Leon Trotsky Biography

Leon Trotsky was a Russian revolutionary and a communist who in the year 1917 triggered the Russian Revolution and then went ahead to form the Red army post the revolution. He was later exiled and was assassinated by the Soviets officials. According to Trotsky’s biography, his aggressive measures as a young man during the Revolutionary movement attracted multiple exiles for him out of which the first exile was to Siberia. In the year 1917, he was the one who ignited the Revolutionary movement in Russia alongside Vladimir Lenin. As he was appointed as the commissioner of the war in the new Soviet government formed for the first time in Russia he helped the forces that were under the control of Bolsheviks to win. Later as the power struggle spread between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky after the Soviet Government was formed and established in Russia that led to his final exile followed by his murder.

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Image: Illustration of Leon Trotsky portrait

Early Life of Leon Trotsky

On 7th November 1879, Leon Trotsky was born in the region of Yanovka known as Lev Davidovich that falls under Ukraine which was part of the Russian Empire back in that period. He was born to his parents named David Bronstein who was his father and Anna Bronstein who was his mother and both were wealthy farmers during that time. He was Jewish by religion.  He was enrolled in a school situated in Odessa when he was 8 years old. Later in the year 1869, he had to relocate to Nikolayev, Ukraine to complete his final year of studies at the school level. When he was in his final year of schooling in Mykolaiv, he came in contact with the marxism goals and activities that had immensely influenced Leon Trotsky’s outlook.

According to Trotsky’s biography, he later founded and established “The South Russian Workers union” in the year 1897. A year after the formation of the Union he was quickly arrested by the police and spent his initial two years in prison even before the trial started. Eventually, he was convicted as guilty and was sent to his first exile in Siberia. There he met another female co-revolutionary named Alexandra Lvovna who was also exiled to Siberia and the two eventually married one another while they were in exile. They even had two daughters in Siberia.

After serving just two years of his entire exile duration, in the year 1902, he managed to escape forging his name in one of the official papers as Leon Trotsky, a moniker he then used the rest of his life. He escaped but unfortunately his wife and children could not and remained there in exile. He then managed to escape to London, England where he came to know about the Socialist Democratic Party and soon joined the group. While serving as a member of the party he met Vladimir Lenin.

Soviet Leadership and Provisional Government

During the initial days of the formation of the Social democratic Party, a lot of conflicts arose between the leader of the party in which Leon Trotsky argued in favor of a small professional revolutionary party that played a major role in leading a large force of non-party supporters. As Trotsky tried to incorporate both the parties and the groups together into the Social Democratic Party there was an ignition of huge conflicts between the several leaders of the two fractions. Many of the popular democratic belonging to the Socialist party, like Stalin sided with Lenin. Thus slowly Trotsky became a radical element for the Party and was seen as an individual and was perceived as disloyal towards the party.

When a peaceful demonstration was carried out against the Tsar of Russia on January 22, 1905, thousands of people taking part in a non-violent march were brutally killed by the troops of Nicholas II. When Troskey heard about the incident, he quickly returned to Russia and supported the movement by taking part in it, and soon he evolved as the prime leader of the Russian movement against Tsar rule by the end of 1905. But soon the troops of the Tsar ruling eradicated the rebellion and Trotsky were arrested. But during his trial, he used the opportunity to put forward a spirited defense for himself that helped him regain the trust of the leaders and raised his popularity among the elites of the Socialist Party. But he was once again sent to Siberia in exile. But soon he escaped again and moved to Europe where he stayed undercover in many European cities like Zurich, Paris, and Vienna and he then moved to New York in the United States as well.  During his undercover days, he spent most of his time writing for Russian Revolutionary publications supporting communists like Pravda and also advocated for policies that were anti-war.

Disapproval of Provisional Government by Trotsky

In February of the year 1917 when the last Tsar ruler, Nicholas II was dethroned and was later executed with his whole family by Bolsheviks under the order of Stalin and with the uprising of Russia’s new Provisional Government, Leon Trotsky decided to return to Russia from New York but the secret police of Tsar that was also passively functional successfully convinced the British officials to arrest Trotsky and put him under detention of Helifix, Canada and so he was accordingly held in prison there. But within a month, the Russian provisional government in functioning quickly demanded the release of Trotsky and started putting pressure for the same. After a month of detention in Canada, he was finally released and he returned to Russia. But in May of 1917, after a short period of his arrival, he started noticing and pointing out the problems in the formation of post-revolutionary Russia. He even went to show his disfavor for the provisional Government of Russia and highlighted its shortcomings and inefficiency to govern a country. Alexander Kerensky, who was the first prime minister of post-revolutionary Russia perceived Trotsky as a threat and got him arrested immediately. But while he was in jail he got associated with the party that was led by Bolsheviks and was soon released from jail. He was soon offered the position of chairperson of the Petrograd Soviet and he holds a strong difference in opinion against the Provisional Government of Russia.

Trotsky saw his victory when the provisional government of Russia was thrown out by the newly formed and officially appointed Soviet Council of People’s Commissar in November of 1916. Vladimir Lenin was appointed as the chairperson of the council and Leon was appointed as the Commissar to handle foreign affairs and to establish peace with Germany. But with the increase in the demands of the German Government for the reparations and the territory, Trotsky strongly felt the need to make the German Government wait so that they could be defeated by their allies or at least they would suffer some internal revolts. But Lenin strongly felt the need to come in peace with Germany so that the Communist Party of Russia could be formed without any interruption. Thus Trotsky resigned from the post.

Formation of Red Army

When Bolsheviks became the leader of the Soviet Union, Lenin ordered the formation of the red army and made Leon Trotsky its leader. During the time of the civil war in Russia, the first task for the red army was to neutralize the White Revolution carried by the Socialists revolutionaries who were against the control of Bolsheviks. Trotsky emerged as a heroic figure once he led the army of 3 million militants and declared a win over the white revolutionary. As with the help of the red army Bolsheviks won the civil war and reassured his position as the leader of the Soviet Union in the year 1920. As the white army finally surrendered to the communist party of Russia, Lenin appointed Trotsky as the prime member of the communist party’s central committee. He clearly became the second most eminent leader of Russia after Lenin and Bolsheviks.

The Downfall of Leon Trotsky according to Leon Trotsky Biography

The Soviet government slowly shifted their strategy from war to peace with the operations during the winter season of 1920-21. But it results in an increase in internal conflicts among the leaders of the party. In this situation, Trotsky advocated for the control of the state over the trade union. He reasoned that this would help the officials to have strict control over the labor unions and help integrate relationships between the government and the wage-earners. This led to his strong criticism by Lenin and the other eminent leader came in support of Lenin. This has slowly marked Trotsky as the radical element of the party. The pressure on Lenin and the injuries that he suffered from the attempt of his assassination took a huge toll on his health. He suffered a stroke in the year 1922 and with his downfall of health, the conflict arose on who would be the next chairperson of the communist party. But Trotsky as already served as a commissioner and the leader of the red army successfully, he was seen as a strong candidate to be the next chairperson but at the same time as he offended many of the elites and the leaders of the communist party, most of the supporters of Lenin opposed his candidateship. Previously when Lenin appointed Stalin as the General Secretary oTrotsky Biography Of the Central Committee, he took the opportunity and formed allies against Trotsky for the chairmanship. By the year 1925 to 1928, Stalin with his rising power and allies in the party successfully pushed Trotsky from the committee.

Leon Trotsky Death

His health started gradually dropping and he came to know that he was under the radar of the communist party of the Soviet Union by the early months of 1940. In February, Trotsky wrote a biography of Stalin who declined all the accusations that Stalin forcefully posted on him. The release of this testament became the main cause of Leon Trotsky's death. On the evening of 20th August of 1940, he was attacked on the skull by an ice ax while he was sitting on his desk in Mexico. Ramon Marcador was appointed by the Soviet Union as an undercover to murder Leon Trotsky. By the time he was taken to the hospital he was pronounced dead. At that time he was 60 years old. For a long period of time even after his death Trotsky was discredited for his actions and was the main reason for Stalin’s hatred towards him. But in the year 2001, when the Soviet government was taken down, the reputation of Trotsky was again rebuilt.