Lev Davidovich Trotsky, real name - Leib Davidovich Bronstein (among the pseudonyms: Pero, Antid Oto, L. Sedov, Starik). Born October 26 (November 7), 1879 in the village of Yanovka, Elisavetgrad district, Kherson province, Russian Empire (now Bereslavka, Kirovograd region, Ukraine) - died August 21, 1940 in Coyoacan, Mexico City, Mexico. Revolutionary figure of the XX century, the ideologist of Trotskyism.
Twice exiled under the monarchy, deprived of all civil rights in 1905. One of the organizers of the October Revolution of 1917, one of the creators of the Red Army. One of the founders and ideologists of the Comintern, a member of its Executive Committee. In the first Soviet government - People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, then in 1918-1925 - People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR, then the USSR.
Since 1923 - the leader of the inner-party left opposition. Member of the Politburo of the CPSU (b) in 1919-1926. In 1927 he was removed from all posts and sent into exile. In 1929 he was expelled from the USSR.
In 1932 he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. After expulsion from the USSR - the creator and main theorist of the Fourth International (1938).
Leon Trotsky (biographical film)
Leiba Bronstein was born on October 26 (November 7, according to a new style), 1879 in the village of Yanovka, Elisavetgrad district, Kherson province.
He was the fifth child in the family of David Leontyevich Bronstein (1843-1922) and his wife Anna (Annetta) Lvovna Bronstein (nee Zhivotovskaya) - wealthy landowners-landlords from among the Jewish colonists of the agricultural farm. Leon Trotsky's parents came from the Poltava province.
As a child, Leo spoke Ukrainian and Russian, and not the then widespread Yiddish.
He studied at St. Paul's School in Odessa, where he was the first student in all disciplines, and then in Nikolaev. During the years of study in Odessa (1889-1895), Leo lived and was brought up in the family of his cousin (on the maternal side), the owner of the printing house and scientific publishing house "Mathesis" Moses Filippovich Shpentzer and his wife Fanny Solomonovna, the parents of the poetess Vera Inber.
In 1896, in Nikolaev, Lev Bronstein participated in a circle, together with other members of which he conducted revolutionary propaganda. In the same year he graduated from the Nikolaev Real School and entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Novorossiysk University, which he soon left.
In 1897, he participated in the founding of the South Russian Workers' Union. January 28, 1898 was first arrested. In the Odessa prison, where Trotsky spent 2 years, he becomes a Marxist. “A decisive influence,” he said on this occasion, “two studies by Antonio Labriola on the materialistic understanding of history had on me. Only after this book did I move on to Beltov (Plekhanov's pseudonym) and Capital.
In 1898, in prison, he married Alexandra Sokolovskaya, who was one of the leaders of the Union.
From 1900 he was in exile in Irkutsk province, where he established contact with Iskra agents, and on the recommendation of G. M. Krzhizhanovsky, who gave him the nickname "Pen" for his obvious literary gift, was invited to cooperate in Iskra.
According to the memoirs of Dr. G. A. Ziv, Trotsky had a tendency to faint, which, according to Trotsky himself, he inherited from his mother. G. A. Ziv, as a doctor, accurately determines that it was not just a tendency to lose consciousness, but real seizures, that is, Trotsky had epilepsy.
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Trotsky Lev Davidovich: biography, quotes August 21 this year marks 75 years since the day when Leon Trotsky was killed. The biography of this famous revolutionary is well known. But the following circumstance is striking: he became an enemy not only for those who are quite deservedly referred to as counter-revolutionaries - the enemies of the October Revolution of 1917, but also for those who, together with him, prepared and carried it out. At the same time, he never became an anti-communist and did not revise revolutionary ideals (at least the initial ones). What is the reason for such a sharp break with his like-minded people, which eventually led to his death? Let's try to find the answer to this question together. Let's start with a biographical note. Leon Trotsky: short biography It is rather difficult to describe briefly, but we will try anyway. Lev Bronstein (Trotsky) was born on November 7 (what an amazing coincidence of dates, how can you not believe in astrology?) 1879 in the family of a wealthy Jewish landowner (more precisely, a tenant) in Ukraine, in a small village, which is now located in the Kirovograd region . He began his studies in Odessa at the age of 9 (we note that our hero left his parental home as a child and never returned to it for a long time), continued it in 1895-1897. in Nikolaev, first in a real school, then at Novorossiysk University, but soon stopped studying and plunged into revolutionary work. So, at the age of eighteen - the first underground circle, at nineteen - the first arrest. Two years in different prisons under investigation, the first marriage with the same as himself, concluded Alexandra Sokolovskaya directly in the Butyrka prison (appreciate the humanism of the Russian authorities!), Then exile to the Irkutsk province with his wife and brother-in-law (humanism is still in action). Here, Trotsky Lev does not waste time - he and A. Sokolovskaya have two daughters, he is engaged in journalism, is published in Irkutsk newspapers, and forwards several articles abroad. This is followed by an escape and a dizzying journey with false documents for the name Trotsky (according to Lev Davidovich himself, that was the name of one of the guards in the Odessa prison, and his surname seemed to the fugitive so euphonious that he offered it to make a fake passport) all the way to London. Our hero got there by the very beginning of the second congress of the RSDLP (1902), at which the famous split between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks took place. Here he met Lenin, who appreciated Trotsky's literary gift and tried to introduce him to the editorial board of the Iskra newspaper. Before the first Russian revolution, Trotsky Lev occupied an unstable political position, oscillating between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. This period includes his second marriage to Natalya Sedova, which he concludes without divorcing his first wife. This marriage turned out to be very long, and N. Sedova was with him until his death. 1905 is the time of an unusually rapid political rise of our hero. Arriving in St. Petersburg, which was seething after the Bloody Resurrection, Lev Davidovich organized the St. Petersburg Council and first became its deputy chairman, G.S. his arrest and chairman. Then, at the end of the year - arrest, in 1906 - trial and exile in the Arctic (the area of present-day Salekhard) forever. But Trotsky Lev would not be himself if he allowed himself to be buried alive in the tundra. On the way to exile, he makes a daring escape and single-handedly makes his way through half of Russia abroad. This is followed by a long period of emigration until 1917. At this time, Lev Davidovich begins and abandons many political projects, publishes several newspapers, tries in every possible way to gain a foothold in revolutionary movement as one of its organizers. He does not take the side of either Lenin or the Mensheviks, he constantly wavers between them, maneuvers, tries to reconcile the warring wings of the Social Democracy. He is desperately trying to take a leadership position in the Russian revolutionary movement. But he does not succeed, and by 1917 he finds himself on the sidelines of political life, which leads Trotsky to the idea of leaving Europe and trying his luck in America. Here he made very interesting acquaintances in various circles, including financial ones, which allowed him to arrive in Russia after the February Revolution, in May 1917, obviously not with an empty pocket. The former chairmanship of the Petrosoviet secured him a place in the new reincarnation of this institution, and financial opportunities put forward the leaders of the new Soviet, which, under the leadership of Trotsky, enters the struggle for power with the Provisional Government. He eventually (in September 1917) joined the Bolsheviks and became the second man in the Leninist party. Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Stalin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Sokolnikov and Bubnov are the seven members of the first Politburo founded in 1917 to manage the Bolshevik revolution. At the same time, from September 20, 1917, he was also the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. In fact, all the practical work of organizing the October Revolution and defending it in the first weeks of Soviet power was the work of Leon Trotsky. In 1917-1918. he served the revolution first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, and then as the founder and commander of the Red Army in the position of People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. Trotsky Lev was a key figure in the victory of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War (1918-1923). He was also a permanent member (1919-1926) of the Politburo of the Bolshevik Party. After the defeat of the Left Opposition, which waged an unequal struggle against the rise of Joseph Stalin and his policies in the 1920s aimed at increasing the role of the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, Trotsky was removed from power (October 1927), expelled from the Communist Party (November 1927 d.) and expelled from Soviet Union (February 1929). As head of the Fourth International, Trotsky continued in exile to oppose the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union. On Stalin's orders, he was assassinated in Mexico in August 1940 by Ramon Mercader, a Soviet agent of Spanish origin. Trotsky's ideas formed the basis of Trotskyism, a major branch of Marxist thought that opposed the theory of Stalinism. He was one of the few Soviet politicians who was not rehabilitated either under the government of Nikita Khrushchev in the 1960s or during the period of "Gorbachev's" perestroika. In the late 1980s, his books were released for publication in the Soviet Union. Only in post-Soviet Russia was Leon Trotsky rehabilitated. His biography was researched and written by a number of well-known historians, including, for example, Dmitry Volkogonov. We will not retell it in detail, but will analyze only some selected pages. The origins of character formation in childhood (1879-1895) In order to understand the origins of the formation of the personality of our hero, we need to take a closer look at where Leon Trotsky was born. It was the Ukrainian hinterland, the steppe agricultural zone, which remains the same to this day. And what did the Jewish Bronstein family do there: father David Leontievich (1847-1922), who was born in the Poltava region, mother Anna, from Odessa (1850-1910), their children? The same as other bourgeois families in those places - they earned capital by cruel exploitation of Ukrainian peasants. By the time our hero was born, his illiterate (note this circumstance!) father, who, in fact, lives surrounded by people alien to him by nationality and mentality, already owned an estate of several hundred acres of land and a steam mill. Dozens of laborers bent their backs on him. Doesn't all this remind the reader of something from the life of Boer planters in South Africa, where instead of black Kaffirs there are swarthy Ukrainians? It was in such an atmosphere that the character of little Leva Bronstein was formed. No friends of the same age, no reckless boyish games and pranks, only the boredom of a bourgeois home and a look from above on Ukrainian laborers. It is from childhood that the roots of that feeling of one's own superiority over other people grow, which constituted the main feature of Trotsky's character. And he would be a worthy assistant to his dad, but, fortunately, his mother, being a slightly educated woman (after all, from Odessa), felt in time that her son was capable of more than the unpretentious exploitation of peasant labor, and insisted that he be sent to study in Odessa (to live in an apartment with relatives). Below you can see how Leon Trotsky was in childhood (photo presented). The hero's personality begins to emerge (1888-1895) In Odessa, our hero was enrolled in a real school according to a quota allocated for Jewish children. Odessa was then a bustling, cosmopolitan port city, very different from the typical Russian and Ukrainian cities of the time. In the serial film by Sergei Kolosov "Split" (we recommend watching it to anyone who is interested in the history of the Russian revolution) there is a scene when Lenin meets Trotsky, who had fled from his first exile, in London in 1902 and is interested in the impression that the capital of Great Britain made on him. He replies that it is simply impossible to experience a greater impression than Odessa made on him after moving to it from a rural outback. Leo studies excellently, all the years in a row becoming the first student in his course. In the memoirs of his peers, he appears as an unusually ambitious person, the desire for superiority in everything distinguishes him from his fellow students. By adulthood, Leo turns into an attractive young man, to whom, in the presence of wealthy parents, all doors in life should be opened. How did Leon Trotsky live on (a photo of him during his studies is presented below)? First love Trotsky planned to study at Novorossiysk University. To this end, he transferred to Nikolaev, where he completed the last course of a real school. He was 17 years old, and he did not think about any revolutionary activity at all. But, unfortunately, the sons of the landlord were socialists, they dragged the high school student into their circle, where various revolutionary literature was discussed - from populist to Marxist. Among the participants of the circle was A. Sokolovskaya, who recently completed obstetric courses in Odessa. Being six years older than Trotsky, she made an indelible impression on him. Wishing to show off his knowledge in front of the subject of his passion, Lev intensively engaged in the study of revolutionary theories. This played a cruel joke on him: having started once, he never got rid of this occupation again. Revolutionary activity and imprisonment (1896-1900) Apparently, the young ambitious man suddenly had an idea - after all, here it is, the very thing to which you can devote your life, which can bring the desired glory. Together with Sokolovskaya, Trotsky plunged into revolutionary work, printed leaflets, conducted social-democratic agitation among the workers of the Nikolaev shipyards, and organized the South Russian Workers' Union. In January 1898, more than 200 members of the union, including Trotsky, were arrested. He spent the next two years in prison awaiting trial - first in Nikolaev, then in Kherson, then in Odessa and in Moscow. In the Butyrka prison, he made contact with other revolutionaries. There he first heard about Lenin and read his book The Development of Capitalism in Russia, gradually becoming a real Marxist. Two months after its conclusion (March 1-3, 1898), the first congress of the newly formed Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) was held. Since then, Trotsky identified himself as a member. The first marriage of Alexander Sokolovskaya (1872-1938), for some time before being sent into exile, was imprisoned in the same Butyrka prison in Moscow, where Trotsky was also at that time. He wrote romantic letters to her, begging her to agree to marry him. Tellingly, her parents and the prison administration supported the ardent lover, but the Bronstein couple were categorically against it - apparently, they had a presentiment that they would have to raise children of such unreliable (in the everyday sense) parents. In defiance of his father and mother, Trotsky nevertheless marries Sokolovskaya. The marriage ceremony was performed by a Jewish priest. The first Siberian exile (1900-1902) In 1900 he was sentenced to four years of exile in the Irkutsk region of Siberia. Because of the marriage, Trotsky and his wife are allowed to settle in one place. Accordingly, the couple was exiled to the village of Ust-Kut. Here they had two daughters: Zinaida (1901-1933) and Nina (1902-1928). However, Sokolovskaya failed to keep such an active nature as Lev Davidovich next to her. Received a certain fame due to the articles written in exile and tormented by a thirst for activity, Trotsky lets his wife know that he is unable to stay away from the centers of political life. Sokolovskaya meekly agrees. In the summer of 1902, Lev flees from Siberia - first on a cart hidden under hay to Irkutsk, then with a false passport in the name of Leon Trotsky by rail to the borders Russian Empire . Alexandra subsequently fled Siberia with her daughters. Leon Trotsky and Lenin After escaping from Siberia, he moved to London to join Plekhanov, Vladimir Lenin, Martov and other editors of Lenin's Iskra newspaper. Under the pseudonym "Pero", Trotsky soon became one of its leading authors. At the end of 1902, Trotsky met with Natalya Ivanovna Sedova, who soon became his companion, and from 1903 until his death, his wife. They had 2 children: Lev Sedov (1906-1938) and Sergei Sedov (March 21, 1908 - October 29, 1937), both sons died before their parents. At the same time, after a period of repression by the secret police and internal turmoil that followed the first congress of the RSDLP in 1898, Iskra succeeded in convening the 2nd congress of the party in London in August 1903. Trotsky and other Iskra-ists took part in it. The congress delegates were divided into two groups. Lenin and his Bolshevik supporters advocated a small but highly organized party, while Martov and his Menshevik supporters sought to create a large and less disciplined organization. These approaches reflected the difference in their goals. If Lenin wanted to create a party of professional revolutionaries for the underground struggle against the autocracy, then Martov dreamed of a party of the European type with an eye on parliamentary methods of struggle against tsarism. At the same time, the closest associates presented Lenin with a surprise. Trotsky and most of the Iskra editors supported Martov and the Mensheviks, while Plekhanov supported Lenin and the Bolsheviks. For Lenin, Trotsky's betrayal was a strong and unexpected blow, for which he called the latter Judas and, apparently, never forgave him. During 1903-1904. many faction members switched sides. Thus, Plekhanov soon parted ways with the Bolsheviks. Trotsky also left the Mensheviks in September 1904 and until 1917 he called himself a "non-factional Social Democrat" in an attempt to reconcile the various groups within the party, resulting in many clashes with Lenin and other prominent members of the RSDLP. How did Leon Trotsky feel about Lenin personally? Quotations from his correspondence with the Menshevik Chkheidze quite clearly characterize their relationship. Thus, in March 1913, he wrote: “Lenin… a professional exploiter of any backwardness in the Russian labor movement… The entire edifice of Leninism at the present time is built on lies and falsification and carries within itself the poisonous beginning of its own decay…” Later, during the struggle for power, he will be reminded of all his hesitations about the general course of the party set by Lenin. Below you can see what Lev Davidovich Trotsky was like (photo with Lenin). Revolution (1905) So, everything that we know about the personality of our hero so far does not characterize him very flatteringly. His undoubted literary and journalistic talent is leveled by morbid ambition, posturing, selfishness (remember A. Sokolovskaya, left in Siberia with her two little daughters). However, during the period of the first Russian revolution, Trotsky unexpectedly shows himself from a new side - as a very courageous person, an outstanding orator, capable of inflaming the masses, as a brilliant organizer of them. Arriving in the seething revolutionary Petersburg in May 1905, he immediately rushes into the thick of things, becomes an active member of the Petrograd Soviet, writes dozens of articles, leaflets, speaks to crowds electrified with revolutionary energy with fiery speeches. After some time, he was already deputy chairman of the Council, actively participating in the preparations for the October general political strike. After the appearance of the tsar's manifesto of October 17, which granted the people political rights, he sharply opposed him, calling for the continuation of the revolution. When the gendarmes arrested Khrustalev-Nosar, Lev Davidovich takes his place, is preparing combat workers' squads, the strike force of a future armed uprising against the autocracy. But at the beginning of December 1905, the government decided to disperse the Soviet and arrest its deputies. An absolutely amazing story takes place during the arrest itself, when the gendarmes burst into the meeting room of the Petrograd Soviet, and the presiding Trotsky, only by the force of his will and the gift of persuasion, escorts them out of the door for a while, which makes it possible for those present to prepare: destroy some documents dangerous to them, get rid of weapons. But the arrest nevertheless took place, and Trotsky again finds himself in a Russian prison, this time in the St. Petersburg "Crosses". The second escape from Siberia The biography of Lev Davidovich Trotsky is replete with bright events. But it is not our task to describe it in detail. We will confine ourselves to a few vivid episodes in which the character of our hero is most clearly manifested. Among them is the story connected with Trotsky's second exile to Siberia. This time, after a year of imprisonment (however, in quite decent conditions, including access to any literature and the press), Lev Davidovich was sentenced to eternal exile in the Arctic, to the Obdorsk region (now Salekhard). Before leaving, he handed over a farewell letter with the words: “We are leaving with deep faith in the quick victory of the people over their age-old enemies. Long live the proletariat! Long live international socialism!” It goes without saying that he was not ready to sit for years in the polar tundra, in some wretched dwelling, and expect a saving revolution. Moreover, what kind of revolution could one talk about if he himself did not participate in it? Therefore, the only way out for him was an immediate escape. When the caravan with prisoners reached Berezovo (the famous place of exile in Russia, where the former Serene Highness Prince A. Menshikov spent the rest of his life), from where the path to the north was, Trotsky feigned an attack of acute sciatica. He achieved that he was left with a couple of gendarmes in Berezovo until his recovery. Having deceived their vigilance, he flees from the town and gets to the nearest settlement of the Khanty. There, in some incredible way, he hires deer and travels almost a thousand kilometers through the snowy tundra (it takes place in January 1907) to the Ural Mountains, accompanied by a hunt guide. And having reached the European part of Russia, Trotsky easily crosses it (let's not forget that the year is 1907, such as he, the authorities tie "Stolypin ties" around their necks) and ends up in Finland, from where he moves to Europe. This, so to speak, adventure ended quite safely for him, although the risk to which he exposed himself was incredibly high. He could easily be stabbed with a knife or stunned and thrown into the snow to freeze, coveting the rest of the money that he had with him. And it would have been the murder of Leon Trotsky not in 1940, but three decades earlier. Then neither the enchanting take-off during the years of the revolution, nor all that followed it, would have happened. However, the history and fate of Lev Davidovich himself decreed otherwise - fortunately for himself, but on the grief of long-suffering Russia, and his homeland to no lesser extent. The last act of life's drama In August 1940, the news spread around the world that Leon Trotsky had been killed in Mexico, where he lived in the last years of his life. Was it a global event? Doubtful. It has been almost a year since Poland was defeated, and two months have already passed since the capitulation of France. The fire of war blazed between China and Indochina. The USSR was feverishly preparing for war. So, apart from a few supporters from among the members of the Fourth International created by Trotsky and numerous enemies, from the authorities of the Soviet Union to the majority of world politicians, few people commented on this death. The Pravda newspaper published a murderous obituary composed by Stalin himself and filled with hatred for the killed enemy. It should be mentioned that Trotsky was repeatedly tried to be killed. Among the potential killers, even the great Mexican artist Siqueiros was noted, who participated in the raid on Trotsky's villa in Mexico as part of a group of orthodox communists and personally fired an automatic burst on Lev Davidovich's empty bed, not suspecting that he was hiding under it. Then the bullets passed by. But what killed Leon Trotsky? The most surprising thing is that the weapon of this murder was not a weapon - cold or firearms, but an ordinary ice ax, a small pick used by climbers during their ascents. And it was held in the hands of the NKVD agent Ramon Mercador, a young man whose mother was an active participant in the Spanish Civil War. Being an orthodox communist, she blamed the defeat of the Spanish Republic on the supporters of Trotsky, who, although they participated in the civil war on the side of the republican forces, refused to act in line with the policy set from Moscow. This conviction she passed on to her son, who became the true instrument of this murder.
L. D. Trotsky is an outstanding revolutionary of the twentieth century. IN world history he entered as one of the founders of the Red Army, the Comintern. L. D. Trotsky became the second person of the first Soviet government. It was he who headed the people's commissariat, was engaged in maritime and military affairs, showed himself to be an outstanding fighter against the enemies of the world revolution.
Childhood
Leiba Davidovich Bronstein was born on November 7, 1879 in the Kherson province. His parents were illiterate people, but quite wealthy Jewish landowners. The boy had no peers, so he grew up alone. Historians believe that it was at this time that such a trait of Trotsky's character as a sense of superiority over other people was formed. From childhood, he looked with disdain at the children of farm laborers, never played with them.
Youth period
What was Trotsky like? His biography has many interesting pages. For example, in 1889 he was sent by his parents to Odessa, the purpose of the trip was to educate the young man. He managed to enter the special quota allocated for Jewish children at St. Paul's School. Quite quickly, Trotsky (Bronstein) became the best student in all subjects. In those years, the young man did not think about revolutionary activities, he was fond of literature, drawing.
At seventeen, Trotsky found himself in a circle of socialists engaged in revolutionary propaganda. It was at this time that he began to study with interest the works of Karl Marx.
It is hard to believe that whose books were studied by millions of people, he quickly turned into a real fanatic of Marxism. Even then, he differed from his peers with a sharp mind, showed leadership skills able to lead discussions.
Trotsky plunges into the atmosphere of revolutionary activity, creates the "South Russian Workers' Union", whose members were the workers of the Nikolaev shipyards.
persecution
When was Trotsky first arrested? The biography of a young revolutionary contains information about many arrests. The first time he was imprisoned for revolutionary activities in 1898 for two years. Next was his first exile to Siberia, from which he managed to escape. The surname Trotsky was entered in a fake passport, it was she who became his pseudonym for his whole life.
Trotsky is a revolutionary
After escaping from Siberia, the young revolutionary leaves for London. It was here that he met Vladimir Lenin, became the author of the Iskra newspaper, publishing under the pseudonym Pero. Having found common interests with the leaders of the Russian Social Democrats, Trotsky quickly becomes popular, accepting active agitators among migrants.
Trotsky easily established a trusting relationship with the Bolsheviks, using his oratorical skills and eloquence.
Books
During this period of his life, Leon Trotsky fully supported the ideas of Lenin, therefore he received the nickname "Lenin's club." But a few years later, the young revolutionary goes over to the side of the Mensheviks, accuses Vladimir Ulyanov of dictatorship.
He failed to find mutual understanding with the Mensheviks either, as Trotsky tried to unite them with the Bolsheviks. After unsuccessful attempts to reconcile the two factions, he declares himself a "non-factional" member of the social democratic society. Now, as his main goal, he chooses the creation of his own current, which differs from the views of the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks.
In 1905, Trotsky returned to revolutionary Petersburg, finding himself in the thick of the events taking place in the city.
It is he who creates the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies, voices revolutionary ideas to people who have a revolutionary mood.
Trotsky actively advocated the revolution, so he ended up in prison again. It was at this time that he was deprived of civil rights, sent to Siberia for an eternal settlement.
But he manages to escape from the gendarmes, cross to Finland, then go to Europe. Since 1908, Trotsky settled in Vienna, began to publish the newspaper Pravda. A couple of years later, the Bolsheviks intercept the publication, and Lev Davidovich leaves for Paris, where he manages the publishing house of the Nashe Slovo newspaper. In 1917, Trotsky decides to return to Russia and sets off from the Finland Station to the Petrosovet. He is given membership, is granted the right to an advisory vote. A couple of months after his stay in St. Petersburg, Lev Davidovich manages to become the informal leader of those who advocate the creation of one common social democratic workers' party.
In October of the same year, Trotsky formed the Military Revolutionary Committee, and on November 7 carried out an armed uprising, the purpose of which was to overthrow the provisional government. This event known in history as the October Revolution. As a result, the Bolsheviks come to power, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin becomes their leader.
The new government gives Trotsky the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, a year later he becomes People's Commissar for Naval and Military Affairs. It was from that time that he was engaged in the formation of the Red Army. Trotsky imprisons, shoots deserters, violators of military discipline, without sparing those who interfere with his active work. This period in history was called the Red Terror.
In addition to military affairs, Trotsky at this time actively cooperated with Lenin on issues related to foreign and domestic policy. His popularity peaked towards the end of the Civil War, but because of Lenin's death, Trotsky was unable to implement all the reforms to move from War Communism to the New Economic Policy. He failed to become a full-fledged successor to Lenin, this place was taken by Joseph Stalin. In Leon Trotsky, he saw a serious rival, so he tried to take steps to neutralize the enemy. Since the spring of 1924, the real persecution of Trotsky begins, as a result of which Lev Davidovich is deprived of his post, membership in the Central Committee of the Politburo.
Who replaced Trotsky as People's Commissar for Defense? In January 1925, this position was taken by Mikhail Vasilievich Frunze. In 1926, Trotsky tried to return to the political life of the country, he organized an anti-government demonstration. But the attempts were unsuccessful, he was exiled to Alma-Ata, then to Turkey, and deprived of Soviet citizenship.
We have already noted who replaced Trotsky as People's Commissar for Defense, but he himself did not stop the active struggle against Stalin. Trotsky began to publish the Bulletin of the Opposition, in which he tried to write about the barbaric activities of Stalin. In exile, Trotsky is working on the creation of an autobiography, writes the essay "History of the Russian Revolution", talking about the necessity and inevitability of the October Revolution.
Personal life
In 1935, he moved to Norway and came under pressure from the authorities, who did not plan to spoil relations with the Soviet Union. The revolutionary's works were taken away from him, and he was placed under house arrest. Trotsky did not want to put up with such an existence, so he decides to leave for Mexico, following from a distance the events unfolding in the USSR. In 1936, he completed work on the book "The Revolution Betrayed", where he called the Stalinist regime an alternative counter-revolutionary coup.
Alexandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya became Trotsky's first wife. He met her at the age of 16, when he had not yet thought about revolutionary activities.
Alexandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya was six years older than Trotsky. It was she who, according to historians, became his guide to Marxism.
She became an official wife only in 1898. After the wedding, the young went to Siberian exile, in which they had two daughters: Nina and Zinaida. The second daughter was only four months old when Trotsky managed to escape from exile. The wife remained in Siberia alone with two babies. Trotsky himself wrote about that period of his life that he escaped with the consent of his wife, and it was she who helped him move to Europe.
In Paris, Trotsky meets his host Active participation in the issue of the Iskra newspaper. This led to the breakup of the first marriage, but Trotsky managed to maintain friendly relations with Sokolovskaya.
a series of troubles
In his second marriage, Trotsky had two sons: Sergei and Lev. Since 1937, numerous misfortunes began to lie in wait for the Trotsky family. The youngest son was shot for political activity. A year later, his eldest son dies during an operation. A tragic fate befell the daughters of Lev Davydovich. In 1928, Nina dies of consumption, and in 1933 Zina commits suicide, she is unable to get out of a state of severe depression. Soon Alexandra Sokolovskaya, Trotsky's first wife, was shot in Moscow.
The second wife of Lev Davydovich lived after his death for another 20 years. She died in 1962 and was buried in Mexico.
Mystery biography
Trotsky's death is still an unsolved mystery for many people. Who is he, that secret agent who is associated with the death of Lev Davydovich? Who killed Trotsky? This issue deserves separate consideration. Pavel Sudoplatov, whose name is associated with the death of Trotsky, was born in 1907 in Melitopol. Since 1921, he became an employee of the Cheka, then was transferred to the ranks of the NKVD.
Some historians believe that it was he who committed the murder of Trotsky on the orders of Stalin. The task from the “leader of the peoples” was to eliminate the enemy of Stalin, who at that time lived in Mexico.
Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov was appointed to the post of deputy head of the 1st department of the NKVD, where he worked until 1942.
Perhaps it was the assassination of Trotsky that allowed him to rise so high through the ranks. Lev Bronstein has been personal enemy Stalin, his opponent. No one knows exactly how Trotsky was killed; many legends are associated with the name of this person. Someone considers Trotsky a state criminal who fled abroad in an attempt to save his life.
How was Trotsky killed? This question still torments domestic and foreign historians. It was Lev Bronstein who made a significant contribution to Russian history. There is no exact information about how Trotsky was killed, but Stalin tried to eliminate his rival by any means throughout his political life.
Views on reality Soviet Russia Lenin and Trotsky differed significantly. Lev Bronstein considered the Stalinist regime a bureaucratic degeneration of the proletarian regime.
Secrets of doom
How was Trotsky killed? In 1927, serious charges were brought against him for carrying out counter-revolutionary activities under Art. 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, Trotsky was expelled from the party.
The investigation into his case was short. Just a few days later, a car with prison bars was taking the Trotsky family to Alma-Ata, far from the capital. This journey was for the founder of the Red Army his farewell to the streets of the capital.
For Stalin, the death of Trotsky would have been an excellent way to eliminate a strong opponent, but he was afraid to deal directly with him.
In search of an answer to the question of who killed Trotsky, we note that many KGB agents tried to crack down on Trotsky.
In exile, his family was given shelter by the Mexican artist Rivera. He protected Trotsky from the attacks of local communists. Police officers were constantly on duty at Rivera's house, Trotsky's American supporters reliably guarded their leader and helped him to carry out active propaganda work.
Soviet counterintelligence in Europe was led at that time by Ignacy Reiss. He decided to stop his espionage work and informed Trotsky that Stalin was trying to kill him, his supporters outside the Soviet Union. To do this, it was supposed to use various methods: blackmail, cruel torture, terrorist acts, interrogations. A few weeks after this letter was sent to Trotsky, Reiss was found dead on his way to Lausanne, with about ten bullets found in his body. The Mexican police found out that the people who killed Reiss were spying on Trotsky's son. In 1937, Stalin's supporters were preparing an assassination attempt on Leo, but Trotsky's son did not arrive at the appointed time in Mulhouse. This incident made Stalin's supporters think about a possible leak of information, they started looking for an informant. Trotsky's family, having learned about the planned assassination, became even more circumspect and cautious.
Lev Davydovich wrote to his son that when an attempt was made on his life, Stalin would act as the customer of the murder.
In September 1937, an international commission headed by Dewey published the results of the Leon Trotsky case. They spoke of the complete innocence of Lev Sedov (son) and Leon Trotsky (father) of the charges brought against them in Moscow. This news gave Stalin's opponent strength to work and creative activity. But his joy was overshadowed by the death of his son Leo during the operation. The young man became a victim of the NKVD, death overtook him at the age of 32. The death of his son crippled Trotsky, he grew a beard, the sparkle in his eyes disappeared.
The younger son refused to renounce his father, for which he was sentenced to five years in the camps, exiled to Vorkuta.
Only Zina's son, Seva (Trotsky's grandson), who was born in 1925 and lived in Germany, managed to survive.
Life in exile
Historians put forward different versions regarding the place where Trotsky was killed. In the spring of 1939, he moved into a house near Coyoacan, Mexico. An observation tower was built at the gate, police officers were on duty outside, and an alarm system was installed in the house. Trotsky grew cacti, raised rabbits and chickens.
Conclusion
In the winter of 1940, Trotsky wrote a will, where in each line one could read the expectation of tragic events. By that time, his relatives and supporters had been destroyed, but Stalin did not want to stop there. Trotsky's criticism, sounded from the other side of the earth, cast a shadow on the bright image of the leader, which had been created over the course of so many years.
Lev Davydovich, in his messages addressed to Soviet sailors, soldiers, peasants, tried to warn them about the depravity of GPU agents and commissars. He called Stalin the main source of danger for the Soviet Union. Of course, such statements were painfully perceived by the "leader of the peoples", he could not allow Trotsky to live. On Stalin's orders, NKVD agent Jackson, who was the son of the Spanish communist Caridad Mercader, is sent to Mexico.
The operation was carefully planned, thought out to the smallest detail. Jackson met Sylvia Agelof, Trotsky's secretary, and gained access to the house. On the night of May 24, 1940, an attempt was made on Lev Davydovich.
Together with his wife and grandson, Trotsky hid under the bed. Then they managed to survive, but on August 20, Stalin's plans to eliminate the enemy were implemented. Trotsky, who was hit on the head with an ice drill, did not die immediately. He managed to give some orders regarding his wife and grandson to his devoted workers.
When the doctor arrived at the house, part of Trotsky's body was paralyzed. Lev Davydovich was taken to the hospital, they began to prepare for the operation. The craniotomy was performed by five surgeons. Most of the brain was damaged by bone fragments, and part was destroyed. Trotsky survived the operation, and for almost a day his body fought desperately for life.
Trotsky died on August 21, 1940, without regaining consciousness after the operation. Trotsky's grave is located in the courtyard of a house in the Coyoacan area of Mexico City, a white stone was hoisted over it, a red flag was put up.
Lev Davidovich Bronstein was born on October 26, 1879, on the farm of Yanovka, Elizavetgrad district, Kherson province, in the family of a wealthy Jewish landowner, who by that time had 100 acres of purchased and over 200 leased land. In 1888 he entered the Lutheran real school of St. Paul in Odessa; the first student, however, repeatedly came into conflict with teachers; communicated with the local liberal intelligentsia, joined the Russian classical literature and European culture. In 1896 he graduated from a real school in Nikolaev and entered as a volunteer at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Novorossiysk University, but soon left it. He joined a populist circle in Nikolaev, and learned about Marxism for the first time from a member of the circle, Alexandra Sokolovskaya. In 1897, together with her and her brothers, he formed the Social Democratic "South Russian Workers' Union", which began revolutionary propaganda among the workers. In January 1898, he was arrested, after a 2-year imprisonment in Nikolaev, Kherson, Odessa and Moscow, he was administratively exiled for 4 years in Eastern Siberia(to Ust-Kut, then Nizhneilimsk and Verkholensk, Irkutsk province). In 1899, in Butyrskaya prison, he married Alexandra Sokolovskaya. Political parties in Russia late XIX- the first third of the XX century. Encyclopedia - M.: Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 1996, p. 613
In August 1902, with the consent of his wife, who was left with two young daughters in her arms, he fled from exile, using a fake passport for the name of the warden of the Odessa prison Trotsky. Arriving in Samara, where the bureau of the Russian Iskra organization was located, having fulfilled a number of instructions from the bureau in Kharkov, Poltava and Kiev, he illegally crossed the border and at the end of October 1902 arrived in London, where he met V.I. Lenin. On his recommendation, Trotsky worked for Iskra, and delivered lectures for Russian émigrés and students.
In 1903, in Paris, he married Natalya Ivanovna Sedova. Participated in the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party with a mandate from the Siberian Union of the RSDLP.
At the end of 1904, he moved away from the Mensheviks, but did not join the Bolsheviks either, he advocated the unification of both social democratic factions. After the events of January 9, 1905, he was one of the first to return to Russia (Kiev, then St. Petersburg), collaborated with Leonid Borisovich Krasin, a member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, who stood in the position of the Bolshevik conciliators, as well as with the Mensheviks, disagreeing, however, with them in assessing the role of the liberal bourgeoisie in the revolution. Together with Parvus (A.L. Gelfand), Trotsky developed the theory of "permanent revolution".
During the revolution of 1905-1907, from denying the revolutionary potential of the peasantry, Trotsky gradually came to the conclusion about the importance of the participation of the peasantry in the revolution with the obligatory leadership of the proletariat.
In 1905, Trotsky's qualities as a politician, organizer of the masses, orator, publicist were directly revealed. In the autumn of 1905, Trotsky was one of the leaders of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies, a speaker and author of resolutions on the most important issues. In December 1905 he was arrested, at the end of 1906 he was sentenced to "eternal settlement" in Siberia, but fled along the way. In 1907, at the 5th Congress of the RSDLP, he headed the center group, not adjoining either the Bolsheviks or the Mensheviks. Political figures of Russia in 1917: Biographical dictionary / Editor-in-chief: P.V. Volobuev - M: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1993, p.321
Beginning in 1908, Trotsky contributed to many Russian and foreign newspapers and magazines. In 1908, together with A.A. Ioffe and M.I. Skobelev organized the publication in Vienna in Russian of the newspaper for workers Pravda. Not recognizing the legitimacy of the Prague Party Conference organized by the Bolsheviks in 1912, Trotsky, together with Martov, F.I. Danom convened a general party conference in Vienna in August 1912, the anti-Bolshevik bloc (“Augustovsky”) created at it collapsed in 1914, and Trotsky himself left it. In 1914 he published a pamphlet in German "War and International". In September 1916, Trotsky was exiled from France to Spain for anti-war propaganda, where he was soon arrested and sent to the United States with his family. From January 1917, Trotsky was an employee of the Russian international newspaper Novy Mir. In March 1917, upon returning to Russia, Trotsky, along with his family, was arrested in Halifax (Canada) and temporarily imprisoned in an internment camp for sailors of the German merchant fleet. On May 4, 1917, he arrived in Petrograd, headed the organization of "mezhraiontsy", with whom he was admitted to the RSDLP (b) and elected to the Central Committee of the party, of which he was a member until 1927. On March 4, 1918, Trotsky was appointed chairman of the Supreme Military Council, on March 13 - people's commissar for military affairs, and with the creation of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic on September 2 - its chairman. In 1920-21, while remaining in military posts, he was temporarily appointed People's Commissar of Railways, was one of the leaders in the restoration of railway transport and other industries. National economy. On the basis of hostile relations between Stalin and Trotsky, a split formed within the Politburo and the Central Committee, which resulted in a sharp internal party struggle, where Stalin and his supporters gained the upper hand. In January 1925, Trotsky was released from work in the Revolutionary Military Council, in October 1926 he was removed from the Politburo, in October 1927 - from the Central Committee. In November 1927, Trotsky was expelled from the party, after which he was expelled from Moscow to Alma-Ata, then to Turkey. Political figures of Russia in 1917: Biographical dictionary / Editor-in-chief: P.V. Volobuev - M: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1993, p.324
After expulsion from the USSR, Trotsky launched a literary and journalistic activity. He fought against Stalin, whom he considered a traitor to the ideals of October. Last years Trotsky spent his life in Mexico. Stalin set before his special services the task of destroying the hated enemy. The NKVD decided to carry out the assassination of Trotsky by the hands of its agent Ramon Mercador. The 26-year-old son of an influential Spanish communist was a participant in the Spanish Civil War, which ended in the defeat of the Republican forces. Jacques Mornard (according to the documents), who instantly turned into Frank Jackson, at first unsuccessfully tried to infiltrate the local Trotskyists. Meanwhile, the Mexican Communist Party, apparently on instructions from Moscow, decided to "duplicate" the actions of the special agent and organized their own plot to assassinate Trotsky. On May 24, 1940, his villa was attacked. More than twenty masked militants literally turned the whole house upside down, but the owners managed to hide. It was only fate itself that kept the Kremlin exile: Trotsky, his wife and grandson did not suffer. After this scandalous incident, which became known to the world press, Trotsky turned his house into a real fortress, where only people especially devoted to him were allowed. Among them were Sylvia (Trotsky's courier) and her husband Frank Jackson, who managed to gain confidence in the "teacher". At first, the young man, who showed an increased interest in Marxism, seemed to Trotsky too importunate. But in the end, the old underground worker, who considered it his sacred duty to raise a young succession of fighters for the "world revolution", was imbued with confidence in the charming American. Despite the hot day, on August 20, 1940, Frank Jackson appeared at Trotsky's villa in a tightly buttoned raincoat and hat. Under the cloak of a "family friend" fit a whole arsenal: a climbing ice ax, a hammer and a large-caliber automatic pistol. The guards, who often saw this man in the house and habitually considered him "their own", led the guest to the owner, who was feeding rabbits in the garden. It seemed strange to Natalya, Trotsky's wife, that Sylvia's husband had arrived unannounced, but the guest was invited to stay for dinner. Decreasing the invitation, Mercador-Jackson asked to see the article he had just written. The men went into the office. As soon as Trotsky went deep into reading, Jackson pulled an ice pick from under his cloak and stuck it in the back of the victim's head. Considering the blow to be insufficiently reliable, the killer swung the ice ax again, but Trotsky, miraculously retaining consciousness, grabbed his hand, forcing him to drop the weapon. Then he staggered out of the office and into the living room. "Jackson! he shouted. “Look what you’ve done!” The guards, who came running to the scream, knocked down Jackson, who was aiming at his victim with a pistol. “Don’t kill him,” Trotsky stopped the guards. - It is necessary that he tell everything ... "With these words, the wounded man lost consciousness. A few minutes later, Mercador Jackson and his victim were taken to the capital's emergency hospital. The persistence with which this mortally wounded man fought for his life shocked even the doctors. In their practice, there has never been a case where a victim with such a monstrous injury - a split skull - lived, periodically regaining consciousness, for more than a day ... Ramon Mercador, aka Frank Jackson, aka Jacques Mornard, was sentenced to twenty years in prison After leaving a Mexican prison in March 1960, he settled in Cuba Shortly before his death in Havana on October 18, 1978, Trotsky's assassin received golden star Hero of the Soviet Union.
Trotsky Lev Davidovich (real name Leiba Bronstein) (1879-1940), Soviet party and statesman, one of the organizers of the October Revolution, one of the founders of the Red Army. Born October 26 (November 7), 1879 in the village of Yanovka, Elizavetgrad district, Kherson province, in a prosperous Jewish family; his father was a wealthy tenant landowner. From the age of seven he attended a Jewish religious school - cheder, which he did not finish. In 1888 he was sent to study in Odessa at a real school, then he moved to Nikolaev; was fond of drawing, literature, showed a masterful character, came into conflict with teachers.
Imbued with the ideas of the populists. In 1896, in Nikolaev, he took part in the creation of the South Russian Workers' Union, which set as its task the political education of the workers and the struggle for their economic interests; wrote leaflets, spoke at rallies, published an underground newspaper together with like-minded people. In January 1898 he was arrested; sent to Moscow. During the investigation in Butyrskaya prison, he intensively studied European languages, joined Marxism; married the revolutionary Alexandra Sokolovskaya. Sentenced to a four-year exile in Siberia. From the spring of 1900, together with his wife, he was in a settlement in the Irkutsk province; In exile, he had two daughters. He served as a clerk for a local merchant, then collaborated in the Irkutsk newspaper Vostochnoye Obozreniye; speaking with articles of a literary-critical and ethno-everyday nature. In August 1902, leaving his wife and daughters forever, he fled abroad with a fake passport, in which he entered the name of Trotsky, the warden of the Odessa prison, which later became a well-known pseudonym.
Settled in London; became close to the leaders of the Russian Social Democracy; in October 1902 he met V.I. Lenin, on whose recommendation he was co-opted to the editorial board of Iskra. He promoted Marxism among Russian emigrants in England, France, Germany and Switzerland. In 1903 he married N. Sedova. In July-August 1903 he participated in the II Congress of the RSDLP. In the discussion on the Party Rules, he spoke together with Yu.O. Martov and the Mensheviks against the Leninist principle of democratic centralism. After the congress, he criticized V.I. Lenin and the Bolsheviks for striving to establish a dictatorship regime in the party and considered them to be the culprits of its split. In the autumn of 1904, he parted ways with the Mensheviks, condemning their idea of the leading role of the liberal bourgeoisie in the coming revolution. He tried to create a special trend within the Russian social democracy.
In February 1905, shortly after the start of the First Russian Revolution, he illegally returned to Russia. He actively promoted revolutionary ideas in the press and at meetings of workers. In October 1905 he was elected deputy chairman and then chairman of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies; He was the editor of his printed organ - Izvestia. In December 1905 he was arrested. In conclusion, he wrote the book Results and Prospects, in which he formulated the theory of permanent revolution, developed together with Parvus (A.L. Gelfand): as a result of the bourgeois-democratic revolution, not the power of the bourgeoisie (Mensheviks) and not the dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry (Bolsheviks) will be established in Russia ), and the dictatorship of the workers; the socialist revolution will triumph in Russia only under the conditions of a world proletarian revolution. At the end of 1906 he was sentenced to permanent settlement in Siberia and deprived of all civil rights. From the stage he fled abroad.
In May 1907, he participated in the Fifth Congress of the RSDLP in London as the leader of the centrist trend in the party. He wrote articles for Russian and foreign newspapers and magazines. In 1908-1912 he published the newspaper Pravda in Vienna, which was distributed underground in Russia. He made efforts to develop a compromise platform and overcome the split in the party. He condemned the decisions of the VI (Prague) Conference of the RSDLP, convened by the Bolsheviks in Prague in January 1912, which headed for the complete expulsion of all opposition groups from the party. At a general party conference in Vienna in August 1912, together with the leaders of the Mensheviks, he created the anti-Bolshevik "August Bloc". During the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 he was a correspondent for Kievskaya Mysl in the theater of operations.
With the outbreak of the First World War, he settled in Switzerland, then in France. He published the pamphlet War and the International, where he spoke from a sharply anti-war position and called for the creation in a revolutionary way"United States of Europe". In 1916 he was expelled from France to Spain, where he was arrested and deported to the USA. Since January 1917, he collaborated in the Russian newspaper Novy Mir, published in New York; met N.I. Bukharin.
He welcomed the February Revolution of 1917 as the beginning of the long-awaited permanent revolution. In March 1917, he tried to leave for his homeland through Canada, but was detained by the Canadian authorities and spent more than a month in an internment camp. He returned to Petrograd only on May 4 (17), 1917. He joined the group of "mezhraiontsy" close to the Bolsheviks. He severely criticized the Provisional Government and advocated, like Lenin, for the development of the bourgeois-democratic revolution into a socialist one. During the July Crisis of 1917, he tried to direct the anti-government demonstrations of workers and soldiers in a peaceful direction; after the order of the Provisional Government to arrest the leaders of the Bolsheviks, he publicly sided with them and rejected their accusations of espionage and conspiracy.
Arrested and imprisoned in Kresty. At the VI Congress of the RSDLP (b) in late July - early August, as part of the "Mezhraiontsy", he was admitted in absentia to the Bolshevik Party and elected to its Central Committee. Released on September 2 (15) after the collapse of the Kornilov rebellion. With his extreme radical speeches, he won popularity among the working and soldier masses. On September 25 (October 8) he was elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and soldiers' deputies. He actively supported Lenin's proposal for the immediate organization of an armed uprising. October 12 (25) initiated the creation by the Soviet of the Military Revolutionary Committee to protect Petrograd from counter-revolutionary forces. Led the preparations for the October Revolution; was its de facto leader.
After the victory of the Bolsheviks on October 25 (November 7), 1917, he entered the first Soviet government as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. He supported Lenin in the fight against plans to create a coalition government of all socialist parties. At the end of October, he organized the defense of Petrograd from the troops of General P.N. Krasnov advancing on it.
As People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Trotsky was unable to achieve international recognition of the Bolshevik regime and support for the peace initiatives of the Soviet government. He led the negotiations with the powers of the Quadruple Alliance in Brest-Litovsk. He dragged them out in every possible way, hoping for the imminent start of a world revolution. He put forward the formula "we stop the war, we demobilize the army, but we do not sign peace." January 28 (February 9), 1918 rejected the ultimatum demand of Germany and its allies to agree to the terms of the peace treaty put forward by them, announced Russia's withdrawal from the war and ordered the general demobilization of the army; although this order was canceled by V.I. Lenin, it increased the disorganization on the fronts and contributed to the success of the German offensive that began on February 18. On February 22, he resigned from the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs.
On March 14, 1918, he was appointed People's Commissar for Military Affairs, on March 19 - Chairman of the Supreme Military Council, and on September 6 - Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic. He led the work on the creation of the Red Army; made energetic efforts to professionalize it, actively recruited former officers (“military experts”); established strict discipline in the army, resolutely opposed its democratization; used severe repression, being one of the theorists and practitioners of the "red terror" ("whoever renounces terrorism must renounce the political domination of the working class"). He strengthened the Red Army with punitive measures. One of his orders stated: "if any unit retreats without permission, the commissar of the unit will be shot first, the commander second." He was one of the initiators of terror against the "unreliable" and the practice of hostage-taking. At the same time, according to the military historian D.A. Volkogonov, Trotsky “loved a good rest. Even in the most difficult years of the Civil War, he managed to go to resorts, hunt, and fish. Several doctors constantly monitored his health.”
In March 1919 he became a member of the first Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b). Participated in the creation of the Comintern; was the author of his Manifesto. From March 20 to December 10, 1920, he temporarily acted as People's Commissar of Railways; strict measures restored the work of railway transport. He showed a penchant for administration and the use of force, advocating the need for the creation of labor armies and strict distribution.
In the trade union discussion of November 1920 - March 1921, he demanded that the methods of "war communism" and the militarization of trade unions be preserved in the government of the country. He insisted that industrialization in the RSFSR should be built on a system of forced labor and wholesale collectivization. In March 1921 he led the bloody suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion.
During Lenin's illness (from May 1920) he entered the struggle for power in the party with the triumvirate of I.V. Stalin, G.E. Zinoviev and L.B. Kamenev. In October 1923 in open letter accused them of departing from the principles of the New Economic Policy and violating internal party democracy.
After Lenin's death on January 21, 1924, he found himself isolated in the top party leadership. At the Thirteenth Congress in May 1924, he was sharply criticized by practically all the delegates who spoke. In response, in the autumn of 1924, he published an article Lessons of October, where he condemned the behavior of Zinoviev and Kamenev during the October Revolution and blamed them for the failure of the communist uprising in Germany in 1923. He criticized the triumvirate for the bureaucratization of the party; urged to actively involve young cadres in its ranks.
January 26, 1925 removed from the post of chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council. In 1926 he entered into an alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev against Stalin's group. He demanded freedom of internal party discussions, the strengthening of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the struggle against the kulaks; accused the party leadership of betraying the ideals of October and rejecting the idea of a world revolution; condemned the Stalinist theory of the possibility of building socialism in one single country. For "anti-party activity" and "petty-bourgeois deviation" in October 1926 he was removed from the Politburo, in October 1927 at the XV Congress of the CPSU (b) - from the Central Committee, and after organizing an open entry with his supporters on November 7, 1927, on the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution, he was expelled from the party. Especially many supporters of Trotsky were among the leadership of the Red Army (M.N. Tukhachevsky, Ya.B. Gamarnik and others).
In January 1928 he was exiled to Alma-Ata, and in early 1929 he and his family were expelled from the USSR.
In 1929-1933 he lived with his wife and eldest son Lev Sedov in Turkey on the Princes' Islands (Sea of Marmara). the Turkish government refused to accept it. The governments of other countries also refused to accept Trotsky, and he was forced to move from country to country, published the anti-Stalin Opposition Bulletin. Wrote an autobiography My life and my main historical essay History of the Russian Revolution. He criticized industrialization and collectivization in the USSR.
In 1933 he moved to France, and in 1935 to Norway. He published the book Revolution Betrayed, in which he characterized the Stalinist regime as a bureaucratic degeneration of the dictatorship of the proletariat and revealed deep contradictions between the interests of the bureaucratic caste and the interests of the bulk of the population. At the end of 1936 he left for Mexico, where he settled with the help of the Trotskyist artist Diego Rivera, lived in his fortified and guarded villa in Coyocan (a suburb of Mexico City). Sentenced in absentia in the USSR to death; his first wife and younger son Sergei Sedov, who pursued an active Trotskyist policy, were shot.
In 1938, he united groups of his supporters around the world into the Fourth International. He began to write a book about I.V. Stalin as a fatal figure for the socialist movement. He appealed to the working people of the USSR with an appeal to overthrow the Stalinist clique. He condemned the Soviet-German non-aggression pact; at the same time, he approved the entry of Soviet troops into Western Ukraine and Western Belarus and the war with Finland.
In 1939, Stalin ordered its liquidation. At the beginning of 1940 he made a political testament, in which he expressed his hope for an imminent proletarian world revolution. In May 1940, the first attempt to assassinate Trotsky, organized by the Mexican communist artist David Siqueiros, failed. On August 20, 1940, he was mortally wounded by the Spanish communist and NKVD agent Ramon Mercader, who penetrated his inner circle.
He died on August 21 and after cremation was buried in the courtyard of a house in Koyokan. The Soviet authorities publicly denied any involvement in the assassination. R. Mercader was sentenced by a Mexican court to twenty years in prison; after his release in 1960 he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.