Trotsky Lev Davidovich: biography, photos and interesting facts. Brief biography of Trotsky

1. Leiba Bronstein, was born the fifth child in a wealthy family of Jewish colonists David and Annette Bronstein, in the Ukrainian farm of the Kherson province, now the Kirovograd region in 1879. Leiba early began to stand out among his peers with eloquence, intelligence and popularity.
2. The boy's parents did not believe in God, as was customary then, they spoke openly about it, but the father nevertheless organized private lessons for his son in reading the original Bible, which did not bring results in spiritual education.
3. But school sciences the boy was actively interested, especially in history, social sciences, literature and foreign languages. In a few decades, the whole world will talk about this boy.

Beginning of revolutionary activity

• after the gymnasium, in 1889, Leiba began to study at a real school in Odessa, lived and was brought up by his maternal uncle, and six years later graduated with honors. After training, abandoning the idea of ​​entering the university, the young man goes to Nikolaev, where he already shows interest in socialism there, attends a secret Marxist circle;
• already at the age of 17, he organizes the South Russian Workers' Union, conducts agitation among the workers. A year later, Bronstein is arrested by the tsarist authorities, and he spends several years in prison. In 1900, he was sentenced to exile and sent to the Irkutsk province along with his comrades, the Marxist Alexandra Sokolovskaya and her brothers;
• while in prison and exile, Leiba Davidovich is engaged in self-education, studies religious journals and actively writes articles for the weekly newspaper Vostochnoye Obozreniye under the pseudonym Antid Oto, his articles are popular with workers. In the same place, in exile, he marries Sokolovskaya and within two years they have two daughters born one after another.

Nickname brought glory

• here, in Siberia, the activist Bronstein comes into contact with the future revolutionaries F. Dzerzhinsky and M. Uritsky. Thanks to his publications abroad, the leaders of the RSDLP became interested in Leo, and they help him escape with a fake passport with a new name, Lev Trotsky. So, for good luck, Leiba borrowed a surname from an Odessa prison guard;
• by agreement with his wife, Trotsky alone flees Siberia in the summer of 1902. By autumn, having reached London, he meets Vladimir Lenin, who likes the thinking and energy of Leon Trotsky, he recommends him as an employee of the Iskra newspaper, and Lev, in turn, quickly gains popularity with his eloquent speeches to the emigre public.

The paths of the revolutionaries parted

Trotsky ardently supported Lenin at the II Congress of the RSDLP in 1903, but disagreements arose in the editorial office of the newspaper and, soon after the reorganization of the editorial board of the newspaper proposed by Lenin, Lev Davidovich went over to the opposite side of the minority and spoke critically about Lenin's plans. From mutual sympathy not a trace remains, although, most recently they walked the streets of London together and played chess. So the path of Trotsky and Lenin diverged in different directions.

In the same year, in Paris, Leon Trotsky marries Natalia Sedova without divorcing his previous wife. Natalya will give birth to two sons, will be a reliable wife to Trotsky until the end of his life, which ended in Mexico.

I gave my soul to October

• at the time of the beginning of revolutionary actions, Leon Trotsky lives in Switzerland, but one of the first to return, bursting into the thick of revolutionary events. Organizational skills, oratory, resourcefulness - at the age of 25 he becomes the head of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' Deputies. In December 1905 he was arrested and in prison he writes his famous work “Results and Prospects” about a continuous revolution, where the power of the workers should replace tsarism;
• in 1907, the revolutionary Trotsky will be sentenced to a life-long settlement in Siberia with the deprivation of all civil rights, but on the way he will again make an escape, which Lenin promotes. For ten years of emigration, he vehemently advocates and promotes Marxism, trying to smooth out the split with Lenin. Leon Trotsky returned to his homeland in 1917;
• his name is on a par with the name of Lenin. The authority of Trotsky, the second man after Lenin, no one doubts. He created the Red Army and led it during the Civil War, won a number of victories as a military leader. But during this period he was known for his cruelty both to the White Guards and to his guilty fighters of the Red Army;

• the leader of the Revolution, Vladimir Lenin, offers Trotsky the highest leadership position- Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, but he refuses. Trotsky was part of the top military and political leadership in the early years Soviet power, led the People's Commissariat for Foreign, Maritime and Military Affairs;
• but with all his talents and genius, Leiba Davidovich was ambitious and unaccommodating, arrogant and self-satisfied, did not hide his superiority over others, which aroused the irritation and hostility of his comrades. He liked to call himself a "revolutionary in everything";
• before the revolution, Leon Trotsky rushed between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks for a long time and joined the latter only in 1917, he was considered an upstart, although, according to the old Bolsheviks, he did a lot for the party. During his leadership of the army, Trotsky used brutal styles of government, which created enemies around him in the form of Stalin and Zinoviev;
• after the death of Lenin, there were applicants for the Bolshevik throne, in a sharp struggle I. Stalin took it, Trotsky and his associates were removed from their posts, and Lev Davidovich was expelled from the party and sent to Kazakhstan, and then from the USSR, to Turkey. After some movements abroad, Trotsky stopped with his wife in Mexico, where he did not stop his publications, and found his last refuge there.

Facts from the personal life of Leon Trotsky

• was married twice. With the first, Alexandra Sokolovskaya, he married against the will of his parents, did not divorce, throughout their lives they remained friends and were in correspondence. With his second wife, Natalia Sedova, Leiba Trotsky lived civil marriage, both sons bore the wife's surname;
• during the struggle for power, all four children, the first wife, Trotsky's sister died;
• descendants of Lev Bronstein - great-grandchildren, live in Mexico City, great-great-grandchildren live in three countries: Russia, Mexico and Israel;
• Trotsky liked to visit Sigmund Freud and was fond of psychoanalysis;
• shortly before his death, the already middle-aged Trotsky fell in love with the talented Spanish artist Frida Kahlo, a bisexual, drunkard, a lame, but energetic and temperamental girl.

Films about Leon Trotsky:

1. "Trotsky", 1993, Russia.
2. "Trotsky", 2009, comedy, Canada.
3. "Leo Trotsky - the secret of the world revolution", 2007, Russia.
4. "Trotsky", 2017, mini-series, Russia.

What do you think of Trotsky? We are waiting for your comments.

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 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 Kyiv, 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 (Kyiv, then St. Petersburg), collaborated with a member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP Leonid Borisovich Krasin, 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 on 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 " New world". In March 1917, when returning to Russia, Trotsky and his family were 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 of the restoration 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 a special agent and organized her 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 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 a pistol at his victim. "Don't kill him," Trotsky stopped the guards. "We need him to 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 tenacity with which this mortally wounded man fought for his life shocked even the doctors. In their practice, there has never been a case when 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, the assassin of Trotsky received the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Among the people who left their mark on the history of Russia, there are not many politicians with such a confusing biography as Leon Trotsky. There is still fierce debate about his role in many events that took place in Russia, and then in the USSR in the first 40 years of the 20th century.

So who was Lev Davidovich Trotsky? The biography of a famous politician presented in this article will help you learn about some of his decisions that influenced the fate of millions of people.

Childhood

Trotsky Lev was the 5th child of David Leontyevich and Anna Lvovna Bronstein. The couple were wealthy Jewish landowners-colonists who moved to the Kherson province from the Poltava region. The boy was named Leiba, and he was fluent in Russian and Ukrainian, as well as Yiddish.

By the time of birth younger son the Bronsteins had 100 acres of land, a large garden, a mill and a repair shop. Near Yanovka, where the Leiba family lived, there was a German-Jewish colony. There was a school where he was sent at the age of 6. After 3 years, Leiba was sent to Odessa, where he entered the Lutheran real school of St. Paul.

Beginning of revolutionary activity

After graduating from the 6th grade of the school, the young man moved to Nikolaev, where in 1896 he joined a revolutionary circle.

For getting higher education Leiba Bronstein had to leave his new comrades and go to Novorossiysk. There he easily entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the local university. However, the revolutionary struggle had already captured the young man, and he soon left this university to return to Nikolaev.

Arrest

Bronstein, who took the underground nickname Lvov, became one of the organizers of the South Russian Workers' Union. At the age of 18, he was arrested for anti-government activities, and for two years he wandered through prisons. There he became a Marxist and managed to marry Alexandra Sokolovskaya.

In 1990, the young family was exiled to Irkutsk, where Bronstein had two daughters. They were sent to Yanovka. In the Kherson region, the girls ended up under the care of their grandparents.

Abroad

In 1992, it became possible to escape from exile. Leib entered the name Trotsky Lev at random into a fake passport. With this document, he was able to go abroad.

Finding himself out of reach of the Russian Okhrana, Trotsky went to London, where he met with V. Lenin. There he repeatedly spoke to emigrants-revolutionaries. Leon Trotsky (a biography of his early youth is presented above) struck everyone with his intellect and oratorical talent. Lenin, who sought to weaken the "old men," suggested that he be included in the editorial board of Iskra, but Plekhanov categorically opposed this.

While in London, Trotsky married Natalia Sedova. However, officially, Alexandra Sokolova remained his wife until the end of her life.

In 1905

When the revolution broke out in the country, Trotsky and his wife returned to Russia, where Lev Davidovich organized the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies. On November 26, he was elected its chairman, but already on November 3 he was arrested and sentenced to a life-long settlement in Siberia. At the trial, Trotsky delivered a fiery speech against violence. She made a strong impression on the audience, among whom were his parents.

Second emigration

On the way to the place where he was supposed to live in exile, Trotsky was able to escape and moved to Europe. There he made several attempts to unite the disparate parties of the socialist persuasion, but did not succeed.

In 1912-1913. Trotsky, as a military correspondent for the newspaper Kyiv Mysl, wrote 70 reports from the fronts of the Balkan wars. This experience helped him organize work in the Red Army in the future.

When did the first World War, Trotsky Lev fled from Vienna to Paris, where he began to publish the newspaper Our Word. In it, he published his articles of a pacifist orientation, which was the reason for the expulsion of the revolutionary from France. He moved to the United States, where he hoped to settle down, as he did not believe in the possibility of an imminent revolution in Russia.

In 1917

When the February Revolution broke out, Trotsky and his family went by ship to Russia. However, on the way he was removed from the ship and sent to a concentration camp, as he could not show his Russian passport. Only in May 1917, after long ordeals, did Trotsky and his family arrive in Petrograd. He was immediately included in the Petrosoviet.

In the following months, Leon Trotsky, whose brief biography before the revolution you already know, was engaged in the demoralization of the garrison of the Northern capital. In the absence of Lenin, who was in Finland, he actually led the Bolsheviks.

In the days of the revolution

On October 12, Trotsky headed the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, and a few days later he ordered 5,000 rifles to be issued to the Red Guards.

During the days of the October Revolution, Lev Davidovich was one of the main leaders of the rebels.

In December 1917, it was he who announced the beginning of the "Red Terror".

In 1918-1924

At the end of 1917, Trotsky was included in the first composition of the Bolshevik government as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. During Lenin's ultimatum demanding the acceptance of German conditions, he took the side of Vladimir Ilyich, which ensured his victory.

In the autumn of 1918, Trotsky was appointed chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR, that is, he became the first commander in chief of the newly formed Red Army. The following years, he practically lived on a train, which traveled on all fronts.

During the defense of Tsaritsyn, Leon Trotsky entered into a frank confrontation with Stalin. Over time, he began to understand that there could be no equality in the army, and began to introduce the institute of military experts into the Red Army, seeking to reorganize it and return to the traditional principles of building the armed forces.

In 1924, Trotsky was removed from the post of chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council.

In the second half of the 20s

By the beginning of 1926, it became clear that the long-awaited world revolution. Leon Trotsky became close to the Zinoviev/Kamenev group on the basis of unity political views on the issue of "building socialism in one country". Soon the number of oppositionists increased, and Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya joined them.

In 1927, the Central Control Commission considered the cases of Trotsky and Zinoviev, but did not expel them from the party, but issued a severe reprimand.

Exile

In 1928, Trotsky was exiled to Alma-Ata, and a year later he was expelled from the USSR.

In 1936, Lev Davidovich settled in Mexico, where he was sheltered by the family of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. There he wrote a book entitled The Revolution Betrayed, in which he sharply criticized Stalin.

Two years later, Trotsky announced the creation of an alternative communist organization to the Comintern, the Fourth International, which gave rise to many political movements that exist on this moment in different corners planets.

Before last day his life, Lev Davidovich worked on a book where he proved the version of Lenin's poisoning on the orders of the "father of all peoples."

On August 20, 1940, Trotsky was assassinated by NKVD agent Ramon Mercader. However, attempts on his life were made from the very first days of his arrival in Mexico.

After his death, Trotsky was one of the few victims of Stalin who was never rehabilitated.

Now you know what life path Trotsky Lev Davidovich passed. short biography politics tells only a small part of the events in which he was directly involved. Many consider him a villain, and for some, Trotsky is strong personality true to its ideals.

Trotsky, briefly personality

Lev Davidovich Trotsky short biography for children

Lev Davidovich Trotsky, in short, one of the most prominent participants revolutionary movement 20th century, the founder of Trotskyism - one of the directions of Marxism. The scope of this politician's activity on an international scale is simply amazing. He was one of the organizers of the 1917 revolution along with Lenin. Trotsky was involved in the creation of the Red Army and was its first leader. He held high positions in the new Soviet government.

Speaking of Trotsky, it is necessary to dwell briefly on his pseudonym. The real name of the revolutionary is Leib Bronstein. The name Trotsky was chosen by him at random. That was the name of the warden in the prison where the revolutionary was.

Trotsky was born in 1879 in a large, prosperous family of a landowner in the Kherson province. Having entered the school in Odessa, he immediately became the first student. He continued his studies in the city of Nikolaev, where he began to attend a revolutionary circle. In 1898, he was imprisoned for revolutionary activities, where two events happened to Trotsky. important events in his life. He becomes a Marxist and marries.

After two years of imprisonment, he goes into exile in Siberia, but soon escapes from there abroad under the pseudonym of Trotsky. Since then, this name has been assigned to him until the end of his life.
Abroad, Trotsky begins vigorous activity. He is an ardent supporter of Lenin, works as a correspondent for the revolutionary newspaper Iskra, and marries (unofficially) a second time. He never divorced his first wife.

During the revolution of 1905, Trotsky secretly returned to Russian empire. There he was arrested a second time, and in a highly publicized trial, he was stripped of all rights and exiled to Siberia forever. He safely escaped from the country right from under the convoy carrying the convicts to the settlement. For a long time lived in exile in Austria, France and the USA.

Trotsky's talent, as an outstanding organizer and orator, was most clearly revealed during the years of the 1917 revolution and the Civil War. At one time he headed the Bolshevik faction. He was one of the leaders and organizers of the 1917 uprising.

During the Civil War, Trotsky became the first leader of the Red Guard. The army he created with the help of iron discipline was able to defeat the enemy, but after the end of the Civil War, Trotsky, with his authoritarian management style, was no longer needed.
After Lenin's death, Trotsky participated in the struggle for power. Gradually, he is removed from all posts.

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" (continuous) revolution: according to Trotsky, the proletariat of Russia, having carried out the bourgeois stage, will begin the socialist stage of the revolution, which will win only with the help of the world proletariat. During the revolution of 1905-07, he proved himself to be an outstanding organizer, orator, and publicist; de facto leader of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies, editor of its Izvestia. He belonged to the most radical wing in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. In 1908-12 editor of the newspaper Pravda. In 1917, chairman of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, one of the leaders of the October armed uprising. In 1917-18 People's Commissar for foreign affairs; in 1918-25 people's commissar for military affairs, chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic; one of the founders of the Red Army, personally directed its actions on many fronts of the Civil War, widely used repression. Member of the Central Committee in 1917-27, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee in October 1917 and in 1919-26. The sharp struggle between Trotsky and JV Stalin for leadership ended in Trotsky's defeat - in 1924 Trotsky's views (so-called Trotskyism) were declared a "petty-bourgeois deviation" in the RCP(b). In 1927 he was expelled from the party, exiled to Alma-Ata, in 1929 - abroad. He sharply criticized the Stalinist regime as a bureaucratic degeneration of proletarian power. Initiator of the creation of the 4th International (1938). Killed in Mexico by an NKVD agent, Spaniard R. Mercader. Many of his works describe the history of Russia. Author of literary critical articles, memoirs "My Life" (Berlin, 1930).

TROTSKY Lev Davidovich(real name and surname Leiba Bronstein), Russian and international political figure, publicist, thinker.

Childhood and youth

Born in the family of a wealthy landowner from among the Jewish colonists. His father learned to read only in his old age. Trotsky's childhood languages ​​were Ukrainian and Russian; he never mastered Yiddish. He studied at a real school in Odessa and Nikolaev, where he was the first student in all disciplines. He was fond of drawing, literature, composed poetry, translated Krylov's fables from Russian into Ukrainian, participated in the publication of a school handwritten magazine. During these years, his rebellious character first manifested itself: due to a conflict with a French teacher, he was temporarily expelled from the school.

Political universities

In 1896, in Nikolaev, young Leo joined a circle whose members studied scientific and popular literature. At first, he sympathized with the ideas of the Narodniks and vehemently rejected Marxism, considering it a dry and alien teaching. Already during this period, many traits of his personality appeared - a sharp mind, a polemical gift, energy, self-confidence, ambition, a tendency to leadership.

Together with other members of the circle, Bronstein taught political literacy to the workers, took an active part in writing proclamations, publishing a newspaper, acted as a speaker at rallies, putting forward demands of an economic nature.

In January 1898 he was arrested along with like-minded people. During the investigation, Bronstein studied English, German, French and Italian, studied the works of Marx, becoming a fanatical adherent of his teachings, got acquainted with the works of Lenin. He was convicted and sentenced to a four-year exile in Eastern Siberia. While under investigation in Butyrka prison, he married Alexandra Sokolovskaya, a comrade-in-arms in revolutionary activities.

From the autumn of 1900 the young family was in exile in the Irkutsk province. Bronstein worked as a clerk for a Siberian millionaire merchant, then collaborated in the Irkutsk newspaper Vostochnoye Obozreniye, where he published literary critical articles and essays on Siberian life. Here, for the first time, his extraordinary ability to master the pen appeared. In 1902, with the consent of his wife, Bronstein, leaving her with two young daughters - Zina and Nina, fled abroad alone. When escaping, he entered his new surname, borrowed from the overseer of the Odessa prison, Trotsky, in a fake passport, under which he became known to the whole world.

First emigration

Arriving in London, Trotsky became close to the leaders of Russian social democracy living in exile. He delivered lectures defending Marxism in the colonies of Russian émigrés in England, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Four months after his arrival from Russia, Trotsky, at the suggestion of Lenin, who highly appreciated the abilities and energy of the young adept, was co-opted to the editorial board of Iskra.

In 1903 in Paris, Trotsky married Natalya Sedova, who became his faithful companion and shared all the ups and downs that abounded in his life.

In the summer of 1903, Trotsky participated in the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democracy, where he supported Martov's position on the issue of the party charter. After the congress, Trotsky, along with the Mensheviks, accused Lenin and the Bolsheviks of dictatorship and the destruction of the unity of the Social Democrats. But in the fall of 1904, a conflict broke out between Trotsky and the leaders of Menshevism over the question of the attitude towards the liberal bourgeoisie, and he became a "non-factional" Social Democrat, claiming to create a trend that would stand above the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.

Revolution 1905-1907

Having learned about the beginning of the revolution in Russia, Trotsky illegally returned to his homeland. He appeared in the press, taking radical positions. In October 1905 he became deputy chairman, then chairman of the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies. In December, together with the council, he was arrested.

In prison, he created the work "Results and Prospects", where the theory of "permanent" revolution was formulated. Trotsky proceeded from the originality of the historical path of Russia, where tsarism should be replaced not by bourgeois democracy, as the liberals and Mensheviks believed, and not by the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry, as the Bolsheviks believed, but by the power of the workers, which was supposed to impose its will on the entire population of the country and rely on the world revolution.

In 1907, Trotsky was sentenced to permanent settlement in Siberia with the deprivation of all civil rights, but on the way to the place of exile he fled again.

Second emigration

From 1908 to 1912, Trotsky published the newspaper Pravda in Vienna (this name was later borrowed by Lenin), and in 1912 tried to create an "August bloc" of Social Democrats. This period included his most acute clashes with Lenin, who called Trotsky "Judas".

In 1912, Trotsky was a war correspondent for Kievskaya Mysl in the Balkans, and after the outbreak of the First World War, in France (this work gave him military experience that would later come in handy). Taking a sharply anti-war position, he attacked the governments of all the warring powers with all the might of his political temperament. In 1916 he was expelled from France and sailed to the USA, where he continued to appear in print.

Return to revolutionary Russia

Having learned about the February Revolution, Trotsky went to his homeland. In May 1917 he arrived in Russia and took the position of sharp criticism of the Provisional Government. In July, he joined the Bolshevik Party as part of the Mezhraiontsy. In all its brilliance, he showed his talent as an orator at factories, in educational institutions, in theaters, in squares, in circuses, as usual, prolific acted as a publicist. After the July days, he was arrested and ended up in prison. In September, after his release, professing radical views and expounding them in a populist form, he became the idol of the Baltic sailors and soldiers of the city garrison and was elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. In addition, he became chairman of the military revolutionary committee created by the council. He was the actual leader of the October armed uprising.

At the pinnacle of power

After the Bolsheviks came to power, Trotsky became People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. Participating in separate negotiations with the powers of the "quadruple bloc", he put forward the formula "we stop the war, we do not sign peace, we demobilize the army," which was supported by the Bolshevik Central Committee (Lenin was against it). Somewhat later, after the resumption of the offensive German troops, Lenin managed to achieve the acceptance and signing of the terms of the "obscene" peace, after which Trotsky resigned as people's commissar.

In the spring of 1918, Trotsky was appointed to the post of people's commissar for military and naval affairs and chairman of the revolutionary military council of the republic. In this position, he has shown himself to be the highest degree talented and energetic organizer. To create a combat-ready army, he took decisive and cruel measures: taking hostages, executions and imprisonment of opponents, deserters and violators of military discipline, and no exception was made for the Bolsheviks. Trotsky did great job to attract former tsarist officers and generals ("military experts") to the Red Army and defended them from the attacks of some high-ranking communists. During the Civil War, his train ran along railways on all fronts; The People's Commissar for Military Affairs directed the actions of the fronts, delivered fiery speeches to the troops, punished the guilty, rewarded those who distinguished themselves.

In general, during this period, there was close cooperation between Trotsky and Lenin, although on a number of issues of a political (for example, a discussion about trade unions) and military-strategic (fight against the troops of General Denikin, the defense of Petrograd from the troops of General Yudenich and the war with Poland) nature between them there were serious disagreements.

At the end of the civil war and the beginning of the 1920s. Trotsky's popularity and influence reached a climax, and a cult of his personality began to take shape.

In 1920-21, he was one of the first to propose measures to curtail "war communism" and move to the NEP.