On November 7 (October 25), 1879, Lev Davidovich Trotsky (Leiba Davidovich Bronstein) was born - one of the key figures in the history of Russia of the 20th century ...
In the 1920s and 30s, Trotsky's name was known to everyone in the Soviet country. At first, he was praised to the skies as the main leader of the October Bolshevik uprising and the winner of the White armies. Then - anathematized as an enemy of the party and the Soviet people. After the release of the film “Lenin in October” in 1937, in the minds of the Soviet people, Trotsky was firmly entrenched in the nickname “political prostitute” (with the reduced “r” characteristic of Ilyich). In fact, Lenin liked to use this word, but only called Kautsky a “prostitute”. In relation to his closest "accomplice" Trotsky, the leader of the world proletariat twice allowed himself the affectionate "Iudushka" (meaning Shchedrin's Yudushka Golovlev). Yes, and this happened only in the pre-revolutionary period, when Trotsky actively collaborated with the "Mensheviks".
However, the name of perhaps the brightest and most charismatic of the leaders of the revolution became a household name already in 1918. Trotsky was respected and feared not only by the red commanders, but also by their opponents in the civil struggle.
So, in the original version of M. Bulgakov's play "Days of the Turbins", Captain Myshlaevsky mentions the name of Trotsky as the only frightening factor for all kinds of bandits and "independents" that neither the Germans nor the whites could cope with:
“At Petliura’s, you say how much? Two hundred thousand! These two hundred thousand heels have been smeared with lard and are blowing at the very word Trotsky! Did you see? Purely!"
After November 1927, "Trotsky", for censorship reasons, was replaced by the word "Bolshevik", but the meaning of the statement of the disappointed White Guard does not change from this. An adversary like Trotsky could not but command respect.
Childhood and youth
Leiba Davidovich Bronstein was the fifth child born in the family of a wealthy Jewish colonist, a large landowner David Leontyevich Bronstein. He spent his childhood and youth in the estate of his parents (Kherson region) and the city of Odessa, where he received a good classical education at the private school-gymnasium of St. Paul. Lev Davidovich himself describes these years with love and tenderness in his autobiographical book “My Life”. The book is an extraordinary literary work, sustained in the style of an adventurous-adventure bestseller, and is certainly worth reading and quoting.
According to Trotsky himself, social inequality hurt him from childhood. His parents achieved their well-being solely by their own labor, and therefore did not share the revolutionary views of their son, but they never refused him material support. In the years of his youth, his father “ransomed” Leiba from prison several times, hoping that he would come to his senses and “get down to business”, but these hopes were not destined to come true.
Subsequently, when the social revolution, started by the former Jewish boy Leiba Bronstein and his associates, won on the entire one-sixth of the land, old David came on foot to his son in Moscow. In his memoirs, Lev Davidovich wrote:
By that time, old Bronstein, like all landowners, was deprived of his property and seriously suffered from the Civil War in southern Russia. It didn’t fit in the head of the unfortunate parent that all this disgrace was created by his youngest son Leib under the name of some Trotsky ...
In addition to the fact that L.D. Trotsky gained fame as an outstanding politician and military leader, he was also a talented writer (it was not for nothing that one of his party nicknames was the nickname "Feather"). Trotsky masterfully mastered the Russian language, and long "times" in prisons and the need to make himself known to a wide reading audience prompted the revolutionary to methodically hone his literary gift.
Trotsky himself recalled more than once that during his time in the tsarist prisons, the main nuisance for him was mandatory walks. The prison authorities took care of the health of their "guests", and the political prisoner was indignant that he had to be distracted from literary work and waste time.
First link
Leiba Bronstein went to his first exile in 1900 and not alone. While still in prison, he married the revolutionary Alexandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya. In 1901 and 1902, the couple had two daughters, Zinaida and Nina. The naive tsarist government hoped that a measured life in Siberia and raising a family would turn the exiled settlers away from active revolutionary activity. It wasn't there! Bronstein very quickly enters into contact with the Social Democratic organizations in Siberia, writes leaflets and appeals for them. Supervision of family exiles, according to the revolutionary himself, was practically not carried out, so already in 1903 he decided to flee. Leaving his wife with two small children (the youngest Nina was not yet four months old), Lev Davidovich gets on a cart to the railway station, where he calmly gets into the car.
“In my hands was Homer in the Russian hexameters of Gnedich. In my pocket is a passport in the name of Trotsky, which I myself entered at random, not foreseeing that it would become my name for life. I was driving along the Siberian line to the west. The station gendarmes indifferently let me past them, ”the successful fugitive later recalled.
Trotsky quickly reached Samara. Under the pseudonym "Pero", he collaborated in the Leninist newspaper "Iskra", then illegally moved abroad. In London, Paris, Geneva, Trotsky met with Russian revolutionary émigrés, including Lenin. The Russian Social Democracy was actively nourished by the means of foreign capital and did not live in poverty. In 1904, Trotsky joined the future "Mensheviks", married N.I. Sedova, and already in February 1905 he again went to Russia - to lead the first Russian revolution.
Second link and escape
At one time, the Soviet "Leniniana" actively exaggerated the exploits of the leader of the world proletariat V.I. Lenin in the fight against the royal gendarmerie. It is worth recalling the leaflets sewn into felt boots by Ilyich himself, milk letters and tricks with the lower and upper shelves during searches in his apartment ... All this looks like “innocent pranks” compared to what L.D. Trotsky.
Without a doubt, the future opponent of the white generals was a much brighter, resourceful and decisive personality than the immigrant theorist V.I. Lenin. Trotsky has repeatedly shown enviable composure, extraordinary energy and ability to survive in the most extreme, sometimes incompatible with life situations. His second escape from exile, after the defeat of the 1905 revolution, is no doubt worthy of the pen of Jack London or Fenimore Cooper.
In 1907, Trotsky, with the deprivation of all civil rights, was exiled to an eternal settlement in Berezov - a small town remote from any civilization, where, as you know, the disgraced favorite of Peter I Aleksashka Menshikov whiled away his days. As soon as he arrived at the place, the exiled revolutionary decided not to waste time getting to know the local sights, but immediately ran away.
A week-long reindeer trip (700 km) in forty-degree frost, in completely wild terrain, could cost the life of any unprepared person. In addition, Trotsky came across a guide from the local northern peoples, who knew the road well, but turned out to be a bitter drunkard.
Lev Davidovich had to carry out such an operation to “sober up” the guide more than once. If caught, the fugitive settler was legally threatened with hard labor; in case of loss of the road in the taiga - inevitable death. Imagine V.I. Lenin, pushing sledges along an icy road and “sobering up” a drunken native, with all his imagination, neither Bonch-Bruevich nor Zoya Voskresenskaya could have been able to ...
However, the revolutionary Trotsky managed to get to the Perm railway and board the train. After 11 days, he met near St. Petersburg with his wife Sedova, and soon moved to Finland.
Emigration and return to Russia
From 1907 to 1917 L.D. Trotsky was in exile. In 1916, for revolutionary activities, he was exiled from France to Spain, then to the United States. Upon learning of the February Revolution, Trotsky immediately went to Russia, but along the way, in the Canadian port of Halifax, he and his family were removed from the ship by the British authorities and sent to an internment camp for sailors of the German merchant fleet. He was accused of spying for Germany. Trotsky immediately protested and got the police to carry him off the ship in their arms. Subsequently, this will become a habit for the revolutionary.
Soon, at the written request of the Provisional Government, the family was released and continued on their way. On May 4, 1917 (a month later than the German “sealed” car with Lenin) Trotsky was “exported” to Petrograd.
Revolution of 1917 and Civil War
After the failure of the Bolshevik uprising in July, Trotsky was arrested and sent to prison as a German spy. Some of his "accomplices", including Lenin, managed to escape. However, already at the end of August 1917, the Provisional Government, having imprisoned participants in the Kornilov rebellion in the Bykhov prison, for some reason freed enemies and "spies" from the "Crosses". It also provides its yesterday's opponents with complete freedom of action.
During the "Bolshevization of the Soviets" in September - October 1917, the Bolsheviks received up to 90% of the seats in the Petrosoviet. The young, energetic Trotsky was elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, elected to the Pre-Parliament, became a delegate to the Second Congress of Soviets and the Constituent Assembly.
On October 12, 1917, Trotsky formed the Military Revolutionary Committee (VRK), the main body for preparing an armed uprising. The pretext for the formation of the Military Revolutionary Committee was a possible German attack on Petrograd, or a repetition of the Kornilov speech. The Military Revolutionary Committee immediately began work to win over the units of the Petrograd garrison. Already on October 16, Trotsky, the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, orders 5,000 rifles to be issued to the Red Guards.
Lenin from Razliv demanded to start the uprising immediately. Trotsky proposes to postpone it until the convening of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in order to confront the Congress with the fact that the "dual power" regime has been abolished. Thus, the Congress was supposed to be the highest and only body of power in the country. Trotsky manages to win over the majority of the Central Committee, despite Lenin's concern about the postponement of the uprising.
Between October 21-23, the Bolsheviks hold a series of rallies among the wavering soldiers. On October 22, the Military Revolutionary Committee announced that the orders of the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District were invalid without its approval. At this stage, Trotsky's oratory greatly helped the Bolsheviks win over the vacillating parts of the garrison. On October 23, Trotsky personally "agitated" the garrison of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The talented orator was again carried in his arms.
The plan for the October Revolution was worked out by Trotsky and carried out by him completely independently. October 25, 1917 L.D. Trotsky was 38 years old, but he did not even remember it. The leader of the uprising spent the whole day at the telephone in Smolny.
His recollections of this unusual birthday are much more human than anything that has been written about the October uprising in subsequent years:
Yes, it was not enough for Trotsky to take into his own hands the state power lying on the road. Before the executors and planners of the daring political act, the question immediately arose: what to do with this power? Their foreign owners, obviously, did not count on such a grandiose success. Torn apart from the inside by its own revolution, actually defeated by Germany, in 1918 it was not possible to chew such a “fat piece”. The invaders had to resolve the dangerous situation themselves: end the war, recreate the state apparatus, build an army, defend the results of the coup d'état. Over the following years, like a wound spring, Trotsky continues to defend the gains of the Comintern in a single country.
On March 13, 1918, he resigned from the post of People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs (after the failure of his formula in Brest, which read "no peace, no war"). Already on March 14, he actually heads the Red Army as People's Commissar for Military Affairs (People's Commissar of the Sea, Pre-revolutionary Military Council) and retains this post throughout the Civil War.
According to many post-Soviet historians and publicists, as the "military leader" of Bolshevism, Trotsky showed organizational skills and undoubted oratorical talent. However, it was in the military sphere that he remained, as historian Dmitry Volkogonov emphasizes, "an amateur." During the Civil War, Trotsky did not show any special military talents, also making several strategic mistakes.
In our opinion, the claims of historians to Trotsky the military leader are completely unjustified.
It should not be forgotten that the newly-minted “commander-in-chief”, having not received a military education, as well as experience in military service, managed to “beat” much more educated and experienced opponents in the Civil War. The generals of the White armies who opposed him, for the most part, had behind them the experience of the First World War and service in the Russian General Staff. All of them, according to the biographical directory N. Rutycha, graduated from military schools and academies, where they, of course, were trained in planning and conducting strategic operations. Despite this, the illustrious generals from the infantry and cavalry lost their Russia, turning out to be powerless outcasts, taxi drivers and Parisian "clochards". Trotsky, who never served in the army, did not even have the rank of private. Nevertheless, he entered the Kremlin as a victor and remained in power until 1926-27.
Struggle for power in 1921-1927
In 1921, Lenin's deteriorating health and the actual end of the Civil War brought the question of power to the fore. The secret conclusion of the doctors, sent to the members of the Politburo of the Central Committee, emphasized the extremely serious nature of the illness of the head of state. Immediately after Lenin's stroke (May 1922), a "troika" consisting of Kamenev, Zinoviev and Stalin is formed to jointly fight with Trotsky as one of the likely successors.
At the suggestion of Kamenev and Zinoviev, the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) was established, to which Stalin was appointed. Initially, this position was understood as a technical one and therefore did not interest Trotsky in any way. The Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars was considered the head of state. Meanwhile, Stalin manages to lead the "technical" state apparatus just at the time of a particularly sharp increase in his influence.
Trotsky, in his own opinion, considered himself Lenin's sole successor and did not view Stalin and company as serious competitors. Kamenev (Rosenfeld) was his relative: he was married to Trotsky's sister. Lev Davydovich never took him seriously, as well as Zinoviev, who had long been assigned the image of a party jester.
Since 1922, in parallel with the strengthening of Stalin's influence as the head of the "technical" apparatus, his influence as the secretary of Lenin, who is retiring, has increased. Trotsky himself, in his autobiographical work My Life, admits on this occasion:
Indeed, the "resting on his laurels" Trotsky was never interested in the details or parts of party power. He was used to getting everything and did not pay attention to the little things. Stalin often visited Lenin in Gorki during his illness. Trotsky, as it turned out, had no idea where this settlement was located.
Stalin, starting in 1922, methodically placed his supporters in all key positions in the party. He pays special attention to the secretaries of provincial and district party committees, as they form delegations to party congresses. During 1923, the "troika" replaces the commanders of the military districts with "their own". Trotsky, as if not noticing what is happening around him, does nothing. He defiantly comes to meetings of the Central Committee with a French novel (as if in a toilet), makes loud scandals, slams doors, and often goes hunting.
In the autumn of 1923, while hunting, Trotsky caught a bad cold and fell ill with pneumonia. He never showed up at Lenin's funeral. Subsequently, Trotsky blamed this on Stalin, who he claimed deliberately gave the wrong date for the funeral.
Once losing real power, the second person in the state can only appeal to his authority as a leader of the revolution and the Civil War, using his oratorical and journalistic abilities.
In October 1924, seeing that the "troika" Stalin-Kamenev-Zinoviev was close to collapse, Trotsky finally decided to go on the offensive. He publishes the scandalous article "Lessons of October", in which he recalls his role as the organizer of the October Revolution, and informs readers as "compromising evidence" that Zinoviev and Kamenev were generally against the performance, and Stalin played no role in it. The article provoked the so-called "literary discussion", in which the "troika", once again united, attacked Trotsky with a counter "compromising evidence", recalling to him the non-Bolshevik past and mutual abuse with Lenin before the revolution.
The "war of compromising evidence" started by Trotsky damaged his authority much more than all previous scandals. At the plenum of the Central Committee in January 1925, Zinoviev and Kamenev demanded that Trotsky be expelled from the party. Stalin, continuing to maneuver, suggests that Trotsky not only not be expelled, but even left in the Central Committee and the Politburo, taking away from him only the key posts of the People's Commissariat of Defense and the Pre-Revolutionary Military Council. Frunze becomes the new People's Commissar for the Navy, and Voroshilov becomes his deputy.
According to Trotsky himself, he even accepted his “overthrow” with relief, since this to some extent averted accusations of preparing a “Bonapartist” military coup. The plenum of the Central Committee appoints Trotsky to a number of secondary posts: chairman of the Main Committee on Concessions (Glavkontsesskom), chairman of a special meeting at the Supreme Economic Council on product quality, chairman of the Electrotechnical Committee.
After such a blow to Trotsky, the "troika" of Zinoviev-Kamenev-Stalin finally disintegrates. Supporters of Zinoviev and Kamenev form the so-called "new opposition". The main pretext for the split is the doctrine developed by Stalin of "building socialism in a single country." Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev continued to head for the "world revolution".
Summing up the intra-party discussions of the mid-20s, it is worth noting that at present, among Stalinist historians and jingoists who have embarked on a new “great-power” platform, there is an opinion that Stalin, who did not participate in any what conspiracies with the Western powers, at that moment he was most concerned about the welfare of the country. The former Caucasian criminal always felt like a stranger in the society of re-emigrant intellectuals, "mishandled Cossacks", and therefore preferred to eliminate Trotsky and the company not only politically, but also physically.
However, the guardian of national interests decided to leave Trotsky alive for some time. A living enemy is better than a dead one, just because the fight against the foreign "opposition" can justify any excesses and lynching in the party elite.
The united opposition Trotsky-Zinoviev-Kamenev lost their war in 1926-27 without even starting it. Stalin very quickly “squeezed” them out of the state of party legality, forcing them to actually go underground. As you know, anti-government protests and opposition rallies on November 7, 1927 only led to outrages and riots on the streets of Moscow and Leningrad.
At the joint October plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission, Trotsky demands that the "Testament of Lenin" be read out, and, in accordance with it, that Stalin be removed from the post of General Secretary. Stalin was forced to announce the text of the "Testament", but it did not, contrary to the expectations of the opposition, "a bombshell". After the XV Congress of the CPSU (b), Stalin asked the plenum of the Central Committee to accept his resignation from the post of General Secretary. It was just a well-rehearsed performance. Naturally, the Central Committee, controlled by Stalin himself, did not accept the “resignation”. On the contrary, the majority of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks voted for the expulsion of Zinoviev and Trotsky from the party. In fact, the opposition was crushed.
In January 1927, Trotsky and his family went into exile in Alma-Ata. Employees of the OGPU had to carry the oppositionist out of the apartment in their arms. Trotsky reiterated all sorts of protests and actively resisted their actions, trying to raise as much noise as possible. But that didn't help him.
Emigration and death
The forcible expulsion of Trotsky from the USSR was associated with even greater difficulties: none of the European powers that accepted white emigrants wanted to give shelter to such an odious figure. In 1929 Trotsky was exiled to Turkey. Then, after being deprived of Soviet citizenship, he moved to France, in 1935 - to Norway, where there were practically no Russian emigrants. But Norway, fearing to worsen relations with the USSR, tried with all its might to get rid of the unwanted guest, confiscating all the works from Trotsky and placing him under house arrest. Trotsky was repeatedly threatened to extradite him to the Soviet government if he did not stop "stirring up the fire of the world revolution" and looking for new "ghosts of communism" in post-war Europe. Unable to withstand the harassment, Trotsky emigrated to distant Mexico in 1936, where he lived until his death. In Mexico, Trotsky completed work on the book The Revolution Betrayed, in which he called what was happening in the Soviet Union "Stalin's Thermidor." He accused Stalin of Bonapartism and the usurpation of power.
In 1938, Trotsky proclaimed the creation of the Fourth International, whose heirs still exist. In response to this, Trotsky's eldest son, Lev Sedov, died (or was deliberately eliminated by NKVD agents) in a hospital in Paris after an appendicitis operation. The fate of Trotsky's daughters from their first marriage was just as tragic: the younger Nina died of tuberculosis in 1928, and the eldest Zinaida followed her father into exile, but in 1933, being in a state of deep depression, she committed suicide.
Trotsky managed to take his personal archive into exile. This archive included copies of a number of documents signed by Trotsky during his time in power in the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, the Central Committee, the Comintern, a number of Lenin's notes addressed personally to Trotsky and not published anywhere else. Based on his archive, Trotsky in his memoirs easily quotes a number of documents he signed, including sometimes even secret ones. In the 1930s, OGPU agents repeatedly tried (sometimes successfully) to steal some of their fragments, and in March 1931 some of the documents burned down during a suspicious fire. In March 1940, Trotsky, in dire need of money and fearing that the archive would still fall into the hands of Stalin, sold most of his papers to Harvard University.
On August 20, 1940, the NKVD agent Ramon Mercader, who had previously penetrated Trotsky's entourage as a staunch follower of his, mortally wounded him in the head with an ice pick. Trotsky died of his wound the next day. The Soviet authorities publicly denied their involvement in the murder. The killer was sentenced by a Mexican court to twenty years in prison, but in 1961, Ramon Mercader, who arrived in the USSR, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin.
Leon Trotsky was born in 1879 in the village of Yanovka, Kherson province. He was the fifth child in a classical Jewish family.
Leo was educated first in Odessa, and then in Nikolaev, where he became a member of the local Marxist circle. After graduating from the Nikolaev real school, he entered the Novorossiysk University.
Beginning of revolutionary work
In 1897 he participated in the organization of the workers' union. In 1898 he went to prison for the first time. He was convicted of revolutionary activities and exiled.
First emigration to London
In 1902, he managed to escape abroad on false documents. In exile, he closely collaborated with V. Lenin, O. Martov, G. Plekhanov, either taking the side of the "old guard" led by the latter, or taking the side of the young members of the RSDLP led by V. Lenin.
Trotsky in 1905-1907
In 1905, Lev Davydovich illegally returned to Russia and headed the work of the Petrograd Soviet. In 1906 he was detained, sentenced to eternal exile in Siberia and deprived of all civil rights, but on the way to exile he again managed to escape.
Second emigration
According to a brief biography of Lev Davydovich Trotsky, during the second emigration (1906-1917) Trotsky traveled a lot. He lived in Vienna, Zurich, Paris, New York (the United States made a great impression on Trotsky).
He published various newspapers, was a freelance correspondent for the newspaper, covering events on the Eastern and Western fronts of the First World War.
Trotsky after the 17th year
In 1917, Trotsky returned to Russia and immediately became a member of the Petrograd Soviet, which was in opposition to the Provisional Government. For his activities in promoting Bolshevism, he ended up in prison, from where he left after the failure of the Kornilov rebellion. He immediately became a member of the Central Committee, head of the Petrosoviet and a member of the faction from the RSDLP in the Constituent Assembly. In fact, he was the second person in the state and the leading organizer of the October Revolution (as I. Stalin pointed out in his memoirs).
From 1917 to 1918 he served as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, from 1918 to 1924 he was People's Commissar of the Navy. In 1919, he took part in the organization of the Comintern, and also became a member of the first Politburo of the Central Committee.
power struggle
Since 1922, Trotsky began an active struggle for political primacy. I. Stalin, M. Zinoviev and D. Kamenev are against him. In 1924, immediately after the death of Lenin, Trotsky was dismissed from the post of People's Commissar for the Navy (M. Frunze was appointed).
In 1924-1925. Trotsky was almost completely removed from business, but in 1927 he unites with M. Zinoviev and D. Kamenev against Stalin. The activity of the "new opposition" was a failure. In the same year, Trotsky was expelled from the Comintern.
In 1928-1929, he was actually in exile in Alma-Ata, from where he was expelled from the country.
Last emigration
Since 1929, Trotsky was engaged in literary work. They wrote several monographs on the history of the Russian revolution. In 1938 he announced the creation of the Fourth International.
It is known that Trotsky took the archive with him into exile, the content of the documents of which largely compromised Stalin. That is why in 1940 Trotsky, who lived at that time in Mexico, was killed by the NKVD officer Ramon Markeder. The USSR officially "disowned" involvement in the murder, Markeder was put in a Mexican prison for 20 years, but after his release he moved to the USSR, where he received the title of Hero of the USSR and was awarded the Order of Lenin.
Other biography options
- The surname "Trotsky" was entered in the first false passport of Lev Davydovich when he fled abroad in 1902. Interestingly, the real "owner" of this surname was the warden of the Odessa prison.
Lev Davidovich Trotsky (Leiba Davidovich Bronstein; October 26, 1879, Yanovka farm, Kherson province, Russian Empire - August 22, 1940, Villa Coyacana, Mexico) - figure in the international workers' and communist movement, Marxist theorist, ideologist of one of its currents - Trotskyism. One of the organizers of the October Revolution of 1917 and one of the creators of the Red Army. One of the founders and ideologists of the Comintern, a member of the Executive Committee of the Comintern. In the Soviet government - People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs; in 1918–1925 - People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR, then the USSR. Member of the Politburo of the CPSU(b) in 1919-1926.
encyclopedic reference
From the family of a wealthy colonist, he was educated at the Nikolaev real school. He joined a circle of revolutionary-minded youth, who tried to conduct propaganda among the workers. Together with the Sokolovsky brothers, in 1897 he formed the Social Democratic South Russian Workers' Union. Arrested in January 1898. He spent about 2 years in prison, after which he was sentenced to 4 years in the settlement. Initially, he served the link in the village of Ust-Kutsky (since August 1900), from February 1901 - in Nizhneilimsky, then in Verkholensk, Irkutsk province. Here L.D. Trotsky actively studied Marxism and was engaged in literary activities. The newspaper Vostochnoye Obozreniye published his articles under the pseudonym Antid Oto.
In February 1902 L.D. Trotsky arrived in , where he delivered a lecture to the local Social Democrats, and in August, with the help of the Siberian Social Democratic Union, he fled to Samara. In , before entering the train car, he entered the name Trotsky on a blank passport form.
In the autumn of the same year he went to V.I. Lenin in London. After January 9, 1905, he returned to Russia, joined the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies, and then, after the arrest of G. S. Nosar (Khrustalev), was elected its chairman. In December 1905 he was arrested and in October 1906 exiled to Obdorsk, Tobolsk province, but fled to Finland from the road.
In 1907-1917 he tried to distance himself from both the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks, taking his own position on the issues of the socialist revolution. On September 25, 1917, at the suggestion of the Bolsheviks, he was again elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, took an active part in preparing the coup, and was a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee.
After the October Revolution, L.D. Trotsky was People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Communications, Military and Naval Affairs, Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council. He was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), took part in a number of all-Russian discussions. In November 1927 he was expelled from the party, in 1928 he was expelled from Moscow, and a year later from the country. Abroad L.D. Trotsky continued to fight against Stalin. Organizer of the IV International (1938). He spent the last years of his life in Mexico. On August 19, 1940, he was mortally wounded by GPU agent R. Mercader.
Irkutsk. Historical and local lore dictionary. - Irkutsk, 2011
Trotsky in Siberia
Almost two years at the very beginning of the 20th century, Trotsky spent in exile in the Irkutsk province (his daughters were born here). It was on Irkutsk land that Leiba Bronstein, thinking before escaping, what name to enter in the handed over false passport, remembering his prison guard, entered in the passport: "Trotsky". In Irkutsk, through which he fled (to Samara), his comrades brought him a suitcase with underwear, a tie, and, as he put it, " other attributes of civilization". In the book" My life. The experience of autobiography" he recalled:
Biography
Childhood and youth
Leiba Bronstein was born the fifth child in the family of David Leontievich Bronstein (1843-1922) and his wife Anna (Annetta) Lvovna Bronstein (nee Zhivotovskaya) - wealthy landowners from among the Jewish colonists of an agricultural farm near the village of Yanovka, Elisavetgrad district, Kherson province (now the village of Bereslavka Bobrinetsky district of the Kirovohrad region, Ukraine). Leon Trotsky's parents came from the Poltava province. As a child, he 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. During the years of study in Odessa (1889-1895), Leon Trotsky 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.
Beginning of revolutionary activity
In 1896, in Nikolaev, Lev Bronstein participated in a circle, together with other members of which he conducted revolutionary propaganda. 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 and Capital. The appearance of his pseudonym Trotsky dates back to the same time, it was the name of the local jailer who impressed the young Lyova (he would write it in his fake passport after escaping). In 1898, in prison, he married Alexandra Sokolovskaya, who was one of the leaders of the Union. Since 1900, he was in exile in the 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. In 1902 he fled from exile abroad; “at random” entered the name Trotsky in a fake passport, after the name of the senior warden of the Odessa prison.
Arriving in London to Lenin, Trotsky became a regular employee of the newspaper, spoke with essays at meetings of emigrants and quickly gained fame. A. V. Lunacharsky wrote about the young Trotsky:
“... Trotsky struck the foreign audience with his eloquence, education, significant for a young man, and aplomb. ... They didn’t take him very seriously because of his youth, but everyone resolutely recognized his outstanding oratorical talent and, of course, felt that this was not a chicken, but an eagle.”
First emigration
Insoluble conflicts in the editorial board of Iskra between the “old men” (G. V. Plekhanov, P. B. Axelrod, V. I. Zasulich) and the “young” (V. I. Lenin, Yu. O. Martov and A. N. . Potresov) prompted Lenin to propose Trotsky as the seventh member of the editorial board; however, supported by all members of the editorial board, Trotsky was voted down by Plekhanov in an ultimatum form.
At the II Congress of the RSDLP, in the summer of 1903, he supported Lenin so ardently that D. Ryazanov dubbed him "Lenin's club." However, the new composition of the editorial board proposed by Lenin: Plekhanov, Lenin, Martov - the exclusion of Axelrod and Zasulich from it prompted Trotsky to go over to the side of the offended minority and criticize Lenin's organizational plans.
In 1903, in Paris, Trotsky married Natalya Sedova (this marriage was not registered, since Trotsky never divorced A. L. Sokolovskaya).
In 1904, when serious political differences were revealed between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks, Trotsky moved away from the Mensheviks and became close to A. L. Parvus, who fascinated him with the theory of "permanent revolution". At the same time, like Parvus, he advocated the unification of the party, believing that the impending revolution would smooth out many contradictions.
Revolution of 1905-1907.In 1905, Trotsky illegally returned to Russia with Natalya Sedova. He was one of the founders of the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies, joined its Executive Committee. Formally, G. S. Khrustalev-Nosar was the chairman of the Council, but in fact the Council was led by Parvus and Trotsky; after the arrest of Khrustalev on November 26, 1905. The Executive Committee of the Soviet officially elected Trotsky chairman; but on December 3 he was arrested along with a large group of deputies. In 1906, at the trial of the St. Petersburg Soviet, which received wide public response, he was sentenced to eternal settlement in Siberia with the deprivation of all civil rights. On the way to Obdorsk (now Salekhard) he fled from Berezov.
Second emigration
In 1908-1912, he published the newspaper Pravda in Vienna (in 1912 the Bolsheviks founded their own newspaper Pravda with the same name, which caused much controversy). Trotsky recalled in 1923:
« During several years of my stay in Vienna, I came into fairly close contact with the Freudians, read their works and even attended their meetings at that time.».
In 1914-1915 he published the daily newspaper Nashe Slovo in Paris.
In September 1915 he took part in the work of the Zimmerwald Conference together with Lenin and Martov.
In 1916, he was expelled from France to Spain, from where he was already deported by the Spanish authorities to the United States, where he continued his journalistic activities.
Return to Russia
Immediately after the February Revolution, Trotsky headed from America to Russia, but along the way, in the Canadian port of Halifax, he and his family were removed from the ship by the British authorities and sent to an internment camp for sailors of the German merchant fleet. The reason for the detention was the lack of Russian documents (Trotsky had an American passport issued personally by President Woodrow Wilson, with attached visas to enter Russia and a British transit visa), as well as British fears about Trotsky's possible negative influence on stability in Russia. However, soon, at the written request of the Provisional Government, Trotsky was released as a well-deserved fighter against tsarism and continued his journey to Russia. On May 4, 1917, Trotsky arrived in Petrograd and became the informal leader of the Mezhraiontsy, who took a critical position in relation to the Provisional Government. After the failure of the July uprising, he was arrested by the Provisional Government and accused, like many others, of espionage; while he was charged with passing through Germany.
In July, at the VI Congress of the RSDLP (b), the “mezhraiontsy” united with the Bolsheviks; Trotsky himself, who at that time was in the "Crosses", which did not allow him to speak at the congress with the main report - "On the Current Situation", - was elected to the Central Committee. After the failure of the Kornilov speech in September, Trotsky was released, along with other Bolsheviks arrested in July.
Exile from the USSR
In 1929 he was exiled outside the USSR - to Turkey on the island of Buyukada or Prinkipo - the largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul. In 1932 he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. In 1933 he moved to France, in 1935 to Norway. Norway, fearing to worsen relations with the USSR, tried with all its might to get rid of the unwanted immigrant, confiscating all the works from Trotsky and placing him under house arrest, and Trotsky was also threatened to extradite him to the Soviet government. Unable to withstand the harassment, Trotsky emigrated to Mexico in 1936, where he lived in the house of the family of artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
In early August 1936, Trotsky finished work on the book The Revolution Betrayed, in which he called what was happening in the Soviet Union "Stalin's Thermidor." Trotsky accused Stalin of Bonapartism.
Trotsky wrote that " the lead backside of the bureaucracy outweighed the head of the revolution', while he stated that ' with the help of the petty bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy managed to tie the proletarian vanguard hand and foot and crush the Bolshevik opposition»; the strengthening of his family in the USSR aroused real indignation in him, he wrote: “ The revolution made a heroic attempt to destroy the so-called “family hearth”, that is, an archaic, musty and inert institution ... The place of the family ... was supposed to be occupied, according to the plan, by a complete system of public care and service…».
In 1938 he proclaimed the creation of the Fourth International, whose heirs still exist.
In 1938, Trotsky's eldest son, Lev Sedov, died in a hospital in Paris after an operation.
Trotsky archive
During his exile from the USSR in 1929, Trotsky was able to take out his personal archive. This archive included copies of a number of documents signed by Trotsky during his time in power in the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, the Central Committee, the Comintern, a number of Lenin's notes addressed personally to Trotsky and not published anywhere else, as well as a number of valuable information for historians about the revolutionary movement before 1917, thousands letters received by Trotsky, and copies of letters sent to him, telephone and address books, etc. Based on his archive, Trotsky in his memoirs easily quotes a number of documents he signed, including sometimes even secret ones. In total, the archive consisted of 28 boxes.
Stalin turned out to be unable to prevent (or he was allowed, which Stalin later called in personal conversations a big mistake, like expulsion) Trotsky to take out his archive, however, in the 30s, GPU agents repeatedly tried (sometimes successfully) to steal some of their fragments, and in March 1931, part of the documents burned down during a suspicious fire. In March 1940, Trotsky, in dire need of money and fearing that the archive would still fall into the hands of Stalin, sold most of his papers to Harvard University.
At the same time, a number of other documents related to the activities of Trotsky are, according to the historian Yu. G. Felshtinsky, also in other places, in particular, in the archive of the President of the Russian Federation, in the archive of the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, etc. .
Murder
In May 1940, an unsuccessful attempt was made on Trotsky's life. The assassination attempt was led by a secret agent of the NKVD Grigulevich. The group of raiders was led by the Mexican artist and staunch Stalinist Siqueiros. Bursting into the room where Trotsky was, the attackers fired aimlessly at all the cartridges and hurriedly disappeared. Trotsky, who managed to hide behind the bed with his wife and grandson, was not hurt. According to Siqueiros, the failure was due to the fact that the members of his group were inexperienced and very worried.
Early in the morning of August 20, 1940, the NKVD agent Ramon Mercader, who had previously penetrated Trotsky's entourage as a staunch supporter, came to Trotsky to show his manuscript. Trotsky sat down to read it, and at that time Mercader struck him on the head with an ice pick, which he carried under his cloak. The blow was struck from behind and from above on the seated Trotsky. The wound reached 7 centimeters in depth, but Trotsky, after receiving the wound, lived for almost a day and died on August 21. After cremation, he was buried in the courtyard of a house in Koyokan.
The Soviet authorities publicly denied their involvement in the murder. The killer was sentenced by a Mexican court to twenty years in prison; in 1960, Ramon Mercader, who was released from prison and arrived in the USSR, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin.
Compositions
- Trotsky L. My life. Experience of autobiography, in 2 volumes. Berlin: Granit, 1930.
Literature
- Shaposhnikov V. N. Trotsky - an employee of the "Eastern Review" // Izv. Sib. Department of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR: Ser. history, philology and philosophy. 1989. Issue. 3.
- Startsev V.I. L. D. Trotsky: Pages watered, biographies. M., 1989;
- Ivanov A. Leon Trotsky in Siberian exile // Irkutsk Land. 1998. No. 10.
- Trotsky L.D. My life. Autobiographical experience. M., 1991.
Links
- Trotsky, Lev Davidovich. // Wikipedia
Revolutionary, military and statesman of the RSFSR and the USSR, the founder of Trotskyism - one of the currents of Marxism.
Deputy Chairman of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, People's Commissar for Communications, Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR and the USSR. Member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
Family
From the family of a large landowner and tenant. Father - David Leontyevich Bronstein. Mother - Anna Lvovna Bronstein. Wives: Alexandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya, Natalya Ivanovna Sedova. Children from the first marriage: Zinaida, Nina. Children from the second marriage: Sergey and Lev.
Education
In 1888 - 1895. studied at the Lutheran real school of St. Paul in Odessa, then at the real school in the city of Nikolaev, which he graduated in 1896. Then he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Novorossiysk University, which he soon left.
revolutionary activity
In 1897 he joined a populist circle in Nikolaev. There he first became acquainted with the Marxist socio-political doctrine. In the same year, he was among the founders of the Social Democratic organization "South Russian Workers' Union". Conducted revolutionary propaganda among the workers. In 1898 he married A. Sokolovskaya, who was also one of the leaders of the Union. January 28, 1898 was arrested. He spent 2 years in the prisons of Nikolaev, Kherson, Odessa and Moscow. During his imprisonment, he finally realized himself as a Marxist. Since 1900, he served a link in Eastern Siberia. First in Ust-Kut, then in Nizhneilimsk and Verkholensk, Irkutsk province. In exile, he first proved himself as a journalist by publishing his first articles in the newspaper Vostochnoye Obozrenie (Irkutsk). There he met one of the Iskra agents. I received an offer to write articles and correspondence for this newspaper. In 1902, he escaped from exile, using a false passport in the name of the prison guard N. Trotsky. In Samara, he was placed at the disposal of the bureau of the Russian Iskra organization. Completed a number of assignments in Kharkov, Poltava and Kyiv. At the end of October of the same year, he illegally crossed the border and arrived in London. Here he met members of the editorial board of the Social Democratic newspaper Iskra, and became one of its leading authors. However, Lenin's proposal to include Trotsky in the editorial board met with G.V. Plekhanov, who assessed the journalistic abilities of the new author rather low. Plekhanov's unwillingness to strengthen the position of the "young" (V.I. Lenin, Yu.O. Martov and A.N. Potresov) in the editorial office also played a significant role. Actively spoke with essays to Russian emigrants. As a representative of the Siberian Union of the RSDLP, he was a delegate to its II Congress. During the inter-factional struggle at the congress, he supported the position of Lenin and Plekhanov on questions of party organization and the agrarian question. At the same time, he supported the wording of the 1st paragraph of the Charter of the RSDLP, proposed by Yu.O. Martov. He also protested against Lenin's proposals to reduce the composition of the Iskra editorial board to three people, which closed the possibility for Trotsky personally to enter its composition. After the congress he joined the Mensheviks. In the pamphlet Our Political Tasks (1903) he sharply criticized Lenin's position. In September 1904, due to a conflict with Plekhanov, he broke with the Mensheviks and advocated the unification of all intra-party factions. In early 1905, after the events of Bloody Sunday, he returned to Russia. Initially, he conducted revolutionary work in Kyiv, then in St. Petersburg. In 1905 he was one of the most radical theorists of Russian social democracy. He called for the preparation of an armed uprising. In his works of this period, he developed the theory of "permanent revolution", put forward by Parvus. He assumed that in the conditions of the political weakness of the liberal bourgeoisie in Russia, the Social Democracy must fulfill the mission of the guiding force of the revolution. The conquest by the Social Democrats, he believed, must inevitably lead to socialist transformations. The result of this process would be the struggle of the working class against both the bourgeoisie and the peasantry. In this situation, the main condition for the victory of the proletarian revolution in economically and culturally "backward" Russia was the success of the world revolution, its victory in the advanced capitalist countries. In October 1905 he joined the Executive Committee, and then was elected a member of the Presidium of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. Became its de facto leader. On November 26, the chairman of the Council, G.S. Nosar. The executive committee elected Trotsky chairman. December 3, 1905 was arrested at a meeting of the St. Petersburg Council. In prison, he wrote a number of works outlining the theory of "permanent revolution" ("Results and Prospects", "In Defense of the Party", "Revolution and Its Forces"). In the autumn of 1906, his speech at the trial of members of the St. Petersburg Soviet made a wide resonance. He was sentenced to a life-long settlement in Siberia with the deprivation of all rights. Was sent to Obdorskoye, Tobolsk province, but on the way to exile, in February 1907, escaped to Finland. In 1907 he participated in the V Congress of the RSDLP. He represented the position of the non-factional Social Democrats. After the congress he settled in Vienna. Member of the Stuttgart Congress of the II International. Collaborated in the SPD organ "Die Neue Zeit" (1908). He published the book "Russia in the Revolution" (1909). He was one of the publishers and editors of the organ of the non-factional Social Democrats - the newspaper Pravda (Vienna, 1908 - 1910), which from January 1910 became an all-party organ. He was the initiator of the Party Conference in Vienna (August 1912), an alternative to the Prague Conference of Lenin's supporters. Its goal was to create a bloc of non-factional Social Democrats with various factions of the Mensheviks, the Bolshevik "conciliators" and the Vperyod (August Bloc) group. In 1912 - 1913. was a foreign correspondent for the newspaper Kyiv Mysl. The author of reports on the First and Second Balkan Wars, in which he was very critical of the glorification of the struggle of the South Slavs against Turkey. One of the organizers of the publication of the legal social democratic journal Borba (St. Petersburg, 1914).
Trotsky abroad
August 3, 1914, after the outbreak of the First World War, he moved to Zurich, then to Paris. Collaborated in the social democratic newspaper Our Word (Paris, 1914 - 1916). Since 1915 he became its de facto editor. He sharply criticized the position of the defencist Mensheviks. In his articles he promoted the idea of the United States of Europe, the path to which was to be opened by the socialist revolution in the leading capitalist countries. The author of the slogan "No victories, no defeats." Participant of the Zimmerwald Conference (September 5 - 8, 1915). On September 14, 1916, after the ban of the newspaper Nashe Slovo, he was expelled from France for anti-war propaganda. He left for Spain, from where he was exiled to Cuba. September 13, 1917 arrived in the USA. At the beginning of 1917, he became one of the editors of the Novy Mir newspaper (New York).
Trotsky and Soviet power
After the overthrow of the monarchy in Russia, he left for his homeland, but on the way he was arrested in Canada. Released at the request of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies after negotiations between the Provisional Government and the British Ambassador. May 4, 1917 arrived in Petrograd. Soon Trotsky becomes the leader of the Mezhraiontsy organization. Arrested after performances in Petrograd on July 3-4. After the collective entry of the "mezhraiontsy" into the RSDLP (b), at its VI Congress (July 26 - August 3) he was elected a member of the party's Central Committee. After the defeat of the Kornilov rebellion, he was released in September 1917. He gained great popularity among workers, soldiers and sailors, often speaking to them at rallies in the Modern circus. On September 25, he was elected Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. He was also elected to the Pre-Parliament, leading its Bolshevik faction. He organized the departure of the Bolsheviks from this institution. He was one of the organizers and leaders of the October Revolution. Thanks to his own oratory, he persuaded the garrison of the Peter and Paul Fortress and other parts of the Petrograd garrison to the side of the Bolsheviks. Delegate of the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets. November 8 - March 13, 1918 - People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the first composition of the Council of People's Commissars. He was the initiator of the publication of secret diplomatic documents of the Russian Empire and the Provisional Government. His platform, which proposed a unilateral withdrawal of Russia from the war and the demobilization of the army without concluding a peace treaty, received the support of the majority of the members of the Central Committee. During the second stage of the peace talks in Brest-Litovsk, he headed the delegation of Soviet Russia. He adhered to the tactics, agreed with Lenin, of dragging out the negotiations, counting on the rise of the revolutionary movement in Germany. After the presentation of an ultimatum by Germany, he announced, in accordance with the decisions of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, that the Council of People's Commissars refused to conclude peace on the unfavorable terms offered to it. He announced the cessation of the war by Russia unilaterally and the demobilization of the army. The author of the appeal of the Council of People's Commissars "The socialist fatherland is in danger", written in response to the onset of the offensive of the German troops. He resigned from the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, admitting the defeat of his strategic line. When discussing the issue in the Central Committee, he supported Lenin's idea of an immediate conclusion of peace. He secured the victory of his position in the February 23 vote by abstaining with his supporters. Since March 14 - People's Commissar for Military Affairs of the RSFSR. Since March 28 - Chairman of the Supreme Military Council. Since September 6, Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR. In an effort to increase the combat effectiveness of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, he introduced one-man command and actively recruited the officers of the Russian Empire. He restored the staffing of the army through general mobilization. He fought against the "military opposition", which denied unity of command in the army and the need to recruit "military experts". In August 1918, he formed the “train of the Pre-revolutionary Military Council”, in which he traveled along the fronts, exercising direct control over military operations. In November 1919, he was one of the organizers of the defense of Petrograd against the White Guard troops of Yudenich. For this, in November of the same year he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Participated in the development and conduct of many of the most important operations of the Civil War. He proposed a plan for the defeat of Denikin through the advance of the Red Army through Kharkov and the Donbass. At the same time, the campaign unleashed by Trotsky against N. Makhno in the summer of 1919 became one of the reasons for the defeat of the Soviet troops. At the same time, he took cruel measures in order to strengthen military discipline, including the use of executions of a significant part of the soldiers who fled from the positions. He was one of the apologists for the "Red Terror", defending this political course in his work "Terrorism and Communism" (1920). The Civil War strengthened Trotsky's influence in the party and state leadership.
Trotsky is one of the founders of the Comintern, was the author of its Manifesto.
In January 1920, in order to carry out economic tasks on the ground, he organized the First Labor Army on the basis of the former 3rd Army of the Red Army. However, the experiment did not give the expected results and the army was disbanded at the beginning of 1922. In the spring of 1920, on behalf of the Central Committee, he developed theses on the transition to peaceful economic construction, adopted by the 9th Congress of the RCP (b). In March 1920, he put forward a proposal to replace the surplus appropriation tax with a tax in kind, which was rejected by Lenin and the majority of the Central Committee. In March 1920 - April 1921. served as People's Commissar of Railways. Thanks to emergency measures, he managed to bring the country's transport system out of a critical state. Influenced by his experience, he advocated the further development of state centralization and the militarization of labor. He considered labor service, the mobilization of labor force, as the main feature of the socialist model of the socio-economic structure. Became the initiator of the discussion about the trade unions, which unfolded at the end of 1920. He proposed to turn the trade unions into the drive belts of the militarized industry. However, he was defeated. In 1922, due to increased dissatisfaction with Stalin's actions in the party leadership, he received Lenin's offer to take the post of deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, but rejected it. At the end of 1922, Mr.. took the side of Lenin in the discussion on the national question, the monopoly of foreign trade, the reorganization of the highest party bodies. From November 1923 - People's Commissar of the USSR for Military and Naval Affairs. In 1923, I.V. united in the struggle against Trotsky. Stalin, G.E. Zinoviev and L.B. Kamenev. After Lenin's departure from participation in the political struggle in March 1923, he spoke on the pages of Pravda against the bureaucratization of the party leadership and policies aimed at curtailing intra-party democracy. In a series of articles, the New Deal called for increased initiative, collective initiative, and criticism within the party. He was defeated in the internal party struggle thanks to the intrigues of Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev. In May 1924, at the XIII Congress of the RCP(b), he demanded that the "Testament of Lenin" be read out and, in accordance with it, Stalin be removed from the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee. However, Trotsky's position was condemned by the congress as a departure from the ideas of V.I. Lenin. His participation in the inner-party struggle was recognized as a manifestation of factionalism.
Career decline
At the end of January 1925, he resigned from the posts of chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council and People's Commissar of War. In 1926, Trotsky became one of the leaders of the so-called "united opposition" against Stalin's course towards "building socialism in one country." At the same time, L. Trotsky himself not only did not deny the need for socialist construction, but was one of the main supporters of industrialization in the USSR. For opposition activities in October 1926, Trotsky was expelled from the Politburo of the Central Committee, in October 1927 - from the Central Committee, on November 16 of the same year - from the party. In January 1928 he was exiled with his wife, N. Sedova, and son, L. Sedov, to Alma-Ata. He corresponded with his supporters. In January 1929 he was exiled from the USSR to Turkey. Lived on about. Principo. In July 1933 he moved to France, in June 1935 - to Norway. In January 1937 he received political asylum in Mexico. In February 1932, he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. During the period of Trotsky's last emigration, his books were published that laid the foundation for the Trotskyist analysis of the Soviet social model: My Life, History of the Russian Revolution, Stalin's School of Falsifications, Revolution Betrayed (1936). From July 1929 he published the Opposition Bulletin. Criticized "bureaucratic absolutism" in the USSR. He categorically rejected the accusation that Stalin put into practice the ideas of the Left Opposition. In 1937, he participated in the work of an international conference that recognized the Moscow trials against the former leaders of the anti-Stalin inner-party opposition as falsified. Trotsky assessed the terror and bureaucratization of the system of government in the USSR as the results of the Thermidorian degeneration of the party. In 1938 he became the organizer of the IV International. Killed by NKVD agent R. Mercader. Sons and many relatives of Trotsky were also subjected to repression or were killed.
Lev Davidovich Trotsky (Leiba Bronstein)- Soviet party and statesman Lev Davidovich Trotsky (real name Leiba Bronstein) was born on November 7 (October 26, O.S.) 1879 in the village of Yanovka, Elisavetgrad district, Kherson province (Ukraine) in a wealthy family. From seven ... ... Encyclopedia of Newsmakers
Lev Davidovich Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ... Wikipedia
Trotsky, Lev Davidovich- Lev Davidovich Trotsky. TROTSKY (real name Bronstein) Lev Davidovich (1879-1940), politician. In the social democratic movement from 1896, from 1904 he advocated the unification of the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. In 1905, he mainly developed ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
Perhaps this article or section needs to be shortened. Reduce the amount of text in accordance with the recommendations of the rules on the balance of presentation and the size of articles. More information may be on the talk page ... Wikipedia
LEV DAVIDOVICH BRONSHTEIN (TROTSKY) (1879-1940), Russian professional revolutionary, publicist, theorist of socialism, military leader. Lev Davidovich Bronstein was born on October 26, 1879 in Yanovka in Ukraine. For the first time I got acquainted with the socialist ... ... Collier Encyclopedia
Trotsky L. D. (1879 1940) b. October 26, 1879 in the village. Yanovka, Elizavetgrad district, Kherson province. and until the age of 9 he lived in the small estate of his father, a Kherson colonist. For 9 years, T. was sent to the Odessa real school, studied there until 7 ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia
Trotsky Lev Davidovich- (real name Bronstein) (18791940), revolutionary, party and statesman. Graduated from a real school. In the revolutionary movement since 1896. Arrested in 1898, exiled to Eastern Siberia; fled in August 1902, soon emigrated. ... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"
TROTSKY (real name Bronstein) Lev Davidovich (1879 1940) Russian politician. In the social democratic movement since 1896. From 1904 he advocated the unification of the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. In 1905, he basically developed the theory of permanent ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
- (real name Bronstein) (1879 1940), revolutionary, party and statesman. Graduated from a real school. In the revolutionary movement since 1896. Arrested in 1898, exiled to Eastern Siberia; fled in August 1902, soon emigrated ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)
Books
- Stalin. Volume I, Lev Davidovich Trotsky. This book will be produced in accordance with your order using Print-on-Demand technology. No matter how many more books about Joseph Vissarionich are published, they will all cause controversy and accusations of ...
- Europe and America, Leon Davidovich Trotsky. This book will be produced in accordance with your order using Print-on-Demand technology. This book was published by Gosizdat in 1926, and never again in the Soviet Union ...
