Background
Trotskii, Lev was born on November 7, 1879 in Ianovka near Elizavetgrad (Kirovograd) in the Ukraine. Son of an estate manager.
Trotskii, Lev was born on November 7, 1879 in Ianovka near Elizavetgrad (Kirovograd) in the Ukraine. Son of an estate manager.
Educated at Odessa High School.
Early involvement in revolutionary activity. Arrested and exiled to Siberia, 1898. Became a member of the Social Democratic Party.
Went abroad to London, and then to Switzerland, 1902. Worked with Lenin on Iskra. After the split of the Social Democratic Party, 1903, joined the anti-Lenin Menshevik faction.
Returned to Russia, 1905. Main organizer (with Helphand-Parvus) of the 1905 Revolution in Petrograd, and creator of the rule of the Soviets (workers’ councils). After the defeat of the revolution, exiled to Siberia, 1906.
Went abroad, 1907. Living in Vienna, contributed to the Russian revolutionary and the West European socialist press. Proposed the concept of the permanent revolution (worldwide revolution). At the start of World War I, moved to Switzerland and later to the USA. Edited with Bukharin the Russian language journal Novyi Mir in New York.
After the February Revolution 1917, on his return to Russia through England, arrested by the British authorities, but was released after protests by Miliukov (then Foreign Minister of the Provisional Government). In Petrograd again, became one of the main revolutionary organizers. Arrested after the unsuccessful Bolshevik coup in July 1917.
Officially joined the Bolsheviks in August 1917. Member of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. Main organizer and practical leader of the October Revolution 1917.
Appointed Commissar of Foreign Affairs in the first Soviet government. Conducted the Brest-Litovsk peace negotiations, baffling the Germans by first using the meeting for propaganda purposes, then proclaiming the ‘no peace, no war’ situation, and finally abandoning the talks (concluded later on Lenin’s insistence without him). Resigned from his post and was appointed Commissar of War.
Created the Red Army and achieved victory in the Civil War by his extremely effective actions: his use of unprecedented terror (special Cheka detachments, often Latvian, Chinese, or from revolutionary groups of prisoners of war, especially Hungarian), and his use of professional military cadres from the Imperial Army drafted into the Red Army, their complete loyalty insured by a double hostage system — firstly by a communist political commissar attached as a supervisor to every military commander and secondly by the hostage situation of the members of the officers’ families. Disregarded criticism from party activists and communist partisans, who objected to this use of military specialists as wrong and dangerous on ideological and practical grounds. During the Civil War, had several misunderstandings with Stalin, which later cost him dearly.
Continued his propagandist and journalistic vocation. Wrote the manifesto of the Comintern, 1919. Took an active part in cultural discussion, and played the role of a patron of revolutionary art.
Brilliant orator, he overshadowed Lenin and completely overwhelmed Stalin, whom he in any case treated with open contempt, calling him ‘the most outstanding mediocrity’. During the revolt of the Kronstadt sailors, did not hesitate to apply his methods of utter terror to his former revolutionary comrades. Nevertheless, during the struggle for Lenin’s succession, was easily outmanoeuvered by Stalin in his various permutations with and against Zinov’ev, Kamenev and Bukharin.
Proposed schemes of mass compulsion (labour armies and collectivization) which were successfully denounced by Stalin as extremist (and later realized by him in a modified form). Similarly his concept of ‘permanent revolution’ was defeated by Stalin’s ‘socialism in one country.’ Removed from his post as Commissar of War, 1925, and from the Politburo, 1926. Expelled from the party with his followers, 1927, exiled to Alma-Ata, 1928, and banished from the USSR,
1929.
Subjected to an unprecedented campaign of vilification by Stalin, presented as the source of all evil and a tool of fascism. Lived in exile in Turkey, 1929-1933, and in France, 1933-1935. After a short stay in Norway, moved to Mexico, 1936.
Wrote on the Russian revolution and on Stalinism, and tried to organize the 4th International as a pure revolutionary movement, not corrupted by Stalinist bureaucracy. A nonperson in the Soviet Union for many years, his historical significance is now beginning to be recognized in Soviet political science.