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Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky (also known as Lev Trotsky, born Leib Bronstein) (1879-1940), revolutionary, politician and political theorist, born in Yanovka, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire). Trotsky began his education at the age of 8, when his father sent him a school in Odessa. After 6 years, he was transferred to Nikolaev (now Mykolaiv, in Ukraine), where he studied mathematics and was introduced to Marxism in 1896. In 1898, he was arrested for the first time as an organizer of the South Russian Workers' Union and sentenced to two years in prison. In 1900, he received a four-year exile sentence in Siberia, however he escaped from Siberia, adopted the name Trotsky from a jailer in Odessa, and eventually moved to London, where he met Lenin, the editor of the Iskra Spark newspaper of the Social Democratic Labor Party of Russia (PSDMR). At the Second Congress of the party in 1903, Trotsky sided with the Mensheviks against Lenin, although his allegiance to the Menshevik ideas was short-lived. He returned to Russia in 1905 and played a prominent role in the October general strike and armed rebellion. As a result, he was sentenced to lifelong exile but managed to escape in January 1907 and found refuge in London. He participated in the Fifth Congress of the PSDMR and later moved to Vienna, where he edited the social-democratic newspaper Pravda.

In the years of the Balkan wars (1911-1913), Trotsky resided in Bucharest. As war approached, Trotsky moved to Switzerland and later France. He was expelled from France and residing in New York when the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917. Trotsky left for Russia on the SS Christiania Fiord but was intercepted in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by British naval officials who arrested him and confiscated a large sum of gold from the ship. He finally arrived in Russia in May of that year and became a supporter of the Bolshevik position.

Upon his return, Trotsky actively worked to overthrow the Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky and became a member of the Petrograd Soviet.

After the Bolsheviks seized power, Trotsky assumed the role of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, responsible for negotiating the peace treaty with Germany and its allies. However, the decision to withdraw from negotiations on February 10, 1918, led to a German invasion on February 18. The swift German advances compelled the Soviet regime to sign a highly unfavorable treaty on March 3 at Brest-Litovsk. As a consequence, Trotsky resigned from his diplomatic position. In the same year, he took up the role of People's Commissar for Army and Navy Affairs and was appointed as the president of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic in September 1918.

As the founder and commander of the Red Army, Trotsky played a fundamental role in the Soviet successes against the White Army during the Russian Civil War. In March 1921, he organized and led the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion, the final major uprising against Bolshevik rule. With Lenin falling ill and later passing away, Joseph Stalin managed to consolidate his power within the party and the government. During this period, Trotsky was either unable or unwilling to oppose Stalin. His inaction at the 12th Party Congress in 1923, particularly regarding Lenin's Political Testament, which called for Stalin's removal, eliminated any opportunity for Trotsky to challenge Stalin's leadership. Supported by Lev Kamenev and Grigori Zinoviev, Stalin seized control of the Communist Party. Trotsky and his supporters formed the Left Opposition, engaging in a political struggle within the Communist Party against Stalin's leadership and his policy of "Socialism in one country." Trotsky advocated for rapid industrialization and the abandonment of the New Economic Policy (NEP), while Stalin favored a gradual approach to industrialization and the continuation of the NEP.

This power struggle culminated in Trotsky's defeat and expulsion from the Communist Party on November 12, 1927, allowing Stalin to become the unquestioned leader of the Soviet Union. Trotsky was subsequently exiled to Kazakhstan in Alma Ata (now Almaty) on January 31, 1928, and expelled from the Soviet Union in 1929.

After his deportation, Trotsky initially resided for four years on the Turkish island of Prinkipo on the Sea of Marmara, just a few kilometers from Istanbul. In 1933, he received political asylum in France from Daladier. He first lived in Royan and then in Barbizon, although he was prohibited from visiting Paris. In 1935, France informed Trotsky that he was no longer welcome, leading him to move to Oslo, Norway, where he stayed as a guest of Konrad Knudsen. However, due to alleged Soviet influence, he was eventually placed under house arrest. After consultations with Norwegian officials, he was allowed to travel to Mexico aboard a freighter with his wife, Natalia Sedova.

In Mexico, Trotsky initially lived in the house of the painter Diego Rivera and later in the residence of Frida Kahlo. He continued to write extensively, producing works such as "History of the Russian Revolution" (1930) and "Revolution Betrayed" (1936), which critiqued the Soviet Union under Stalinism. Trotsky argued that the Soviet state had become a degenerate workers' state controlled by an undemocratic bureaucracy, which could either be overthrown through a second socialist proletarian revolution or degenerate further to the point of returning to capitalism.

In 1938, Trotsky and his supporters established the Fourth International, an international Marxist organization intended as a Trotskyist alternative to the Stalinist Comintern. However, his residence in Mexico was marred by conflicts, including a quarrel with Diego Rivera. In 1939, Trotsky moved into his own residence in Coyoacan, a suburb of Mexico City. On May 24, 1940, he managed to survive an assault believed to have been carried out by suspected Soviet assassins. Subsequently, on August 20, 1940, Trotsky was assaulted and killed in his residence by an agent of Stalin named Ramón Mercader, who used an ice ax to strike him in the head. To conceal the weapon, the handle of the ax had been significantly shortened. However, the blow was not precise or forceful enough to immediately cause Trotsky's death, contrary to Mercader's intention. Witnesses recall that Trotsky, bleeding and pleading for assistance, engaged in a desperate struggle with his assailant. Upon hearing the disturbance, Trotsky's bodyguards swiftly entered the room and nearly executed Mercader. Trotsky intervened, exclaiming, "Don't kill him! This man has a story to tell."  Trotsky died the following day.

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Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky (also known as Lev Trotsky, born Leib Bronstein) (1879-1940), revolutionary, politician and political theorist, born in Yanovka, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire). Trotsky began his education at the age of 8, when his father sent him a school in Odessa. After 6 years, he was transferred to Nikolaev (now Mykolaiv, in Ukraine), where he studied mathematics and was introduced to Marxism in 1896. In 1898, he was arrested for the first time as an organizer of the South Russian Workers' Union and sentenced to two years in prison. In 1900, he received a four-year exile sentence in Siberia, however he escaped from Siberia, adopted the name Trotsky from a jailer in Odessa, and eventually moved to London, where he met Lenin, the editor of the Iskra Spark newspaper of the Social Democratic Labor Party of Russia (PSDMR). At the Second Congress of the party in 1903, Trotsky sided with the Mensheviks against Lenin, although his allegiance to the Menshevik ideas was short-lived. He returned to Russia in 1905 and played a prominent role in the October general strike and armed rebellion. As a result, he was sentenced to lifelong exile but managed to escape in January 1907 and found refuge in London. He participated in the Fifth Congress of the PSDMR and later moved to Vienna, where he edited the social-democratic newspaper Pravda.

In the years of the Balkan wars (1911-1913), Trotsky resided in Bucharest. As war approached, Trotsky moved to Switzerland and later France. He was expelled from France and residing in New York when the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917. Trotsky left for Russia on the SS Christiania Fiord but was intercepted in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by British naval officials who arrested him and confiscated a large sum of gold from the ship. He finally arrived in Russia in May of that year and became a supporter of the Bolshevik position.

Upon his return, Trotsky actively worked to overthrow the Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky and became a member of the Petrograd Soviet.

After the Bolsheviks seized power, Trotsky assumed the role of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, responsible for negotiating the peace treaty with Germany and its allies. However, the decision to withdraw from negotiations on February 10, 1918, led to a German invasion on February 18. The swift German advances compelled the Soviet regime to sign a highly unfavorable treaty on March 3 at Brest-Litovsk. As a consequence, Trotsky resigned from his diplomatic position. In the same year, he took up the role of People's Commissar for Army and Navy Affairs and was appointed as the president of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic in September 1918.

As the founder and commander of the Red Army, Trotsky played a fundamental role in the Soviet successes against the White Army during the Russian Civil War. In March 1921, he organized and led the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion, the final major uprising against Bolshevik rule. With Lenin falling ill and later passing away, Joseph Stalin managed to consolidate his power within the party and the government. During this period, Trotsky was either unable or unwilling to oppose Stalin. His inaction at the 12th Party Congress in 1923, particularly regarding Lenin's Political Testament, which called for Stalin's removal, eliminated any opportunity for Trotsky to challenge Stalin's leadership. Supported by Lev Kamenev and Grigori Zinoviev, Stalin seized control of the Communist Party. Trotsky and his supporters formed the Left Opposition, engaging in a political struggle within the Communist Party against Stalin's leadership and his policy of "Socialism in one country." Trotsky advocated for rapid industrialization and the abandonment of the New Economic Policy (NEP), while Stalin favored a gradual approach to industrialization and the continuation of the NEP.

This power struggle culminated in Trotsky's defeat and expulsion from the Communist Party on November 12, 1927, allowing Stalin to become the unquestioned leader of the Soviet Union. Trotsky was subsequently exiled to Kazakhstan in Alma Ata (now Almaty) on January 31, 1928, and expelled from the Soviet Union in 1929.

After his deportation, Trotsky initially resided for four years on the Turkish island of Prinkipo on the Sea of Marmara, just a few kilometers from Istanbul. In 1933, he received political asylum in France from Daladier. He first lived in Royan and then in Barbizon, although he was prohibited from visiting Paris. In 1935, France informed Trotsky that he was no longer welcome, leading him to move to Oslo, Norway, where he stayed as a guest of Konrad Knudsen. However, due to alleged Soviet influence, he was eventually placed under house arrest. After consultations with Norwegian officials, he was allowed to travel to Mexico aboard a freighter with his wife, Natalia Sedova.

In Mexico, Trotsky initially lived in the house of the painter Diego Rivera and later in the residence of Frida Kahlo. He continued to write extensively, producing works such as "History of the Russian Revolution" (1930) and "Revolution Betrayed" (1936), which critiqued the Soviet Union under Stalinism. Trotsky argued that the Soviet state had become a degenerate workers' state controlled by an undemocratic bureaucracy, which could either be overthrown through a second socialist proletarian revolution or degenerate further to the point of returning to capitalism.

In 1938, Trotsky and his supporters established the Fourth International, an international Marxist organization intended as a Trotskyist alternative to the Stalinist Comintern. However, his residence in Mexico was marred by conflicts, including a quarrel with Diego Rivera. In 1939, Trotsky moved into his own residence in Coyoacan, a suburb of Mexico City. On May 24, 1940, he managed to survive an assault believed to have been carried out by suspected Soviet assassins. Subsequently, on August 20, 1940, Trotsky was assaulted and killed in his residence by an agent of Stalin named Ramón Mercader, who used an ice ax to strike him in the head. To conceal the weapon, the handle of the ax had been significantly shortened. However, the blow was not precise or forceful enough to immediately cause Trotsky's death, contrary to Mercader's intention. Witnesses recall that Trotsky, bleeding and pleading for assistance, engaged in a desperate struggle with his assailant. Upon hearing the disturbance, Trotsky's bodyguards swiftly entered the room and nearly executed Mercader. Trotsky intervened, exclaiming, "Don't kill him! This man has a story to tell."  Trotsky died the following day.

Written by researchers of ANU Museum of the Jewish People