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Birth of Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky was born in a small village called Yanovka, Russia. He was born into a jewish faming family and was the fifth out of eight siblings. When Trotsky was nine, his father sent him to Odessa to be educated. He was enrolled in a German school, which became Russified during his years in Odessa, consequent to the Imperial government's policy of Russification. This eviroment contributed to the development of the young man's international outlook. -
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Trotsky's Life
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Trotsky is arrested
In early, 1898, Trotsky was arrested for subversive activities while working to unionize workers in the harbor town of Nikolayev on the Ukrainian coast with the Black Sea. Imprisoned in Nikolayev, then Kherson, and then Odessa, Trotsky was transferred to a Moscow prison. In the prison in Moscow, Trotsky came into contact with other revolutionaries. Here he first heard about Lenin and read Lenin's book, The Development of Capitalism in Russia. -
Leon Trotsky's getting into the Russian Revolution
Trotsky became involved in revolutionary activities in 1896 after moving to Nikolayev. At first a narodnik (revolutionary populist), he was introduced to Marxism later that year, which he originally opposed. During periods of exile and imprisonment, he gradually became a Marxist. Trotsky helped organize the South Russian Workers' Union in Nikolayev in early 1897. Using the name 'Lvov', he wrote and printed leaflets and proclamations, distributed revolutionary pamphlets, etc. -
Leon Trotsky's arrestment for being apart of the revolution
In January 1898, more than 200 members of the union, including Trotsky, were arrested. He spent the next two years in prison awaiting trial. Two months into his imprisonment, on 1 – 3 March 1898, the first Congress of the newly formed Russian Social Democratic Labor Party was held. From then on Trotsky identified as a member of the party. While in prison, he married Aleksandra Sokolovskaya; she was a fellow Marxist. -
Bloody Sunday
The unrest and agitation against the Russian government came to a head in Saint Petersburg on 3 January 1905 , when a strike broke at the Putilov Works in Saint Petersburg.This single strike grew into a general and by 7 January 1905 there were 140,000 strikers in Saint Petersburg. On Sunday, 9 January 1905, Father Georgi Gapon led a peaceful procession of citizens through the streets to the Winter Palace to beseech the tsar for food and relief from the oppressive government. -
Trotsky is arrested for being involved in the Russian Revolution
In December 1905, Trotsky was arrested for his role in the 1905 Russian Revolution. After a trial, he was again sentenced to exile in Siberia in 1907. And, once again, he escaped. This time, he escaped via a deer-pulled sleigh through the frozen landscape of Siberia in February 1907.
Trotsky spent the next ten years in exile, living in various cities, including Vienna, Zurich, Paris, and New York. Much of this time he spent writing. When World War I broke out, Trotsky wrote anti-war articles. -
Trotsky becomes a leader in the Russian Revolution
Trotsky quickly became a leader in the 1917 Russian Revolution. He officially joined the Bolshevik Party in August and allied himself with Lenin. With the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Lenin became the leader of the new Soviet government and Trotsky became second only to Lenin.
Trotsky's first role in the new government was as the people's commissar for foreign affairs, which made Trotsky responsible for creating a peace treaty that would end Russia's participation in World War I. Whe -
Lenin Dies
As the new Soviet government began to strengthen, Lenin's health weakened. When Lenin suffered his first stroke in May 1922, questions arose as to who would be Lenin's successor. Trotsky seemed an obvious choice since he was a powerful Bolshevik leader and the man whom Lenin wanted as his successor. However, when Lenin died in 1924, Trotsky was politically outmaneuvered by Joseph Stalin. From that point on, Trotsky was slowly but surely pushed out of important roles in the Soviet government and -
Trotsky is Exiled
In January 1928, Trotsky was exiled to the very remote Alma-Ata (now Almaty in Kazakhstan). Apparently that wasn't far away enough, so in February 1929, Trotsky was banished from the entire Soviet Union. Over the next seven years, Trotsky lived in Turkey, France, and Norway until he finally arrived in Mexico in 1936. Writing prolifically during his exile, Trotsky continued to criticize Stalin. Stalin, on the other hand, named Trotsky as the major conspirator in a fabricated plot to remove Stali -
Leon Trotsky's Death
On 24 May 1940, Trotsky survived a raid on his home by armed Stalinist assassins led by GPU agent Losif Grigulevich and Stalinist David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Vittorio Vidale. On 20 August 1940, Trotsky was attacked in his home in Mexico with an ice axe by undercover NKVD agent Ramón Mercader.[109] The blow to Trotsky's head was poorly delivered and failed to kill Trotsky instantly. Trotsky was taken to the hospital, operated on, and survived for several days then died on August 21, 1940.
