Trotsky Lev Davidovich activity. Lev Bronstein was born. Life in exile

L. D. Trotsky is an outstanding revolutionary of the twentieth century. He entered world history as one of the founders of the Red Army, the Comintern. L. D. Trotsky became the second person of the first Soviet government. It was he who headed the people's commissariat, was engaged in maritime and military affairs, showed himself to be an outstanding fighter against the enemies of the world revolution.

Childhood

Leiba Davidovich Bronstein was born on November 7, 1879 in the Kherson province. His parents were illiterate people, but quite wealthy Jewish landowners. The boy had no peers, so he grew up alone. Historians believe that it was at this time that such a trait of Trotsky's character as a sense of superiority over other people was formed. From childhood, he looked with disdain at the children of farm laborers, never played with them.

Youth period

What was Trotsky like? His biography has many interesting pages. For example, in 1889 he was sent by his parents to Odessa, the purpose of the trip was to educate the young man. He managed to enter the special quota allocated for Jewish children at St. Paul's School. Quite quickly, Trotsky (Bronstein) became the best student in all subjects. In those years, the young man did not think about revolutionary activities, he was fond of literature, drawing.

At seventeen, Trotsky found himself in a circle of socialists engaged in revolutionary propaganda. It was at this time that he began to study with interest the works of Karl Marx.

It is hard to believe that whose books were studied by millions of people, he quickly turned into a real fanatic of Marxism. Even then, he differed from his peers with a sharp mind, showed leadership qualities, and knew how to conduct discussions.

Trotsky plunges into the atmosphere of revolutionary activity, creates the "South Russian Workers' Union", whose members were the workers of the Nikolaev shipyards.

persecution

When was Trotsky first arrested? The biography of a young revolutionary contains information about many arrests. The first time he was imprisoned for revolutionary activities in 1898 for two years. Next was his first exile to Siberia, from which he managed to escape. The surname Trotsky was entered in a fake passport, it was she who became his pseudonym for his whole life.

Trotsky is a revolutionary

After escaping from Siberia, the young revolutionary leaves for London. It was here that he met Vladimir Lenin, became the author of the Iskra newspaper, publishing under the pseudonym Pero. Having found common interests with the leaders of the Russian Social Democrats, Trotsky quickly becomes popular, accepting active agitators among migrants.

Trotsky easily established a trusting relationship with the Bolsheviks, using his oratorical skills and eloquence.

Books

During this period of his life, Leon Trotsky fully supported the ideas of Lenin, therefore he received the nickname "Lenin's club." But a few years later, the young revolutionary goes over to the side of the Mensheviks, accuses Vladimir Ulyanov of dictatorship.

He failed to find mutual understanding with the Mensheviks either, as Trotsky tried to unite them with the Bolsheviks. After unsuccessful attempts to reconcile the two factions, he declares himself a "non-factional" member of the social democratic society. Now, as his main goal, he chooses the creation of his own current, which differs from the views of the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks.

In 1905, Trotsky returned to revolutionary Petersburg, finding himself in the thick of the events taking place in the city.

It is he who creates the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies, voices revolutionary ideas to people who have a revolutionary mood.

Trotsky actively advocated the revolution, so he ended up in prison again. It was at this time that he was deprived of civil rights, sent to Siberia for an eternal settlement.

But he manages to escape from the gendarmes, cross to Finland, then go to Europe. Since 1908, Trotsky settled in Vienna, began to publish the newspaper Pravda. A couple of years later, the Bolsheviks intercept the publication, and Lev Davidovich leaves for Paris, where he manages the publishing house of the Nashe Slovo newspaper. In 1917, Trotsky decides to return to Russia and sets off from the Finland Station to the Petrosovet. He is given membership, is granted the right to an advisory vote. A couple of months after his stay in St. Petersburg, Lev Davidovich manages to become the informal leader of those who advocate the creation of one common social democratic workers' party.

In October of the same year, Trotsky formed the Military Revolutionary Committee, and on November 7 carried out an armed uprising, the purpose of which was to overthrow the provisional government. This event in history is known as the October Revolution. As a result, the Bolsheviks come to power, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin becomes their leader.

The new government gives Trotsky the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, a year later he becomes People's Commissar for Naval and Military Affairs. It was from that time that he was engaged in the formation of the Red Army. Trotsky imprisons, shoots deserters, violators of military discipline, without sparing those who interfere with his active work. This period in history was called the Red Terror.

In addition to military affairs, Trotsky at this time actively cooperated with Lenin on issues related to foreign and domestic policy. His popularity peaked towards the end of the Civil War, but because of Lenin's death, Trotsky was unable to implement all the reforms to move from War Communism to the New Economic Policy. He failed to become a full-fledged successor to Lenin, this place was taken by Joseph Stalin. In Leon Trotsky, he saw a serious rival, so he tried to take steps to neutralize the enemy. Since the spring of 1924, the real persecution of Trotsky begins, as a result of which Lev Davidovich is deprived of his post, membership in the Central Committee of the Politburo.

Who replaced Trotsky as People's Commissar for Defense? In January 1925, Mikhail Vasilievich Frunze took this position. In 1926, Trotsky tried to return to the political life of the country, he organized an anti-government demonstration. But the attempts were unsuccessful, he was exiled to Alma-Ata, then to Turkey, and deprived of Soviet citizenship.

We have already noted who replaced Trotsky as People's Commissar of Defense, but he himself did not stop the active struggle against Stalin. Trotsky began to publish the Bulletin of the Opposition, in which he tried to write about the barbaric activities of Stalin. In exile, Trotsky is working on the creation of an autobiography, writes the essay "History of the Russian Revolution", talking about the necessity and inevitability of the October Revolution.

Personal life

In 1935, he moved to Norway and came under pressure from the authorities, who did not plan to spoil relations with the Soviet Union. The revolutionary's works were taken away from him, and he was placed under house arrest. Trotsky did not want to put up with such an existence, so he decides to leave for Mexico, following from a distance the events unfolding in the USSR. In 1936, he completed work on the book "The Revolution Betrayed", where he called the Stalinist regime an alternative counter-revolutionary coup.

Alexandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya became Trotsky's first wife. He met her at the age of 16, when he had not yet thought about revolutionary activities.

Alexandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya was six years older than Trotsky. It was she who, according to historians, became his guide to Marxism.

She became an official wife only in 1898. After the wedding, the young went to Siberian exile, in which they had two daughters: Nina and Zinaida. The second daughter was only four months old when Trotsky managed to escape from exile. The wife remained in Siberia alone with two babies. Trotsky himself wrote about that period of his life that he escaped with the consent of his wife, and it was she who helped him move to Europe.

In Paris, Trotsky met with an active participant in the iskra newspaper. This led to the breakup of the first marriage, but Trotsky managed to maintain friendly relations with Sokolovskaya.

a series of troubles

In his second marriage, Trotsky had two sons: Sergei and Lev. Since 1937, numerous misfortunes began to lie in wait for the Trotsky family. The youngest son was shot for political activity. A year later, his eldest son dies during an operation. A tragic fate befell the daughters of Lev Davydovich. In 1928, Nina dies of consumption, and in 1933 Zina commits suicide, she is unable to get out of a state of severe depression. Soon Alexandra Sokolovskaya, Trotsky's first wife, was shot in Moscow.

The second wife of Lev Davydovich lived after his death for another 20 years. She died in 1962 and was buried in Mexico.

Mystery biography

Trotsky's death is still an unsolved mystery for many people. Who is he, that secret agent who is associated with the death of Lev Davydovich? Who killed Trotsky? This issue deserves separate consideration. Pavel Sudoplatov, whose name is associated with the death of Trotsky, was born in 1907 in Melitopol. Since 1921, he became an employee of the Cheka, then was transferred to the ranks of the NKVD.

Some historians believe that it was he who committed the murder of Trotsky on the orders of Stalin. The task from the “leader of the peoples” was to eliminate the enemy of Stalin, who at that time lived in Mexico.

Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov was appointed to the post of deputy head of the 1st department of the NKVD, where he worked until 1942.

Perhaps it was the assassination of Trotsky that allowed him to rise so high through the ranks. Lev Bronstein was Stalin's personal enemy all his life, his opponent. No one knows exactly how Trotsky was killed; many legends are associated with the name of this person. Someone considers Trotsky a state criminal who fled abroad in an attempt to save his life.

How was Trotsky killed? This question still torments domestic and foreign historians. It was Lev Bronstein who made a significant contribution to Russian history. There is no exact information about how Trotsky was killed, but Stalin tried to eliminate his rival by any means throughout his political life.

Lenin's and Trotsky's views on the reality of Soviet Russia differed significantly. Lev Bronstein considered the Stalinist regime a bureaucratic degeneration of the proletarian regime.

Secrets of doom

How was Trotsky killed? In 1927, serious charges were brought against him for carrying out counter-revolutionary activities under Art. 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, Trotsky was expelled from the party.

The investigation into his case was short. Just a few days later, a car with prison bars was taking the Trotsky family to Alma-Ata, far from the capital. This journey was for the founder of the Red Army his farewell to the streets of the capital.

For Stalin, the death of Trotsky would have been an excellent way to eliminate a strong opponent, but he was afraid to deal directly with him.

In search of an answer to the question of who killed Trotsky, we note that many KGB agents tried to crack down on Trotsky.

In exile, his family was given shelter by the Mexican artist Rivera. He protected Trotsky from the attacks of local communists. Police officers were constantly on duty at Rivera's house, Trotsky's American supporters reliably guarded their leader and helped him to carry out active propaganda work.

Soviet counterintelligence in Europe was led at that time by Ignacy Reiss. He decided to stop his espionage work and informed Trotsky that Stalin was trying to kill him, his supporters outside the Soviet Union. To do this, it was supposed to use various methods: blackmail, cruel torture, terrorist acts, interrogations. A few weeks after this letter was sent to Trotsky, Reiss was found dead on his way to Lausanne, with about ten bullets found in his body. The Mexican police found out that the people who killed Reiss were spying on Trotsky's son. In 1937, Stalin's supporters were preparing an assassination attempt on Leo, but Trotsky's son did not arrive at the appointed time in Mulhouse. This incident made Stalin's supporters think about a possible leak of information, they started looking for an informant. Trotsky's family, having learned about the planned assassination, became even more circumspect and cautious.

Lev Davydovich wrote to his son that when an attempt was made on his life, Stalin would act as the customer of the murder.

In September 1937, an international commission headed by Dewey published the results of the Leon Trotsky case. They spoke of the complete innocence of Lev Sedov (son) and Leon Trotsky (father) of the charges brought against them in Moscow. This news gave Stalin's opponent strength for work and creative activity. But his joy was overshadowed by the death of his son Leo during the operation. The young man became a victim of the NKVD, death overtook him at the age of 32. The death of his son crippled Trotsky, he grew a beard, the sparkle in his eyes disappeared.

The younger son refused to renounce his father, for which he was sentenced to five years in the camps, exiled to Vorkuta.

Only Zina's son, Seva (Trotsky's grandson), who was born in 1925 and lived in Germany, managed to survive.

Life in exile

Historians put forward different versions regarding the place where Trotsky was killed. In the spring of 1939, he moved into a house near Coyoacan, Mexico. An observation tower was built at the gate, police officers were on duty outside, and an alarm system was installed in the house. Trotsky grew cacti, raised rabbits and chickens.

Conclusion

In the winter of 1940, Trotsky wrote a will, where in each line one could read the expectation of tragic events. By that time, his relatives and supporters had been destroyed, but Stalin did not want to stop there. Trotsky's criticism, sounded from the other side of the earth, cast a shadow on the bright image of the leader, which had been created over the course of so many years.

Lev Davydovich, in his messages addressed to Soviet sailors, soldiers, and peasants, tried to warn them about the depravity of GPU agents and commissars. He called Stalin the main source of danger for the Soviet Union. Of course, such statements were painfully perceived by the "leader of the peoples", he could not allow Trotsky to live. On Stalin's orders, NKVD agent Jackson, who was the son of the Spanish communist Caridad Mercader, is sent to Mexico.

The operation was carefully planned, thought out to the smallest detail. Jackson met Sylvia Agelof, Trotsky's secretary, and gained access to the house. On the night of May 24, 1940, an attempt was made on Lev Davydovich.

Together with his wife and grandson, Trotsky hid under the bed. Then they managed to survive, but on August 20, Stalin's plans to eliminate the enemy were implemented. Trotsky, who was hit on the head with an ice drill, did not die immediately. He managed to give some orders regarding his wife and grandson to his devoted workers.

When the doctor arrived at the house, part of Trotsky's body was paralyzed. Lev Davydovich was taken to the hospital, they began to prepare for the operation. The craniotomy was performed by five surgeons. Most of the brain was damaged by bone fragments, and part was destroyed. Trotsky survived the operation, and for almost a day his body fought desperately for life.

Trotsky died on August 21, 1940, without regaining consciousness after the operation. Trotsky's grave is located in the courtyard of a house in the Coyoacan area of ​​Mexico City, a white stone was hoisted over it, a red flag was put up.

Trotsky, briefly personality

Lev Davidovich Trotsky short biography for children

Lev Davidovich Trotsky, in short, one of the most prominent participants in the revolutionary movement of the 20th century, the founder of Trotskyism, one of the directions of Marxism. The scope of this politician's activity on an international scale is simply amazing. He was one of the organizers of the 1917 revolution along with Lenin. Trotsky was involved in the creation of the Red Army and was its first leader. He held high positions in the new Soviet government.

Speaking of Trotsky, it is necessary to dwell briefly on his pseudonym. The real name of the revolutionary is Leib Bronstein. The name Trotsky was chosen by him at random. That was the name of the warden in the prison where the revolutionary was.

Trotsky was born in 1879 in a large, prosperous family of a landowner in the Kherson province. Having entered the school in Odessa, he immediately became the first student. He continued his studies in the city of Nikolaev, where he began to attend a revolutionary circle. In 1898, he was imprisoned for revolutionary activities, where two important events in his life took place with Trotsky. He becomes a Marxist and marries.

After two years of imprisonment, he goes into exile in Siberia, but soon escapes from there abroad under the pseudonym of Trotsky. Since then, this name has been assigned to him until the end of his life.
Trotsky began active work abroad. He is an ardent supporter of Lenin, works as a correspondent for the revolutionary newspaper Iskra, and marries (unofficially) a second time. He never divorced his first wife.

During the revolution of 1905, Trotsky secretly returned to the Russian Empire. There he was arrested a second time, and in a highly publicized trial, he was stripped of all rights and exiled to Siberia forever. He safely escaped from the country right from under the convoy carrying the convicts to the settlement. For a long time he lived in exile in Austria, France and the USA.

Trotsky's talent, as an outstanding organizer and orator, was most clearly revealed during the years of the 1917 revolution and the Civil War. At one time he headed the Bolshevik faction. He was one of the leaders and organizers of the 1917 uprising.

During the Civil War, Trotsky became the first leader of the Red Guard. The army he created with the help of iron discipline was able to defeat the enemy, but after the end of the Civil War, Trotsky, with his authoritarian management style, was no longer needed.
After Lenin's death, Trotsky participated in the struggle for power. Gradually, he is removed from all posts.

Date of birth: October 26, 1879
Birthplace: Yanovka, Russian Empire
Date of death: August 21, 1940
place of death: Coyoacan, Mexico

Leib Davidovich Bronstein (Leo Trotsky)- Russian revolutionary, politician.

Leon Trotsky was born on October 26, 1879 in Ukraine. He studied at a real school in the city of Nikolaev and in the last grades became interested in socialism. In 1896 he graduated from a real school, and before that he attended the Odessa School. He married the Marxist Alexandra Sokolovskaya and became fascinated by her ideas.

Together they created the South Russian Workers' Union, for which they were arrested and exiled to Irkutsk, where they were from 1898 to 1902. There they continued their ideas of Marxism and became members of the circle of the Iskra newspaper.

In 1902, he escaped from exile on fake documents in the name of Trotsky, arrived in London and began to communicate with Lenin. In London he wrote articles for Iskra. In 1903, he joined the Mensheviks and broke with Lenin, accusing him of authoritarianism. In 1905, after the January conflict, he returned to his homeland and began to lead the activities of the soviets there.

In October 1905, he held a general strike and uprising, for which he was arrested and exiled in December. In exile, he writes the book Results and Prospects, and in court he blamed tsarism for everything. He fled from exile and in 1907 arrived in Vienna with his second wife. In Vienna he wrote articles for the press in Germany and Austria. In 1908 he created the newspaper Pravda, which he redirected from Vienna to St. Petersburg for distribution among the workers.

In 1914, he published the work War and the International, written by him in Switzerland, whose idea was the creation of the United States of Europe. After that, he left for Paris and wrote articles for the Kiev press and for his newspaper Nashe Slovo. In 1915 he became a member of the Zimmerwald Conference, for which he wrote a manifesto. In the future, this conference grew into the 3rd International.

From Paris in 1916 he was deported to Spain, where he was arrested and deported again. So in January 1917, Trotsky ended up in New York, began to cooperate with the left socialists and, together with Bukharin, published the Novy Mir newspaper in Russian. In it, he highlighted the events of February, where he recognized them as positive. After that, he tried to return to Petrograd, but on the way he was captured by British intelligence and released only after the demand of the Provisional Council to extradite him.

So in May 1917 he ended up in Russia and became a member of the Interdistrict Organization of United Social Democrats. Soon he retrained from a Menshevik to a Bolshevik and became a well-known orator. In July 1917 he was again arrested for mutinies and released after the defeat of Kornilov. He took part in the October events, and after them he became People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

It also belonged to him to name the new country and its government the Council of People's Commissars. In December 1917, he became the head of the USSR at the negotiations in Brest-Litovsk. There he behaved strangely, called for an end to the war, but without concluding a peace treaty. He also spoke there against Lenin and Bukharin.

In March 1918 he became a military commissar and created the Red Army, and also took part in the civil war of 1918-1922. In 1920, he became head of the commission for the restoration of railways and introduced strict discipline in the structures subject to him.

However, in 1921, Lenin did not support his idea of ​​militarizing the trade unions along with Zinoviev and Stalin.
In 1922, Lenin invited him to become an ally in the fight against Stalin and his party, where Stalin was the general secretary and wanted to bring everything to bureaucratic foundations.

Zinoviev and Kamenev began to ally with Stalin, to which Trotsky answered Lenin with a refusal to form an alliance due to fear of anti-Semitic attacks.

After that, he worked together with Germany and prepared with her communist party an uprising with the participation of the Red Army, in October 1923 the uprising was canceled, a crisis was ripe within the Bolshevik Party.

On the day of Lenin's death, Trotsky was abroad and was not summoned by Stalin, as he wanted to establish himself as Lenin's successor. Trotsky was unable to refute this and soon lost his post as military commissar.

In 1925, a struggle began between Stalin's government and Trotsky, who found himself in opposition. Trotsky called on all his allies and in April 1926 formulated a declaration to restore democracy by removing Stalin. In 1927, the opposition waited for a failure on the part of the Talin, but was taken by surprise from the other side - Stalin accused them of the White Guards operating in their ranks.

Trotsky held several rallies and demonstrations, published the Opposition Platform newspaper, but in October 1927 he was expelled from the party, and in November 1927 he was not allowed to hold a demonstration in honor of 10 years of the overthrow of the tsarist regime.

In January 1928 he was deported to Alma-Ata, and a year later to Turkey, where he wrote his autobiography My Life and the book History of the Russian Revolution in three volumes. At the same time, he began to see the threat from Germany, in which the mobilization of the left and the creation of the Nazis began to gain strength. He wrote to Stalin for the purpose of unification, and after Hitler's victory in 1933, he called on him to form the 4th International, but he never received an answer.

In July 1933 he emigrated to France, but the Germans quickly discovered him there and in 1934 forced him to leave. In 1936 he arrived in Norway and wrote The Revolution Betrayed there. Six months later, he was slandered by Stalin, who called Trotsky an agent of Hitler, and in December 1936, Trotsky arrived in Mexico. There, the Mexicans arranged a commission on his case and Stalin's accusation of pandering to the Nazis and issued a negative answer and found him innocent.

In 1938, Trotsky, together with Breton and Rivera, issued a manifesto for a free revolutionary art, after which his son was killed by Stalin's agents in Paris. And soon he himself was killed on August 21, 1940.

Achievements of Leon Trotsky:

First People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs
Many works on the revolution
Created the Red Army

Dates from the biography of Leon Trotsky:

October 26, 1879 - born in Ukraine
1896 - graduated from a real school
1898-102 - first link
1902 - escape to London and meeting with Lenin
1917 - return to Russia, the creation of the Red Army
1925 - the struggle for power, removal from the affairs of the party
1936 - emigration to Mexico
August 21, 1940 - death

Interesting facts of Leon Trotsky:

Was married twice, had 4 children, all of whom died during the struggle for power
He was killed with an ice pick, six months before his death, an attempt was made on him, for the murder of Trotsky, Ramon Mrkader received the title of Hero of the USSR
Only in May 1992 he was rehabilitated
Streets, squares and cities bore his names, but with the collapse of the USSR, all were renamed into historical names.

Leon Trotsky is an outstanding revolutionary of the 20th century, who went down in history as one of the founders of the Civil War, the Red Army and the Comintern. He was actually the second person in the first Soviet government and headed the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs, where he proved himself to be a tough and uncompromising fighter against the enemies of the world revolution. After his death, he led the opposition movement, speaking out against politics, for which he was deprived of Soviet citizenship, expelled from the Union and killed by an NKVD agent.

Lev Davidovich Trotsky was born (real name at birth - Leiba Davidovich Bronstein) on November 7, 1879 in the Ukrainian outback near the village of Yanovka, Kherson province, in a Jewish family of wealthy landowners. His parents were illiterate people, which did not prevent them from earning capital on the harsh exploitation of the peasants. The future revolutionary grew up alone - he did not have peer friends with whom he could fool around and play, as he was surrounded only by the children of farm laborers, whom he looked down on. According to historians, this laid down in Trotsky the main character trait, in which a sense of his own superiority over other people prevailed.

In 1889, the young Trotsky was sent by his parents to study in Odessa, since even then he showed an interest in education. There he entered the quota for Jewish families at St. Paul's School, where he became the best student in all disciplines. At that time, he did not even think about revolutionary activities, being carried away by drawing, poetry and literature.

But in his final years, the 17-year-old Trotsky fell into a socialist circle, which was engaged in revolutionary propaganda. Then he became interested in studying the works of Karl Marx and subsequently became a fanatical adherent of Marxism. It was during that period that a sharp mind, a penchant for leadership, and a polemical gift began to appear in him.

Immersed in revolutionary activity, Trotsky organized the "South Russian Workers' Union", which was joined by the workers of the Nikolaev shipyards. At that time, they were little interested in wages, since they received a fairly high salary, but they were worried about social relations under the tsarist rule.

Young Leon Trotsky | liveinternet.ru

In 1898, Leon Trotsky was imprisoned for the first time for his revolutionary activities, where he had to spend 2 years. This was followed by his first exile to Siberia, from which he escaped a few years later. Then he managed to make a fake passport, in which Lev Davidovich randomly entered the name Trotsky, like the senior warden of the Odessa prison. It was this surname that became the future pseudonym of the revolutionary, with whom he lived for the rest of his life.

revolutionary activity

In 1902, after escaping from Siberian exile, Leon Trotsky went to London to join Lenin, with whom he established contact through the Iskra newspaper, founded by Vladimir Ilyich. The future revolutionary became one of the authors of Lenin's newspaper under the pseudonym "Pero".

Having become close to the leaders of Russian social democracy, Trotsky very quickly gained popularity and fame, speaking with agitating essays for migrants. He impressed those around him with his eloquence and oratory, which allowed him to win a serious attitude in the Bolshevik movement, despite his youth.

Books by Leon Trotsky | inosmi.ru

At that time, Leon Trotsky supported Lenin's policy as much as possible, for which he was dubbed "Lenin's club." But this did not last long - literally in 1903, the revolutionary went over to the side of the Mensheviks and began to accuse Lenin of dictatorship. But he “didn’t get along” with the leaders of Menshevism either, because he wanted to try on and unite the factions of the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, which caused great political disagreements. As a result, he declared himself a "non-factional" member of the social democratic society, setting out to create his own movement, which would be above the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.

In 1905, Leon Trotsky returned to his homeland, to St. Petersburg, seething with revolutionary moods, and immediately burst into the thick of things. He quickly organizes the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies and delivers fiery speeches to crowds of people who were already electrified to the maximum with revolutionary energy. For his active work, the revolutionary again went to prison, as he advocated the continuation of the revolution even after the tsar's manifesto appeared, according to which the people received political rights. At the same time, he was also deprived of all civil rights and exiled to Siberia for an eternal settlement.

Leon Trotsky - the organizer of the revolution | imgur.com

On the way to the "polar tundra", Leon Trotsky manages to escape from the gendarmes and get to Finland, from where he will soon move to Europe. Since 1908, the revolutionary settled in Vienna, where he began to publish the newspaper Pravda. But four years later, the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Lenin, intercepted this publication, as a result of which Lev Davidovich went to Paris, where he started publishing the newspaper Nashe Slovo.

After the February Revolution in 1917, Trotsky decided to return to Russia. Directly from the Finland Station, he went to the Petrograd Soviet, where he was granted membership with an advisory vote. Literally in a few months of his stay in St. Petersburg, Lev Davidovich became the informal leader of the Mezhrayontsy, who advocated the creation of a single Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.

Photo by Leon Trotsky | livejournal.com

In October 1917, the revolutionary created the Military Revolutionary Committee, and on October 25 (November 7, according to the new style) he carried out an armed uprising to overthrow the provisional government, which went down in history as the October Revolution. As a result of the revolution, the Bolsheviks came to power under the leadership of Lenin.

Under the new government, Leon Trotsky received the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, and in 1918 he became People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. From that moment on, he took up the formation of the Red Army, taking tough measures - he imprisoned and shot all violators of military discipline, deserters and all his opponents, giving no quarter to anyone, even the Bolsheviks, which went down in history under the concept of "red terror".

In addition to military affairs, he worked closely with Lenin on domestic and foreign policy issues. Thus, by the end of the Civil War, the popularity of Leon Trotsky reached its peak, but the death of the “leader of the Bolsheviks” did not allow him to carry out the planned reforms to switch from “war communism” to the New Economic Policy.

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Trotsky was never able to become Lenin's "successor" and his place at the helm of the country was taken by Joseph Stalin, who saw Lev Davidovich as a serious opponent and hastened to "defuse" him. In May 1924, the revolutionary was subjected to real persecution by opponents under the leadership of Stalin, as a result of which he lost the post of People's Commissar for Naval Affairs and membership in the Central Committee of the Politburo. In 1926, Trotsky tried to regain his position and organized an anti-government demonstration, as a result of which he was exiled to Alma-Ata, and then to Turkey with the deprivation of Soviet citizenship.

In exile from the USSR, Leon Trotsky did not stop his struggle with Stalin - he began to publish the Bulletin of the Opposition and created an autobiography, My Life, in which he justified his activities. He also wrote the historical essay "History of the Russian Revolution", in which he proved the exhaustion of tsarist Russia and the need for the October Revolution.

Books by Leon Trotsky | livejournal.com

In 1935, Lev Davidovich moved to Norway, where he came under pressure from the authorities, who did not want to worsen relations with the Soviet Union. All the works were taken from the revolutionary and put under house arrest. This led to the fact that Trotsky decided to leave for Mexico, from where he "safely" followed the development of affairs in the USSR.

In 1936, Leon Trotsky finished his book The Revolution Betrayed, in which he called the Stalinist regime a counter-revolutionary coup. Two years later, the revolutionary proclaimed the creation of an alternative to "Stalinism" of the Fourth International, the heirs of which still exist today.

Personal life

The personal life of Leon Trotsky was inextricably linked with his revolutionary activities. His first wife was Alexandra Sokolovskaya, whom he met at the age of 16, when he had not even thought about his revolutionary future. According to historians, it was Trotsky's first wife, who was 6 years older than him, who became the young man's guide to Marxism.

Trotsky with his eldest daughter Zina and first wife Alexandra Sokolovskaya

Sokolovskaya became Trotsky's official wife in 1898. Immediately after the wedding, the newlyweds were sent to Siberian exile, where they had two daughters - Zinaida and Nina. When the second daughter was only 4 months old, Trotsky fled Siberia, leaving his wife with two small children in her arms. In his book “My Life”, Lev Davidovich, when describing this stage of his life, indicated that his escape was made with the full consent of Alexandra, who helped him to freely escape abroad.

While in Paris, Leon Trotsky met his second wife, Natalya Sedova, who participated in the work of the Iskra newspaper under the direction of Lenin. As a result of this fateful acquaintance, the revolutionary's first marriage fell apart, but he retained friendly relations with Sokolovskaya.

Trotsky with his second wife Natalia Sedova | liveinternet.ru

In the second marriage with Sedova, Leon Trotsky had two sons - Lev and Sergey. In 1937, a series of misfortunes began in the family of a revolutionary. His youngest son, Sergei, was shot for his political activity, and a year later, Trotsky's eldest son, who was also an active Trotskyist, died under suspicious circumstances during an appendicitis operation in Paris.

The daughters of Leon Trotsky also suffered a tragic fate. In 1928, his youngest daughter Nina died of consumption, and his eldest daughter Zinaida, deprived of Soviet citizenship together with her father, committed suicide in 1933, being in a state of deep depression.

Following his daughters and sons, in 1938 Trotsky also lost his first wife, Alexandra Sokolovskaya, who until her death remained his only legal wife. She was shot in Moscow as a stubborn supporter of the Left Opposition.

The second wife of Leon Trotsky, Natalya Sedova, despite the fact that she lost both sons, did not lose heart and supported her husband until the last days. She, together with Lev Davidovich, moved to Mexico in 1937 and after his death lived there for another 20 years. In 1960 she moved to Paris, which became her "eternal" city, where she met Trotsky. Sedova died in 1962, she was buried in Mexico next to her husband, with whom she shared his difficult revolutionary fate.

Murder

On August 21, 1940, at 7:25 am, Leon Trotsky died. He was killed by NKVD agent Ramon Mercader in the house of a revolutionary in the Mexican city of Cayoacán. The murder of Trotsky was the result of his correspondence struggle with Stalin, who at that time was the head of the USSR.

The operation to eliminate Trotsky began in 1938. Then Mercader, on the instructions of the Soviet authorities, managed to infiltrate the environment of the revolutionary in Paris. He appeared in the life of Lev Davidovich as a Belgian citizen, Jacques Mornard.

Trotsky with Mexican comrades-in-arms | liveinternet.ru

Despite the fact that Trotsky turned his house in Mexico into a real fortress, Mercader managed to get into it and carry out Stalin's order. In the two months preceding the assassination, Ramon managed to ingratiate himself with the revolutionary and his friends, which allowed him to often appear in Cayoacán.

12 days before the assassination, Mercader arrived at Trotsky's house and presented him with a written article about American Trotskyists. Lev Davidovich invited him to his office, where for the first time they managed to be alone. On that day, the revolutionary was alerted by the behavior of Ramon and his attire - in extreme heat, he appeared in a raincoat and hat, and while Trotsky was reading the article, he stood behind his chair.

Ramon Mercader - Trotsky's assassin

On August 20, 1940, Mercader again came to Trotsky with an article that, as it turned out, was a pretext to allow him to retire with the revolutionary. He was again dressed in a cloak and hat, but Lev Davidovich invited him into his office without taking any precautions.

Sitting behind Trotsky's chair, carefully reading the article, Ramon decided to fulfill the order of the Soviet authorities. He took an ice pick from his raincoat pocket and struck a strong blow on the revolutionary's head with it. Lev Davidovich uttered a very loud cry, to which all the guards ran. Mercader was seized and beaten, after which he was handed over to special police agents.

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Trotsky was immediately taken to the hospital, where two hours later he fell into a coma. The blow to the head was so strong that it damaged the vital centers of the brain. Doctors fought desperately for the revolutionary's life, but he died 26 hours later.

Death of Leon Trotsky | liveinternet.ru

For the murder of Trotsky, Ramon Mercader received 20 years in prison, which was the highest penalty under Mexican law. In 1960, the killer of the revolutionary was released and immigrated to the USSR, where he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. According to historians, the preparation and execution of the operation to kill Lev Davidovich cost the NKVD $5 million.

Name: Trotsky Lev Davidovich (born Leiba Davidovich Bronstein)

State: Russian Empire, USSR

Field of activity: Politics

Greatest Achievement: The Great October Revolution and the creation of a new state - the USSR

Trotsky Lev Davidovich (nee Leiba Davidovich Bronstein) was born in the Kherson province in a wealthy Jewish family. He showed good results in school and university studies.

Infected in his youth by the ideas of Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky devotes his entire life to building socialism and fighting capitalism and fascism.

Despite his disagreements with Lenin, Trotsky still joins the Bolsheviks in their revolution. Later, he develops dissatisfaction with the regime established in the country, which partially contradicts the Marxist ideal socialism.

Disagreements with Lenin lead to the fact that Trotsky is not elected to the post of head of state, after the death of Vladimir Ilyich. Stalin becomes general secretary. Trotsky devotes all the last years of his life to opposition activities aimed at debunking Stalin's dictatorship.

The chosen dangerous path becomes the cause of the death of Lev Davidovich. On August 20, 1940, he was killed by a member of the Stalinist police.

On August 20, 1940, Lev Trotsky, a revolutionary and politician, was killed by a Stalinist police officer. Not as much is known about Trotsky as, say, about the life and works of Marx,. The somewhat blurred biography of Trotsky contrasts sharply with his leading role in the socialist movement in the first half of the 20th century. Leon Trotsky was the recognized labor leader of the revolutions of 1905 and 1917.

Childhood and youth

Lev Trotsky (born Leiba Davidovich Bronstein) was born on November 7, 1879 in the Kherson province into a wealthy Jewish family. His childhood was lonely: there were no peers similar in status in his environment, and little Leiba looked down on the servants' children.

In 1889, Trotsky was sent to study in Odessa, where he quickly won over the teachers and became the best in all disciplines. At the age of 17, Trotsky falls under the influence of the socialists and is fond of work. Infected with revolutionary ideas, under the leadership of Trotsky, the "South Russian Workers' Union" is formed.

Nickname

In 1898, the overly active Bronstein came to the attention of the authorities. Almost immediately after 2 years in prison, Trotsky, all under the same pretext of anti-government revolutionary activity, is sent to Siberia. From there, he manages to escape using a fake passport with the name of the warden of the prison, Brodsky.

Today, the term “capitalism” means worldwide poverty, mass unemployment, environmental destruction, incessant wars. The rulers of the whole world rightly fear that the people express their dissatisfaction with capitalism only when they see a possible alternative to the existing system. Therefore, they, the leaders, are trying to denigrate the October Revolution and the idea, arguing that Stalinism would become a logical continuation of the policy under Lenin and Trotsky. The fact that the defenders of the goals of the October Revolution, the "Trotskyists" and Trotsky himself fell victim to the Stalinist dictatorship, for some reason, is not taken into account.

Trotsky's outstanding contribution to the history of socialism can be defined as follows:

• analysis and perspective of the course of the revolution in an underdeveloped country (the theory of permanent revolution);
• scientific explanation of Stalin's rise to power and characterization of the Soviet Union;
• works on the nature and causes of the emergence of fascism and on methods of combating it.

Permanent revolution

Since socialism is the form of society that replaces capitalism, Marx and Engels assumed that the socialist revolution would begin where the capitalist system was most developed. Therefore, at the beginning of the twentieth century, representatives of the bourgeoisie and socialists believed that the backward and underdeveloped countries, as a logical stage, were waiting for a classical bourgeois revolution, and not a socialist one.

revolutionary activity

Shortly after his escape, Trotsky went to London and met Lenin there, whom he had already known in absentia, by correspondence.

A brilliant speaker, able to present information beautifully, Trotsky quickly secured the friendship and support of the Bolsheviks.

Starting as a supporter of Lenin's policies, Trotsky took the side of the Mensheviks in 1903, accusing Lenin of abuse of power and dictatorship. Trotsky, however, wanted to reunite the warring factions, which caused him to fall out with both sides. Having declared himself “outside the faction”, Trotsky set himself the task of creating a new, different trend, standing apart from the factions.

After analyzing the situation of that time, Trotsky concluded that in a country like the revolution cannot be of a bourgeois nature (the distribution of land, the creation of a single national state, the deprivation of power of the nobility and the elimination of landownership), it must be socialist, during which the capitalist regime will be overthrown.

The socialist revolution could well begin in underdeveloped countries, but only through the victory of socialism at the international level (the long-term nature of the revolution in this case determines its name - permanent).

In 1905, the first uprising against the tsarist regime broke out in Russia, during which Trotsky was elected chairman of the Petrograd Workers' Council. It was a kind of “dress rehearsal” for the 1917 revolution.

For an overly active civic position, Trotsky was again exiled to Siberia - this time for life. On the way to exile, he manages to deceive the guards and flee first to Finland, then to Europe. In Vienna, he has been publishing the Pravda newspaper for four years, and after the newspaper was seized by the Bolsheviks, he begins publishing the Nashe Slovo magazine in Paris.

Trotsky in the revolution of 1917

In 1917, Trotsky returned to Russia and joined the Bolsheviks, with whom he fought under the slogan “Peace to the peoples! The land is for the peasants! Bread for the Hungry!” covering the most acute and urgent problems in the country. In 1917, the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, came to the conclusion that only the working class, with the support of the peasants, could solve these problems and start a socialist movement throughout the world.

After seizing power, the new government gave the land of the landlords to the peasants and distributed industry into the hands of the workers. Trotsky, who worked closely with Lenin and advised him on matters of domestic and foreign policy, became People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. Immediately after taking office, he began to negotiate with the command of the German army in Brest-Litovsk, which resulted in the signing of a peace agreement.

world revolution

The goal of the Russian revolution was to promote socialist ideas to Europe and to demonstrate to the workers of the whole world that by joint efforts the hated capitalist regime could and should be overthrown.

The threat to the capitalist powers was so clear that all the reactionary sentiments and opponents of the Bolshevik regime in Russia were generously financed and supported from abroad. Trotsky became a leader tasked with resisting the imperialist forces.

The workers and peasants in Russia had experience and had something to fight for.

The Russian Revolution provoked a revolutionary wave that swept across Europe. and the soviets in Hungary and Austria are only a small part of a massive movement which, however, failed. The Russian revolution remained isolated. And this was by no means due to the lack of revolutionary will of the local working class, but due to the elementary absence of Russian Bolsheviks in these countries.

Opponent of bureaucratization

Trotsky was an open opponent of such a system, defining the development of productive forces (factories, tools, the level of training of workers) as a priority. If this fails, then, if necessary, "it will be necessary to go through the revolution again."

Trotsky, despite trusting and even friendly relations with Lenin, did not become his successor, yielding the post of head of the republics to Joseph Stalin. Stalin, seeing in Trotsky a direct threat to his own position, in 1924 launched a whole campaign to persecute Trotsky, who first lost his post, and when trying to restore it, he was completely exiled to Turkey.

Stalin's opponent

In The Revolution Betrayed in 1936, Trotsky spoke out with harsh criticism of the Stalinist regime: “The basis of bureaucratic management is the poverty of society in consumer goods and the struggle of “all against all”. If there are enough items in the store, customers can purchase them whenever they want. If there are few goods, buyers must queue. If this queue becomes very long, the policeman must ensure order. This is the starting point for the power of the Soviet bureaucracy.” Those who rise above society, eliminating "disorders", can be sure of their rightness and safety. Scarcity creates new privileged strata.

The bureaucracy relied on the social achievements of the October Revolution: the nationalization of banks and corporations, the beginning of a planned economy, the protection of this economy from the imperialists or the world market by a monopoly of foreign trade - at first everything went according to plan. However, everything that was created by the Soviet government - unions, parties, strike committees - was a direct threat to the Stalinist regime and was mercilessly exterminated.

Knowing that a planned economy without democracy is unsustainable in the long run, Trotsky characterized the Soviet Union as a transitional regime with two choices: either overthrow the bureaucracy in a political revolution and achieve socialism internationally, or capitalist counter-revolution.

Left opposition

In the fight against Stalinism, Trotsky organized the Soviet and then the International Left Opposition. He relied not only on the Marxist analysis of Stalinism, but also on the program of political revolution. To build a socialist society, it was necessary to overthrow the bureaucracy by restoring the soviets and return power to the hands of the workers.

The left demanded:

• the right to participate in the government of the country of members and representatives of the councils;
• fixed wages for all civil servants; deprivation of all persons of bureaucratic privileges;
• the replacement of the standing army by voluntary labor militias;
• democratic control and management of enterprises, the restoration of the power of peasants and workers.

The threat of fascism

A special form of counterrevolution, fascism, was born from a manifesto in 1919 in Italy and resonated throughout the world. Fascism was a mass movement of the petty bourgeois, which was threatened by social decline, i.e. artisans, farmers, small private entrepreneurs.

“This is not just a regime of repression, violence and police brutality. Fascism is a state system aimed at destroying all elements of proletarian democracy. Moreover, the matter will not be limited to the physical extermination of the working class, it requires the destruction of all independent and voluntary organizations, the destruction of all the foundations of the proletariat and the destruction of the results of three-quarters of a century of work by social democracy and trade unions ... ”(Trotsky, “What Now?” 01/27/1932)

Supporters of Stalinism, however, understood fascism as one of the varieties of capitalism and put it on a par with other bourgeois regimes, arguing that social democracy and fascism are practically identical systems to each other.

To defeat fascism, Stalin called for the creation of a "popular front" - workers' organizations under the leadership of the "bourgeois". However, by operating under such a system, the workers in Spain lost. Trotsky explained it this way: “The workers and peasants can only win if they fight for their emancipation… The actions of the proletariat under the leadership of the bourgeoisie guarantee defeat from the very beginning. ”(Trotsky, “The Spanish Doctrine”)”

Fourth International

Trotsky's struggle to build an international socialist democracy made him an enemy of both the capitalists and the Stalinists. After moving to Norway in 1935, Trotsky faced the discontent of the local authorities, who were afraid to accept Trotsky and anger Stalin. Having failed to find a common language with the government that placed him under house arrest, Trotsky moved to Mexico, but did not give up his views.

After the communist parties around the world became pure outposts of Moscow, and their treacherous role was especially clear in the victory of fascism in Germany in 1933, Trotsky and members of the International Left Opposition concluded that the working class needed a new example of opposition to capitalism. and Stalinism. In 1938 they found the Fourth International.

The founding of the Fourth International was argued by the fact that both social democratic and communist parties became obstacles in the struggle for socialism, more precisely: "The crisis of culture now is the crisis of the leadership of the proletariat." (Trotsky's "Transitional Program", founding document of the Fourth International, 1938)

“The strategic task of the period ... is to help the masses find a bridge between their present needs and the revolutionary socialist program. This bridge must consist of a system of transitional demands… always leading to the logical conclusion of the seizure of power by the proletariat” (Trotsky, “Transitional Programme”)

Trotsky's personal life

At the age of 16, Trotsky met Alexandra Sokolovskaya, whom he married in 1898. It is believed that it was Sokolovskaya, who was 6 years older than her husband, who instilled in her husband an interest in Marxism. In exile in Siberia, he and Alexandra have 2 daughters. Trotsky fled, it should be noted, with the full consent and support of his wife.

In Paris, Leon Trotsky meets Natalya Sedova, an employee of Iskra and an acquaintance of Lenin, whom he soon marries, maintaining friendly relations with his first wife. All Trotsky's children - two daughters from his first marriage and two sons from his second - died under tragic circumstances.

In 1938 Trotsky's first wife dies. His second wife, Sedova, supported her husband in all his endeavors, moving with him to Mexico after his exile. Natalya Sedova survived Trotsky by 20 years, and after her death she was buried next to her husband.

Death of Leon Trotsky

Trotsky's assassination ended the war between him and Stalin. The operation was planned for 2 whole years - that's how much it took to find Trotsky's house and infiltrate his entourage. At one of the meetings on August 20, 1940, an NKVD officer, Ramon Mercader, hit him on the head with an icebreaker. After 26 hours of desperate attempts by doctors to save him, Trotsky died, and Mercader was given 20 years in prison. Released in 1960, Mercader moved to the USSR, where he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.