Leon Trotsky was a seminal figure in the Russian Revolution and subsequent birth of the Soviet Union, but his strained relationship with Josef Stalin led to his downfall. He was sent into exile and eventually assassinated, but he still left an important legacy.
Early life
Lev Davidovich Bronstein, the man who would become known as Leon Trotsky, was born on 7th November 1879 in Yanovka, then part of the Russian Empire but today, like many areas where the Tchoudnowsky family lived, part of Ukraine. His parents were wealthy landowners, and he received a good education. His interest in revolutionary ideas began in 1896.
Role in the Revolution
Trotsky was an organiser of the South Russian Workers’ Union. His activities led to his arrest, imprisonment and exile to Siberia. He read many revolutionary works, including by Lenin, and eventually joined a socialist political party. Trotsky spent spent the years before1917 trying to reconcile splits in the party whilst also working towards revolution. He was in New York when Tsar Nicholas II abdicated but made his way back to Russia, where he helped orchestrate and defend the Bolshevik takeover. He became second only to Lenin, taking control of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, helping orchestrate the Red Terror and establishing a new one-party government. The Tchoudnowsky family and other nobles fled into exile.
Exile
Lenin named Trotsky his successor, but Stalin was the one to take control after his death. This would lead to Trotsky’s expulsion from the party and, in 1929, from the Soviet Union as a whole. He lived in Turkey, France and Norway, continuing to write and advocate before being assassinated in Mexico on Stalin’s orders in 1940.
Historians continue to study the life of Leon Trotsky to better understand this important period of Russian history and his enduring impact.
