Norway. But the next year, Soviet pressure on Norway meant he had to move again. He was given asylum in Mexico and settled at Coyoacan. During the Moscow show trials of 1936-37, when Zinoviev and Kamenev were condemned to death for treason, Trotsky was charged in his absence with the same offense. When he demanded to be heard before an independent body, an American committee, headed by philosopher and educator [work related to] John Dewey* found the treason charges unproven.
In 1939, Trotsky survived an assassination attempt when Stalinist agents machine-gunned his house. On August 20, 1940, he was attacked with an ice-axe by Ramon Mercader, a Spanish Communist, who had tricked his way into the house. Trotsky died the next day. The Soviet government denied knowledge of any plot to murder Trotsky.
Extra Connections: Met diplomat [met] WA Harriman*, [met] Breton*, and [met] Russell*
He was influenced by the scientific management of [influenced by] Taylor*
Assessment: The most creative intellectual of the Russian revolution
Oneliner: Leon Trotsky, early Russian revolutionary
Bibliography:
- Warth, Robert D., Leon Trotsky, Twayne Publishers, Boston, 1977.