| Leon Trotsky | |
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| In office March 13, 1918 – January 6, 1925 |
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| Deputy | Ephraim Sklyansky |
| Preceded by | Nikolai Podvoisky |
| Succeeded by | Mikhail Frunze |
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| In office November 8, 1917 – March 13, 1918 |
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| Deputy | Georgy Chicherin |
| Preceded by | Mikhail Tereshchenko |
| Succeeded by | Georgy Chicherin |
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President of the Petrograd Soviet
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| In office October 8, 1917 – November 8, 1917 |
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| Born | November 7, 1879 Kherson, Russian Empire |
| Died | August 21, 1940 (aged 60) Coyoacán, Mexico D.F, Mexico |
| Nationality | Ukrainian |
| Political party | RSDLP, SDPS, Communist Party of the Soviet Union |
| Spouse | Aleksandra Sokolovskaya, Natalia Sedova |
| Profession | Statesman, editor |
| Signature |  |
Leon Trotsky (Russian: Лeв Давидович Трóцкий , Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7 [O.S. October 26] 1879 – August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лeв Давидович Бронштéйн), was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. Events 1138 - Cardinal Gregorio Conti is elected Antipope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II. Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1066 - Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England. 1205 - Philip of Swabia becomes King Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Ephraim Markovich Sklyansky (Эфраим Маркович Склянский ( - August 27, 1925) was a Soviet statesman Nikolai Ilyich Podvoisky (Николай Ильич Подвойский ( February 4 (16 1880 - July 28, 1948) was a Russian revolutionary Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze ( Russian: Михаил Васильевич Фрунзе Romanian: Mihail Frunză; also known as Арсений Трифоныч– This page lists foreign ministers of Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Russian Federation: Heads of Posolsky Prikaz, 1549-1699 Events 1519 - Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with great a Celebration Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Events 1138 - Cardinal Gregorio Conti is elected Antipope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II. Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin (Георгий Васильевич Чичерин ( 7 July 1936) was a Marxist revolutionary and a Soviet politician Mikhail Ivanovich Tereshchenko (Михаил Иванович Терещенко ( March 18, 1886, Kiev April 1, 1956, Monaco Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin (Георгий Васильевич Чичерин ( 7 July 1936) was a Marxist revolutionary and a Soviet politician The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, usually called the Petrograd Soviet, was the soviet (workers' council in Petrograd (Saint Events 314 - Roman Emperor Licinius is defeated by his colleague Constantine I at the Battle of Cibalae, and loses Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Events 1519 - Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with great a Celebration Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Events 1492 - The Ensisheim Meteorite the oldest Meteorite with a known date of impact strikes the Earth around noon in a Wheat Year 1879 ( MDCCCLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Kherson Oblast (Херсонська область translit Khersons’ka oblast’; also referred to as Khersonshchyna - Херсонщина The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya Events 1192 - Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the De facto ruler of Japan. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Coyoacán is one of the 16 Delegaciones ' (boroughs into which Mexico 's Federal District is divided Mexico City (in Spanish: Ciudad de México, México DF, México or simply Méjico) is the Capital city of Mexico The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. The Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, or RSDLP ( Росси́йская Социа́л-Демократи́ческая Рабо́чая The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (also rendered as Socialist Party of Switzerland Sozialdemokratische Partei der Schweiz (SP Parti socialiste suisse (PS Partito Socialista Aleksandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya (Александра Львовна Соколовская (1872 - 1938? was a Russian Marxist Revolutionary and Leon Natalia Ivanovna Sedova ( April 5, 1882 &ndash January 23, 1962) is best known as the second wife of Leon Trotsky, the Russian A statesman or stateswoman or statesperson is usually a Politician or other notable figure of State who has had a long and respected career in Editing Language, Images or Sound through correction condensation organization and other modifications in various media Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Transliteration is the practice of Transcribing a Word or text written in one Writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice Events 1492 - The Ensisheim Meteorite the oldest Meteorite with a known date of impact strikes the Earth around noon in a Wheat Old Style (or OS) and New Style (or NS) are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year Year 1879 ( MDCCCLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1192 - Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the De facto ruler of Japan. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists ( Большевик Большевист (singular, derived from bolshe, "more" were a faction Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. He was one of the leaders of the Russian October Revolution, second only to Lenin. The October Revolution (Октябрьская революция Oktyabrskaya revolyutsiya) also known as the Soviet Revolution During the early days of the Soviet Union, he served first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and later as the founder and commander of the Red Army and the People's Commissar of War. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Council of Ministers of the USSR (Совет Министров СССР tr The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya He was also among the first members of the Politburo. The Politburo ( in Russian: Политбюро, full Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, abbreviated
After leading the failed struggle of the Left Opposition against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and the increasing bureaucratization of the Soviet Union, Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and deported from the Soviet Union in the Great Purge. Left communism and the Left Opposition are distinct Left communism should not be confused with the Trotskyist tendency described below Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party Great Purge (Большая чистка transliterated Bolshaya chistka) was a series of campaigns of Political repression and Persecution As the head of the Fourth International, he continued in exile to oppose the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, and was eventually assassinated in Mexico by Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent. The Fourth International ( FI) is a communist international organisation working in opposition to both Capitalism and Stalinism. Bureaucracy is the structure and set of regulations in place to control activity usually in large organizations and government The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Jaume Ramón Mercader del Río Hernández ( February 7 1914 &ndash October 18 1978) was a Catalan Communist who became [1] Trotsky's ideas form the basis of Trotskyism, a major school of Marxist thought that is opposed to the theories and practices of Stalinism. Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953
Before the 1917 Revolution
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Family and childhood (1879-1896)
Leon Trotsky was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (alternative English spelling: Bronshtein) on November 7, 1879, in Yanovka, Kherson Province of the Russian Empire (today's Ukraine), a small village 15 miles (24 km) from the nearest post office. Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. The Fourth International ( FI) is a communist international organisation working in opposition to both Capitalism and Stalinism. Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Leninism refers to various related political and economic theories elaborated by Bolshevik revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin. The October Revolution (Октябрьская революция Oktyabrskaya revolyutsiya) also known as the Soviet Revolution James Patrick Cannon (1890–1974 was an American Trotskyist Communist leader Tony Cliff ( May 20, 1917 – May 9, 2000) was a Trotskyist Revolutionary Activist. Pierre Frank (born 24 October 1905, Paris – died 18 April 1984, Paris) was a French Edward (Ted Grant ( 9 July 1913 &ndash 20 July 2006) was a South African Trotskyist Politician who spent most of his adult Joseph Leroy Hansen ( June 16, 1910 – January 18, 1979) was an American Trotskyist and leading figure in the Socialist Thomas Gerard Healy, known as Gerry Healy, ( December 3, 1913 - December 14, 1989) was a Trotskyist Activist. Cyril Lionel Robert James ( 4 January 1901 &ndash 19 May 1989) was an Afro- Trinidadian Journalist This article is about the French Trotskyist leader Pierre Lambert Boussel should not be confused with Pierre Lambert, the United Nations interpreter Livio Maitan ( April 1, 1923&mdash September 16, 2004) was an Italian Trotskyist, a leader of Associazione Bandiera Rossa Ernest Ezra Mandel, also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter etc Nahuel Moreno ( April 24, 1924 - January 25, 1987) (real name Hugo Miguel Bressano Capacete) was a Trotskyist leader from Max Shachtman ( September 10 1904 - November 4, 1972) was an American Marxist theorist This is a list of Trotskyist internationals. It includes all of the many Political internationals which self-identify as Trotskyist. The Committee for a Workers' International (CWI is an international association of Trotskyist parties The Fourth International - International Centre of Reconstruction is a " Tendency " within the Fourth International, a conglomeration of Trotskyist For the "International Committee of the Fourth International" that superseded the United Secretariat of the Fourth International in 2003 please see Reunified The International Marxist Tendency (IMT is a Trotskyist tendency based on the ideas of Ted Grant. The International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of organisations around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in the UK See also the Workers International League. The International Workers League (Fourth International or IWLfi ( Spanish: Liga Internacional The reunified Fourth International was created in 1963 by the reunification of the majorities of the two public factions of the Fourth International: the International Secretariat Orthodox Trotskyism is a branch of Trotskyism which aims to adhere more closely to the philosophy methods and positions of Trotsky and the early Fourth International The third camp, also known as third camp socialism or third camp Trotskyism, is a branch of Socialism which aims to support neither Capitalism Events 1492 - The Ensisheim Meteorite the oldest Meteorite with a known date of impact strikes the Earth around noon in a Wheat Year 1879 ( MDCCCLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Kherson Province refers to Kherson Oblast, subdivision of Ukraine Kherson Governorate, subdivision of the Russian Empire The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. He was the fifth child of a wealthy but illiterate Jewish farmer, David Leontyevich Bronstein (1847–1922) and Anna Bronstein (d. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ 1910). Although the family was ethnically Jewish, they were not religious, and the languages spoken at home were Russian and Ukrainian instead of Yiddish. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Ukrainian (in Ukrainian украї́нська мо́ва ukrayins'ka mova,) is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. Yiddish (yi [[wiktייִדיש ייִדיש]] yidish or yi [[wiktאידיש אידיש]] idish, literally "Jewish" is a nonterritorial High Trotsky's younger sister, Olga, married Lev Kamenev, a leading Bolshevik. Olga Davidovna Kameneva ( Russian: Ольга Давыдовна Каменева, 1881 - September 11, 1941 (née Bronstein, sometimes translated ( Russian: Лев Борисович Каменев born Rosenfeld, Розенфельд ( – August 25, 1936) was a Bolshevik
When Trotsky was nine, his father sent him to Odessa to be educated and he was enrolled in a historically German school, which became Russified during his years in Odessa, consequent to the Imperial government's policy of Russification. ODESSA which stands for the German phrase O rganisation d er e hemaligen SS - A ngehörigen which in turn translates The German people (Deutsche are an Ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent and speaking the German language as Russification (in Russian: русификация rusifikátsiya)is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attribute (whether voluntarily As Deutscher points out in his biography, Odessa was then a bustling cosmopolitan port city, very unlike the typical Russian city of the time. This environment contributed to the development of the young man's international outlook.
Although it is stated in his autobiography "My Life" that he was never perfectly fluent in any language but Russian and Ukrainian, Raymond Molinier wrote that Trotsky spoke French fluently. Raymond Molinier (1904-1994 was a leader of the Trotskyist movement in France prior to World War II. [2].
Revolutionary activity and exile (1896-1902)
Trotsky became involved in revolutionary activities in 1896 after moving to Nikolayev (now Mykolaiv). Mykolaiv (Миколаїв or Nikolayev (Николаев is a major City in southern Ukraine. At first a narodnik (revolutionary populist), he was introduced to Marxism later that year and was originally opposed to it. Narodniks (Народничество was the name for Russian revolutionaries of the 1860s and 1870s Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. But during periods of exile and imprisonment he gradually became a Marxist. Instead of pursuing a mathematics degree, Trotsky helped organize the South Russian Workers' Union in Nikolayev in early 1897. Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Using the name 'Lvov' [3], he wrote and printed leaflets and proclamations, distributed revolutionary pamphlets and popularized socialist ideas among industrial workers and revolutionary students.
In January 1898, over 200 members of the union, including Trotsky, were arrested, and he spent the next two years in prison awaiting trial. Two months after his imprisonment, the first Congress of the newly formed Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) was held, and from then on Trotsky considered himself a member of the party. The Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, or RSDLP ( Росси́йская Социа́л-Демократи́ческая Рабо́чая While in prison, he married fellow Marxist Aleksandra Sokolovskaya. Aleksandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya (Александра Львовна Соколовская (1872 - 1938? was a Russian Marxist Revolutionary and Leon In 1900 he was sentenced to four years in exile in Ust-Kut and Verkholensk (see map) in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, where his first two daughters, Nina Nevelson and Zinaida Volkova, were born. Ust-Kut (Усть-Кут is a town in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, situated on the river Lena. Irkutsk (Ирку́тск Эрхүү Erkhüü; Эрхүү Erkhüü) is one of the largest cities in Siberia and the administrative center of Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving Zinaida Volkova (née Bronstein Зинаида Волкова ( March 27 1901, Siberia - January 5 1933, Berlin) was a While serving his sentence he studied philosophy. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language
In Siberia Trotsky became aware of the differences within the party, which had been decimated by arrests in 1898 and 1899. Some social democrats known as "economists" argued that the party should focus on helping industrial workers improve their lot in life. Social democracy is a Political ideology of the left and centre-left Others argued that overthrowing the monarchy was more important and that a well organized and disciplined revolutionary party was essential. A monarchy is a Form of government in which supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in an individual who is the Head of state, often for life or The latter were led by the London-based newspaper Iskra, which was founded in 1900. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Iskra (Russian Искра means Spark, was a political Newspaper of Russian Socialist emigrants established as the official Trotsky quickly sided with the Iskra position.
First emigration and second marriage (1902-1903)
Trotsky escaped from Siberia in the summer of 1902. It is said he adopted the name of a jailer of the Odessa prison in which he had earlier been held[4], and this became his primary revolutionary pseudonym. Once abroad, he moved to London to join Georgy Plekhanov, Vladimir Lenin, Julius Martov and other editors of Iskra. Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (Георгий Валентинович Плеханов ( December 11, 1856 &ndash May 30, 1918; Julius Martov or L Martov ( Ма́ртов, real name Yuli Osipovich Zederbaum ( Russian Ю́лий О́сипович Цедерба́ум Iskra (Russian Искра means Spark, was a political Newspaper of Russian Socialist emigrants established as the official Under the pen name Pero ("feather" or "pen" in Russian), Trotsky soon became one of the paper's leading authors. A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a Pseudonym adopted by an Author or their publishers to conceal their identity
Unknown to Trotsky, the six editors of Iskra were evenly split between the "old guard" led by Plekhanov and the "new guard" led by Lenin and Martov. Not only were Plekhanov's supporters older (in their 40s and 50s), but they had also spent the previous 20 years in European exile together. Members of the new guard were in their early 30s and had only recently come from Russia. Lenin, who was trying to establish a permanent majority against Plekhanov within Iskra, expected Trotsky, then 23, to side with the new guard and wrote in March 1903:[5]
I suggest to all the members of the editorial board that they co-opt 'Pero' as a member of the board on the same basis as other members. [. . . ] We very much need a seventh member, both as a convenience in voting (six being an even number), and as an addition to our forces. 'Pero' has been contributing to every issue for several months now; he works in general most energetically for the Iskra; he gives lectures (in which he has been very successful). In the section of articles and notes on the events of the day, he will not only be very useful, but absolutely necessary. Unquestionably a man of rare abilities, he has conviction and energy, and he will go much farther.
Due to Plekhanov's opposition, Trotsky did not become a full member of the board, but from then on participated in its meetings in an advisory capacity, which earned him Plekhanov's enmity.
In late 1902, Trotsky met Natalia Sedova, who soon became his companion and, from 1903 until his death, his wife. Natalia Ivanovna Sedova ( April 5, 1882 &ndash January 23, 1962) is best known as the second wife of Leon Trotsky, the Russian They had two children together, Lev Sedov (b. Lev Lvovich Sedov ( Russian: Лев Львович Седов also known as Leon Sedov February 1906 - February 16, 1938) was 1906) and Sergei Sedov (b. Sergei Lvovich Sedov (1908 - 1937 was Leon Trotsky 's younger son by his second wife Natalia Sedova, and an engineer 1908). As Trotsky later explained,[6] after the 1917 revolution:
In order not to oblige my sons to change their name, I, for "citizenship" requirements, took on the name of my wife.
But the name change remained a technicality and he never used the name "Sedov" either privately or publicly. Natalia Sedova sometimes signed her name "Sedova-Trotskaya". Trotsky and his first wife, Aleksandra Sokolovskaya, maintained a friendly relationship until she disappeared in 1935 during the Great Purges. Great Purge (Большая чистка transliterated Bolshaya chistka) was a series of campaigns of Political repression and Persecution
Split with Lenin (1903-1904)
In the meantime, after a period of secret police repression and internal confusion that followed the first party Congress in 1898, Iskra succeeded in convening the party's 2nd congress in London in August 1903, Trotsky and other Iskra editors attended. The first congress went as planned, with Iskra supporters handily defeating the few "economist" delegates. Then the congress discussed the position of the Jewish Bund, which had co-founded the RSDLP in 1898 but wanted to remain autonomous within the party. In the heat of the debate, Trotsky made a controversial statement to the effect that he and eleven other non-Bund Jewish delegates who had signed an anti-Bund statement
while working in the Russian party, regarded and still do regard themselves also as representatives of the Jewish proletariat. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************
As Trotsky explained two months later, his statement was just a tactical maneuver made on Lenin's request. [7]
Shortly thereafter, pro-Iskra delegates unexpectedly split into two factions. Lenin and his supporters (known as "Bolsheviks") argued for a smaller but highly organized party. The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists ( Большевик Большевист (singular, derived from bolshe, "more" were a faction Martov and his supporters (known as "Mensheviks") argued for a larger and less disciplined party. The Mensheviks (Minority (Меньшевик) were a faction of the Russian Revolutionary movement that emerged in 1903 after a dispute between Vladimir In a surprise development, Trotsky and most of the Iskra editors supported Martov and the Mensheviks while Plekhanov supported Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
During 1903 and 1904, many members changed sides in the factions. Plekhanov soon parted ways with the Bolsheviks. Trotsky left the Mensheviks in September 1904 over their insistence on an alliance with Russian liberals and their opposition to a reconciliation with Lenin and the Bolsheviks. From then until 1917 he described himself as a "non-factional social democrat".
Trotsky spent much of his time between 1904 and 1917 trying to reconcile different groups within the party, which resulted in many clashes with Lenin and other prominent party members. Trotsky later conceded he had been wrong in opposing Lenin on the issue of the party. During these years Trotsky began developing his theory of permanent revolution, which led to a close working relationship with Alexander Parvus in 1904-1907. This article is about the theory See Permanent Revolution (group for the group of the same name and Permanent Revolution (album for the Catch 22 Alexander Parvus (Александр Парвус ( in Berezin, Russian Empire (now in Belarus)&ndash December 12, 1924 in
1905 revolution and trial (1905-1906)
After the events of Bloody Sunday (1905), Trotsky secretly returned to Russia in February 1905. For other incidents referred to by this name see Bloody Sunday. At first he wrote leaflets for an underground printing press in Kiev, but soon moved to the capital, Saint Petersburg. Kiev, also known as Kyiv ( Ukrainian:, Kyiv, ˈkɪjiw Russian:, Kiyev; see also Cities' alternative names) is the Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River There he worked with both Bolsheviks like Central Committee member Leonid Krasin, and the local Menshevik committee which he pushed in a more radical direction. The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists ( Большевик Большевист (singular, derived from bolshe, "more" were a faction Leonid Borisovich Krasin (Леонид Борисович Красин 1870 – November 24, 1926) was a Russian and Soviet Bolshevik The Mensheviks (Minority (Меньшевик) were a faction of the Russian Revolutionary movement that emerged in 1903 after a dispute between Vladimir But the latter was betrayed by a secret police agent in May, and Trotsky had to flee to rural Finland. The Grand Duchy of Finland (Magnus Ducatus Finlandiæ Великое княжество Финляндское ' Velikoe knjažestvo finljandskoe) was the Predecessor There he worked on fleshing out his theory of permanent revolution until October, when a nationwide strike made it possible for him to return to Saint Petersburg.
After returning to the capital, Trotsky and Parvus took over the newspaper Russian Gazette and increased its circulation to 500,000. Alexander Parvus (Александр Парвус ( in Berezin, Russian Empire (now in Belarus)&ndash December 12, 1924 in Trotsky also co-founded Nachalo ("The Beginning") with Parvus and the Mensheviks, which proved to be very successful.
Just before Trotsky's return, the Mensheviks had independently come up with the same idea that Trotsky had -- an elected non-party revolutionary organization representing the capital's workers, the first Soviet ("Council") of Workers. A soviet (сове́т, "council" originally was a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia. By the time of Trotsky's arrival, the Saint Petersburg Soviet was already functioning headed by Khrustalyov-Nosar (Georgy Nosar, alias Pyotr Khrustalyov), a compromise figure, and proved to be very popular with the workers in spite of the Bolsheviks' original opposition. St Petersburg Soviet of Worker's Delegates was a Workers' council, or soviet in St Trotsky joined the Soviet under the name "Yanovsky" (after the village he was born in, Yanovka) and was elected vice-Chairman. He did much of the actual work at the Soviet and, after Khrustalev-Nosar's arrest on November 26, was elected its chairman. Events 43 BC - The Second Triumvirate alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus ("Octavian" later "Caesar Augustus" On December 2, the Soviet issued a proclamation which included the following statement about the Tsarist government and its foreign debts:[8]
The autocracy never enjoyed the confidence of the people and was never granted any authority by the people. Events 1409 - The University of Leipzig opens 1755 - The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire We have therefore decided not to allow the repayment of such loans as have been made by the Czarist government when openly engaged in a war with the entire people.
The following day, December 3, the Soviet was surrounded by troops loyal to the government and the deputies were arrested. Events 1800 - War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Hohenlinden, French
Trotsky and other Soviet leaders were tried in 1906 on charges of supporting an armed rebellion. At the trial, Trotsky delivered some of the best speeches of his life and solidified his reputation as an effective public speaker, which he confirmed in 1917-1920. He was convicted and sentenced to deportation. Deportation, not to be confused with Extradition, generally means the expulsion of someone from a place or Country.
Second emigration (1907-1914)
En route to deportation to Siberia in January 1907, Trotsky escaped and once again made his way to London, where he attended the 5th Congress of the RSDLP. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. The Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, or RSDLP ( Росси́йская Социа́л-Демократи́ческая Рабо́чая In October, he moved to Vienna where he often took part in the activities of the Austrian Social Democratic Party and, occasionally, of the German Social Democratic Party, for seven years. Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( German: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, or SPÖ) is one of the oldest parties in Austria.
In Vienna, Trotsky became close to Adolph Joffe, his friend for the next 20 years, who introduced him to psychoanalysis. Adolph Abramovich Joffe ( Russian: Адольф Абрамович Иоффе alternative transliterations Adolf Ioffe or rarely Yoffe) (October 10 1883 [9] In October 1908 he started a bi-weekly Russian language Social Democratic paper aimed at Russian workers called Pravda ("Truth"), which he co-edited with Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and Victor Kopp and which was smuggled into Russia. Pravda (Правда "The Truth" was a leading Newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Matvey Ivanovich Skobelev ( Russian: Матвей Иванович Скобелев, 1885 - 1938 was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and politician The paper avoided factional politics and proved popular with Russian industrial workers. Both the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks split multiple times after the failure of the 1905-1907 revolution. When various Bolshevik and Menshevik factions tried to re-unite at the January 1910 RSDLP Central Committee meeting in Paris over Lenin's objections, Trotsky's Pravda was made a party-financed 'central organ'. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city Lev Kamenev, Trotsky's brother-in-law, was added to the editorial board from the Bolsheviks, but the unification attempts failed in August 1910 when Kamenev resigned from the board amid mutual recriminations. ( Russian: Лев Борисович Каменев born Rosenfeld, Розенфельд ( – August 25, 1936) was a Bolshevik Trotsky continued publishing Pravda for another two years until it finally folded in April 1912.
The Bolsheviks started a new workers-oriented newspaper in Saint Petersburg on April 22, 1912, and also called it Pravda. Events 1500 - Portuguese Navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral becomes the first European to sight Brazil. Year 1912 ( MCMXII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year starting Trotsky was so upset by what he saw as a usurpation of his newspaper's name that in April 1913 he wrote a letter to Nikolay Chkheidze, a Menshevik leader, bitterly denouncing Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Nikoloz Chkheidze ( Georgian: ნიკოლოზ ჩხეიძე transliterated Russian: Nikolay Semyonovich Chkheidze, commonly known Though he quickly got over the disagreement, the letter was intercepted by the police, and a copy was put into their archives. Shortly after Lenin's death in 1924, the letter was pulled out of the archives and made public by Trotsky's opponents within the Communist Party, and was used to paint him as Lenin's enemy.
This was a period of heightened tension within the RSDLP and led to numerous frictions between Trotsky, the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. The most serious disagreement that Trotsky and the Mensheviks had with Lenin at the time was over the issue of "expropriations",[10] i. e. armed robberies of banks and other companies by Bolshevik groups to procure money for the Party, which had been banned by the 5th Congress, but continued by the Bolsheviks. Robbery is the Crime of seizing Property through Violence or Intimidation.
In January 1912, the majority of the Bolshevik faction led by Lenin and a few Mensheviks held a conference in Prague and expelled their opponents from the party. Prague (ˈprɑːg Praha (ˈpraɦa see also other names) is the Capital and Largest city of the Czech Republic. In response, Trotsky organized a "unification" conference of social democratic factions in Vienna in August 1912 (a. Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. k. a. "The August Bloc") and tried to re-unite the party. The attempt was generally unsuccessful.
In Vienna, Trotsky continuously published articles in radical Russian and Ukrainian newspapers like Kievskaya Mysl under a variety of pseudonyms, often "Antid Oto". In September 1912 Kievskaya Mysl sent him to the Balkans as its war correspondent, where he covered the two Balkan Wars for the next year and became a close friend of Christian Rakovsky, later a leading Soviet politician and Trotsky's ally in the Soviet Communist Party. The Balkan Wars were two wars in South-eastern Europe in 1912–1913 in the course of which the Balkan League ( Bulgaria, Montenegro, Greece Christian Rakovsky ( – September 11, 1941) was a Bulgarian socialist revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and Soviet
On August 3, 1914, at the outbreak of World War I which pitted Austria-Hungary against the Russian empire, Trotsky was forced to flee Vienna for neutral Switzerland to avoid arrest as a Russian émigré. Events 8 - Roman Empire General Tiberius defeats Dalmatians on the river Bathinus. Year 1914 ( MCMXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Émigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out" but often carries a connotation of politico-social self- Exile.
World War I (1914-1917)
The outbreak of WWI caused a sudden realignment within the RSDLP and other European social democratic parties over the issues of war, revolution, pacifism and internationalism. Within the RSDLP, Lenin, Trotsky and Martov advocated various internationalist anti-war positions, while Plekhanov and other social democrats (both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks) supported the Russian government to some extent. For the Marxist concept of internationalism see Proletarian internationalism.
In Switzerland, Trotsky briefly worked within the Swiss Socialist Party, prompting it to adopt an internationalist resolution, and wrote a book against the war, The War and the International. The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (also rendered as Socialist Party of Switzerland Sozialdemokratische Partei der Schweiz (SP Parti socialiste suisse (PS Partito Socialista The thrust of the book was against the pro-war position taken by the European social democratic parties, primarily the German party.
Trotsky moved to France on November 19, 1914, as a war correspondent for the Kievskaya Mysl. In January 1915 he began editing (at first with Martov, who soon resigned as the paper moved to the Left) Nashe Slovo ("Our Word"), an internationalist socialist newspaper, in Paris. He adopted the slogan of "peace without indemnities or annexations, peace without conquerors or conquered", which didn't go quite as far as Lenin, who advocated Russia's defeat in the war and demanded a complete break with the Second International. The Second International (1889-1916 was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889.
Trotsky attended the Zimmerwald Conference of anti-war socialists in September 1915 and advocated a middle course between those who, like Martov, would stay within the Second International at any cost and those who, like Lenin, would break with the Second International and form a Third International. The Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 through September 8, 1915. The Comintern ( Com munist Intern ational also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organisation founded in Moscow The conference adopted the middle line proposed by Trotsky. At first opposed to it, in the end Lenin voted[11] for Trotsky's resolution to avoid a split among anti-war socialists.
In September 1916, Trotsky was deported from France to Spain for his anti-war activities. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Spanish authorities did not let him stay and he was deported to the United States on December 25, 1916. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Events 274 - Roman Emperor Aurelian Year 1916 ( MCMXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year He arrived in New York City on January 13, 1917. The City of New York Events 532 - Nika riots in Constantinople. 888 - Odo Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year In New York, he wrote articles for the local Russian language socialist newspaper Novy Mir and the Yiddish language daily Der Forverts (The Forward) in translation and made speeches to Russian émigrés. See also Novy Mir (1916 magazine Novy Mir (Новый Мир "New World" is a Russian language Literary magazine The Forward (פֿאָרווערטס Forverts) is a Jewish-American weekly Newspaper published in New York City.
Trotsky was living in New York City when the February Revolution of 1917 overthrew Tzar Nicholas II. The City of New York The February Revolution (Февральская революция in 1917 in Russia was the first stage of the Russian Revolution of 1917. He left New York on March 27, but his ship was intercepted by British naval officials in Halifax, Nova Scotia and he spent a month detained at Amherst, Nova Scotia. Events 196 BC - Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt. 1309 - Pope Clement V excommunicates The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The City of Halifax (est 1841 is the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County Nova Scotia (ˌnəʊvəˈskəʊʃə ( Latin for New Scotland; Alba Nuadh Nouvelle-Écosse is a Canadian province located on Canada 's Amherst ( 2006 population 9505 UA population 9547) is a Canadian town in northwestern Cumberland County After initial hesitation, the Russian foreign minister Pavel Milyukov was forced to demand that Trotsky be released, and the British government freed Trotsky on April 29. Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov ( Cyrillic: Павел Николаевич Милюков ( 15 January, 1859 - 31 March, 1943) a Events 1429 - Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orleans. He finally made his way back to Russia on May 4. Events 1256 - The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV
Upon his return, Trotsky was in substantive agreement with the Bolshevik position, but did not join them right away. The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists ( Большевик Большевист (singular, derived from bolshe, "more" were a faction Russian social democrats were split into at least six groups and the Bolsheviks were waiting for the next party Congress to determine which factions to merge with. Trotsky temporarily joined the Mezhraiontsy, a regional social democratic organization in Saint Petersburg, and became one of its leaders. Mezhraiontsy or Mezhraionka ( Russian: межрайонцы) usually translated as the interdistrictites (from the Russian "mezh-" At the First Congress of Soviets in June, he was elected a member of the first All-Russian Central Executive Committee ("VTsIK") from the Mezhraiontsy faction. The Congress of Soviets was the supreme governing body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union in two periods from 1917 to 1936 and The Supreme Soviet of the USSR (Верхо́вный Сове́т СССР Verkhóvnyj Sovét SSSR) was the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union in
After an unsuccessful pro-Bolshevik uprising in Petrograd, Trotsky was arrested on August 7, 1917, but was released 40 days later in the aftermath of the failed counter-revolutionary uprising by Lavr Kornilov. Events 322 BC - Battle of Crannon between Athens and Macedon following the death of Alexander the Great. Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The Kornilov Affair (Russian Корниловщина Kornilovshchina) was a confused struggle between Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army General Lavr After the Bolsheviks gained a majority in the Petrograd Soviet, Trotsky was elected Chairman on October 8. The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, usually called the Petrograd Soviet, was the soviet (workers' council in Petrograd (Saint Events 314 - Roman Emperor Licinius is defeated by his colleague Constantine I at the Battle of Cibalae, and loses He sided with Lenin against Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev when the Bolshevik Central Committee discussed staging an armed uprising and he led the efforts to overthrow the Provisional Government headed by Aleksandr Kerensky. Gregory Yevseevich Zinoviev (Григо́рий Евс́еевич Зин́овьев alternative transliteration Grigorii Ovseyevish Zinoviev born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich ( Russian: Лев Борисович Каменев born Rosenfeld, Розенфельд ( – August 25, 1936) was a Bolshevik The Russian Provisional Government was formed in Petrograd in 1917 after the February Revolution and the Abdication Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky (Алекса́ндр Фёдорович Ке́ренский Aleksandr Fjëdorovich Kerenskij) ( June 11, 1970) served
The following summary of Trotsky's Role in 1917 was written by Stalin in Pravda, November 6, 1918. Events 355 - Roman Emperor Constantius II promotes his cousin Julian to the rank of Caesar, entrusting him with Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common (Although this passage was quoted in Stalin's book "The October Revolution" issued in 1934, it was expunged in Stalin's Works released in 1949. )
All practical work in connection with the organization of the uprising was done under the immediate direction of Comrade Trotsky, the President of the Petrograd Soviet. It can be stated with certainty that the Party is indebted primarily and principally to Comrade Trotsky for the rapid going over of the garrison to the side of the Soviet and the efficient manner in which the work of the Military Revolutionary Committee was organized. Military Revolutionary Committee also known as the Milrevcom (Военно-революционный комитет военревком ВРК was the name for military
After the success of the uprising on 7-8 November, Trotsky led the efforts to repel a counter-attack by Cossacks under General Pyotr Krasnov and other troops still loyal to the overthrown Provisional Government at Gatchina. Kerensky-Krasnov uprising is the term used in Soviet historiography to denote an attempt of Alexander Kerensky to retake power from Bolsheviks. The Cossacks (Каза́ки́ Kazaki; Козаки́ Kozaki; Kozacy are a group of martial people living in the southern Steppe regions of Eastern Pyotr Nikolayevich Krasnov ( Петр Николаевич Краснов in Russian) ( September 22 (10 old style) 1869 — January 17 Gatchina (Га́тчина is a city in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located 45 km south of St Allied with Lenin, he successfully defeated attempts by other Bolshevik Central Committee members (Zinoviev, Kamenev, Alexei Rykov, etc) to share power with other socialist parties. Alexei Ivanovich Rykov ( Russian: Алексей Иванович Рыков Aleksej Ivanovič Rykov; March 15 1938 was a Russian Marxist
By the end of 1917, Trotsky was unquestionably the second man in the Bolshevik Party after Lenin, overshadowing the ambitious Zinoviev, who had been Lenin's top lieutenant over the previous decade, but whose star appeared to be fading. This turnaround led to enmity between the two Bolshevik leaders which lasted until 1926 and did much to destroy them both.
After the Russian Revolution
Commissar for Foreign Affairs and Brest-Litovsk (1917-1918)
After the Bolsheviks came to power, Trotsky became the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and published the secret treaties previously signed by the Triple Entente that detailed plans for post-war reallocation of colonies and redrawing state borders. Council of Ministers of the USSR (Совет Министров СССР tr The Triple Entente (" entente " — French for "agreement" was the name given to the loose alignment of the United Kingdom, the
Trotsky led the Soviet delegation during the peace negotiations in Brest-Litovsk from December 22, 1917 to February 10, 1918. Events 1790 - The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Events 1355 - The St Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common At that time the Soviet government was split on the issue. Left Communists, led by Nikolai Bukharin, continued to believe that there could be no peace between a Soviet republic and a capitalist country and that only a revolutionary war leading to a pan-European Soviet republic would bring a durable peace. Left communism is the range of communist viewpoints held by the Communist Left, which opposes the political ideas of the Bolsheviks Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин ( &ndash March 15, 1938) was a Bolshevik Capitalism is the Economic system in which the Means of production are owned by private Persons and operated for Profit and where They cited the successes of the newly formed (January 15, 1918) voluntary Red Army against Polish forces of Gen. Events 588 BC - Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah 's reign Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki in Belarus, White forces in the Don region, and newly independent Ukrainian forces as proof that the Red Army could repel German forces, especially if propaganda and asymmetrical warfare were used. Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki ( Iosif Romanovich while in the Russian military sometimes also Dowbór-Muśnicki; Belarus ( Belarusian Беларусь / Biełaruś is a Landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east The White movement (Beloie Dvijenie Белое движение whose military arm is known as the White Army (Belaia Armia Белая Армия or White Guard The Don (Дон is one of the major rivers of Russia. It rises in the town of Novomoskovsk 60 Kilometres southeast from Tula, southeast Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people Asymmetric warfare originally referred to War between two or more belligerents whose relative military power differs significantly They did not mind holding talks with the Germans as a means of exposing German imperial ambitions (territorial gains, reparations, etc) in hopes of accelerating the hoped−for Soviet revolution in the West, but they were dead set against signing any peace treaty. War reparations refer to the monetary compensation intended to cover damage or injury during a war In case of a German ultimatum, they advocated proclaiming a revolutionary war against Germany in order to inspire Russian and European workers to fight for socialism. This opinion was shared by Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who were then the Bolsheviks' junior partners in a coalition government. Not to be confused with Left Socialists (Denmark Left Socialist Party (Sweden and Left Socialist Party (Belgium.
Lenin, who had earlier hoped for a speedy Soviet revolution in Germany and other parts of Europe, quickly decided that the imperial government of Germany was still firmly in control and that, without a strong Russian military, an armed conflict with Germany would lead to a collapse of the Soviet government in Russia. He agreed with the Left Communists that ultimately a pan-European Soviet revolution would solve all problems, but until then the Bolsheviks had to stay in power. Lenin did not mind prolonging the negotiating process for maximum propaganda effect, but, from January 1918 on, advocated signing a separate peace treaty if faced with a German ultimatum.
Trotsky's position was between these two Bolshevik factions. Like Lenin, he admitted that the old Russian military, inherited from the monarchy and the Provisional Government and in advanced stages of decomposition, was unable to fight:[12]
That we could no longer fight was perfectly clear to me and that the newly formed Red Guard and Red Army detachments were too small and poorly trained to resist the Germans.
But he agreed with the Left Communists that a separate peace treaty with an imperialist power would be a terrible moral and material blow to the Soviet government, negate all its military and political successes of 1917 and 1918, resurrect the notion that the Bolsheviks secretly allied with the German government, and cause an upsurge of internal resistance. He argued that any German ultimatum should be refused, and that this may well lead to an uprising in Germany, or at least inspire German soldiers to disobey their officers since any German offensive would be a naked grab for territories. He wrote in 1925:[13]
We began peace negotiations in the hope of arousing the workmen's party of Germany and Austria-Hungary as well as of the Entente countries. For this reason we were obliged to delay the negotiations as long as possible to give the European workman time to understand the main fact of the Soviet revolution itself and particularly its peace policy. But there was the other question: Can the Germans still fight? Are they in a position to begin an attack on the revolution that will explain the cessation of the war? How can we find out the state of mind of the German soldiers, how to fathom it?
Throughout January and February of 1918, Lenin's position was supported by 7 members of the Bolshevik Central Committee and Bukharin's by 4. Trotsky had 4 votes (his own, Felix Dzerzhinsky's, Nikolai Krestinsky's and Adolph Joffe's) and, since he held the balance of power, he was able to pursue his policy in Brest-Litovsk. Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky ( Polish: Feliks Edmundowicz Dzierżyński, Russian: Феликс Эдмундович Дзержинский Belarusian Nikolai Nikolaevich Krestinsky ( Николай Николаевич Крестинский) ( October 13, 1883 - March 15, 1938) was Adolph Abramovich Joffe ( Russian: Адольф Абрамович Иоффе alternative transliterations Adolf Ioffe or rarely Yoffe) (October 10 1883 When he could no longer delay the negotiations, he withdrew from the talks on February 10, 1918, refusing to sign on Germany's harsh terms. Events 1355 - The St Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common After a brief hiatus, the Central Powers notified the Soviet government that they would no longer observe the truce after February 17. The Central Powers ( German: "Mittelmächte" Hungarian: "Központi hatalmak" Turkish: "İttifak Events 1500 - Battle of Hemmingstedt. 1600 - Philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive at Campo de' Fiori At this point Lenin again argued that the Soviet government had done all it could to explain its position to Western workers and that it was time to accept the terms. Trotsky refused to support Lenin since he was waiting to see whether German workers would rebel and whether German soldiers would refuse to follow orders.
Germany resumed military operations on February 18. Events 3102 BC - Epoch (origin of the Kali Yuga. 1229 - The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II Holy Within a day, it became clear that the German army was capable of conducting offensive operations and that Red Army detachments, which were relatively small, poorly organized and poorly led, were no match for it. In the evening of February 18, 1918, Trotsky and his supporters in the committee abstained and Lenin's proposal was accepted 7-4. Events 3102 BC - Epoch (origin of the Kali Yuga. 1229 - The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II Holy Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Soviet government sent a telegram to the German side accepting the final Brest-Litovsk peace terms.
Germany did not respond for three days, and continued its offensive encountering little resistance. The response arrived on February 21, but the proposed terms were so harsh that even Lenin briefly thought that the Soviet government had no choice but to fight. Events 362 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria. 1245 - Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland But in the end, the committee again voted 7-4 on February 23, 1918; the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3 and ratified on March 15, 1918. Events 1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western Book printed from Movable Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Not to be confused with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (February 9 1918, a similar treaty involving Ukraine and the Central Powers. Events 1284 - Statute of Rhuddlan incorporated the Principality of Wales into England 1575 - Indian Events 44 BC - Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Since he was so closely associated with the policy previously followed by the Soviet delegation at Brest-Litovsk, Trotsky resigned from his position as Commissar for Foreign Affairs in order to remove a potential obstacle to the new policy.
Head of the Red Army (spring 1918)
The failure of the recently formed Red Army to resist the German offensive in February 1918 revealed its weaknesses: insufficient numbers, lack of knowledgeable officers, and near absence of coordination and subordination. Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River Celebrated and feared Baltic Fleet sailors, one of the bastions of the new regime led by Pavel Dybenko, shamefully fled from the German army at Narva. The Twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet - (Дважды Краснознамённый Балтийский флот was the Imperial later Soviet and is now the Russian Navy's Pavel Yefimovich Dybenko (Павел Ефимович Дыбенко ( February 16, 1889 – July 29, 1938) was a Russian revolutionary Narva is the third largest City in Estonia. It is located at the eastern extreme point of Estonia, by the Russian border on the Narva The notion that the Soviet state could have an effective voluntary or militia type military was seriously undermined. The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary Citizens to provide defense emergency law enforcement or Paramilitary service
Trotsky was one of the first Bolshevik leaders to recognize the problem and he pushed for the formation of a military council of former Russian generals that would function as an advisory body. Lenin and the Bolshevik Central Committee agreed on March 4 to create the Supreme Military Council, headed by former chief of the imperial General Staff Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich. Events 51 - Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title Princeps iuventutis (head of the youth The Supreme Military Council was an ad hoc political party established in Ghana after a coup lasting from 1975 to 1979 Mikhail Dmitrievich Bonch-Bruevich (Михаил Дмитриевич Бонч-Бруевич 1870&mdashAugust 1956 was an Imperial Russian and Soviet military commander But the entire Bolshevik leadership of the Red Army, including People's Commissar (defense minister) Nikolai Podvoisky and commander-in-chief Nikolai Krylenko, protested vigorously and eventually resigned. Nikolai Ilyich Podvoisky (Николай Ильич Подвойский ( February 4 (16 1880 - July 28, 1948) was a Russian revolutionary Nikolai Vasilyevich Krylenko (Николай Васильевич Крыленко ( May 2 1885, Bekhteevo (Бехтеево Smolensk region They believed that the Red Army should consist only of dedicated revolutionaries, rely on propaganda and force, and have elected officers. They viewed former imperial officers and generals as potential traitors who should be kept out of the new military, much less put in charge of it. Their views continued to be popular with many Bolsheviks throughout most of the Russian Civil War and their supporters, including Podvoisky, who became one of Trotsky's deputies, were a constant thorn in Trotsky's side. The Russian Civil War (1917–1923 was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed The discontent with Trotsky's policies of strict discipline, conscription and reliance on carefully supervised non-Communist military experts eventually led to the Military Opposition, which was active within the Communist Party in late 1918-1919.
On March 13, 1918 Trotsky's resignation as Commissar for Foreign Affairs was officially accepted and he was appointed People's Commissar of Army and Navy Affairs - in place of Podvoisky - and chairman of the Supreme Military Council. Events 1138 - Cardinal Gregorio Conti is elected Antipope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II. Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The post of commander-in-chief was abolished, and Trotsky gained full control of the Red Army, responsible only to the Communist Party leadership, whose Left Socialist Revolutionary allies had left the government over Brest-Litovsk. With the help of his faithful deputy Ephraim Sklyansky, Trotsky spent the rest of the Civil War transforming the Red Army from a ragtag network of small and fiercely independent detachments into a large and disciplined military machine, through forced conscription, party controlled blocking squads, compulsory obedience and officers chosen by the leadership instead of the rank and file. Ephraim Markovich Sklyansky (Эфраим Маркович Склянский ( - August 27, 1925) was a Soviet statesman He defended these positions throughout his life.
Civil War (1918-1920)
1918
Trotsky's managerial and organization-building skills with the Soviet military were soon tested in many ways. The Russian Civil War (1917–1923 was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed In May-June 1918, the Czechoslovak Legions en route from European Russia to Vladivostok rose against the Soviet government. Czechoslovak Legions ( Československé legie in Czech and Slovak were Czech and Slovak volunteer armed forces fighting together with the Entente powers Vladivostok ( is Russia 's largest port city on the Pacific Ocean and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai. This left the Bolsheviks with the loss of most of the country's territory, an increasingly well-organized resistance by Russian anti-Communist forces (usually referred to as the White Army after their best known component) and widespread defection by the military experts that Trotsky relied on. The White movement (Beloie Dvijenie Белое движение whose military arm is known as the White Army (Belaia Armia Белая Армия or White Guard
Trotsky and the government responded with a full-fledged mobilization, which increased the size of the Red Army from less than 300,000 in May 1918 to one million in October, and an introduction of political commissars into the army. This article describes military mobilization For other meanings see Mobilization (disambiguation. A political commissar, or politruk, is an officer appointed by a government to oversee a unit of the military The latter were responsible for ensuring the loyalty of military experts (who were mostly former officers in the imperial army) and co-signing their orders.
Facing military defeats in mid-1918, Trotsky introduced increasingly severe penalties for desertion, insubordination, and retreat. As he later wrote in his autobiography:[14]
An army cannot be built without reprisals. Masses of men cannot be led to death unless the army command has the death-penalty in its arsenal. So long as those malicious tailless apes that are so proud of their technical achievements—the animals that we call men—will build armies and wage wars, the command will always be obliged to place the soldiers between the possible death in the front and the inevitable one in the rear. And yet armies are not built on fear. The Czar’s army fell to pieces not because of any lack of reprisals. In his attempt to save it by restoring the death-penalty, Kerensky only finished it. Upon the ashes of the great war, the Bolsheviks created a new army. These facts demand no explanation for any one who has even the slightest knowledge of the language of history. The strongest cement in the new army was the ideas of the October revolution, and the train supplied the front with this cement.
Reprisals included the death penalty for deserters and traitors, and the use of former officers' families as hostages against possible defections:
[. Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security . . ]I ordered you to establish the family status of former officers among command personnel and to inform each of them by signed receipt that treachery or treason will cause the arrest of their families and that, therefore, they are each taking upon themselves responsibility for their families. That order is still in force. Since then there have been a number of cases of treason by former officers, yet not in a single case, as far as I know, has the family of the traitor been arrested, as the registration of former officers has evidently not been carried out at all. Such a negligent approach to so important a matter is totally impermissible. [15]
Trotsky also threatened to execute unit commanders and commissars whose units either deserted or retreated without permission. (Trotsky later argued that these threats were either taken out of context or were used to scare his subordinates into action and were not necessarily meant to be carried out. ) Since Red Army commissars were often prominent Bolsheviks, it sometimes led to clashes between them and Trotsky.
Trotsky continued to insist that former officers should be used as military experts within the Red Army and, in the summer of 1918, was able to convince Lenin and the Bolshevik leadership not only to continue the policy in the face of mass defections, but also give these experts more direct operational control of the military. In this he differed sharply from Stalin who was, from May through October 1918, the top commissar in the South of Russia. Stalin and his future defense minister, Kliment Voroshilov, went so far as to refuse to accept former general Andrei Snesarev who had been sent to them by Trotsky. (Климе́нт Ефре́мович Вороши́лов Kliment Efremovič Vorošilov, Климент Єфремович Ворошилов popularly known as Klim Voroshilov Stalin's stubborn opposition to Trotsky's military policies foreshadowed a continuing acute conflict between the two Bolsheviks over the policies and direction of the Soviet Union, culminating 10 years later in Trotsky's expulsion from the Soviet Union and then his assassination.
In September 1918, the government, facing continuous military difficulties, declared what amounted to martial law and reorganized the Red Army. The Supreme Military Council was abolished and the position of commander-in-chief was restored, filled by the commander of the Red Latvian Rifleman Ioakim Vatsetis (aka Jukums Vācietis), who had formerly led the Eastern Front against the Czechoslovak Legions. A commander-in-chief is the Commander of a nation's Military forces or significant element of those forces Latvian riflemen (Latviešu strēlnieki Латышские стрелки were military formations assembled starting 1915 in Latvia in order to defend Baltic territories Jukums Vācietis ( November 11, 1873 – July 28, 1938) (Иоаким Иоакимович Вацетис Ioakim Ioakimovich Vatsetis Vatsetis was put in charge of day-to-day operations of the army while Trotsky became chairman of the newly formed Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic and retained overall control of the military. Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic or Revvoyensoviet ( Революционный Военный Совет, Реввоенсовет; also Trotsky and Vatsetis had clashed earlier in 1918 while Vatsetis and Trotsky's adviser Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich were also on unfriendly terms. Nevertheless, Trotsky eventually established a working relationship with the often prickly Vatsetis.
The reorganization caused yet another conflict between Trotsky and Stalin in late September. Trotsky appointed former imperial general Pavel Sytin to command the Southern Front, but in early October 1918 Stalin refused to accept him and so was recalled from the front. Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov tried to make Trotsky and Stalin reconcile, but their meeting was unsuccessful. Yakov Mikhaylovich Sverdlov ( Russian Я́ков Миха́йлович Свердло́в known under pseudonyms "Andrei" "Mikhalych" "Max"
1919
Throughout late 1918 and early 1919, there were a number of attacks on Trotsky's leadership of the Red Army, including veiled accusations in newspaper articles inspired by Stalin and a direct attack by the Military Opposition at the VIIIth Party Congress in March 1919. On the surface, he weathered them successfully and was elected one of only five full members of the first Politburo after the Congress. Politburo, short for Political Bureau, Russian Politicheskoye Buro, is the executive organization for a number of Political parties, most notably But he later wrote:[16]
It is no wonder that my military work created so many enemies for me. I did not look to the side, I elbowed away those who interfered with military success, or in the haste of the work trod on the toes of the unheeding and was too busy even to apologize. Some people remember such things. The dissatisfied and those whose feelings had been hurt found their way to Stalin or Zinoviev, for these two also nourished hurts.
In mid-1919 the dissatisfied had an opportunity to mount a serious challenge to Trotsky's leadership. The Red Army had defeated the White Army's spring offensive in the east and was about to cross the Ural mountains and enter Siberia in pursuit of Admiral Alexander Kolchak's forces. Aleksandr Vasiliyevich Kolchak (Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Колча́к &ndash February 7, 1920) was a Russian naval commander But in the south, General Anton Denikin's White Russian forces advanced, and the situation deteriorated rapidly. Anton Ivanovich Denikin (Анто́н Ива́нович Дени́кин ( December 16, 1872 – August 8, 1947) was Lieutenant General On June 6 commander-in-chief Vatsetis ordered the Eastern Front to stop the offensive so that he could use its forces in the south. Events 1508 - Maximilian I Holy Roman Emperor, is defeated in Friulia by Venetian forces; he is forced to sign a three-year But the leadership of the Eastern Front, including its commander Sergei Kamenev(not to be confused with Lev Kamenev), and Eastern Front Revolutionary Military Council members Ivar Smilga, Mikhail Lashevich and Sergei Gusev vigorously protested and wanted to keep emphasis on the Eastern Front. Sergei Sergeyevich Kamenev ( Russian: Сергей Сергеевич Каменев) ( April 4 (16 1881 Kiev - August 25, 1936 Ivar Tenisovich Smilga (Ивар Тенисович Смилга Ivars Smilga (1892-1937 or 1938 was a Bolshevik Revolutionary leader in and member of the Sergei Gusev (born July 31, 1975 in Nizhniy Tagil, Russia) is a professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League They insisted that it was vital to capture Siberia before the onset of winter and that once Kolchak's forces were broken, many more divisions would be freed up for the Southern Front. Trotsky, who had earlier had conflicts with the leadership of the Eastern Front, including a temporary removal of Kamenev in May 1919, supported Vatsetis.
At the 3-4 July Central Committee meeting, after a heated exchange the majority supported Kamenev and Smilga against Vatsetis and Trotsky. Trotsky's plan was rejected and he was much criticized for various alleged shortcomings in his leadership style, much of it of a personal nature. Stalin used this opportunity to pressure Lenin[17] to dismiss Trotsky from his post. But when, on July 5, Trotsky offered his resignation, the Politburo and the Orgburo of the Central Committee unanimously rejected it. Events 1295 - Scotland and France form an alliance the beginnings of the Auld Alliance, against England. The Organizational Bureau (Orgburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union existed from 1919 to 1952 until the 19th Congress when the
Yet, a number of significant changes to the leadership of the Red Army were made. Trotsky was temporarily sent to the Southern Front, while the work in Moscow was informally coordinated by Smilga. Most members of the bloated Revolutionary Military Council who were not involved in its day to day operations, were relieved of their duties on July 8, while new members including Smilga were added. Events 939 - The Major Occultation or Ghaybat el-Kubra of Muhammad al-Mahdi 1099 - First Crusade: 15000 The same day, while Trotsky was already in the south, Vatsetis was suddenly arrested by the Cheka on suspicion of involvement in an anti-Soviet plot, and replaced by Sergei Kamenev. The Cheka ( ЧК - чрезвычайная комиссия Chrezvychaynaya Komissiya,) was the first of a succession of Soviet State security
After a few weeks in the south, Trotsky returned to Moscow and resumed control of the Red Army. A year later, Smilga and Tukhachevsky were defeated during the Miracle at the Vistula, but Trotsky refused this opportunity to pay Smilga back, which earned him Smilga's friendship and later support during the intra-Party battles of the 1920s. Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky (Михаи́л Никола́евич Тухаче́вский Michał Tuchaczewski ( &ndash June 12, 1937) was a The Battle of Warsaw (Russian Варшáвское сражéние Polish: Bitwa Warszawska sometimes referred to as the Miracle at the Vistula, Polish [18]
By October 1919 the government was in the worst crisis of the Civil War: Denikin's troops approached Tula and Moscow from the south, and General Nikolay Yudenich's troops approached Petrograd from the west. Anton Ivanovich Denikin (Анто́н Ива́нович Дени́кин ( December 16, 1872 – August 8, 1947) was Lieutenant General Tula (Ту́ла is an industrial city in the European part of Russia, located 193 km south of Moscow, on the river Upa. Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River Lenin decided that since it was more important to defend Moscow, Petrograd would have to be abandoned. Trotsky argued[19] that Petrograd needed to be defended, at least in part to prevent Estonia and Finland from intervening. Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia ( Eesti or Eesti Vabariik) is a Country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region Finland, officially the Republic of Finland ( is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. In a rare reversal, Trotsky was supported by Stalin and Zinoviev and prevailed against Lenin in the Central Committee. He immediately went to Petrograd, whose leadership headed by Zinoviev he found demoralized, and organized its defense, sometimes personally stopping fleeing soldiers. By October 22 the Red Army was on the offensive and in early November Yudenich's troops were driven back to Estonia, where they were disarmed and interned. Events 202 BC - Hannibal Barca, leader of the Carthaginians, is defeated by the Roman legions under Scipio Africanus Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia ( Eesti or Eesti Vabariik) is a Country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region Trotsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his actions in Petrograd. Recipients The order was awarded to individuals as well as whole formations who then
1920
With the defeat of Denikin and Yudenich in late 1919, the Soviet government's emphasis shifted to economic work and Trotsky spent the winter of 1919-1920 in the Urals region trying to re-start its economy. Riphean redirects here For the time period see Riphean stage The Ural Mountains (Ура́льские го́ры Uralskiye Based on his experiences there, he proposed abandoning the policies of War Communism,[20] which included confiscating grain from peasants, and partially restoring the grain market. War communism (or military communism) (Военный коммунизм 1918 - 1921 is the term created by western historians referring to the economic and political system But Lenin was still committed to War Communism and the proposal was rejected. Instead, Trotsky was put in charge of the country's railroads (while retaining overall control of the Red Army), which he tried to militarize in the spirit of War Communism. It wasn't until early 1921 that economic collapse and uprisings would force Lenin and the rest of the Bolshevik leadership to abandon War Communism in favor of the New Economic Policy. For the Malaysian New Economic Policy see Malaysian New Economic Policy.
Meanwhile, in early 1920 Soviet-Polish tensions eventually led to the Polish-Soviet War. In the run-up and during the war, Trotsky argued[21] that the Red Army was exhausted and the Soviet government should sign a peace treaty with Poland as soon as possible. He also did not believe that the Red Army would find much support in Poland proper. Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders thought that the Red Army's successes in the Russian Civil War and against the Poles meant that, as Lenin said later:[22]
The defensive period of the war with worldwide imperialism was over, and we could, and had the obligation to, exploit the military situation to launch an offensive war.
But the Red Army offensive was turned back during the Battle of Warsaw in August 1920, in part because of Stalin's failure to obey Trotsky's orders in the run-up to the decisive engagements. The Battle of Warsaw (Russian Варшáвское сражéние Polish: Bitwa Warszawska sometimes referred to as the Miracle at the Vistula, Polish Back in Moscow, Trotsky again argued for a peace treaty and this time prevailed.
Trade union debate (1920-1921)
In late 1920, after the Bolsheviks won the Civil War and before the Eighth and Ninth Congress of Soviets, the Communist Party had a heated and increasingly acrimonious debate over the role of trade unions in the Soviet state. A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming The discussion split the party into many "platforms" (factions), including Lenin's, Trotsky's and Bukharin's; Bukharin eventually merged his with Trotsky's. Smaller, more radical factions like the Workers' Opposition (headed by Alexander Shlyapnikov) and the Group of Democratic Centralism were particularly active. The Workers' Opposition (Рабочая оппозиция was a faction of the Russian Communist Party that emerged in 1920 as a response to the perceived over-bureaucratisation Alexander Gavrilovich Shliapnikov (also spelt Shlyapnikov (Александр Гаврилович Шляпников ( August 30, 1885, Murom - September 2 The Group of Democratic Centralism, sometimes called the Group of 15 was a dissenting faction within the Soviet Communist Party in the early 1920s.
Trotsky's position formed while he led a special commission on the Soviet transportation system, Tsektran. He was appointed there to rebuild the rail system ruined by the Civil War. Being the Commissar of War and a revolutionary military leader, he saw a need to create a militarized "production atmosphere" by incorporating trade unions directly into the State apparatus. A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming His unyielding stance was that in a worker's state the workers should have nothing to fear from the state, and the State should fully control the unions. In the Ninth Party Congress he argued for "such a regime under which each worker feels himself to be a soldier of labor who cannot freely dispose of himself; if he is ordered transferred, he must execute that order; if he does not do so, he will be a deserter who should be punished. Who will execute this? The trade union. It will create a new regime. That is the militarization of the working class. "
Lenin sharply criticised Trotsky and accused him of "bureaucratically nagging the trade unions" and of staging "factional attacks. " His view did not focus on State control as much as the concern that a new relationship was needed between the State and the rank-and-file workers. He said, "Introduction of genuine labor discipline is conceived only if the whole mass of participants in productions take a conscious part in the fulfillment of these tasks. This cannot be achieved by bureaucratic methods and orders from above. " This was a debate that Lenin thought the party could not afford. His frustration with Trotsky was used by Stalin and Zinoviev with their support for Lenin's position, to improve their standing within the Bolshevik leadership at Trotsky's expense.
Disagreements threatened to get out of hand and many Bolsheviks, including Lenin, feared that the party would splinter. The Central Committee was split almost evenly between Lenin's and Trotsky's supporters, with all three Secretaries of the Central Committee (Krestinky, Yevgeny Preobrazhensky and Leonid Serebryakov) supporting Trotsky. Yevgeni Alekseyevich Preobrazhensky (Евгений Алексеевич Преображенский (1886-1937 was an Old Bolshevik, an Economist and a member
At a meeting of his faction at the Tenth Party Congress in March 1921, Lenin's faction won a decisive victory and a number of Trotsky's supporters (including all three secretaries of the Central Committee) lost their leadership positions. Krestinsky was replaced as a member of the Politburo by Zinoviev, who had supported Lenin. Krestinsky's place in the secretariat was taken by Vyacheslav Molotov. Molotov redirects here For other uses see Molotov (disambiguation. The congress also adopted a secret resolution on "Party unity", which banned factions within the Party except during pre-Congress discussions. The resolution was later published and used by Stalin against Trotsky and other opponents.
At the end of the Tenth Congress, after peace negotiations had failed, Trotsky gave the order for the suppression of the Kronstadt Rebellion, the last major revolt against Bolshevik rule. This article is about the historical event known as the Kronstadt rebellion [23] Years later, Anarchist Emma Goldman and others criticized Trotsky's actions as Commissar for War for his role in the suppression of the rebellion, and argued that he ordered unjustified incarcerations and executions of political opponents such as anarchists, although Trotsky did not participate in the actual suppression. Anarchism is a Political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which support the elimination of all compulsory Government, i Emma Goldman (June 27 1869 – May 14 1940 was an anarchist known for her political activism writing and speeches [24][25] The claim that the Kronstadt rebels were counterrevolutionary has been supported by evidence of White army and French government support for the Kronstadt sailors' March rebellion,[26] though such evidence has been called into question. [27]
Fall from power (1922-1928)
Lenin's illness (1922-1923)
In late 1921 Lenin's health deteriorated. He was absent from Moscow for even longer periods, and eventually had three strokes between May 26, 1922 and March 10, 1923, which caused paralysis, loss of speech and finally death on January 21, 1924. Events 451 - The Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sassanid Empire takes place Year 1922 ( MCMXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 241 BC - First Punic War: Battle of the Aegates Islands - The Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet bringing Year 1923 ( MCMXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1189 - Philip II of France and Richard I of England begin to assemble troops to wage the Third Crusade. Year 1924 ( MCMXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. With Lenin increasingly sidelined throughout 1922, Stalin (elevated to the newly created position of the Central Committee General Secretary[28] earlier in the year), Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev [29] formed a political alliance known as the troika (triumvirate). The General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( First Secretary in 1953-1966 was the title synonymous with leader of the Soviet Union after ( Russian: Лев Борисович Каменев born Rosenfeld, Розенфельд ( – August 25, 1936) was a Bolshevik
The rest of the recently expanded Politburo (Rykov, Mikhail Tomsky, Bukharin) was at first uncommitted, but eventually joined the troika. Mikhail Pavlovich Tomsky (born Efremov, sometimes transliterated as Yefremov, October 31 1880 – August 22, [30]
Stalin's power of patronage in his capacity as General Secretary clearly played a role, but Trotsky and his supporters later concluded that a more fundamental reason was the process of slow bureaucratization of the Soviet regime once the extreme conditions of the Civil War were over; much of the Bolshevik elite wanted 'normalcy' while Trotsky was personally and politically personified as representing a turbulent revolutionary period that they would much rather leave behind.
Although the exact sequence of events is unclear, evidence suggests that at first the troika nominated Trotsky to head second rate government departments (e. g. , Gokhran, the State Depository for Valuables[31]) and then, when Trotsky predictably refused, they tried to use it as an excuse to oust him.
When, in mid-July 1922, Kamenev wrote a letter to the recovering Lenin to the effect that "(the Central Committee) is throwing or is ready to throw a good cannon overboard", Lenin was shocked and responded:[32]
Throwing Trotsky overboard - surely you are hinting at that, it is impossible to interpret it otherwise - is the height of stupidity. If you do not consider me already hopelessly foolish, how can you think of that????
From then until his final stroke, Lenin spent much of his time trying to devise a way to prevent a split within the Communist Party leadership, which was reflected in Lenin's Testament. Lenin's Testament is the name given to a document written by Vladimir Lenin in the last weeks of 1922 and the first week of 1923 As part of this effort, on September 11, 1922 Lenin proposed that Trotsky become his deputy at the Sovnarkom. Events 9 - The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ends 506 - The Bishops of Visigothic Gaul Year 1922 ( MCMXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Council of Ministers of the USSR (Совет Министров СССР tr The Politburo approved the proposal, but Trotsky "categorically refused". [33]
In late 1922, Lenin's relationship with Stalin deteriorated over Stalin's heavy-handed and chauvinistic handling of the issue of merging Soviet republics into one federal state, the USSR. Chauvinism (ˈʃoʊvɨnɪzəm is extreme and unreasoning Partisanship on behalf of a group to which one belongs especially when the partisanship includes malice and hatred The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 At that point, according to Trotsky's autobiography,[34] Lenin offered Trotsky an alliance against Soviet bureaucracy in general and Stalin in particular. The alliance proved effective on the issue of foreign trade [35], but it was complicated by Lenin's progressing illness. In January 1923 the relationship between Lenin and Stalin completely broke down when Stalin rudely insulted Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya. At that point Lenin amended his Testament suggesting that Stalin should be replaced as the party's General Secretary, although the thrust of his argument was somewhat weakened by the fact that he also mildly criticized other Bolshevik leaders, including Trotsky. In March 1923, days before his third stroke, Lenin prepared a frontal assault on Stalin's "Great-Russian nationalistic campaign" against the Georgian Communist Party (the so-called Georgian Affair) and asked Trotsky to deliver the blow at the XIIth Party Congress. A stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain functions due to a disturbance in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain Georgia ( საქართველო, Sakartvelo) is a Transcontinental country in the Caucasus region situated at the dividing line between The Georgian Affair of 1922 (Грузинское дело was a political conflict within the Soviet leadership about the way in which social and political transformation was With Lenin no longer active, Trotsky did not raise the issue at the Congress. [36]
At the XIIth Party Congress in April 1923, just after Lenin's final stroke, the key Central Committee reports on organizational and nationalities questions were delivered by Stalin and not by Trotsky, while Zinoviev delivered the political report of the Central Committee, traditionally Lenin's prerogative. [37] Stalin's power of appointment had allowed him to gradually replace local party secretaries with loyal functionaries and thus control most regional delegations at the congress, which enabled him to pack the Central Committee with his supporters, mostly at the expense of Zinoviev and Kamenev's backers. [38]
At the congress, Trotsky made a speech about intra-party democracy, among other things, but avoided a direct confrontation with the troika. The delegates, most of whom were unaware of the divisions within the Politburo, gave Trotsky a standing ovation, which couldn't help but upset the troika. A standing ovation is a form of Applause where members of a seated Audience stand up while applauding The troika was further infuriated by Karl Radek's article Leon Trotsky — Organizer of Victory [39] published in Pravda on March 14, 1923, which seemed to anoint Trotsky as Lenin's successor. Karl Berngardovich Radek ( October 31, 1885 - May 19, 1939) was a socialist active in the Polish and German Pravda (Правда "The Truth" was a leading Newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Events 1489 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice. Year 1923 ( MCMXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
The resolutions adopted by the XIIth Congress called, in general terms, for greater democracy within the Party, but were vague and remained unimplemented. In an important test of strength in mid-1923, the troika was able to neutralize Trotsky's friend and supporter Christian Rakovsky by removing him from his post as head of the Ukrainian government (Sovnarkom) and sending him to London as Soviet ambassador. Christian Rakovsky ( – September 11, 1941) was a Bulgarian socialist revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and Soviet When regional Party secretaries in Ukraine protested against Rakovsky's reassignment, they too were reassigned to various posts all over the Soviet Union.
Left opposition (1923-1924)
Starting in mid-1923, the Soviet economy ran into significant difficulties, which led to numerous strikes countrywide. Two secret groups within the Communist Party, Workers' Truth and Workers' Group, were uncovered and suppressed by the Soviet secret police. Then, in September-October, the much anticipated Communist revolution in Germany ended in defeat.
On October 8, 1923 Trotsky sent a letter to the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission, attributing these difficulties to lack of intra-Party democracy. Events 314 - Roman Emperor Licinius is defeated by his colleague Constantine I at the Battle of Cibalae, and loses Year 1923 ( MCMXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Central Auditing Commission ( CAC) (Russian Центральная Контрольная Комиссия (ЦКК Centralnaya Kontrolnaya Komissiya was a supervisory Trotsky wrote:
In the fiercest moment of War Communism, the system of appointment within the party did not have one tenth of the extent that it has now. Appointment of the secretaries of provincial committees is now the rule. That creates for the secretary a position essentially independent of the local organization. [. . . ] The bureaucratization of the party apparatus has developed to unheard-of proportions by means of the method of secretarial selection. There has been created a very broad stratum of party workers, entering into the apparatus of the government of the party, who completely renounce their own party opinion, at least the open expression of it, as though assuming that the secretarial hierarchy is the apparatus which creates party opinion and party decisions. Beneath this stratum, abstaining from their own opinions, there lays the broad mass of the party, before whom every decision stands in the form of a summons or a command.
Other senior communists who had similar concerns sent The Declaration of 46 to the Central Committee on October 15, in which they wrote:
[. The Declaration of 46 was a secret letter sent by a group of 46 leading Soviet communists to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Events 533 - Byzantine General Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the . . ] we observe an ever progressing, barely disguised division of the party into a secretarial hierarchy and into "laymen", into professional party functionaries, chosen from above, and the other party masses, who take no part in social life. [. . . ] free discussion within the party has virtually disappeared, party public opinion has been stifled. [. . . ] it is the secretarial hierarchy, the party hierarchy which to an ever greater degree chooses the delegates to the conferences and congresses, which to an ever greater degree are becoming the executive conferences of this hierarchy.
Although the text of these letters remained secret at the time, they had a significant effect on the Party leadership and prompted a partial retreat by the troika and its supporters on the issue of intra-Party democracy, notably in Zinoviev's Pravda article published on November 7. Events 1492 - The Ensisheim Meteorite the oldest Meteorite with a known date of impact strikes the Earth around noon in a Wheat Throughout November, the troika tried to come up with a compromise to placate, or at least temporarily neutralize, Trotsky and his supporters. (Their task was made easier by the fact that Trotsky was sick in November and December. ) The first draft of the resolution was rejected by Trotsky, which led to the formation of a special group consisting of Stalin, Trotsky and Kamenev, which was charged with drafting a mutually acceptable compromise. On December 5, the Politburo and the Central Control Commission unanimously adopted the group's final draft as its resolution. Events 63 BC - Cicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations.
On December 8, Trotsky published an open letter, in which he expounded on the recently adopted resolution's ideas. Events 1609 - Biblioteca Ambrosiana opens its reading room the second public library of Europe. The troika used his letter as an excuse to launch a campaign against Trotsky, accusing him of factionalism, setting "the youth against the fundamental generation of old revolutionary Bolsheviks"[40] and other sins. Trotsky defended his position in a series of seven letters which were collected as The New Course in January 1924. The illusion of a "monolithic Bolshevik leadership" was thus shattered and a lively intra-Party discussion ensued, both in local Party organizations and in the pages of Pravda. The discussion lasted most of December and January until the XIIIth Party Conference of January 16, 17 and 18, 1924. Those who opposed the Central Committee's position in the debate were thereafter referred to as members of the Left Opposition. Left communism and the Left Opposition are distinct Left communism should not be confused with the Trotskyist tendency described below
Since the troika controlled the Party apparatus through Stalin's Secretariat as well as Pravda through its editor Bukharin, it was able to direct the discussion and the process of delegate selection. Although Trotsky's position prevailed within the Red Army and Moscow universities and received about half the votes in the Moscow Party organization, it was defeated elsewhere, and the Conference was packed with pro-troika delegates. In the end, only three delegates voted for Trotsky's position and the Conference denounced "Trotskyism"[41] as a "petty bourgeois deviation". After the Conference, a number of Trotsky's supporters, especially in the Red Army's Political Directorate, were removed from leading positions or reassigned. Nonetheless, Trotsky kept all of his posts and the troika was careful to emphasize that the debate was limited to Trotsky's "mistakes" and that removing Trotsky from the leadership was out of the question. In reality, Trotsky had already been cut off from the decision making process.
Immediately after the Conference, Trotsky left for a Caucasian resort to recover from his prolonged illness. The Caucasus ( also referred to as North Caucasus) is a geopolitical region located between Europe Asia & Middle East On his way, he learned about Lenin's death on January 21, 1924. Events 1189 - Philip II of France and Richard I of England begin to assemble troops to wage the Third Crusade. Year 1924 ( MCMXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. He was about to return when a follow up telegram from Stalin arrived, giving an incorrect date of the scheduled funeral, which would have made it impossible for Trotsky to return in time. Many commentators speculated after the fact that Trotsky's absence from Moscow in the days following Lenin's death contributed to his eventual loss to Stalin, although Trotsky generally discounted the significance of his absence.
After Lenin's death (1924)
There was little overt political disagreement within the Soviet leadership throughout most of 1924. On the surface, Trotsky remained the most prominent and popular Bolshevik leader, although his "mistakes" were often alluded to by troika partisans. Behind the scenes, he was completely cut off from the decision making process. Politburo meetings were pure formalities since all key decisions were made ahead of time by the troika and its supporters. Trotsky's control over the military was undermined by reassigning his deputy, Ephraim Sklyansky, and appointing Mikhail Frunze, who was being groomed to take Trotsky's place. Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze ( Russian: Михаил Васильевич Фрунзе Romanian: Mihail Frunză; also known as Арсений Трифоныч–
At the XIIIth Party Congress in May, Trotsky delivered a conciliatory speech:[42]
None of us desires or is able to dispute the will of the Party. Clearly, the Party is always right. . . . We can only be right with and by the Party, for history has provided no other way of being in the right. The English have a saying, "My country, right or wrong," whether it is in the right or in the wrong, it is my country. We have much better historical justification in saying whether it is right or wrong in certain individual concrete cases, it is my party. . . . And if the Party adopts a decision which one or other of us thinks unjust, he will say, just or unjust, it is my party, and I shall support the consequences of the decision to the end.
The attempt at reconciliation, however, did not stop troika supporters from taking potshots at him.
In the meantime, the Left Opposition, which had coagulated somewhat unexpectedly in late 1923 and lacked a definite platform aside from general dissatisfaction with the intra-Party "regime", began to crystallize. It lost some less dedicated members to the harassment by the troika, but it also began formulating a program. Economically, the Left Opposition and its theoretician Yevgeny Preobrazhensky came out against further development of capitalist elements in the Soviet economy and in favor of faster industrialization. That put them at odds with Bukharin and Rykov, the "Right" group within the Party, who supported troika at the time. On the question of world revolution, Trotsky and Karl Radek saw a period of stability in Europe while Stalin and Zinoviev confidently predicted an "acceleration" of revolution in Western Europe in 1924. On the theoretical plane, Trotsky remained committed to the Bolshevik idea that the Soviet Union could not create a true socialist society in the absence of the world revolution, while Stalin gradually came up with a policy of building 'Socialism in One Country'. Socialism in One Country was a thesis developed by Nikolai Bukharin in 1925 and adopted as state policy by Joseph Stalin. These ideological divisions provided much of the intellectual basis for the political divide between Trotsky and the Left Opposition on the one hand and Stalin and his allies on the other.
At the XIIIth Congress Kamenev and Zinoviev helped Stalin defuse Lenin's Testament, which belatedly came to the surface. But just after the congress, the troika, always an alliance of convenience, showed signs of weakness. Stalin began making poorly veiled accusations about Zinoviev and Kamenev. Yet in October 1924, Trotsky published The Lessons of October, an extensive summary of the events of the 1917 revolution. In it, he described Zinoviev's and Kamenev's opposition to the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, something that the two would have preferred left unmentioned. This started a new round of intra-party struggle, which became known as the Literary Discussion, with Zinoviev and Kamenev again allied with Stalin against Trotsky. Their criticism of Trotsky was concentrated in three areas:
- Trotsky's disagreements and conflicts with Lenin and the Bolsheviks prior to 1917
- Trotsky's alleged distortion of the events of 1917 in order to emphasize his role and diminish the roles played by other Bolsheviks
- Trotsky's harsh treatment of his subordinates and other alleged mistakes during the Russian Civil War
Trotsky was again sick and unable to respond while his opponents mobilized all of their resources to denounce him. They succeeded in damaging his military reputation so much that he was forced to resign as People's Commissar of Army and Fleet Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council on January 6, 1925. Events 1066 - Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England. 1205 - Philip of Swabia becomes King Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Zinoviev demanded Trotsky's expulsion from the Communist Party, but Stalin refused to go along and skillfully played the role of a moderate. Trotsky kept his Politburo seat, but was effectively put on probation.
A year in the wilderness (1925)
1925 was a difficult year for Trotsky. After the bruising Literary Discussion and losing his Red Army posts, he was effectively unemployed throughout the winter and spring. In May 1925, he was given three posts: chairman of the Concessions Committee, head of the electro-technical board, and chairman of the scientific-technical board of industry. Trotsky wrote in My Life[43] that he "was taking a rest from politics" and "naturally plunged into his new line of work up to my ears", but some contemporary accounts paint a picture of a remote and distracted man. [44] Later in the year, Trotsky resigned his two technical positions (claiming Stalin-instigated interference and sabotage) and concentrated on his work in the Concessions Committee.
In one of the few political developments that affected Trotsky in 1925, the circumstances surrounding the controversy around Lenin's Testament were described by American Marxist Max Eastman in his book Since Lenin Died (1925). Max Forrester Eastman ( January 4, 1883 &ndash March 25, 1969) was a Socialist and (late in his life Libertarian American The Soviet leadership denounced Eastman's account and used party discipline to force Trotsky to sign an article denying Eastman's version of the events. Party discipline is the ability of the Parliamentary group of a Political party to get its members to support the policies of the party leadership [1]
In the meantime, the troika finally broke up. Bukharin and Rykov sided with Stalin while Krupskaya and Soviet Commissar of Finance Grigory Sokolnikov aligned with Zinoviev and Kamenev. Grigory Yakovlevich Sokolnikov ( - May 21, 1939) born Girsh Yankelevich Brilliant, was an Old Bolshevik and a Soviet politician The struggle became open at the September 1925 meeting of the Central Committee and came to a head at the XIVth Party Congress in December 1925. With only the Leningrad Party organization behind them, Zinoviev and Kamenev, dubbed The New Opposition, were thoroughly defeated while Trotsky refused to get involved in the fight and didn't speak at the Congress.
United opposition (1926-1927)
During a lull in the intra-party fighting in the spring of 1926, Zinoviev, Kamenev and their supporters in the New Opposition gravitated closer to Trotsky's supporters and the two groups soon formed an alliance, which also incorporated some smaller opposition groups within the Communist Party. The alliance became known as the United Opposition.
The United Opposition was repeatedly threatened with sanctions by the Stalinist leadership of the Communist Party and Trotsky had to agree to tactical retreats, mostly to preserve his alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev. The opposition remained united against Stalin throughout 1926 and 1927, especially on the issue of the Chinese Revolution. 'For the full story of the war that led to the Communist seizure of power on Mainland China, see Chinese Civil War. The methods used by the Stalinists against the Opposition became more and more extreme. At the XVth Party Conference in October 1926 Trotsky could barely speak due to interruptions and catcalls, and at the end of the Conference he lost his Politburo seat. In 1927 Stalin started using the GPU (Soviet secret police) to infiltrate and discredit the opposition. The State Political Directorate was the Secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic ( RSFSR) and the Soviet Union from 1922 until Rank and file oppositionists were increasingly harassed, sometimes expelled from the Party and even arrested.
Defeat and exile (1927-1928)
In October 1927, Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Central Committee. When the United Opposition tried to organize independent demonstrations commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Bolshevik seizure of power in November 1927, the demonstrators were dispersed by force and Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Communist Party on November 12. Their leading supporters, from Kamenev down, were expelled in December 1927 by the XVth Party Congress, which paved the way for mass expulsions of rank and file oppositionists as well as internal exile of opposition leaders in early 1928.
When the XVth Party Congress made Opposition views incompatible with membership in the Communist Party, Zinoviev, Kamenev and their supporters capitulated and renounced their alliance with the Left Opposition. Trotsky and most of his followers, on the other hand, refused to surrender and stayed the course.
Trotsky was exiled to Alma Ata (now in Kazakhstan) on January 31, 1928. Almaty ( Алматы; formerly known as Alma-Ata ( Алма-Ата) also Verniy, (Верный is the largest city in Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan ( Қазақстан, Qazaqstan, qɑzɑqˈstɑn Казахстан, Kazakhstán,) officially the He was expelled from the Soviet Union in February 1929, accompanied by his wife Natalia Sedova and his son Lev Sedov. Natalia Ivanovna Sedova ( April 5, 1882 &ndash January 23, 1962) is best known as the second wife of Leon Trotsky, the Russian Lev Lvovich Sedov ( Russian: Лев Львович Седов also known as Leon Sedov February 1906 - February 16, 1938) was
After Trotsky's expulsion from the country, exiled Trotskyists began to waver and, between 1929 and 1934, most of the leading members of the Opposition surrendered to Stalin, "admitted their mistakes" and were reinstated in the Communist Party. Christian Rakovsky, who served as an inspiration for Trotsky between 1929 and 1934 while he was in Siberian exile, was the last prominent Trotskyist to capitulate. Almost all of them perished in the Great Purges just a few years later. Great Purge (Большая чистка transliterated Bolshaya chistka) was a series of campaigns of Political repression and Persecution
Last exile (1929-1940)
Trotsky was deported from the Soviet Union in February 1929. His first station in exile was at Büyükada off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey where he stayed for the next four years. Büyükada ( Turkish, meaning "Big Island" Greek Πρίγκηπος Prinkipos or Prinkipo, meaning "Prince" or "Foremost" Istanbul (historically Byzantium and later Constantinople; see the other Names of Istanbul) is the largest city of Turkey Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches There were many former White Army officers in Istanbul, which put Trotsky's life in danger, but a number of Trotsky's European supporters volunteered to serve as bodyguards and assured his safety.
In 1933 Trotsky was offered asylum in France by Daladier. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Édouard Daladier (18 June 1884 - 10 October 1970 was a French Radical politician and Prime Minister of France at the start of the Second World He stayed first at Royan, then at Barbizon. Royan ( Roeyan in the Saintongese language) is a commune in the Charente-Maritime département, in south- western Barbizon is a village and a commune of the Seine-et-Marne département, in France, located near the Fontainebleau Forest He was not allowed to visit Paris. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city In 1935 he was given to understand he was no longer welcome in France. After weighing alternatives, he moved to Norway, where he got permission from then Justice minister Trygve Lie to enter the country, Trotsky was a guest of Konrad Knudsen near Oslo. Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional Trygve Halvdan Lie ( ( July 16, 1896 &ndash December 30, 1968) was a Norwegian politician Konrad Gustav Knudsen ( 19 August, 1890 - 16 June 1959) was a Norwegian painter journalist and parliamentarian (called Christiania from 1624 to 1878 and Kristiania from 1878 to 1924 is the Capital and largest city of Norway. After two years, allegedly under influence from the Soviet Union, he was put under house arrest. After consultations with Norwegian officials, his transfer to Mexico on a freighter was arranged. The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas welcomed him warmly, even arranging a special train to bring him to Mexico City from the port of Tampico. This article is about Gen Lázaro Cárdenas del Río For his grandson see Lázaro Cárdenas Batel. Mexico City (in Spanish: Ciudad de México, México DF, México or simply Méjico) is the Capital city of Mexico Tampico, located at, is the main city in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, and is the Mexican Gulf 's main economic powerhouse
In Mexico, he lived at one point at the home of the painter Diego Rivera, and at another at that of Rivera's wife & fellow painter, Frida Kahlo (with whom he had an affair). Diego Rivera (December 8 1886 &ndash November 24 1957 was born Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez Frida Kahlo (July 6 1907 – July 13 1954 was a Mexican painter, who has achieved great international popularity He remained a prolific writer in exile, penning several key works, including his History of the Russian Revolution (1930) and The Revolution Betrayed (1936), a critique of the Soviet Union under Stalinism. History of the Russian Revolution by Leon Trotsky is a 3 volume book on the Russian Revolution of 1917, first published in 1932 The Revolution Betrayed is a book by the Russian Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky, published in 1937, analyzing and criticizing Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953 Trotsky argued that the Soviet state had become a degenerated workers' state controlled by an undemocratic bureaucracy, which would eventually either be overthrown via a political revolution establishing workers' democracy, or degenerate into a capitalist class. In Trotskyist political theory the term degenerated workers' state has been used since the 1930s to describe the state of the Soviet Union after Stalin 's A political revolution, in the Trotskyist theory is an upheaval in which the government is replaced or the form of government altered but in which property relations are predominantly
While in Mexico, Trotsky also worked closely with James P. Cannon, Joseph Hansen, and Farrell Dobbs of the Socialist Workers Party of the United States, and other supporters. James Patrick Cannon (1890–1974 was an American Trotskyist Communist leader Joseph Leroy Hansen ( June 16, 1910 – January 18, 1979) was an American Trotskyist and leading figure in the Socialist Farrell Dobbs ( July 25, 1907 &ndash October 31, 1983) was an American Trotskyist Politician and trade unionist The Socialist Workers Party, or SWP, is a Communist Political party in the United States.
Cannon, a long-time leading member of the American communist movement, had supported Trotsky in the struggle against Stalinism since he first read Trotsky's criticisms of the Soviet Union in 1928. Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953 Trotsky's critique of the Stalinist regime, though banned, was distributed to leaders of the Comintern. Among his other supporters was Chen Duxiu, founder of the Chinese Communist party. Chronology October 9 1879 Birth in Anqing, Anhui. 1879 to 1901 Early life and education in China
Moscow show trials
In August 1936, the first Moscow show trial of the so-called "Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Center" was staged in front of an international audience. The Moscow Trials were a series of trials of political opponents of Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge. During the trial, Zinoviev, Kamenev and 14 other accused, most of them prominent Old Bolsheviks, confessed to having plotted with Trotsky to kill Stalin and other members of the Soviet leadership. The court found everybody guilty and sentenced the defendants to death, Trotsky in absentia. In absentia is Latin for "in the absence" In legal use it usually pertains to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings The second show trial of Karl Radek, Grigory Sokolnikov, Yuri Pyatakov and 14 others took place in January 1937, with even more alleged conspiracies and crimes linked to Trotsky. Karl Berngardovich Radek ( October 31, 1885 - May 19, 1939) was a socialist active in the Polish and German Grigory Yakovlevich Sokolnikov ( - May 21, 1939) born Girsh Yankelevich Brilliant, was an Old Bolshevik and a Soviet politician Georgy (Yury Leonidovich Pyatakov ( August 6 1890 &ndash1937 was a Bolshevik Revolutionary leader during the Russian Revolution, and In April 1937, an independent "Commission of Inquiry" into the charges made against Trotsky and others at the "Moscow Trials" was held in Coyoacan, with John Dewey as chairman [2]. The Dewey Commission (officially the "Commission of Inquiry into the Charges Made against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow Trials" was initiated in March 1937 by the " American Coyoacán is one of the 16 Delegaciones ' (boroughs into which Mexico 's Federal District is divided John Dewey (October 20 1859 &ndash June 1 1952 was an American Philosopher, Psychologist, and educational reformer, whose thoughts and ideas have The findings were published in the book Not Guilty. [45]
Fourth International
At first Trotsky was opposed to the idea of establishing parallel Communist Parties or a parallel international Communist organization that would compete with the Third International for fear of splitting the Communist movement. The Comintern ( Com munist Intern ational also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organisation founded in Moscow However, he changed his mind in mid-1933 after the Nazi takeover in Germany and the Comintern's response to it, when he proclaimed that:
An organization which was not roused by the thunder of fascism and which submits docilely to such outrageous acts of the bureaucracy demonstrates thereby that it is dead and that nothing can ever revive it. Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German . . . In all our subsequent work it is necessary to take as our point of departure the historical collapse of the official Communist International. [46]
In 1938, Trotsky and his supporters founded the Fourth International, which was intended to be a revolutionary and internationalist alternative to the Stalinist Comintern. The Fourth International ( FI) is a communist international organisation working in opposition to both Capitalism and Stalinism.
Dies Committee
Towards the end of 1939 Trotsky agreed to go to the United States to appear as a witness before the Dies Committee of the House of Representatives, a forerunner of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Martin Dies Jr ( November 5 1900 &ndash November 14 1972) was a Texas politician and a Democratic member of the The House Committee on Un-American Activities ( HUAC or HCUA 1938–1975 was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. Representative Martin Dies, chairman of the committee, demanded the suppression of the American Communist Party. The Communist Party of the United States of America ( CPUSA) is a Marxist-Leninist Political party in the United States. Trotsky intended to use the forum to expose the NKVD's activities against him and his followers. The NKVD ( НКВД, ru Народный Комиссариат Внутренних Дел ''Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del'') or People's Commissariat He made it clear that he also intended to argue against the suppression of the American Communist Party, and to use the committee as a platform for a call to transform the world war into a world revolution. Many of his supporters argued against his appearance. When the committee learned the nature of the testimony Trotsky intended to present, it refused to hear him, and he was denied a visa to enter the United States. On hearing about it, the Stalinists immediately accused Trotsky of being in the pay of the oil magnates and the FBI. [47]
Final months
After quarreling with Diego Rivera, in 1939 Trotsky moved into his own residence in Coyoacán, a neighborhood in Mexico City. Coyoacán is one of the 16 Delegaciones ' (boroughs into which Mexico 's Federal District is divided Mexico City (in Spanish: Ciudad de México, México DF, México or simply Méjico) is the Capital city of Mexico He was very ill, suffering from high blood pressure, and feared that he would suffer a cerebral hemorrhage. Hypertension, also referred to as high blood pressure, HTN or HPN, is a medical condition in which the Blood pressure is chronically elevated A cerebral hemorrhage (or intracerebral hemorrhage, ICH) is a subtype of Intracranial hemorrhage that occurs within the Brain tissue itself He even prepared himself for the possibility of ending his life through suicide. [48]
On 27 February 1940, Trotsky wrote a document known as "Trotsky's Testament", in which he expressed his final thoughts and feelings for posterity. Events 1560 - The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. After forcefully denying Stalin's accusations that he had betrayed the working class, he thanked his friends, and above all his wife and dear companion, Natalia Sedova, for their loyal support:
In addition to the happiness of being a fighter for the cause of socialism, fate gave me the happiness of being her husband. Working class is a term used in academic Sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe depending on context and speaker those employed in specific fields or types Natalia Ivanovna Sedova ( April 5, 1882 &ndash January 23, 1962) is best known as the second wife of Leon Trotsky, the Russian During the almost forty years of our life together she remained an inexhaustible source of love, magnanimity, and tenderness. She underwent great sufferings, especially in the last period of our lives. But I find some comfort in the fact that she also knew days of happiness. For forty-three years of my conscious life I have remained a revolutionist; for forty-two of them I have fought under the banner of Marxism. If I had to begin all over again I would of course try to avoid this or that mistake, but the main course of my life would remain unchanged. I shall die a proletarian revolutionist, a Marxist, a dialectical materialist, and, consequently, an irreconcilable atheist. Dialectical materialism, according to many followers of Karl Marx 's thinking is the philosophical basis of Marxism. Atheism My faith in the communist future of mankind is not less ardent, indeed it is firmer today, than it was in the days of my youth. Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full. L. Trotsky
February 27, 1940
Coiyoacan. [48]
On May 24, 1940, Trotsky survived a raid on his home by Stalinist assassins led by GPU agent Iosif Grigulevich, Mexican painter and Stalinist David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Vittorio Vidale. Events 1218 - The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt. 1276 - Magnus Ladulås is crowned Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The State Political Directorate was the Secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic ( RSFSR) and the Soviet Union from 1922 until Iosif Romualdovich Grigulevich (Иосиф Ромуальдович Григулевич also known with a pseudonym as Iosif Lavretzky (Лаврецкий ( May 5 José David Alfaro Siqueiros ( December 29, 1896 in Camargo, Chihuahua, Mexico - January 6, 1974 in Cuernavaca Vittorio Vidali (1900 &mdash 1983 also known as Vittorio Vidale, Enea Sormenti, Jacobo Hurwitz Zender, Carlos Contreras, " Comandante
Assassination
On August 20, 1940, Trotsky was successfully attacked in his home by a NKVD agent, Ramón Mercader, who smashed the pick of an ice axe into Trotsky's skull. Events 636 - Battle of Yarmouk: Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid take control of Syria and Palestine Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The NKVD ( НКВД, ru Народный Комиссариат Внутренних Дел ''Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del'') or People's Commissariat Jaume Ramón Mercader del Río Hernández ( February 7 1914 &ndash October 18 1978) was a Catalan Communist who became An ice axe is a multi-purpose Mountaineering tool carried by practically every mountaineer [49]
The blow was poorly delivered and failed to kill Trotsky instantly, as Mercader had intended. Witnesses stated that Trotsky spat on Mercader and began struggling fiercely with him. Hearing the commotion, Trotsky's bodyguards burst into the room and nearly killed Mercader, but Trotsky stopped them, shouting, "Do not kill him! This man has a story to tell. " Trotsky was taken to a hospital, operated on, and survived for more than a day, dying at the age of 60 on August 21, 1940 as a result of severe brain damage. Events 1192 - Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the De facto ruler of Japan. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [50] Mercader later testified at his trial:
I laid my raincoat on the table in such a way as to be able to remove the ice axe which was in the pocket. I decided not to miss the wonderful opportunity that presented itself. The moment Trotsky began reading the article, he gave me my chance; I took out the ice axe from the raincoat, gripped it in my hand and, with my eyes closed, dealt him a terrible blow on the head.
According to James P. Cannon, the secretary of the Socialist Workers Party (USA), Trotsky's last words were "I will not survive this attack. James Patrick Cannon (1890–1974 was an American Trotskyist Communist leader The Socialist Workers Party, or SWP, is a Communist Political party in the United States. Stalin has finally accomplished the task he attempted unsuccessfully before. Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party "[51]
Epilogue
Trotsky's house in Coyoacán was preserved in much the same condition as it was on the day of the assassination and is now a museum run by a board which includes his grandson Esteban Volkov. Leon Trotsky ( Russian:, Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij The current director of the museum is Dr. Carlos Ramirez Sandoval under whose supervision the museum has improved considerably after years of neglect. Carlos Ramirez Sandoval (born 1939 was born in Morelia in the state of Michoacán, Mexico. Trotsky's grave is located on its grounds.
Trotsky was never formally rehabilitated by the Soviet government, despite the Glasnost-era rehabilitation of most other Old Bolsheviks killed during the Great Purges. (Гла́сность)is literally defined as publicity and sometimes figuratively interpreted as "tipping a vase to let someone see into the vase but not the bottom of the vase" Old Bolshevik (ста́рый большеви́к is an unofficial designation for a member of the Bolshevik party before the Russian Revolution of 1917, most of But in 1987, under President Gorbachev, Trotsky was called "a hero and martyr", and was featured on a commemorative postage stamp. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev ( Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov;; born 2 March 1931 in Privolnoye Stavropol Krai) is a Russian politician A commemorative stamp is a Postage stamp issued to honor or commemorate a place event or person [3] His son, Sergei Sedov, killed in 1937, was rehabilitated in 1988, as was Nikolai Bukharin. Sergei Lvovich Sedov (1908 - 1937 was Leon Trotsky 's younger son by his second wife Natalia Sedova, and an engineer Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин ( &ndash March 15, 1938) was a Bolshevik Above all, beginning in 1989, Trotsky's books, forbidden until 1987, were finally published in the Soviet Union.
Trotsky's great-granddaughter, Nora Volkow (daughter of Esteban Volkov), is currently head of the U. Nora Volkow is director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA is a United States federal-government research institute whose mission is to "lead the Nation in bringing the power of science
Contributions to theory
Trotsky considered himself a "Bolshevik-Leninist", arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party. Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. A vanguard party is a Political party at the forefront of a mass action movement or revolution He considered himself an advocate of orthodox Marxism. His politics differed in many respects from those of Stalin or Mao, most importantly in his rejection of the theory of Socialism in One Country and his declaring the need for an international "permanent revolution". Mao Zedong ( 26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) was a Chinese Military and political leader who led Socialism in One Country was a thesis developed by Nikolai Bukharin in 1925 and adopted as state policy by Joseph Stalin. This article is about the theory See Permanent Revolution (group for the group of the same name and Permanent Revolution (album for the Catch 22 Numerous Fourth Internationalist groups around the world continue to describe themselves as Trotskyist and see themselves as standing in this tradition, although they have different interpretations of the conclusions to be drawn from this. The Fourth International ( FI) is a communist international organisation working in opposition to both Capitalism and Stalinism. Supporters of the Fourth International echo Trotsky's opposition to Stalinist totalitarianism, advocating political revolution, arguing that socialism cannot sustain itself without democracy. Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a concept used to describe Political systems where a State regulates nearly every aspect of public and private A political revolution, in the Trotskyist theory is an upheaval in which the government is replaced or the form of government altered but in which property relations are predominantly Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system
Permanent Revolution
Permanent Revolution is the theory that the bourgeois democratic tasks in countries with delayed bourgeois democratic development can only be accomplished through the establishment of a workers' state, and that the creation of a workers' state would inevitably involve inroads against capitalist property. This article is about the theory See Permanent Revolution (group for the group of the same name and Permanent Revolution (album for the Catch 22 Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system Thus, the accomplishment of bourgeois democratic tasks passes over into proletarian tasks. The proletariat (from Latin la ''proles'' "offspring" is a term used to identify a lower Social class; a member of such a class is proletarian
Although most closely associated with Leon Trotsky, the call for Permanent Revolution is first found in the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in March 1850, in the aftermath of the 1848 Revolution, in their Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League:
It is our interest and our task to make the revolution permanent until all the more or less propertied classes have been driven from their ruling positions, until the proletariat has conquered state power and until the association of the proletarians has progressed sufficiently far - not only in one country but in all the leading countries of the world - that competition between the proletarians of these countries ceases and at least the decisive forces of production are concentrated in the hands of the workers. Friedrich Engels (28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895 was a German social scientist and philosopher, who The European Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout the European The Communist League was the first Marxist international organisation . . . Their battle-cry must be: "The Permanent Revolution. "
Trotsky's conception of Permanent Revolution is based on his understanding, drawing on the work of the founder of Russian Marxism Georgy Plekhanov, that in 'backward' countries the tasks of the Bourgeois Democratic Revolution could not be achieved by the bourgeoisie itself. Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (Георгий Валентинович Плеханов ( December 11, 1856 &ndash May 30, 1918; This conception was first developed by Trotsky in collaboration with Alexander Parvus in late 1904 - 1905. Alexander Parvus (Александр Парвус ( in Berezin, Russian Empire (now in Belarus)&ndash December 12, 1924 in The relevant articles were later collected in Trotsky's books 1905 and in Permanent Revolution, which also contains his essay "Results and Prospects".
The United Front
Trotsky was a central figure in the Comintern during its first four congresses. The Comintern ( Com munist Intern ational also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organisation founded in Moscow During this time he helped to generalise the strategy and tactics of the Bolsheviks to newly formed Communist parties across Europe and further afield. From 1921 onwards the united front, a method of uniting revolutionaries and reformists in common struggle while winning some of the workers to revolution, was the central strategy put forward by the Comintern.
After he was exiled and politically marginalised by Stalinism, Trotsky continued to argue for a united front against fascism in Germany and Spain. Fascism is a totalitarian nationalist and corporatist ideology His articles on the united front represent an important part of his political legacy. [52]
Trotsky in art
Trotsky was admired by Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, the husband of Frida Kahlo. Diego Rivera (December 8 1886 &ndash November 24 1957 was born Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez Frida Kahlo (July 6 1907 – July 13 1954 was a Mexican painter, who has achieved great international popularity Rivera twice painted Trotsky's face as part of a montage of Communist figures, in Communist Unity Panel (1933)[4] and again in Man at the Crossroads (1933). Man at the Crossroads was a Mural by Diego Rivera. The Rockefellers wanted to have a mural put on the wall in Rockefeller Center. After the destruction of the latter, it was re-created as Man, Controller of the Universe (1934)[5][6]. Man Controller of the Universe is a 1934 painting by Diego Rivera in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
![[6]](http://www.marxists.org/espanol/trotsky/imagenes/encruci.jpg){kind=link}
Trotsky's death was dramatized in the 1972 film The Assassination of Trotsky, directed by Joseph Losey and starring Richard Burton as Trotsky. Year 1972 ( MCMLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Assassination of Trotsky is a 1972 film directed by Joseph Losey. Joseph Losey ( January 14, 1909 in La Crosse Wisconsin – June 22, 1984 in Richard Burton, CBE (10 November 1925 &ndash 5 August 1984 was a Welsh multiple award-winning Actor. It was also the subject of a 1993 short play, "Variations on the Death of Trotsky", written by David Ives. Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) Variations on the Death of Trotsky is a short one act comedy written by David Ives. David Ives (born 1950 is a contemporary American playwright His plays often consist only of one act and are often comedies In the 2002 film Frida, Trotsky was portrayed by Geoffrey Rush. See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. Frida is a 2002 biographical film which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951 is a Golden Globe - BAFTA - Emmy - AFI - and Academy Award -winning Australian actor
The Character "Snowball" in George Orwell's novella, Animal Farm, is clearly based on Trotsky. Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950 who used the Pseudonym George Orwell, was an English writer Animal Farm is a Novel by George Orwell, and is the most famous satirical Allegory of Soviet Totalitarianism In Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Party's archenemy, Emmanuel Goldstein, resembles Trotsky. Nineteen Eighty-Four (also titled 1984) by George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair) is a 1949 English Novel Emmanuel Goldstein is a key character in George Orwell 's Novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Notes
- ^ The murder weapon was a hidden cut-down ice axe, not an ice pick. An ice axe is a multi-purpose Mountaineering tool carried by practically every mountaineer An icepick is a tool used to break-up pick or chip at Ice. It resembles a Scratch awl, but is designed for picking at ice rather than wood Many history and reference books have confused the two. See Robert Conquest, The Great Terror: A Reassessment, Oxford University Press, 1991, ISBN 0-19-507132-8, p. 418 for a detailed account
- ^ On Meeting with Trotsky
- ^ See chapter III of his autobiography, 'My Life'
- ^ cf, for instance, The Columbia Encyclopedia
- ^ Quoted in chapter XII of 'My Life'
- ^ See Trotsky's 'Thermidor and anti-Semitism' (1937)
- ^ See Israel Getzler. Martov: A Political Biography of a Russian Social Democrat, Cambridge University Press, 2003 (first edition 1967), ISBN 0-521-52602-7 p. 76
- ^ Quoted in Chapter XIV of My Life'(zhizen)'
- ^ See Chapter XVII of 'My Life'
- ^ See Chapter XVI of 'My Life'
- ^ See Christian Rakovsky's biography by Gus Fagan for details
- ^ See the "Brest-Litovsk" chapter in Trotsky's 1925 book Lenin
- ^ See Lenin
- ^ See Chapter XXXIV of My Life
- ^ an excerpt from Trotsky's war cable, quoted from Volkogonov, Trotsky, the Eternal Revolutionary, p 178.
- ^ See Chapter XXXVI of My Life
- ^ See Chapter XXXVII of My Life
- ^ See Isai Abramovich's memoirs re: the Smilga episode. Abramovich (1900-1985), a friend of Smilga's, was one of the few Trotskyists who survived the Great Purges and returned from Stalin's camps in the late 1950s.
- ^ See Chapter XXXV of My Life
- ^ See Chapter XXXVIII of My Life
- ^ See Chapter XXXVII of My Life
- ^ See Political Report of the Central Committee of the RKP(b) to the Ninth All-Russian Conference of the Communist Party delivered by Lenin on September 20, 1920, Document 59 in The Unknown Lenin, ed. Events 451 - The Battle of Chalons takes place in North Eastern France. Year 1920 ( MCMXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display 1920 of the Gregorian calendar Richard Pipes, Yale University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-300-06919-7
- ^ "More on the Suppression of Kronstadt" by Leon Trotsky
- ^ "Hue and Cry Over Kronstadt" by Leon Trotsky
- ^ "Trotsky Protests too Much" by Emma Goldman
- ^ "Kronstadt - A Tragic Necessity" - by Abbie Bakan
- ^ "Was the Kronstadt Revolt a White Plot?" - An Anarchist FAQ, Appendix 4. Richard Edgar Pipes (born July 11, 1923) is an American historian who specializes in Russian history, particularly with respect to the history of the Yale University Press is a book Publisher founded in 1908. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remained 2. 6
- ^ Yakov Sverdlov was the Central Committee's senior secretary responsible for personnel affairs from 1917 and until his death in March 1919. He was replaced by Elena Stasova, and in November 1919 by Nikolai Krestinsky. After Krestinsky's ouster in March 1921, Vyacheslav Molotov became the senior secretary, but he lacked Krestinsky's authority since he was not a full Politburo member. The position was taken over by Stalin and formalized at the XIth Party Congress in April 1922, with Molotov becoming second secretary.
- ^ It is not clear why Kamenev, a mild mannered man with few leadership ambitions as well as Trotsky's brother-in-law, sided with Zinoviev and Stalin against Trotsky in 1922. Trotsky later speculated that it may have been due to Kamenev's love of comfort, which Trotsky found "repell[ing]" and let Kamenev know in late 1920 or early 1921:
Our relations with Kamenev, which were very good in the first period after the insurrection, began to become more distant from that day.
- ^ The Central Committee's Secretariat became increasingly important during the Civil War and especially in its aftermath as the Party switched from elected officials to appointed ones. The change was prompted by the need to allocate manpower quickly during the Civil War as well as by the transformation of the party from a small group of revolutionaries into the country's ruling party with a corresponding increase in membership. New members included career seekers and former members of banned socialist parties who were viewed with apprehension by Old Bolsheviks. To prevent a possible degeneration of the party, various membership requirements were instituted for party officials and the ultimate power of appointment of local officials was reserved for the Secretariat of the Central Committee. This put enormous power in the General Secretary's hands.
- ^ See Document 103 (May 22, 1922) in The Unknown Lenin
- ^ See Document 106 in The Unknown Lenin
- ^ See Document 109 in The Unknown Lenin
- ^ See Chapter XXXIX of My Life
- ^ See Lenin's letter to Stalin dictated on December 15, 1922:
Faced with a united opposition by Lenin and Trotsky, the Central Committee reversed its previous decision and adopted the Lenin-Trotsky proposal.I am sure Trotsky will uphold my views as well as I. Events 334 BC - The Greek army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus. Year 1922 ( MCMXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 533 - Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Year 1922 ( MCMXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.
- ^ See Chapter 11 of Trotsky's unfinished book Stalin
- ^ Trotsky explained in Chapter 12 of his unfinished book Stalin that he refused to deliver the report because "it seemed to me equivalent to announcing my candidacy for the role of Lenin's successor at a time when Lenin was fighting a grave illness".
- ^ See Chapter 12 of Trotsky's Stalin
- ^ Radek wrote:
The need of the hour was for a man who would incarnate the call to struggle, a man who, subordinating himself completely to the requirements of the struggle, would become the ringing summons to arms, the will which exacts from all unconditional submission to a great, sacrificial necessity. Only a man with Trotsky's capacity for work, only a man so unsparing of himself as Trotsky, only a man who knew how to speak to the soldiers as Trotsky did—only such a man could have become the standard bearer of the armed toilers. He was all things rolled into one.
- ^ Quoted in Max Shachtman. The Struggle for the New Course, New York, New International Publishing Co. , 1943. See chapter The Campaign Against “Trotskyism”
- ^ The term "Trotskyism" was first coined by the Russian liberal politician Pavel Milyukov, the first foreign minister in the Provisional Government who, in April 1917, was forced to demand that the British government release Trotsky -- see above.
- ^ See Chapter VIII of Boris Souvarine's Stalin: A Critical Survey of Bolshevism
- ^ See Chapter 42 of My Life
- ^ See Nikolai Valentinov-Volsky's account of his work with Trotsky in 1925 in Novaia Ekonomicheskaia Politika i Krizis Partii Posle Smerti Lenina: Gody Raboty v VSNKh vo Vremia NEP, Moscow, Sovremennik, 1991. No English translation currently available.
- ^ See Not guilty; report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Charges Made Against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow Trials, John Dewey, chairman, New York, London, Harper & brothers, 1938, xv, 422 pp. 2nd edition New York, Monad Press, distributed by Pathfinder Press 1973, c1972 xxiii, 422 pp.
- ^ Leon Trotsky. To Build Communist Parties and an International Anew, July 15, 1933. Events 1099 - First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final Year 1933 ( MCMXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
- ^ See Isaac Deutscher. The Prophet Outcast: Trotsky, 1929-1940, London, New York, Oxford University Press, 1963, p. 482.
- ^ a b "Trotsky's Testament" (27 February 1940) Retrieved August 27, 2007
- ^ VENONA Historical Monograph #4: The KGB in San Francisco and Mexico City and the GRU in New York and Washington accessed 2007-07-29
- ^ Walsh, Lynn, The Assassination of Trotsky, Militant International Review, Summer 1980, retrieved on 2007-07-29. Events 1560 - The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 479 BC - Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.
- ^ Australian Associated Press, Death of Leon Trotsky, The Age 150th Anniversary edition reprint, 1940-08-23, Retrieved on 2007-03-22. The Age is a Broadsheet daily Newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854 Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 79 - Mount Vesuvius begins stirring on the feast day of Vulcan the Roman god of fire Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 238 - Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperor.
- ^ Joseph Choonara, "The United Front" in International Socialism 117
See also
- My Life, Trotsky's autobiography
- Group of Democratic Centralism
- Trotskyism
- Marxism
- Bolsheviks
- Vladimir Lenin
- Joseph Stalin
- Fourth International
- History of Russia, a series of articles. International Socialism (ISJ is a Quarterly Journal of Socialist Theory published by the Socialist Workers Party (Britain My Life - An attempt at an autobiography is the name of the Russian revolutionary Communist leader Leon Trotsky 's autobiography The Group of Democratic Centralism, sometimes called the Group of 15 was a dissenting faction within the Soviet Communist Party in the early 1920s. Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists ( Большевик Большевист (singular, derived from bolshe, "more" were a faction Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party The Fourth International ( FI) is a communist international organisation working in opposition to both Capitalism and Stalinism. Early history Pre-Slavic inhabitants See also Steppe nomads, Scythians, Bosporan Kingdom, Khazaria In prehistoric times
- Labor army
- List of Trotskyist internationals
- Stalinism
- Variations on the Death of Trotsky
- History of the Russian Revolution
Selected works
- Works by Leon Trotsky at Project Gutenberg
- Autobiography, 1879-1917.
- 1905
- War and the International
- Trotsky's Military Writings, Volume 3
- Terrorism and Communism
- Trotsky's Military Writings, Volume 4
- Between Red and White
- Trotsky's Military Writings, Volume 5
- The New Course
- Literature and Revolution
- The Lessons of October
- The First Five Years of the Communist International, Volume 1
- The First Five Years of the Communist International, Volume 2
- Problems of the Chinese Revolution
- Platform of the Joint Opposition
- The Third International After Lenin
- History of the Russian Revolution
- My Life
- Permanent Revolution & Results and Prospects
- In Defence of October
- The Revolution Betrayed
- The Case of Leon Trotsky
- The Stalin School of Falsification
- Their Morals and Ours
- The Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution
- In Defence of Marxism
References
- Isaac Deutscher wrote the classic--and largely sympathetic--biography in three volumes:
- (1954) Trotsky: The Prophet Armed
- (1959) Trotsky: The Prophet Unarmed
- (1963) Trotsky: The Prophet Outcast
- Deutscher, Isaac (1966) Ironies of History. The notion of the Labor army (трудовая армия трудармия was introduced in Bolshevist Russia in 1920 This is a list of Trotskyist internationals. It includes all of the many Political internationals which self-identify as Trotskyist. Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953 Variations on the Death of Trotsky is a short one act comedy written by David Ives. History of the Russian Revolution by Leon Trotsky is a 3 volume book on the Russian Revolution of 1917, first published in 1932 Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works Isaac Deutscher (b 3 April 1907 &ndash 19 August 1967) was a British journalist historian and political activist of Polish
- Daniels, Robert V (1991) Trotsky, Stalin & Socialism. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-1223-X
- Gilbert, Helen (2003) Leon Trotsky: His Life and Ideas. Red Letter Press [7] ISBN 0-932323-17-0
- Hansen, Joseph, ed. (1969) Leon Trotsky: the Man and His Work. Reminiscences and Appraisals. New York: Merit Publishers.
- Levine, Isaac Don (1960) The Mind of an Assassin. New York: New American Library/Signet Book.
- Richard Pipes, ed. Richard Edgar Pipes (born July 11, 1923) is an American historian who specializes in Russian history, particularly with respect to the history of the (1996) The Unknown Lenin. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-06919-7
- Renton, David (2004) Trotsky.
- Serge, Victor & Trotsky, Natalia Sedova (1951), The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky" (1973 English transl. by A. J. Pomerans) -- largely represents the views of his widow)
- Thatcher, Ian D. (2003) Trotsky. ISBN 0-415-23251-1
- Jean van Heijenoort (1978) With Trotsky in Exile: From Prinkipo to Coyoacan. Jean Louis Maxime Van Heijenoort (pronounced highenort) ( July 23 1912, Creil France - March 29 1986, Mexico City Büyükada ( Turkish, meaning "Big Island" Greek Πρίγκηπος Prinkipos or Prinkipo, meaning "Prince" or "Foremost" Coyoacán is one of the 16 Delegaciones ' (boroughs into which Mexico 's Federal District is divided Harvard University Press.
- Dimitri Volkogonov (1996) Trotsky, the Eternal Revolutionary. Dmitri Antonovich Volkogonov ( Дмитрий Антонович Волкогонов in Russian) ( 22 March 1928, Chita – 6 Free Press.
- The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History, Volume 39, Academic International Press
External links
- The Leon Trotsky Internet Archive at Marxists.org (under GNU Free Documentation License)
- Trotsky speaks about the Moscow Trials (English)
- Trotsky's historical significance - archives of the ICFI
- January 2006 images of Trotsky House, Mexico City
- FBI records relating to Trotsky's murder
- 'Ice-pick that killed Trotsky' found in Mexico which is stained with his blood
- International Viewpoint dossier on Trotsky (USFI)
- On anniversary of murder, museum for Trotsky proves to be tourist draw by Larry Luxner of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, published August 23, 2005
- Lenin and Trotsky - What they Really Stood For by Alan Woods and Ted Grant
- The Lubitz TrotskyanaNet, dealing with Leon Trotsky, Trotskyism and Trotskyists
- Various criticism of Trotsky from MIM
- The Contradiction of Trotsky by Claude Lefort
- Sixty-five years since Trotsky's Death an essay by Rob Sewell
- [8]
| Preceded by Mikhail Tereshchenko (Minister of Foreign Affairs) |
People's Comissar for Foreign Affairs 1917–1918 |
Succeeded by Georgy Chicherin |
| Preceded by Nikolai Podvoisky |
People's Commissar for Army and Navy Affairs 1918–1925 |
Succeeded by Mikhail Frunze |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bronstein, Lew Dawidowitsch |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lew Dawidowitsch Trotzki |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Ukraine-Russian revolutionary, politician and founder of the Red Army |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 7 November 1879 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Janowka, Russia (now in Ukraine) |
| DATE OF DEATH | 21 August 1940 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico |
The Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxistsorg) is a volunteer based non-profit organization that maintains a multi-lingual Internet Archive The GNU Free Documentation License ( GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a Copyleft License for free documentation designed by the Free Software The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA is an international News agency serving Jewish community Newspapers and media around the world Events 79 - Mount Vesuvius begins stirring on the feast day of Vulcan the Roman god of fire Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Alan Woods may refer to Alan Woods (footballer Alan Woods (politician Alan Woods (soccer Edward (Ted Grant ( 9 July 1913 &ndash 20 July 2006) was a South African Trotskyist Politician who spent most of his adult Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM is a revolutionary communist organization based primarily in the United States. Claude Lefort (born 1924 is a French philosopher and activist Mikhail Ivanovich Tereshchenko (Михаил Иванович Терещенко ( March 18, 1886, Kiev April 1, 1956, Monaco This page lists foreign ministers of Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Russian Federation: Heads of Posolsky Prikaz, 1549-1699 Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin (Георгий Васильевич Чичерин ( 7 July 1936) was a Marxist revolutionary and a Soviet politician Nikolai Ilyich Podvoisky (Николай Ильич Подвойский ( February 4 (16 1880 - July 28, 1948) was a Russian revolutionary Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze ( Russian: Михаил Васильевич Фрунзе Romanian: Mihail Frunză; also known as Арсений Трифоныч– Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending A revolutionary when used as a noun is a person who either actively engages in some kind of Revolution, or advocates the revolution with recognition from some government or A politician (from Greek " Polis " is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making through the influence of Politics or a person The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya Events 1492 - The Ensisheim Meteorite the oldest Meteorite with a known date of impact strikes the Earth around noon in a Wheat Year 1879 ( MDCCCLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. Events 1192 - Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the De facto ruler of Japan. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Coyoacán is one of the 16 Delegaciones ' (boroughs into which Mexico 's Federal District is divided Mexico City (in Spanish: Ciudad de México, México DF, México or simply Méjico) is the Capital city of Mexico The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America.
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