Leon Trotsky

• 1. Childhood In Yanovka

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  Lev Davidovich Bronstein was born on the 7th of November 1879 into a wealthy but illiterate Jewish farming family in Yanovka, a village in the Kherson Governorate of the Russian Empire. The village, now known by Bereslavka, is part of present-day Kropyvnytskyi Raion in the Kirovohrad Oblast of Ukraine. He was the fifth child of David Leontyevich Bronstein and Anna Lvovna Zhivotovskaya. Trotsky's younger sister, Olga, also became a Bolshevik and Soviet politician, and married her fellow-Bolshevik Lev Kamenev. Some authors have claimed that Trotsky's childhood first name was the Yiddish Leiba. However, the Trotskyist writer David North argued that this is an assumption based on Trotsky's Jewish heritage, lacking documentary evidence. Instead, his family spoke a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian. David sent Trotsky to Odessa for education when the latter was eight years old. Trotsky enrolled in a Lutheran German-language school which admitted students of various faiths. He became increasingly Russified during his time there due to the Imperial government's Russification policy.

• 2. Revolutionary Awakening In Nikolayev

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  Trotsky became involved in revolutionary activities in 1896 after moving to the port town of Nikolayev on the Black Sea. Initially a narodnik, he opposed Marxism but was converted by his future first wife, Aleksandra Sokolovskaya. He graduated from high school with first-class honours the same year. His father had intended him to become a mechanical engineer. Trotsky briefly attended Odessa University, studying engineering and mathematics. A university colleague noted his exceptional mathematical talent. However, bored with his studies, he increasingly focused on political philosophy and underground revolutionary activities. He dropped out in early 1897 to help to organise the South Russian Workers' Union in Nikolayev. Using the name Lvov, he wrote and printed leaflets, distributed revolutionary pamphlets, and popularised socialist ideas among industrial workers and students. In January 1898 over 200 union members, including Trotsky, were arrested. He spent the next two years in prison awaiting trial, first in Nikolayev, then Kherson, Odessa, and finally Moscow. In Moscow, he encountered other revolutionaries, learnt of Lenin, and read Lenin's The Development of Capitalism in Russia.

• 3. Architect Of The Red Army

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  On the 13th of March 1918, Trotsky's resignation as Foreign Affairs Commissar was accepted. He was appointed People's Commissar of Army and Navy Affairs, replacing Podvoisky, and chairman of the Supreme Military Council. The post of commander-in-chief was abolished, giving Trotsky full control of the Red Army. The entire Bolshevik Red Army leadership vigorously protested against Trotsky's appointment and eventually resigned. They believed the Red Army should consist only of dedicated revolutionaries and rely on propaganda and force. Trotsky also expressed support for measures to improve medical oversight and living conditions of Red Army soldiers. A controversial measure was hostage-taking of relatives of ex-Tsarist officials in the Red Army to prevent defection or betrayal. Service noted this practice was used by both Red and White armies. Trotsky later defended this, arguing no families of betraying ex-officials were executed. Deutscher highlights Trotsky's preference for exchanging hostages over execution. Trotsky authorised Mikhail Tukhachevsky, commander of the 1st Army, to station blocking detachments behind unreliable infantry regiments, with orders to shoot if front-line troops deserted or retreated without permission. These troops comprised personnel from Cheka punitive detachments or regular infantry regiments.

• 4. Struggle For Succession

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  In late 1921 Lenin's health deteriorated. He suffered three strokes between the 25th of May 1922 and the 9th of March 1923, causing paralysis, loss of speech, and his eventual death on the 21st of January 1924. With Lenin increasingly sidelined, Stalin was elevated to the new position of Central Committee General Secretary in April 1922. Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev formed a triumvirate with Stalin to prevent Trotsky from succeeding Lenin. The rest of the expanded Politburo initially remained uncommitted but eventually joined the troika. Evidence suggests the troika initially nominated Trotsky for minor government departments. In mid-July 1922 Kamenev wrote to the recovering Lenin that the Central Committee is throwing or is ready to throw a good cannon overboard. Lenin, shocked, responded. Until his final stroke, Lenin tried to prevent a split in the leadership, reflected in Lenin's Testament. On the 11th of September 1922 Lenin proposed Trotsky should become his deputy at the Council of People's Commissars. The Politburo approved, but Trotsky categorically refused. This proposal is interpreted by some scholars as Lenin designating Trotsky his successor as head of government.

• 5. Exile And Political Warfare

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  Deported from the Soviet Union in February 1929, Trotsky arrived in Turkey. For his first two months, he lived with his wife and eldest son at the Soviet Consulate in Istanbul and then a nearby hotel. In April 1929, Turkish authorities moved them to the island of Büyükada into a house called the Yanaros mansion. During his Turkish exile, Trotsky was under surveillance by Mustafa Kemal Pasha's police. He was also at risk from former White Army officers on Prinkipo. However, his European supporters volunteered as bodyguards, ensuring his safety. Soon after arriving in Turkey, Trotsky established the Bulletin of the Opposition, a Russian-language journal first published in July 1929 in Paris. In a 1931 letter titled What is Fascism, he attempted to define fascism, asserting the Communist International wrongly described Primo de Rivera's dictatorship as fascist because it lacked a mass movement base in the lower classes. On the 20th of February 1932 Trotsky and his family lost their Soviet citizenship and were forbidden to enter the Soviet Union. In 1932 he entered fascist Italy en route to a socialist conference in Denmark.

• 6. Theory Of Permanent Revolution

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  Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution held that the revolution could only survive if spread to more advanced capitalist countries. In The Revolution Betrayed (1936), he argued that the Soviet Union had become a degenerated workers' state. In 1938 he founded the Fourth International as an alternative to the Comintern. Trotsky wrote in 1925: To delay negotiations, there must be someone to do the delaying. He believed Germany would find it difficult to attack due to internal conditions and opposition from various German political factions. Trotsky's position was between these factions. He acknowledged the old Russian army's inability to fight. However, he agreed with the Left Communists that a separate peace treaty would be a severe morale and material blow. He argued that a German ultimatum should be refused, which might trigger an uprising in Germany or inspire German soldiers to disobey orders if an offensive was a naked land grab. Lenin initially responded on the 18th of January: Stalin has just arrived; we will look into the matter with him and let you have a joint answer right away.