Lev Davidovich Trotsky is a Russian revolutionary figure of the 20th century, the ideologist of Trotskyism, one of the currents of Marxism. Twice exiled under the monarchy, deprived of all civil rights in 1905. One of the organizers of the October Revolution of 1917, one of the creators of the Red Army. One of the founders and ideologists of the Comintern, a member of its Executive Committee.

Leon Trotsky (real name Leiba Bronstein) was born on November 7, 1879 into a family of wealthy tenant landowners. In 1889, his parents sent him to study in Odessa with his cousin, the owner of a printing house and a scientific publishing house, Moses Schnitzer. Trotsky was the first student in the school. 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.

He began to conduct revolutionary propaganda at the age of 17, joining a revolutionary circle in Nikolaev. On January 28, 1898, he was arrested for the first time and spent two years in prison, it was then that he joined the ideas of Marxism. During the investigation, he studied the Gospels in English, German, French and Italian, read the works of Marx, got acquainted with the works of Lenin.

Leiba Bronstein at the age of nine, Odessa

A year before going to prison for the first time, Trotsky joined the South Russian Workers' Union. One of its leaders was Alexandra Sokolovskaya, who became Trotsky's wife in 1898. Together they went into exile in the Irkutsk province, where Trotsky contacted Iskra agents, and soon began to cooperate with them, receiving the nickname "Pero" for his penchant for writing.

It was in exile that it was discovered that Trotsky was suffering from epilepsy inherited from his mother. He often lost consciousness and constantly had to be under the supervision of doctors.

“I came to London as a big provincial, and in every sense. Not only abroad, but also in St. Petersburg, I had never been before. In Moscow, as in Kyiv, he lived only in a transit prison. In 1902, Trotsky decided to escape from exile. It was then, when receiving a fake passport, that he entered the name Trotsky there (the name of the senior warden of the Odessa prison, where the revolutionary was kept for two years).
Trotsky went to London, where Vladimir Lenin was then. The young Marxist quickly gained fame by making presentations at meetings of émigrés. He was extremely eloquent, ambitious and educated, everyone, without exception, considered him an amazing speaker. At the same time, for supporting Lenin, he was nicknamed "Lenin's club", while Trotsky himself was often critical of Lenin's organizational plans.

In 1904, serious disagreements began between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. By that time, Trotsky had established himself as a follower of the "permanent revolution", moved away from the Mensheviks and married a second time to Natalia Sedova (the marriage was not registered, but the couple lived together until Trotsky's death). In 1905, together they illegally returned to Russia, where Trotsky became one of the founders of the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies. On December 3, he was arrested and, as part of a high-profile trial, was sentenced to eternal exile in Siberia with the deprivation of all civil rights, but fled on the way to Salekhard.

The split between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks was brewing, supported by Lenin, who in 1912 at the Prague conference of the RSDLP announced the separation of the Bolshevik faction into an independent party. Trotsky continued to advocate unification of the party, organizing the "August Bloc", which the Bolsheviks ignored. This cooled Trotsky's desire for a truce, he preferred to step aside.

In 1917, after the February Revolution, Trotsky and his family tried to get to Russia, but were removed from the ship and sent to a concentration camp for interned sailors. The reason for this was the lack of documents from the revolutionary. However, he was soon released at the written request of the Provisional Government as a well-deserved fighter against tsarism. Trotsky criticized the Provisional Government, so he soon became the informal leader of the "mezhraiontsy", for which he was accused of espionage. His influence on the masses was enormous, so he played a special role in the transition to the Bolshevik side of the soldiers of the rapidly decomposing Petrograd garrison, which was of great importance in the revolution. In July 1917, the Mezhraiontsy united with the Bolsheviks, and Trotsky was soon released from prison, where he was on charges of espionage.

While Lenin was in Finland, Trotsky actually became the leader of the Bolsheviks. In September 1917, he headed the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, and also became a delegate to the II Congress of Soviets and the Constituent Assembly. In October, the VRC (Military Revolutionary Committee) was formed, consisting mainly of Bolsheviks. It was the committee that was engaged in armed preparations for the revolution: already on October 16, the Red Guards received five thousand rifles; rallies were held among the hesitant, at which Trotsky's brilliant oratorical talent was again manifested. In fact, he was one of the main leaders of the October Revolution.

Leon Trotsky, Vladimir Lenin, Lev Kamenev

“The uprising of the masses needs no justification. What happened is an uprising, not a conspiracy. We tempered the revolutionary energy of the Petersburg workers and soldiers. We openly forged the will of the masses for an uprising, and not for a conspiracy.”

After the October Revolution, the Military Revolutionary Committee remained the only authority for a long time. Under him, a commission for combating counter-revolution, a commission for combating drunkenness and pogroms were formed, and food supplies were established. At the same time, Leni and Trotsky took a tough stance against political opponents. On December 17, 1917, in his address to the Cadets, Trotsky announces the beginning of the stage of mass terror against the enemies of the revolution in a harsher form: “You should know that no later than in a month the terror will take very strong forms, following the example of the great French revolutionaries. The guillotine will await our enemies, and not just prison. It was then, formulated by Trotsky, that the concept of "red terror" appeared.

Soon Trotsky was appointed People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the first composition of the Bolshevik government. On December 5, 1917, the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee was dissolved, Trotsky handed over his affairs to Zinoviev and completely immersed himself in the affairs of the Petrograd Soviet. The "counter-revolutionary sabotage" of the civil servants of the old Ministry of Foreign Affairs began, suppressed by the publication of the secret treaties of the tsarist government. The situation in the country was also complicated by diplomatic isolation, which was not easy for Trotsky to overcome.

To improve the situation, he announced that the government would take an intermediate position "neither peace nor war: we do not sign treaties, we stop the war, and we demobilize the army." Germany refused to tolerate such a position and announced an offensive. By this time, the army did not actually exist. Trotsky admitted the failure of his policy and resigned from the post of People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs.

Leon Trotsky with his wife Natalia Sedova and son Lev Sedov

On March 14, 1918, Trotsky was appointed to the post of people's commissar for military affairs, on March 28 to the post of chairman of the Supreme Military Council, in April - military commissar for maritime affairs, and on September 6 - chairman of the revolutionary military council of the RSFSR. At the same time, the formation of a regular army begins. Trotsky became in fact its first commander in chief. In August 1918, Trotsky's regular trips to the front began. Several times Trotsky, risking his life, speaks even to deserters. But practice has shown that the army is not capable, Trotsky is forced to support its reorganization, gradually restoring unity of command, insignia, mobilization, a single uniform, military greetings and awards.

In 1922, Joseph Stalin was elected General Secretary of the Bolshevik Party, whose views did not coincide with those of Trotsky. Stalin was supported by Zinoviev and Kamenev, who believed that the rise of Trotsky threatened with anti-Semitic attacks on the Soviet regime, condemned him for factionalism.

Lenin dies in 1924. Stalin took advantage of Trotsky's absence from Moscow to nominate himself as "heir" and consolidate his position.

In 1926, Trotsky allied himself with Zinoviev and Kamenev, whom Stalin began to oppose. However, this did not help him, and soon followed by exclusion from the party, deportation to Alma-Ata, and then to Turkey.

Hitler's victory in February 1933 was regarded by Trotsky as the biggest defeat of the international workers' movement. He concluded that the Comintern was rendered incapacitated by Stalin's openly counter-revolutionary policies and called for the creation of the Fourth International.

In 1933, Trotsky was granted a secret asylum in France, which the Nazis soon discovered. Trotsky leaves for Norway, where he writes his most significant work, The Revolution Betrayed. In 1936, at a show trial in Moscow, Stalin called Trotsky an agent of Hitler. Trotsky is expelled from Norway. The only country that gave refuge to the revolutionary was Mexico: he settled in the house of the artist Diego Rivera, then in a fortified and carefully guarded villa on the outskirts of Mexico City - in the city of Coyocan.

After Stalin's speeches in Mexico, an International Joint Commission to Investigate the Moscow Trials was organized. The commission concluded that the accusations were slanderous and that Trotsky was not guilty.

The Soviet secret services kept Trotsky under close surveillance, having agents among his associates. In 1938, under mysterious circumstances in Paris, his closest colleague, the eldest son Lev Sedov, died after an operation in a hospital. His first wife and his youngest son Sergei Sedov were arrested and subsequently shot.

Leon Trotsky was killed with an ice pick in his home near Mexico City on August 24, 1940. The executor was an NKVD agent, the Spanish Republican Ramon Mercader (pictured), who infiltrated Trotsky's entourage under the name of Canadian journalist Frank Jackson.

Mercader received 20 years in prison for the murder. After his release in 1960, he emigrated to the USSR, where he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. According to some estimates, the assassination of Trotsky cost the NKVD about five million dollars.

The ice pick that killed Trotsky

From the testament of Leon Trotsky: “There is no need for me to refute the stupid and vile slander of Stalin and his agents here again: there is not a single spot on my revolutionary honor. Neither directly nor indirectly have I entered into any behind-the-scenes agreements or even negotiations with the enemies of the working class. Thousands of Stalin's opponents died victims of similar false accusations.

For forty-three years of my conscious life I remained a revolutionary, of which forty-two I fought under the banner of Marxism. If I had to start over, I would, of course, try to avoid these or those mistakes, but the general direction of my life would remain unchanged. I see a bright green strip of grass under the wall, clear blue skies above the wall, and sunshine everywhere. Life is Beautiful. May future generations cleanse it of evil, oppression, violence, and enjoy it fully.

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Introduction
3. Struggle for power. Exile. Death
Conclusion
List of sources and literature

Introduction

RelevanceTopics. Lev Davidovich Trotsky (Bronstein) is one of those major historical figures whose fate, replete with dramatic twists and turns, is of great interest to researchers. This is the personality of a very important revolutionary and politician, and not only on a Russian, but also on an international scale. On his life path there were many mistakes, blunders, recessions, but he also had many ups and downs, merits before the revolution. He was one of the most popular people of that time, but had very few supporters. There were few Trotskyists in the country. When voting in the party, in the course of general party discussions, debates at congresses, this was always noticeable. Trotsky was valued for his intelligence, oratory, journalism, organizational skills, but very many in the party could not forgive him that he treated everyone as if condescendingly, constantly emphasizing his intellectual superiority, was convinced of his genius and even imposed this idea on others. Today they argue and talk about Trotsky, just like 70 years ago. They speak with hatred and reverence, malice and admiration. A man of unusual fate leaves no one indifferent. The portrait of Leon Trotsky cannot be unambiguously written in either black or white. The evolution of public assessments of the famous revolutionary figure has described a full arc: from the enthusiastic glorification of the great leader of the world revolution to anathematizing him, and finally, it comes to a calm and objective perception of a bright, complex and ambiguous personality who has taken his place in the gallery of historical portraits. In this course work, we will try to give an objective historical assessment of the personality of Lev Davidovich Trotsky.

Historiography. We have already mentioned that Trotsky is an outstanding ambiguous personality and it is not surprising that the number of works about him in different languages in the aggregate is several dozen. The main part of the books about Trotsky is not just politicized, but written from a position of hatred towards him, or the literature is expressed in apologetic tones.

In the Soviet historiography of the Stalin period, he was portrayed as the embodiment of absolute evil, a notorious enemy of Soviet power. Subsequently, while retaining the basic Stalinist myths, Soviet authors only moved him from the "vanguard" to the "wagon train" of reaction. "Perestroika" historiography continued to endow him with demonic features, but now he (at the suggestion of the writer-general D. Volkogonov) has turned into a "demon of the revolution" Volkogonov D.A. Trotsky. "Demon of the Revolution" - M., 2011; His own. Trotsky: A political portrait. - M., 1992.T. 1-2. . Two-volume D.A. Volkogonov is useful to researchers with new archival materials, first extracted from previously classified funds, but it is an attempt to create a portrait rather than a biography of Trotsky.

A completely different image of Trotsky is drawn by another historiographic tradition, for which he is not a demon, but a prophet of revolution and genuine communism. It is in this vein that the largest work of recent decades on the ideas and activities of Trotsky and his followers after the revolution is sustained - the seven-volume study by V. Rogovin "Was there an alternative?" Rogovin V.Z. "Trotskyism": a look through the years. - M., 1992. - T. 1. . Having collected rich factual material, gleaned mainly from published sources, the author did not avoid idealizing his hero, presenting him to us as an impeccable politician. The work of Isaac Deutscher is also characterized by a communist bias. In his three-volume biography, Deutscher I. Trotsky: An Armed Prophet. 1879 - 1921. - M., 2006; his own. Trotsky: An unarmed prophet. 1921 - 1929. - M., 2006; his own. Trotsky: Exiled Prophet. 1929 - 1940. - M., 2006. Trotsky appears to be the only one who openly opposed Stalinism, right up to his tragic end.

At the disposal of readers and researchers there are a lot of short essays and articles devoted to particular problems, but there is almost no versatile and detailed biography of Trotsky, but here we should highlight the reliable and noteworthy article by A.V. Pantsova Pantsov A.V. Lev Davidovich Trotsky // Questions of history. 1990. No. 5. pp. 65 - 87. .

Another attempt to explore the life path of Leon Trotsky was made by the Kharkov historian G.I. Chernyavsky G.I. Chernyavsky Leon Trotsky. Revolutionary. 1879-1917. - M., 2010. . He set himself the goal of highlighting Trotsky's biography as objectively as possible, without hatred and enthusiasm, Black Hundred and Stalinist myths, and, in my opinion, the author undoubtedly succeeded in this. Chernyavsky also did a great job of publishing documents of Trotsky and the Trotskyist opposition from the American archives: together with Yu.G. Felshtinsky compiled a nine-volume collection "L.D. Trotsky's Archive", now freely available on the Internet Trotsky's Archive (In 9 volumes) [Electronic resource] / Under the general. ed.G.I. Chernyavsky, Yu.G. Felshtinsky. - Kharkov., 1999-2001. T. 1-9. URL: http: //www.lib.ru/TROCKIJ (date of access: 04/17/2015). .

Target term paper to study the personality and political activity of L.D. Trotsky.

Tasks term paper:

1. Describe the early biography and the beginning of political activity.

2. Consider Trotsky's role in the 1917 revolution and the Civil War.

3. Explore Trotsky's participation in the struggle for power, the final stage of life in exile and death.

Chronologicalframeworkresearch cover the entire period of Trotsky's life, respectively, it is 1879 - 1940.

Geographicframeworkresearch include the territory of the former USSR, places of Trotsky's first and second emigration - London, Paris, New York, and places associated with exile and murder - Alma-Ata, Turkey, France, Norway, Mexico.

An objectresearch: personality and political activity of L.D. Trotsky.

Itemresearch: key and controversial points in the biography of Trotsky, characterizing him as a personality and political leader.

Sourcebase course work are the collected works of Trotsky in Russian Trotsky L. My life. Autobiographical experience. - M., 1991; His own. Trotsky L.D. Diaries and Letters / Ed. ed. SOUTH. Felshtinsky. - M., 1994., magazines published under his leadership, press materials, documents of parties and organizations with which he was associated, and all kinds of materials of personal origin not only of Trotsky, but also of his contemporaries. Of the published materials concentrated in foreign archives, the four-volume compilation compiled by Yu.G. Felshtinsky Yu.G. Felshtinsky Trotsky Archive: The Communist Opposition in the USSR. - M., 1990.T. 14. . Its continuation is the nine-volume documentary "Archive of L.D. Trotsky" also prepared by Felshtinsky and Chernyavsky, as noted earlier, the Trotsky Archive (In 9 volumes) published on the Internet [Electronic resource] / Under the general. ed.G.I. Chernyavsky, Yu.G. Felshtinsky. - Kharkov., 1999-2001.T. 1-9. URL: //http: //www.lib.ru/TROCKIJ (date of access: 04/19/2015). .

Methodsresearch: the work is based on such principles of historical research as the principle of objectivity, which involves considering historical reality as a whole, with the help of facts and studying them together; the principle of consistency, which takes into account all aspects and relationships of research and allows us to consider the object of research as a set of interacting elements; the principle of historicism, which includes the consideration of all historical facts, phenomena and events in accordance with specific historical circumstances, in their interdependence, and the principle of relying on historical sources, since without relying on them, our research would not be scientific and historical.

The following methods of historical research are used in the work: the historical-genetic method (retrospective), which allows to show the cause-and-effect relationships and patterns of the development of a historical event; problem-chronological method, which involves the division of broad topics into a number of narrow problems, each of which will be considered in chronological order; the historical-comparative method, with the help of which it is possible to identify both general and special features in the development of phenomena and events; historical-typological method, which enables us to consistently consider the dynamics of historical processes and classify historical phenomena and events.

Structurework. The course work consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, a list of sources and references.

trotsky revolution civil war

1. Early biography and the beginning of political activity

Bronstein Lev Davidovich (pseudonym Trotsky) was born on October 25, 1879 - in the family of a wealthy landowner. “My childhood was not a childhood of hunger and cold. By the time I was born, my parental family already knew prosperity. But it was a severe prosperity of people rising up from poverty and not wanting to stop halfway. All muscles were tense, all thoughts were directed to work and accumulation "Cit. By. Trotsky L. My life. Autobiographical experience. - M., 1991. S. 23. . Young Leva saw how hard it was for his father to get well; he also saw that the neighbors envied him, not wanting to do anything themselves. The spirit of frugality and hoarding constantly reigned in the family. "The instincts of acquisition, the petty-bourgeois way of life and outlook - I set off from them with a sharp push, and set off for life" Ibid. S. 96. . Why did this happen? Perhaps it was a simple childish desire to do everything the other way around, perhaps the school influenced.

In 1888, Trotsky entered the preparatory class of the Odessa Real School of St. Paul. At the school, Trotsky very soon showed his ambitious aspirations: "during the teachings, he showed great diligence, all the time he went first." Lyova read a lot from childhood: "Nature and people, not only in school, but also in the later years of my youth, occupied a smaller place in my spiritual life than books and thoughts" Ibid. S. 74. . Also in his youth, Trotsky was fond of the theater: Leo was struck by the "witchcraft of the theater." "Love for the word accompanied me from an early age, sometimes weakening, sometimes growing, but in general, undoubtedly, strengthening. Writers, journalists, artists remained for me the most attractive world, in which access is open only to the elite" Ibid. S. 101. .

A significant event was the discovery of myopia in Leo. The need to wear glasses brought him a feeling of joy, since, in his opinion, they gave significance to Chernyavsky G.I. Leon Trotsky. Revolutionary. 1879-1917. - M., 2010. S. 27. . “Unexpectedly for me, it turned out that I was short-sighted. I was taken to an eye doctor, and he prescribed glasses for me. It cannot be said that this upset me: after all, glasses gave me significance. I was not without pleasure looking forward to my appearance in glasses in Yanovka. But for my father, the glasses turned out to be an unbearable blow. He believed that all this was pretense and self-importance, and categorically demanded that I take off my glasses. In vain I convinced him that I did not see the letters on the blackboard in the class and did not make out the signs on the street. I had to in Yanovka, wear only secretly" Cited. By. Trotsky L. My life. Autobiographical experience. S. 80. .

But the years of study were not only joyful at all: "the memory of the school remained painted, if not in black, then in gray." There were conflicts with teachers at the school more than once, for which Trotsky was once even expelled from the school (the next year he was accepted again). And the "regime of heartlessness and bureaucratic formalism" itself could not help but irritate the future revolutionary. "There was a deep dislike for the existing system, for injustice, for arbitrariness. From where? From the conditions of the era of Alexander III, from police arbitrariness, landlord exploitation, bureaucratic bribery, national restrictions. From the whole social atmosphere in general" Ibid. S. 133. . In parallel with Trotsky's dull enmity towards the political regime of Russia, an idealization of the abroad - Western Europe and America - was imperceptibly developing, an idea was created of a high, uniform, embracing culture without exception. Later, his idea of an ideal democracy was associated with this. Trotsky very soon became, as we say today, the informal leader of a group of young people who were looking for an outlet for their overwhelming desire to be active "for the good of society." This largely predetermined Trotsky's choice of his future activities. In 1896, in Nikolaev, where Trotsky was finishing his last year of studies at a real school, he and his friends were able to form the South Russian Workers' Union, which had up to 200 members, mostly city workers. Being a member of a semi-legal organization, and even more so one of its leaders, flattered Trotsky's vanity, gave him special weight, perhaps not so much in his own eyes as in the opinion of those around him. Nature rewarded Lev Bronstein with a beautiful appearance; blue lively eyes, lush black hair, regular features were complemented by good manners and the ability to dress with taste. Many admired him, and many disliked him - talent is rarely forgiven to anyone. Over time, the awareness of one's exclusivity formed Trotsky's pronounced egoistic and egocentric features of Volkogonov D.A. Trotsky. "Demon of the Revolution" - M., 2011. S. 10. . It was these qualities that were distinguished later in Trotsky, who knew him closely from the years of study and communication in Odessa and Nikolaev, professor of medicine G.A. Ziv. In his opinion, Trotsky’s individuality was expressed not in knowledge and not in feeling, but in will, “To actively manifest one’s will, to rise above everyone, to be everywhere and always the first - this always constituted the main essence of Bronstein’s personality,” Ziv wrote, “the rest of the sides his psychologies were only service superstructures and annexes" Ziv G. A. Trotsky. Characteristics (according to personal recollections). - New York, 1921. S. 12. .

The young technician Ivan Andreevich Mukhin, the Sokolovsky brothers and sister, the workers Korotkov, Babenko, Polyak and others took an active part in the activities of the Soyuz, which did not last long. Basically, the work was reduced to rewriting and reproduction of social-democratic texts on a hectograph, distributing them among shipyard workers and other enterprises.

The leadership of the Soyuz was inexperienced. Conspiracy - at a primitive level. It is quite natural that provocateurs infiltrated the organization. One of them bore, Trotsky later recalled, the surname Schrenzel. On January 28, 1898, Bronstein, Shvigovsky, and other organizers of the "Union" were arrested by Volkogonov D.A. Decree. op. P. 15. . Young Lev Bronstein did not waste time - and in prison he was engaged in self-education. Using school knowledge of German and French, he also learned English and Italian, read a lot, tried to write a serious work on the essence of Freemasonry and the materialistic understanding of history. “Relying on my school acquaintance with German and French, I, verse by verse, read the Gospel also in English and Italian. In a few months, I made significant progress, thus forward. For several months I diligently read books on the history of Freemasonry, which were brought to me by relatives and friends from the city. By. Trotsky L. My life. Autobiographical experience. pp. 160-162. .

On the way to Eastern Siberia, where he was exiled for four years, L. Bronstein first heard about Vladimir Ulyanov and studied his book "The Development of Capitalism in Russia". The prison cells, one might say, finally turned the young revolutionary into a Social Democrat.

At this time, he finally got along with A. Sokolova, who sympathized with him. They got married in a Moscow transit prison in 1899. By the autumn of 1900, their daughter Zina was born, the family settled in the village of Ust-Kut, Irkutsk province. In the same places, Trotsky met with the young F.E. Dzerzhinsky, M.S. Uritsky. In exile in the Irkutsk province, Trotsky took an active part in the life of the settlers. Under the pseudonym Antid Oto, he contributed to the local newspaper Vostochnoye Obozreniye. His sharp, brightly written articles attracted attention to him in foreign circles of the RSDLP. Soon Trotsky received an invitation from the editors of Iskra to work in the newspaper. It strengthened the decision to escape. After spending a total of more than a year in exile, Trotsky, leaving his wife and two young daughters, fled abroad. His flight led to the breakup of the family, although at first neither he nor Alexandra expected this.

In 1902, on a rainy autumn morning, he appeared in London at the apartment of V.I. Lenin. Trotsky was received very cordially. Lenin was impressed by the sharpness of his judgments, the desire to defend his opinion. In addition, Trotsky very energetically carried out any Leninist instructions. On March 2, 1903, V.I. Lenin in a letter to G.V. Plekhanov offered to co-opt Trotsky as a member of the Iskra editorial board. He gave him a very flattering description: “A man, undoubtedly, with remarkable abilities, convinced, energetic, who will go even further,” wrote V. I. Lenin. “And in the field of translations and popular literature, he will be able to do a lot” Lenin V. AND. Full coll. op. - M., 1970. T. 46. S. 277. . But Plekhanov defiantly rejected the articles of Trotsky sent to him by Lenin, he retained his hostility towards the latter until the end of his life; Despite this, Trotsky continued to work actively under the leadership of Lenin.

In the spring of 1903, Trotsky visited Brussels, Liege and Paris, in the circles of the Russian revolutionary emigration, he delivered an essay on the topic: "What is historical materialism and how socialist revolutionaries understand it." Lenin became interested in the topic and suggested to Trotsky that the abstract be reworked into an article for Zarya, the theoretical organ of Social Democracy. However, he flatly refused: "I did not dare to come out with a purely theoretical article next to Plekhanov and others." By. Trotsky L. My life. Autobiographical experience. S. 200. .

In London, Trotsky began to intensively study socialist literature. "I began to eagerly absorb the published issues of Iskra and the books of Zarya. It was brilliant literature, combining scientific depth with revolutionary passion. I fell in love with Iskra, was ashamed of my ignorance and tried with all my might to overcome it as soon as possible" There. S. 195. .

During one of his trips to Paris, he met Natalya Sedova, a young woman who also participated in the revolutionary movement. She was three years younger than Trotsky (born in 1882 and survived him by almost 20 years, died in 1962 on the outskirts of Paris), Natalia's father was a Don Cossack who had become a merchant of the first guild, and her mother came from an impoverished gentry family. Sedova became infatuated with Trotsky, divorced her husband and became Trotsky's second wife. They could not enter into an official church marriage, since Lev Davidovich did not divorce Alexandra and, formally, until the October Revolution of 1917, remained the husband of A.L. Sokolovskaya. He lived with Sedova until the end of his life. They had two sons - Lev (1906) and Sergei (1908).

In 1903, Lev Davidovich participated in the II Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party with a mandate from the Siberian Union of the RSDLP. Here it becomes clear that Trotsky did not at all possess those qualities of an obedient follower that Lenin Chernyavsky G.I. prescribed for him. Decree. op. S. 56. . The congress was held from July 17 (30) to August 10 (23), first in Brussels, and then (after the actual prohibition of its work by the Belgian police) in London.

Trotsky was an active participant in the congress, in the minutes of S.V. Tyutyukin discovered over a hundred of his performances Tyutyukin S.V. Lev Davidovich Trotsky // Historical silhouettes. - M., 1991. S. 205. . It was then that the closeness between Lenin and Trotsky collapsed. The congress, which began with hopes for amicable work, as is known, split when discussing the Rules, especially its first paragraph. The dispute was about the degree of centralism in the newly created party, about the future composition of the Iskra editorial board. Recalling these events later, Trotsky wrote: “My whole being protested against this ruthless cutting off of the old people (Akselrod, Zasulich). My break with Lenin at the second congress resulted from this indignation. His behavior seemed to me unacceptable, terrible, outrageous. because it was politically correct and, consequently, organizationally necessary. By. Trotsky L. My life. Autobiographical experience. S. 220. . But this is how he assessed these events many years later, and then with all the ardor of youth Trotsky, whom D.B. Ryazanov called "Lenin's cudgel", fell upon his yesterday's idol. Although Trotsky's position made a negative impression on Lenin, he nevertheless did not lose hope that he would change his position. Even during the work of the congress, on behalf of Lenin, Dmitry Ulyanov turned to him, trying to reason with him. But, as Trotsky wrote, "I flatly refused to follow them." Naturally, further cooperation between Lenin and Trotsky became impossible.

Trotsky returned more than once to clarifying the reasons for his departure from Lenin at the Second Congress. There were several reasons. In "My Life" he names them. First, of the members of the Iskra editorial board, although Trotsky supported Lenin, he stood closer to Martov, Zasulich and Axelrod. "Their influence on me was undeniable" Ot. By. Trotsky L. My life. Autobiographical experience. S. 219., - he testified. Secondly, it was in Lenin that Trotsky saw the primary source of "encroachments" on the unity of the Iskra editorial board, while the idea of a split in the collegium seemed to him blasphemous. And finally, thirdly (and this is the most significant reason), Trotsky’s unwillingness to submit to anyone, in this case, to the “revolutionary centralism” professed by Lenin, which “is a rigid, imperative and demanding principle. In relation to individual people and to entire groups of yesterday's like-minded people, he often takes the form of ruthlessness" Ibid. S. 219. .

It seems that the point was not Lenin's "ruthlessness" at all. The question of Trotsky's transition to the position of Menshevism is much more complicated than his personal ambitions. At that time, in essence, he was only approaching the realization of the revolutionary strategy and tactics of struggle. He did not yet have any solid convictions that had passed the test of experience. He too superficially represented the essence of the disagreements between Lenin and other "Iskra-ists" on program questions.

From the vagueness of ideological positions, the precariousness of the political platform also followed, which was aggravated by the same tendency to change principles under the influence of one or another person, the circumstances of the moment, and other - at first glance secondary, but entailing serious consequences - aspects of the political situation. This feature of Trotsky's behavior predetermined the most important feature of him as a politician, and then a theoretician of Trotskyism.

After the congress, Trotsky, together with Martov, Axelrod and other Menshevik leaders, set out to eliminate the principles for creating a revolutionary party proposed by Lenin at the Second Congress. It already looked a little like waging an ideological dispute. Trotsky continued the intolerant, defiant tone of speeches in his first book, Our Political Tasks (Tactical and Organizational Questions), published in 1904 in Geneva, with a dedication to P.B. Axelrod. This book was called "the manifesto of Russian Menshevism" for a reason. Its purpose, according to Trotsky himself, was to challenge the meaning of Lenin's works What Is to Be Done? and "One step forward, two steps back." However, Trotsky did not like much in the position of the Mensheviks either. In particular, he was constantly annoyed by the cautious possibilist policy of the Russian variety of right-wing opportunism, with an eye to the position of the authorities. Therefore, while disagreeing with the Bolsheviks regarding party building and the role of the peasantry in the revolution, Trotsky at the same time instinctively gravitated towards the decisive forms of struggle of the Bolsheviks, which pursued far-reaching revolutionary goals in this struggle. All this led to the fact that, returning to Russia (to Kyiv) at the beginning of 1905, Trotsky found himself "between two chairs." He arrived in Kyiv as a respectable, successful businessman. N. Sedova, who had left earlier, found an apartment, established the necessary connections with the underground, and introduced her husband, who had arrived in Kyiv, to the young engineer L. Krasin, a prominent Bolshevik whom Lenin knew well. Trotsky used the Kyiv stop, in fact, for a more detailed acquaintance with the situation in the country, in the social democratic organizations and with the mood of the people. Krasin, who stood on the positions of conciliation between the two factions, seriously helped him. But Trotsky not only got acquainted with the situation. His pen was constantly working. Trotsky wrote about everything: about the role of the strike in the growth of the revolution, about the dual nature of liberals, about defection in Marxism Volkogonov D.A. Decree. op. S. 20. . "Organizationally," he wrote, "I was not a member of any of the factions." By. Trotsky L. My life. Autobiographical experience. S. 230. . Collaborating with the Mensheviks, Trotsky sought to maintain contact with the Bolsheviks as well.

Having moved to Petersburg with the help of Krasin, Trotsky plunged headlong into revolutionary work, participating in current meetings of strike committees, preparing bright proclamations that were pasted around the city, distributed in factories and factories. But when Sedova was arrested at Mayevka, and there was a threat of his arrest, Trotsky from the apartment of Colonel A.A. Litkens, where he lived illegally, was forced to take refuge in Finland. During the three months of his stay in the secluded deaf boarding house Mir, Trotsky wrote dozens of articles, leaflets, proclamations, which were sent to St. Petersburg Volkogonov D.A. Decree. op. pp. 21 - 22. . When on May 14, 1905, the Russian squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Z.P. Rozhdestvensky near the island of Tsushima took the battle with the Japanese squadron of Admiral H. Togo, no one could even imagine how terrible the result would be. The tsarist fleet suffered a catastrophic defeat. Russia was shocked. Trotsky immediately wrote a large proclamation: "Down with the shameful slaughter!" The leaflet went from hand to hand not only in St. Petersburg, but also in many cities of Russia.

Even before the announcement of the tsarist manifesto, Trotsky returned to St. Petersburg. In the new conditions, he turned out to be one of the most sought-after figures. He came to the capital with a plan to create an elected non-party body, which would consist of representatives of enterprises, one delegate per thousand workers, but learned that a similar slogan of an elected body of a slightly larger scale had already been put forward by the Menshevik organization, and this body was called the Council of Workers' Deputies . Trotsky from the very beginning took an active part in the work of the Council, where he spoke under the name Yanovsky Chernyavsky G.I. Decree. op. S. 77. . In the autumn of 1905, Trotsky, together with Parvus, published Russkaya Gazeta, then, with the Mensheviks, the Nachalo newspaper, published articles in Izvestia, an organ of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. At the same time, he becomes Deputy Chairman of the Council S.G. Khrustalev-Nosar. Here, Trotsky's ability to work without rest, the qualities of an orator and publicist, were manifested. During these days, the theoretical differences between the Bolsheviks and Trotsky largely receded into the background before the task of direct struggle against tsarism. The activity of the Petersburg Soviet continued for fifty-two days. On December 3, troops surrounded the building of the Technological Institute, where the Soviet met, and arrested its deputies.

Trotsky spent fifteen months in the capital's prisons. In the autumn of 1906, a trial began that lasted about a month. There were about 50 people in the dock. The verdict was rather mild: an indefinite exile to the village of Obdorskoye, beyond the Arctic Circle. Before reaching 500 miles to his destination, Trotsky escaped. On a reindeer team with a driver, having traveled about 700 kilometers, he reached the Urals. Posing as an engineer from the polar expedition of Baron Toll, then as an official, Trotsky got to the railway. At one of the stations not far from Petersburg, he was met by Natalya Ivanovna, who had been called by a telegram. Having visited Martov and Lenin on the Karelian Isthmus, he lived with his wife and son near Helsingfors (Helsinki) for about three months. Here was written a book about the escape - "There and Back Again." Thus, for Trotsky personally, the first Russian revolution ended. In the course of 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. The revolution of 1905 played an important role in Trotsky's life: with his decisive, bold actions in organizing the struggle, he earned the respect of the workers, as well as already experienced revolutionaries. "The revolution of 1905 created a turning point in the life of the country, in the life of the party and in my personal life. The turning point was in the direction of maturity" Cited. By. Trotsky L. My life. Autobiographical experience. S. 250. .

In May 1907, Trotsky was a member of the Fifth (London) Congress of the RSDLP with an advisory vote. At the congress, Trotsky again took a fuzzy position, tried to form a certain group of the center, understanding as well as others the precarious balance between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks, seeing that much at the congress would depend on who the delegates of other currents would join with whom.

From November 1908 to April 1912, Trotsky and his supporters in Vienna published a small circulation newspaper Pravda (an organ of "non-factional" Social Democrats), which turned into a publication that preached the principles that dominated the reformist parties of Western Europe. He was a permanent correspondent of the central press organs of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, attended its congresses, regularly maintained contacts with its leaders K. Kautsky, K. Zetkin, immediately upon arrival in Vienna joined the Austrian Social Democratic Party, participated in its work, many wrote in the party press, went to meetings, rallies, demonstrations, entered the University of Vienna. In Vienna, Trotsky's second son, Sergei, was born in 1908. The family did not live in poverty, but modestly. Sometimes I had to pawn things in a pawnshop, sell books, although basically literary earnings ensured existence.

In April 1910, by decision of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, L.B. Kamenev. After participating in the release of two issues of the newspaper, he refused to cooperate. "The experience of working together with Trotsky - boldly say, an experience sincerely done by me. - wrote

Kamenev, "showed that conciliationism is irresistibly slipping towards the defense of liquidationism, resolutely taking the side of the latter against the RSDLP" Quoted by Yu. Kamenev.

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 disintegrated in 1914, and Trotsky himself left it. On August 1, 1914, the First World War began. The attitude towards her changed the balance of power in the international labor movement. On August 3, Trotsky and his family left for Switzerland, as he was threatened with internment. In 1914, he published a pamphlet in German, The War and the International, for distribution of which in Germany the German court sentenced the author in absentia to eight months in prison. In November 1914, Trotsky moved to France with a certificate of a correspondent for Kievskaya Mysl. Six months later, his family joined him. In Paris, shortly before this, the newspaper "Voice" began to appear, in which V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko, A.M. Kollontai, A.V. Lunacharsky, Yu.O. Martov, M.S. Uritsky and others. Trotsky quickly became one of the central figures in the editorial board, and although the burden of old disagreements with Lenin made itself felt, these years created the political basis for a future rapprochement. Lenin already agreed to enter, together with Trotsky, into the editorial office of the German-language magazine "The Harbinger", but at the end of 1916 the French government closed the newspaper and expelled Trotsky from the country Volkogonov D.A. Decree. op. pp. 45-50. . England, Italy, Switzerland refused him entry. Only Spain remained. Two weeks later, in Madrid, he was arrested by the Spanish police. From here they wanted to send Trotsky to Havana, and only the intervention of Republican deputies and liberal newspapers helped him get permission to leave with his family for New York. In January 1917 Trotsky arrived in the USA. In two months, he managed to write quite a few articles, make presentations in Russian and German in a number of cities, work in the library, studying the economic life of a new country for him, become one of the editors of the Novy Mir newspaper, along with Bukharin, Volodarsky and Chudnovsky. Here he found the news of the February Revolution.

We examined in the first chapter the political undertakings of L.D. Trotsky, in particular, was not spared his personal life, without which, in our opinion, it is impossible to give a complete political portrait. Let's sum up some results. First of all - L.D. Trotsky was a revolutionary. He joined the social democratic movement as early as 1898. He was exiled to Siberia. After that he fled abroad. The fact that even then he took an active part in the political struggle against tsarism is evidenced by the fact that Trotsky was a participant in the famous II Congress of the RSDLP. On it, he disagreed with Lenin in political views and joined the Mensheviks, but soon left their ranks. He also kept aloof from the Bolsheviks, considered himself an "independent social democrat."

As the first Russian revolution breaks out, Trotsky returns to bustling Petersburg. Here he managed to advance into the leading core of the St. Petersburg Council, moreover, for some time to become its chairman. Then another arrest followed by exile to the north, another escape. In exile, acquaintance with almost all the most prominent leaders of the European social democratic movement. From 1908 to 1912 he published the newspaper Pravda. In August 1912, he created an anti-Bolshevik bloc ("Augustovsky"), which disintegrated in 1914. For his anti-war propaganda, Trotsky was expelled from France to Spain, where he was arrested. Having received permission to leave Spain, Trotsky went with his family to the United States.

Having studied together the factors that influenced the formation of Trotsky's personality in early youth, as well as the first successes and failures in the political arena, in the second chapter we will begin to identify new ambiguous points related to the role of Lev Davidovich in the 1917 revolution and the events associated with Civil war.

2. Trotsky in the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War

The years of the second Russian revolution and the Civil War became the most significant time for Trotsky as a politician, statesman, leader. At the end of March, on the Norwegian ship Christianiafjord, Trotsky and his family sailed to Europe, but a few days later in the Canadian port of Halifax, along with several emigrants, he was arrested and imprisoned in a camp for German sailors. Trotsky himself wrote about this incident: “In Halifax (Canada), where the ship was subjected to inspection by the British naval authorities, police officers ... subjected us Russians to direct interrogation: what are our convictions, political plans, etc.? I refused to enter into with them in conversations on this subject. The detective officers insisted that I was a terrible socialist (terrible socialist). The whole search was of such an obscene nature and placed the Russian revolutionaries in such an exceptional position in comparison with other passengers who did not have the misfortune of belonging to an allied nation of England, that some of those interrogated immediately sent an energetic protest to the British authorities against the behavior of police agents ... On April 3, English officers accompanied by sailors came on board the Christianiafjord and, on behalf of the local admiral, demanded that I, my family and five other passengers leave the ship ... we were promised to "clear up" the whole incident in Halifax We declared the demand illegal and refused to comply with it. Armed sailors attacked us and, with shouts of "sham" (shame) from a significant part of the passengers, they carried us in their arms to a military boat, which, under the escort of a cruiser, took us to Halifax "Quoted by. Trotsky L. My life. The experience of autobiography. From 320. Under pressure from the Petrograd Soviet, the Provisional Government was forced to intervene, and a month later Trotsky and his comrades were released. Through Sweden and Finland, on May 5, 1917, he arrived in Petrograd (as we can see, Trotsky missed the April crisis, as a result of which the first coalition Provisional Government was formed). A solemn meeting awaited him here. For his merits in 1905, he was included in the Executive Committee of the Petrosoviet with the right of an advisory vote. "It was decided to include me with an advisory vote. I received my membership card and my glass of tea with brown bread "Quoted by L. Trotsky. My life. An autobiographical experience. S. 340. .

Upon his return, Trotsky faced the question of choosing political guidelines. Lev Davidovich considered the best option to join the inter-districts - the St. Petersburg Inter-district Committee. Basically, the Mezhrayontsy supported the slogans of the Bolsheviks, with the exception of turning the imperialist war into a civil one. Trotsky, although he did not take an official post, became the actual head of the organization Chernyavsky G.I. Decree. op. S. 178. .

On May 10, Lenin, Kamenev, and Zinoviev attended a conference of Mezhrayontsy and proposed a plan according to which all left-wing groups would merge into a single party. Trotsky spoke on this subject in a restrained and positive manner, but so far he was in no hurry to accept Lenin's proposal. Note that this was the first step towards Trotsky's accession to Bolshevism Ibid. pp. 179-180. .

A month after Trotsky's arrival in Petrograd, he was already one of the most prominent figures in the motley political background of the revolution. Having looked around, having oriented himself, the revolutionary recklessly and irrevocably plunged into the seething stream of human passions, disputes, disputes, political claims. In the summer and autumn of 1917, Trotsky was "in great demand": he was invited by Baltic sailors, workers of the Putilov factory and the tram depot, students, called to meetings of the Social Revolutionaries and Bolsheviks, to meetings of the soldiers' committees of military units. The singer of the revolution almost never refused. Sometimes he went to rallies with Lunacharsky, who was also a brilliant orator. This tandem, or rather, a duet of revolutionary agitators, was very popular in Petrograd in those distant days, Volkogonov D.A. Trotsky: A political portrait. - M., 1992.T. 1. S. 50. .

At the beginning of the July events in Petrograd, Trotsky had not yet formally joined the Bolshevik Party, although in fact he was already on their platform. With the beginning of events, Trotsky played a significant role in protecting the Minister of Agriculture of the Provisional Government from the revolutionary crowd - the leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party V.M. Chernov, who at that time enjoyed considerable popularity. The mob tried to arrest Chernov instead of Justice Minister Pereverzev; the Kronstadt sailors had already dragged Chernov into the car, tearing his jacket, but then Trotsky spoke to the crowd of Kronstadt sailors with a fiery speech and the crowd parted.

After the events of July 3-4, arrests were made among the leaders of the Bolsheviks. Lenin and Zinoviev went underground. It was during these days that Trotsky decided on a defiant and spectacular step: he demanded in the press his own arrest. In an open letter to the Provisional Government, he remarked: “Citizen Ministers! I know that you have decided to arrest Comrades Lenin, Zinoviev and Kamenev. But an arrest warrant is not issued for me. Therefore, I consider it necessary to draw your attention to the following facts. the position of Lenin, Zinoviev and Kamenev and defended it in all my public speeches" Trotsky L.D. Letter to the Provisional Government [Electronic resource] // URL: http: //www.magister. msk.ru/library/trotsky/trotl266. htm (date of access: 04/19/2015). . The authorities did not tolerate such insolence and soon arrested the author of the letter. Trotsky stayed in the "Crosses" for more than 40 days. During this time, his popularity grew at the same rate as his articles and notes appeared in the Bolshevik "worker and soldier", the magazine "Vperyod" and other printed publications. In prison, he wrote two works: "What's next? (results and prospects)" and "When will the end of the damned massacre?". Both pamphlets were published by the Bolshevik publishing house "Priboy" and immediately attracted attention.

A few days after Trotsky's arrest at the end of July, the VI Congress of the RSDLP (b) opened, which worked in semi-legal conditions. At the beginning of the congress meetings were held on the Vyborg side, and then beyond the Narva outpost. Many party leaders who were forced to go underground or landed in the prison of the Provisional Government were not at the congress. In essence, Lenin's main characterization of the moment was voiced at the congress: since the counter-revolution temporarily gains the upper hand, the possibility of seizing power by peaceful means disappears. The question of an armed uprising was put on the agenda. From that moment on, the radical line of the Bolsheviks manifested itself even more clearly.

For the revolutionary fate of Trotsky, the congress was of great importance. He was even elected an honorary member of the presidium. After the past negotiations and agreements, a large group of "mezhraiontsy" was accepted into the party. Thus, while Trotsky was in prison, the question of his party membership was also decided in a new way. Together with Trotsky, M.M. also became Bolsheviks. Volodarsky, A.A. Ioffe, A.V. Lunacharsky, D.Z. Manuilsky, M.S. Uritsky and many of their associates. Trotsky's authority was already so high that when he was elected at the Congress of the Central Committee, he was immediately elected to it.

At the request of the Petrograd Soviet, on September 2, 1917, Lev Davidovich was released on a bail of three thousand rubles. But in reality, Kerensky, who only with the help of the Bolsheviks was able to repel the threat of Kornilov, felt that the tightening of the regime only weakened his position. There is reason to believe that it was Kornilov's August adventure that strengthened the positions of the Bolsheviks and made the October events possible. Trotsky, together with Lunacharsky, Kamenev, Kollontai, and other revolutionaries, emerges from prison as a hero and plunges headlong into party affairs. Volkogonov D.A. Decree. op. pp. 53--56. .

During the Bolshevization of the Soviets in September 1917, the Bolsheviks managed to get the majority of seats in the Petrograd Soviet. On September 25, re-elections of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet were held, the Bolsheviks proposed L.D. Trotsky. After the election, the new chairman made a speech to the approving exclamations of the audience, in which he expressed confidence that he would try to "mark a more successful outcome" for his second election to the Council (after 1905). Decree. op. P. 56. On October 12, Trotsky, as chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, formed the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee - the main body for leading the Bolshevik uprising.

With the formation of the Pre-Parliament, Trotsky was also elected to this body and headed the Bolshevik faction in it. From the very beginning, Trotsky demanded a boycott of the work of the Pre-Parliament, as being too "bourgeois" in composition. After receiving the approval of Lenin, who was then hiding in Finland, on October 7 (20) Trotsky officially announced the boycott of the Pre-Parliament on behalf of the Bolsheviks.

On the whole, by the autumn of 1917, the old disagreements between Lenin and Trotsky were becoming a thing of the past. At the same time, disagreements arose between Lenin and Trotsky over the preparation of an armed uprising. While Kamenev and Zinoviev at that time, fearing a repetition of the July defeat, demanded that no uprising be raised, Lenin insisted on an immediate uprising. Trotsky disagreed with him about the form of the coup. If Lenin demanded that the Bolsheviks take power in their own name, then Trotsky suggested that the question of transferring power to the Soviets be raised at the Second Congress of Soviets. In two or three weeks, Trotsky made a dizzying rise in Bolshevik circles, becoming the second person in them after Lenin. In the absence of the latter, Trotsky became the main spokesman for his positions and ideas Chernyavsky G.I. Decree. op. S. 193. .

We will not dwell on the events of the October Revolution, we will only say that, ultimately, the uprising began on October 23-24, when Rabochaya Pravda and Izvestia of the Petrograd Soviet were banned by government order. Trotsky reacted immediately and gave the order to send detachments of the 6th Engineer Battalion and the Lithuanian Regiment to the printing house. Trotsky then did not leave the phone, receiving more and more confirmation of the successful course of events. On the evening of October 24, Lenin appeared in Smolny, who immediately learned about the completed coup Chernyavsky G.I. Decree. op. pp. 196-197. . The decisive events unfolded on October 25, the day the Congress of Soviets opened. At a meeting of the Central Committee on the night of 25, when discussing the new government, Trotsky's proposal was adopted not to be called ministers, but people's commissars. On October 26, Trotsky made a report on the composition of the government at a meeting of the congress. It is at this congress that Trotsky utters his famous words referring to the Mensheviks: "You are miserable units, you are bankrupts, your role has been played, go to where you should be from now on: into the wastebasket of history" Cited. By. Trotsky L. My life. Autobiographical experience. S. 380. . Trotsky has made his choice: he is a Bolshevik and he is in power. He himself became Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

Trotsky in 1935 assessed his role in the October events as follows: “If it had not been for me in 1917 in St. Petersburg, the October Revolution would have taken place - provided that Lenin was present and led. If there were neither Lenin nor me in St. Petersburg, there would have been no October Revolution either: the leadership of the Bolshevik Party would have prevented it from happening... If there had been no Lenin in St. Petersburg, I would hardly have managed... the outcome of the revolution would have been questionable. to victory" Trotsky L.D. Diaries and Letters / Ed. ed. SOUTH. Felshtinsky. - M., 1994. S. 119. . There is eloquent evidence from Lenin about Trotsky's leading role in the October armed uprising. “After the Petersburg Soviet passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks,” says the XXIV volume of the first Collected Works of V.I. Lenin, “(Trotsky) was elected its chairman, in which capacity he organized and led the uprising on October 25” Lenin.V. Sobr. Op. - M., 1923. T. 24. S. 482. .

However, after the death of Lenin, Stalin gave Trotsky in the revolution a completely different assessment. “But I must say that Trotsky did not and could not play any special role in the October uprising, that, being the Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, he only carried out the will of the relevant party authorities that led Trotsky’s every step.” Stalin I.V. Works. - M.; Tver, 1946-2006. T. 6. S. 328-329. . So what role did Lev Davidovich play in the October coup? Based on numerous documents, eyewitness accounts, analysis of Lenin's works of that period, we can conclude that in October Trotsky proved himself to be one of the main leaders of the revolution, as a person who fell into his native element.

Trotsky showed himself to be a reliable ally of Lenin during the internal crisis of the Central Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, which occurred in the very first days of the existence of the new government. On October 29, the Bolshevik Central Committee began negotiations on the creation of a homogeneous socialist government. The "right" Bolsheviks (Kamenev, Zinoviev, Nogin, Rykov and others) insisted on an agreement. Lenin, with the active support of Trotsky, managed to break the vacillations of the members of the Central Committee and insist on putting forward conditions unacceptable to the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries and the majority of the Mensheviks. And although on November 4 fifteen members of the Central Committee, people's commissars and their deputies resigned, Lenin and Trotsky won. On the same days, Trotsky actively participated in organizing a rebuff to the troops of Kerensky-Krasnov, defeating the junker rebellion in Petrograd. With Lenin, he goes to the Putilov factory, to the headquarters of the Petrograd military district.

Regarding his direct duties - People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs - Trotsky later admitted that "the matter nevertheless turned out to be somewhat more complicated than I expected" Cited. By. Trotsky L. My life. Autobiographical experience. S. 400. . Trotsky's first major action in his new post was the publication of secret treaties concluded by Russia with the Entente countries. Trotsky's assistant sailor Nikolai Markin was directly involved in organizing the decoding and publication of these documents. Within a few weeks, seven yellow collections were published, causing a stir in the multilingual press. Previously, their contents were published by newspapers. By this the Bolsheviks proved their promise to put an end to secret diplomacy. But Trotsky himself was in Brest-Litovsk from the end of December, heading the Russian delegation in negotiations with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria. There he delivered fiery speeches that were designed not so much for negotiating partners as for the broad masses. Trotsky's speeches were also printed in German newspapers, while the Soviet press published full transcripts of the meetings. From the very beginning, Trotsky played the role of "delaying" the negotiations: "It was necessary to give the European workers time to perceive properly the very fact of the Soviet revolution, and in particular its policy of peace" Cited. By. Trotsky L. My life. Autobiographical experience. S. 440. . The negotiations were extremely difficult: the Soviet side offered a democratic peace without annexations and indemnities on the basis of self-determination of peoples, while the German side, with its outward "friendly" attitude, set deliberately unacceptable conditions. At the same time, it was necessary to conclude peace: "The impossibility of continuing the war was obvious: the trenches were almost empty. No one dared to speak even conditionally about the continuation of the war. Peace, peace at all costs!" Ibid. S. 440. . But how to achieve it? Here disagreements arose. “Three points of view emerged. Lenin was in favor of trying to drag out the negotiations even more, but, in the event of an ultimatum, capitulating immediately. I considered it necessary to bring the negotiations to a break, even with the danger of a new German offensive before the obvious use of force. Bukharin demanded war to expand the arena of the revolution "Ibid. S. 443. . Since the latter position "sank" in the sea of criticism of Lenin and Trotsky, the main contradiction lay in the time of signing the ultimatum peace: after the words about the possible continuation of the war or after the actual offensive. Trotsky succeeded in proving to the other Bolsheviks that it was precisely the latter that was required, since in this case the entire proletarian world would be able to see that revolutionary Russia was physically forced to sign peace with bourgeois Germany. In addition, Trotsky and his supporters hoped that Germany, devastated by years of war, would not be able to carry out an actual offensive. But everything happened just according to the worst scenario: the Germans attacked and, without receiving any resistance, quickly moved deep into Russia. The Soviet government urgently announces a truce and on March 3, 1918 signs the harsh Brest Peace. Russia was losing vast territories and was obliged to pay a huge indemnity Chernyavsky G.I. Decree. op. pp. 221-223. . In return, according to Trotsky, she retained "the sympathies of the world proletariat or a significant part of it. In the course of time, everyone will be convinced that we have no other way out." By. Trotsky L. My life. Autobiographical experience. S. 452. .

Childhood and youth

He was the fifth child in the family of David Leontievich Bronstein and Anna (Anetta) Lvovna Bronstein (nee Zhivotovskaya). In 1879, the family moved from the Jewish agricultural colony Gromokley to the Yanovka estate, partly bought and partly rented from the widow of Colonel Yanovsky. In Yanovka in the same year, the son of Leib, Leo, was born, and in 1883, the youngest daughter, Olga. Leo had an older brother, Alexander (b. 1870) and a sister, Elizabeth (b. 1875). In total, eight children were born in the Bronstein family, but four children died in childhood from various diseases.

As a child, he was sent to study at a Jewish religious school (cheder), but he did not show a great desire for learning there, he did not really learn Hebrew. But early on he learned to read and write in Russian, as a child he became addicted to writing poetry (not preserved). In 1888 he was sent by his parents to study in Odessa, in the real school of St. Paul. He studied with honors, "all the time he was the first student." He was an impressionable child. Since childhood, I have read a lot of fiction, both European and Russian (my favorite domestic author is). As a student of the second grade, he tried to publish a handwritten magazine - only one issue was made, almost completely prepared by himself.

His uncle M. F. Shpentzer (father of the once quite famous poetess Vera Inber), a journalist, and then the owner of a printing house and publishing house, contributed a lot to the fact that Trotsky, in his early youth, was already seriously “sick” with writing: as a process of writing a book or articles, and delivery to the press, typing, proofreading, the operation of the printing press, a heated discussion of upcoming and newly published books - the love of journalism and the printed word remained for life.

Start of political activity

In 1896, Trotsky went to finish his studies (the seventh grade of a real school) in Nikolaev, where his involvement in political life began: he was a member of a kind of political circle, which consisted, in his words, of "visiting students, former exiles and local youth." There were heated discussions in the circle. The young Trotsky, who took an ardent part in them, possessed, according to I. Deutscher, "a wonderful gift for bluffing" - he could get involved in a dispute and lead it with dignity, without really knowing the subject of the dispute. This does not mean that this state of affairs suited Trotsky: he greedily pounces on political literature, at first he does not even read books, but “swallows” them. However, the members of the circle study the most interesting things together. Create a circle for the distribution of literature "Redspring". In 1896-97. Trotsky at first leans not towards Marxism, but towards.

Parents learn about Trotsky's new acquaintances (from Nikolaev to Yanovka not so far), and after a stormy explanation, Trotsky declares his independence and refuses material assistance. For several months, Trotsky lives in the "commune" created by the members of the circle. He earns money by tutoring. The members of the commune rush from one project to another: having failed in the dissemination of literature, they try to create a "university on the basis of mutual learning", then they try to write a grandiose political sounding play, which, despite the large amount of time and effort expended, was never brought to fruition. end.

Having reconciled with his parents, Trotsky thought about entering the mathematical faculty of Novorossiysk University (located in Odessa), but revolutionary work became the activity that really occupied him in Nikolaev. The result of the acquaintance of the members of the "commune" with the electrical worker Mukhin, who was engaged in the propaganda of revolutionary ideas under the guise of a return to true Christianity, was the creation of the "" group. According to Trotsky, it all started quite spontaneously:

It was like this: I was walking along the street with the youngest member of our commune, Grigory Sokolovsky, a young man of about my age. "We ought to start all the same," I said. "We must begin," Sokolovsky answered. "But how?" "That's it: how? - We must find workers, do not wait for anyone, do not ask anyone, but find workers and start." "I think you can find it," Sokolovsky said.
Sokolovsky that same day went to the boulevard to the bible. That hasn't been for a long time. There was a woman, and this woman had an acquaintance, also a sectarian. Through this acquaintance of a woman unknown to us, Sokolovsky on the same day met several workers, among whom was the electrical engineer Ivan Andreevich Mukhin, who soon became the main figure in the organization. Sokolovsky returned from the search with burning eyes. "Here it is people so people!"

The young organization has a success that is unexpected even for its creators:

The workers came to us by gravity, as if they had been waiting for us at the factories for a long time. Everyone brought a friend, some came with their wives, a few elderly workers entered circles with their sons. We were not looking for workers, but they were looking for us. Young and inexperienced leaders, we soon began to choke on the movement we had called forth.

According to Trotsky's close friend, Dr. G. A. Ziva, during the years of work in the "South Russian Workers' Union" Trotsky departs from the ideas of populism - "only genuine social democracy." (Ziv G. A. Trotsky. Characteristics (According to personal recollections)

Arrest and exile

On January 28, 1898, Trotsky and other organizers of the "Union" were arrested. He himself later wrote about this: “There was no serious conspiracy in our organization. We were all quickly arrested. The provocateur Schrenzel betrayed. From the Nikolaev prison, Trotsky was transferred to Odessa, and from there to Kherson. By the end of 1899, those arrested in the case of the "South Russian Union" without trial, "in an administrative order" were sentenced: 4 years of exile in Eastern Siberia. Before the exile, they had to spend several more months in the Butyrka transit prison, where Trotsky marries a woman close to him in the "commune" and the "Union" - Alexandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya.

The place of exile - the village of Ust-Kut on the Lena River (nowadays - a city in the Irkutsk region), also lived on the Ilim River, later moved to Verkholensk. Shortly after his arrival, Trotsky begins to contribute to the Irkutsk newspaper Vostochnoye Obozreniye, whose editor at the time was a former exiled Narodnaya Volya member. Takes a literary pseudonym Antid Oto (from the Italian "antidoto", which means "antidote"). In the Ust-Kut exile, Trotsky gets acquainted with and. Trotsky spends two years in exile, during which time two daughters are born to him and Sokolovskaya.

Escape and work in Iskra

In the summer of 1902, news reached the exiles about a new upsurge in the revolutionary movement, about the creation of a Marxist newspaper abroad, and also that several Siberian articles by Trotsky got into the editorial office of Iskra and caused favorable reviews. Trotsky (then, of course, still Bronstein) decides to escape from exile and by all means get to the center of the revolutionary movement. In exile, he leaves his wife with two young daughters. In Irkutsk, friends give the fugitive decent clothes and a blank passport, where he enters his new name: Trotsky.

It is known that such a surname was worn by the jailer in the Odessa prison, where those arrested in the case of the "South Russian Union" served about a year and a half - a domineering, stately and self-satisfied man. Why the young Bronstein chose this particular surname is not exactly known.

Trotsky's first stop was in Samara. There he spends about a week with, who at that time led the Russian "headquarters" of Iskra. Krzhizhanovsky accepts Trotsky into an organization that still exists unofficially and gives the young journalist the conspiratorial nickname "Pero". On the instructions of Krzhizhanovsky, Trotsky makes a trip to Ukraine, with the aim of meeting with the Ukrainian "Iskrists" and trying to attract revolutionaries who did not stand on "Iskra" positions to the organization - in this respect, according to Trotsky, the trip gave almost nothing. From there comes an order to send Trotsky to the editorial office of Iskra, in London. Illegally (with smugglers) having crossed the Austrian border, Trotsky through Vienna (where the head of the Austrian Social Democrats helps him with money for the further journey) and Zurich (where he meets him) arrives in October 1902 London and from the station goes directly to Lenin. meets him with the words: - The pen has arrived!

As early as November 1902, an article by Trotsky appeared in Iskra. On the advice of Lenin, Trotsky begins to give lectures, first in London, and then on the continent - in Brussels, Zurich, Paris. In Paris (in 1903) Trotsky met with his parents, who had come from Russia especially for this purpose. His parents promise him financial support for his family remaining in Russia and, if necessary, for himself. In Paris, Trotsky meets Natalya Ivanovna Sedova, a student from Russia, expelled for reading forbidden literature from the Kharkov Institute for Noble Maidens and studying art history at the Sorbonne. Sedova recalled their first meeting as follows:

The autumn of 1902 was full of essays in the Russian colony of Paris. The Iskra group, to which I belonged, first saw Martov, then Lenin. There was a struggle with the "Economists" and with the Socialist-Revolutionaries. In our group, they talked about the arrival of a young comrade who had escaped from exile ... The performance was very successful, the colony was delighted, the young Iskra-born exceeded expectations.

Subsequently, Sedova would become Trotsky's wife.

At Lenin's suggestion, in March 1903, Trotsky was accepted into the editorial board of Iskra with the right of an advisory vote. The editorial board at that time included six people: three "old men" (,), and three "young" (Lenin,). The sympathies of the 23-year-old revolutionary are more likely on the side of the “old people” - he admires Vera Zasulich, who was already a “living legend” at that time (she repays him in return), highly appreciates the scholarship of P. B. Axelrod, and only relations with Plekhanov do not add up - recognized authority in the revolutionary movement is inclined to consider the young revolutionary an upstart and a creature of Lenin.

A few months later, on where Trotsky represented, a gap occurred between Lenin and Trotsky. The “external” reason was in the personalities: Trotsky could not agree with Lenin’s proposal to reduce the composition of the editorial board of Iskra by excluding less active members from it (although Trotsky personally would have benefited from this). Trotsky would later write about this:

It was only a question of placing Axelrod and Zasulich outside the editorial office of Iskra. My attitude towards both of them was imbued not only with respect, but also with personal tenderness. Lenin also held them in high esteem for their past. But he came to the conclusion that they are increasingly becoming a hindrance to the future. And he made an organizational conclusion: to eliminate them from leadership positions. I couldn't put up with this. My whole being protested against this ruthless cutting off of old people who had finally reached the threshold of the party. It was from this indignation that I broke with Lenin at the Second Congress. His behavior seemed unacceptable, terrible, outrageous to me. Meanwhile, it was politically correct and, consequently, organizationally necessary.

Revolution of 1905 and further struggle against the party

Trotsky met the revolution of 1905 with the notorious theory of "permanent" revolution. It was the theory of the disarmament of the proletariat, the demobilization of its forces. After the defeat of the 1905 revolution, Trotsky supported the Menshevik liquidators. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin wrote the following about Trotsky:

"Trotsky behaved like the meanest careerist and factionalist... He talks about the party, but behaves worse than all other factionalists."

Trotsky was, as you know, the organizer of the August *anti-revolutionary* Menshevik bloc of all groups and trends that opposed Lenin.

Trotsky met the imperialist war that began in August 1914, as one would expect, on the other side of the barricades - in the camp of the defenders of the imperialist slaughter. He covered up his betrayal of the proletariat with "Left" phrases about fighting the war, phrases calculated to deceive the working class. On all the most important questions of the war and socialism, Trotsky spoke out against Lenin, against the Bolshevik Party.

The ever-increasing strength of the influence of the Bolsheviks on the working class, on the soldier masses after the February bourgeois-democratic revolution, the enormous popularity of Lenin's slogans among the masses of the people, the Menshevik Trotsky regarded in his own way. He joined our party in July 1917, along with a group of his like-minded people, declaring that he had "disarmed" to the end.

Subsequent events showed, however, that the Menshevik Trotsky did not disarm, did not for a moment stop fighting against Lenin, and entered our party in order to blow it up from within.

Already a few months after the Great October Revolution in the spring of 1918, Trotsky, together with a group of so-called "Left" Communists and Left Social Revolutionaries, organized a villainous conspiracy against Lenin, seeking to arrest and physically destroy the leaders of the proletariat, Lenin, Stalin and Sverdlov. As always, Trotsky himself - a provocateur, an organizer of murderers, an intriguer and an adventurer - remains in the shadows. His leading role in the preparation of this atrocity, fortunately unsuccessful, is fully revealed only two decades later, at the trial of the anti-Soviet "Right-Trotskyist bloc" in March 1938. Only twenty years later, the dirty tangle of crimes of Trotsky and his henchmen was finally unraveled.

During the years of the civil war, when the country of the Soviets repelled the onslaught of numerous hordes of White Guards and interventionists, Trotsky, with his treacherous actions and wrecking orders, in every possible way weakened the strength of the resistance of the Red Army, as a result of which he was forbidden by Lenin to visit the Eastern and Southern fronts. It is a well-known fact that Trotsky, due to his hostile attitude towards the old Bolshevik cadres, tried to shoot a whole number of responsible front-line communists who were objectionable to him, thereby acting into the hands of the enemy.

At the same trial of the anti-Soviet "Right-Trotskyist bloc" the whole treacherous, treacherous path of Trotsky was revealed to the whole world: the defendants in this trial, the closest associates of Trotsky, admitted that they, and together with them and their boss Trotsky, had already been agents of foreign intelligence agencies were international spies. They, headed by Trotsky, zealously served the intelligence services and the general staffs of England, France, Germany, and Japan.

When in 1929 the Soviet government expelled the counter-revolutionary, the traitor Trotsky, from our homeland, the capitalist circles of Europe and America embraced him. It was no accident. It was natural. For Trotsky had long since passed into the service of the exploiters of the working class.

Trotsky has become entangled in his own nets, having reached the limit of human fall. He was killed by his own supporters. It was the very terrorists whom he taught about murder from around the corner, betrayal and atrocities against the working class, against the country of the Soviets, who did away with him. Trotsky, who organized the villainous murder of Kirov, Kuibyshev, M. Gorky, became a victim of his own intrigues, betrayals, betrayals, atrocities.

So ingloriously ended his life this despicable man, descending into the grave with the seal of an international spy and murderer on his forehead.

Compositions

Year	Name	First publication	Text
1900	"An inconspicuous, but very important cog in the state machine"	"Eastern Review" N 230, October 15, 1900
1900	Something about the philosophy of the "superman"	"Eastern Review" NN 284, 286, 287, 289, 22, 24, 25, December 30, 1900	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1900	Something about land	"Eastern Review" N 285, December 23, 1900	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	"An old house"	"Eastern Review" N 10, January 14, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	"Tear-off" calendar as a culture tracker	"Eastern Review" N 19, January 25, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Herzen and the "young generation"	"Bulletin of World History" N 2, January 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	About one old question	"Eastern Review" N 33 - 34, February 14 - 15, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	About pessimism, optimism, the 20th century and much more	"Eastern Review" N 36, February 17, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	"Declaration of Rights" and "Velvet Book"	"Eastern Review" NN 56, 57, 13, 14 March 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	About Balmont	"Eastern Review" N 61, March 18, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Ordinary village ( Unsaid words about the village in general, etc.)	"Eastern Review" N 70, March 29, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Hauptmann's last drama and comments on it by Struve	"Eastern Review", NN 99, 102, 5, May 9, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Ordinary village ( More about "district" medicine, etc.)	"Eastern Review" N 117, May 30, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	About Ibsen	"Eastern Review" NN 121, 122, 126, 3, 4, June 9, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Penitentiary ideals and humane prison outlook	"Eastern Review" NN 135, 136, 20, 21 June 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	We are ripe	"Eastern Review" N 154, July 13, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	New times - new songs	"Eastern Review" NN 162, 164, 165, 22, 25, July 26, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Ordinary village ( Belated preface, etc.)	"Eastern Review" N 173 - 176, August 4 - 9, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Two writer's souls in the grip of a metaphysical demon	"Eastern Review" N 189, August 25, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	The "illiberal" moment of "liberal" relations	"Eastern Review" N 194, September 2, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Poetry, the machine and the poetry of the machine	"Eastern Review" N 197, September 8, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	ordinary rustic	"Eastern Review" N 212, September 26, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	S. F. Sharapov and German farmers	"Eastern Review" N 225, October 13, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	"Russian Darwin"	"Eastern Review" N 251, November 14, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	N. A. Dobrolyubov And "Whistle"	"Eastern Review" N 253, November 17, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	History of literature, Mr. Boborykin and Russian criticism	?	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1902	Something about the "freedom of creative spasm"	"Eastern Review" N 8, January 10, 1902	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1904	political letters. "Before the Disaster"	"Iskra" N 75, October 5, 1904	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1904	political letters. Foundation for Public Education, etc.		in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1904	The Appearance of the Liberals to the People	"Iskra" N 76, October 20, 1904	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov

Biographies

Vasetsky N. A. Trotsky. The experience of political biography. - M.: Respublika, 1992. ISBN 5-250-01159-4
Volkogonov D. A. Trotsky / Political portrait. - In two books. - M .: JSC "Publishing House" Novosti ", 1994. ISBN 5-7020-0216-4
Deutscher I. Trotsky. Armed Prophet. 1879-1921 - M.: ZAO Tsentrpoligraf, 2006. ISBN 5-9524-2147-4
Deutscher I. Trotsky. Unarmed prophet. 1921-1929 - M.: ZAO Tsentrpoligraf, 2006. ISBN 5-9524-2155-5
Deutscher I. Trotsky. Exiled prophet. 1929-1940 - M.: ZAO Tsentrpoligraf, 2006. ISBN 5-9524-2157-1
Ziv G. A. Trotsky: Characteristics (according to personal recollections). New York: People's Rights, 1921
David King. Trotsky. Biography in photo documents. - Yekaterinburg: "SV-96", 2000. ISBN 5-89516-100-6
Paporov Yu. N. Trotsky. The murder of the "big entertainer" - St. Petersburg: ID "Neva", 2005. ISBN 5-7654-4399-0
“Was there an alternative?”: ““Trotskyism” - a look through the years”, “Power and opposition”, “Stalin’s neo-onep”, “1937”, “Party of the executed”, “World revolution and world war”, “The end means the beginning” .
Startsev V. I. L. D. Trotsky. Pages of political biography. - M.: Knowledge, 1989. ISBN 5-07-000955-9
Chernyavsky G. I. Lev Trotsky - M .: Young Guard, 2010. ISBN 978-5-235-03369-6
Isaac Don Levine. The Mind of an Assassin, New York, New American Library/Signet Book, 1960.
Dave Renton. Trotsky, 2004.
Leon Trotsky: the Man and His Work. Reminiscences and Appraisals, ed. Joseph Hansen. New York, Merit Publishers, 1969.
The Unknown Lenin, ed. Richard Pipes, Yale University Press (1996) ISBN 0-300-06919-7

TROTSKY, wow, m. Liar, talker, talker, empty talker. Whistle like a Trotsky lie. L. D. Trotsky (Bronstein) a well-known political figure ... Dictionary of Russian Argo

TROTSKY- (real name Bronstein) Lev Davydovich (1879 1940), politician. Since 1896, in the social democratic movement, since 1904, he advocated the unification of the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. In 1905, he put forward the theory of permanent (continuous) revolution ... Russian history

TROTSKY- "TROTSKY", Russia Switzerland USA Mexico Turkey Austria, VIRGO FILM, 1993, color, 98 min. Historical political drama. About the last months of the life of the famous revolutionary, politician, chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Soviet Republic. "Our film is... Cinema Encyclopedia

Trotsky- chatterer, talker, liar, liar, liar, talker, liar Dictionary of Russian synonyms. Trotsky n., number of synonyms: 9 talker (132) ... Synonym dictionary

- (Bronstein) L. D. (1879 1940) political and statesman. In the revolutionary movement since the late 90s, during the split of the RSDLP, he joined the Mensheviks, a participant in the revolution of 1905 1907, chairman of the St. Petersburg Soviet, after the revolution ... ... 1000 biographies

TROTSKY- (Bronstein) Lev (Leiba) Davidovich (1879 1940) professional revolutionary, one of the leaders of the October (1917) revolution in Russia. Ideologist, theorist, propagandist and practitioner of the Russian and international communist movement. T. repeatedly ... The latest philosophical dictionary

TROTSKY L.D.- Russian political and statesman; founder of the radical left trend in the international communist movement, which bears his name Trotskyism. The real name is Bronstein. The pseudonym Trotsky was taken in 1902 for the purpose of secrecy. A lion… … Linguistic Dictionary

Trotsky, L. D.- was born in 1879, worked in working circles in the city of Nikolaev (Southern Russian Workers Union, which published the newspaper Nashe Delo), was exiled in 1898 to Siberia, from where he fled abroad and took part in Iskra. After the split of the party into the Bolsheviks and ... ... Popular political vocabulary

Trotsky— Noy Abramovich, Soviet architect. He studied in Petrograd at the Academy of Arts (since 1913) and at the Free Workshops (graduated in 1920), with I. A. Fomin and at the 2nd Polytechnic Institute (1921). He taught at... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

TROTSKY- (real name Bronstein). Lev (Leiba) Davidovich (1879-1940), Soviet statesman, party and military leader, publicist. His figure attracted the attention of Bulgakov, who repeatedly mentioned T. in his diary and others ... ... Encyclopedia Bulgakov

Books

L. Trotsky. My life (set of 2 books), L. Trotsky. Lev Trotsky's book "My Life" is an outstanding literary work summing up the activities of this truly outstanding person and politician in the country he left in 1929.… Buy for 880 rubles
Trotsky, Yu.V. Emelyanov. The figure of Trotsky is still of great interest. His portraits appear at political rallies and demonstrations. Many speak of him as an ominous demon of the revolution. Who was Trotsky?...

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 the youngest son was born, 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.

To receive a 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 Natalya 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 the First World War began, Trotsky Lev fled from Vienna to Paris, where he began to publish the newspaper Nashe Slovo. 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 institution 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 would not come in the near future. Leon Trotsky became close to the Zinoviev/Kamenev group on the basis of the unity of 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.

2 years later, Trotsky announced the creation of an alternative to the Comintern communist organization "The Fourth International", which gave rise to many political movements that currently exist in different parts of the world.

Until the last day of his life, Lev Davidovich worked on a book, where he proved the version of the poisoning of Lenin 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 Lev Davidovich Trotsky went through. A brief biography of the politician tells only about a small part of the events in which he was directly involved. Many consider him a villain, and for some, Trotsky is a strong personality, true to his ideals.

18 Trotsky Bronstein Lev Davidovich. Leon Trotsky. Exile from the USSR

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Introduction

Target term paper to study the personality and political activity of L.D. Trotsky.

Tasks term paper:

1. Describe the early biography and the beginning of political activity.

2. Consider Trotsky's role in the 1917 revolution and the Civil War.

3. Explore Trotsky's participation in the struggle for power, the final stage of life in exile and death.

Chronologicalframeworkresearch cover the entire period of Trotsky's life, respectively, it is 1879 - 1940.

Geographicframeworkresearch include the territory of the former USSR, places of Trotsky's first and second emigration - London, Paris, New York, and places associated with exile and murder - Alma-Ata, Turkey, France, Norway, Mexico.

An objectresearch: personality and political activity of L.D. Trotsky.

Itemresearch: key and controversial points in the biography of Trotsky, characterizing him as a personality and political leader.

Structurework. The course work consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, a list of sources and references.

1. Early biography and the beginning of political activity

On the way to Eastern Siberia, where he was exiled for four years, L. Bronstein first heard about Vladimir Ulyanov and studied his book "The Development of Capitalism in Russia". The prison cells, one might say, finally turned the young revolutionary into a Social Democrat.

In April 1910, by decision of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, L.B. Kamenev. After participating in the release of two issues of the newspaper, he refused to cooperate. "The experience of working together with Trotsky - boldly say, an experience sincerely done by me. - wrote

Kamenev, "showed that conciliationism is irresistibly slipping towards the defense of liquidationism, resolutely taking the side of the latter against the RSDLP" Quoted by Yu. Kamenev.

2. Trotsky in the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War

Similar Documents

Childhood and youth

Start of political activity

Arrest and exile

Escape and work in Iskra

Revolution of 1905 and further struggle against the party

Compositions

Biographies

Books

Childhood

Beginning of revolutionary activity

Arrest

Abroad

In 1905

Second emigration

In 1917

In the days of the revolution

In 1918-1924

In the second half of the 20s

Exile

	People's Commissar of the RSFSR for Foreign Affairs
November 8, 1917 - March 13, 1918

	People's Commissar of the RSFSR - USSR for Military and Naval Affairs
August 29, 1918 - January 26, 1925

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Introduction

Target term paper to study the personality and political activity of L.D. Trotsky.

Tasks term paper:

1. Describe the early biography and the beginning of political activity.

2. Consider Trotsky's role in the 1917 revolution and the Civil War.

3. Explore Trotsky's participation in the struggle for power, the final stage of life in exile and death.

Chronologicalframeworkresearch cover the entire period of Trotsky's life, respectively, it is 1879 - 1940.

Geographicframeworkresearch include the territory of the former USSR, places of Trotsky's first and second emigration - London, Paris, New York, and places associated with exile and murder - Alma-Ata, Turkey, France, Norway, Mexico.

An objectresearch: personality and political activity of L.D. Trotsky.

Itemresearch: key and controversial points in the biography of Trotsky, characterizing him as a personality and political leader.

Structurework. The course work consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, a list of sources and references.

1. Early biography and the beginning of political activity

On the way to Eastern Siberia, where he was exiled for four years, L. Bronstein first heard about Vladimir Ulyanov and studied his book "The Development of Capitalism in Russia". The prison cells, one might say, finally turned the young revolutionary into a Social Democrat.

In April 1910, by decision of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, L.B. Kamenev. After participating in the release of two issues of the newspaper, he refused to cooperate. "The experience of working together with Trotsky - boldly say, an experience sincerely done by me. - wrote

Kamenev, "showed that conciliationism is irresistibly slipping towards the defense of liquidationism, resolutely taking the side of the latter against the RSDLP" Quoted by Yu. Kamenev.

2. Trotsky in the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War

Similar Documents

Childhood and youth

Start of political activity

Arrest and exile

Escape and work in Iskra

Revolution of 1905 and further struggle against the party

Compositions

Biographies

Books

Childhood

Beginning of revolutionary activity

Arrest

Abroad

In 1905

Second emigration

In 1917

In the days of the revolution

In 1918-1924

In the second half of the 20s

Exile

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