Trotsky is his real name and surname. The tragic fate of the children of Lev Davidovich Trotsky

August 21 of this year marked 75 years since the day Leon Trotsky was assassinated. The biography of this famous revolutionary is well known. But the following circumstance is striking: he became an enemy not only of those who are quite rightly classified as counter-revolutionaries - enemies October revolution 1917, but also for those who prepared and carried it out with him. However, he never became an anti-communist and did not revise revolutionary ideals (at least the initial ones). What is the reason for such a sharp break with his like-minded people, which ultimately led to his death? Let's try to find the answer to this question together. First, let's give a biographical information.

Leon Trotsky: short biography

It’s quite difficult to describe briefly, but let’s try anyway. Lev Bronstein (Trotsky) was born on November 7 (what amazing coincidence dates, how can you not believe in astrology?) 1879 in the family of a wealthy Jewish landowner (more precisely, a tenant) in Ukraine, in a small village, which is now located in the Kirovograd region.

He began his studies in Odessa at the age of 9 (note that our hero left parents' house still a child and never returned to it for a long time), continued it in 1895-1897. in Nikolaev, first at a real school, then at Novorossiysk University, but soon stopped studying and plunged into revolutionary work.

So, at the age of eighteen - the first underground circle, at nineteen - the first arrest. Two years in different prisons under investigation, the first marriage with someone like himself, Alexandra Sokolovskaya, entered into directly in the Butyrka prison (appreciate the humanism of the Russian authorities!), then exile to the Irkutsk province together with his wife and brother-in-law (humanism is still in action). Here Trotsky Lev does not waste time - he and A. Sokolovskaya have two daughters, he is engaged in journalism, publishes in Irkutsk newspapers, and sends several articles abroad.

What follows is an escape and a dizzying journey with forged documents under the surname Trotsky (according to Lev Davidovich himself, that was the name of one of the guards in the Odessa prison, and his surname seemed so euphonious to the fugitive that he offered it for making a fake passport) all the way to London.

Our hero arrived there at the very beginning of the second congress of the RSDLP (1902), at which the famous split between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks took place. It was here that he met Lenin, who appreciated Trotsky’s literary gift and tried to introduce him to the editorial board of the Iskra newspaper.

Before the first Russian revolution, Leon Trotsky occupied an unstable political position, wavering between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. His second marriage to Natalya Sedova dates back to this period, which he entered into without divorcing his first wife. This marriage turned out to be very long, and N. Sedova was with him until his death.

1905 is the time of our hero’s unusually rapid political rise. Arriving in St. Petersburg, seething after Bloody Resurrection, Lev Davidovich organized the St. Petersburg Council and became first its deputy chairman, G. S. Nosar (pseudonym Khrustalev - lawyer, Ukrainian, originally from the Poltava region, shot in 1918 on Trotsky’s personal orders), and after his arrest and the chairman. Then, at the end of the year - arrest, in 1906 - trial and exile in the Arctic (the region of present-day Salekhard) forever.

But Lev Trotsky would not have been himself if he had allowed himself to be buried alive in the tundra. On the way to exile, he makes a daring escape and alone makes his way across half of Russia abroad.

This was followed by a long period of emigration until 1917. At this time, Lev Davidovich began and abandoned many political projects, published several newspapers, and tried in every possible way to gain a foothold in the revolutionary movement as one of its organizers. He does not take the side of either Lenin or the Mensheviks, he constantly vacillates between them, maneuvers, tries to reconcile the warring wings of Social Democracy. He is desperately trying to take a leadership position in the Russian revolutionary movement. But he fails, and by 1917 he finds himself on the sidelines political life, which leads Trotsky to the idea of ​​leaving Europe and trying his luck in America.

Here he made very interesting acquaintances in various circles, including financial ones, which allowed him to arrive in Russia after February Revolution, in May 1917, clearly not with an empty pocket. His previous chairmanship of the Petrograd Soviet secured his place in the new reincarnation of this institution, and his financial capabilities propel him to the leadership of the new Council, which, under the leadership of Trotsky, enters into a struggle for power with the Provisional Government.

He eventually (in September 1917) joined the Bolsheviks and became the second man in Lenin's party. Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Stalin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Sokolnikov and Bubnov were the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 to manage the Bolshevik revolution. Moreover, from September 20, 1917, he was also the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. Virtually all practical work the organization of the October Revolution and its defense in the first weeks of Soviet power was the work of Leon Trotsky.

In 1917-1918 he served the revolution first as the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, and then as the founder and commander of the Red Army in the post of People's Commissar for Military and maritime affairs. Leon Trotsky was a key figure in the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War (1918-1923). He was also a permanent member (1919-1926) of the Politburo of the Bolshevik Party.

After the defeat of the Left Opposition, which waged an unequal struggle against the rise of Joseph Stalin and his policies in the 1920s aimed at increasing the role of the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, Trotsky was removed from power (October 1927), expelled from the Communist Party (November 1927 g.) and expelled from Soviet Union(February 1929).

As head of the Fourth International, Trotsky continued to oppose the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union in exile. On Stalin's orders, he was killed in Mexico in August 1940 by a Soviet agent of Spanish origin.

Trotsky's ideas formed the basis of Trotskyism, a major movement of Marxist thought that opposed the theory of Stalinism. He was one of the few Soviet political figures who was not rehabilitated either under Nikita Khrushchev’s government in the 1960s or during Gorbachev’s perestroika. In the late 1980s, his books were released for publication in the Soviet Union.

Only in post-Soviet Russia was Leon Trotsky rehabilitated. His biography was researched and written by a number of famous historians, including, for example, Dmitry Volkogonov. We will not retell it in detail, but will analyze only a few selected pages.

The origins of character formation in childhood (1879-1895)

In order to understand the origins of the formation of our hero’s personality, you need to take a closer look at where Leon Trotsky was born. It was the Ukrainian hinterland, a steppe agricultural zone that remains the same to this day. And what did the Jewish Bronstein family do there: father David Leontyevich (1847-1922), who was from the Poltava region, mother Anna, an Odessa native (1850-1910), their children? The same as other bourgeois families in those places - they earned capital through the brutal exploitation of Ukrainian peasants. By the time our hero was born, his illiterate (note this fact!) father, who lived, in fact, surrounded by people alien to him by nationality and mentality, already owned an estate of several hundred acres of land and a steam mill. Dozens of farm laborers bent their backs on him.

Doesn't all this remind the reader of something from the life of Boer planters in South Africa, where instead of black Kaffirs there are dark Ukrainians? It was in such an atmosphere that the character of little Leva Bronstein was formed. No friends and peers, no reckless boyish games and pranks, just the boredom of a bourgeois home and a view from above on Ukrainian farm laborers. It is from childhood that the roots of that feeling of one’s own superiority over other people grow, which constituted the main trait of Trotsky’s character.

And he would have been a worthy assistant to his dad, but, fortunately, his mother, being a slightly educated woman (from Odessa, after all), felt in time that her son was capable of more than simple exploitation of peasant labor, and insisted that he be sent to study in Odessa (live in an apartment with relatives). Below you can see what Leon Trotsky was like as a child (photo presented).

The hero's personality begins to emerge (1888-1895)

In Odessa, our hero was enrolled in a real school according to the quota that was allocated for Jewish children. Odessa was then a bustling, cosmopolitan port city, very different from typical Russian and Ukrainian cities of the time. In the multi-part film by Sergei Kolosov “Raskol” (we recommend watching it to everyone who is interested in the history of the Russian revolution) there is a scene when Lenin in 1902 in London meets Trotsky, who had fled from his first exile, and is interested in the impression that the capital of Great Britain made on him. He replies that it is simply impossible to experience a greater impression than Odessa made on him after moving to it from a rural outback.

Lev is an excellent student, becoming the first student in his course all years in a row. In the memoirs of his peers, he appears as an unusually ambitious person; his desire for primacy in everything distinguishes him from his fellow students. By the time Leo comes of age, he turns into an attractive young man, to whom, if he has wealthy parents, all doors in life should be open. How did Leon Trotsky live further (a photo of him during his studies is presented below)?

First love

Trotsky planned to study at Novorossiysk University. For this purpose, he transferred to Nikolaev, where he completed his last year of real school. He was 17 years old, and he did not at all think about any revolutionary activity. But, unfortunately, the sons of the owner of the apartment were socialists, they pulled the high school student into their circle, where various revolutionary literature was discussed - from populist to Marxist. Among the circle participants was A. Sokolovskaya, who had recently completed obstetric courses in Odessa. Being six years older than Trotsky, she made an indelible impression on him. Wanting to show off his knowledge in front of the subject of his passion, Leo intensively began studying revolutionary theories. This played a cruel joke on him: having started once, he never got rid of this activity again.

Revolutionary activities and imprisonment (1896-1900)

Apparently, it suddenly dawned on the young ambitious man - after all, this is the very thing to which he can devote his life, which can bring the desired glory. Together with Sokolovskaya, Trotsky immerses himself in revolutionary work, prints leaflets, conducts social democratic agitation among the workers of the Nikolaev shipyards, and organizes the “South Russian Workers' Union”.

In January 1898, more than 200 members of the union, including Trotsky, were arrested. He spent the next two years in prison awaiting trial - first in Nikolaev, then in Kherson, then in Odessa and Moscow. In he came into contact with other revolutionaries. There he first heard about Lenin and read his book “The Development of Capitalism in Russia,” gradually becoming a real Marxist. Two months after its conclusion (March 1-3, 1898), the first congress of the newly formed Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) took place. From then on, Trotsky defined himself as its member.

First marriage

Alexandra Sokolovskaya (1872-1938) was imprisoned for some time before being sent into exile in the same Butyrka prison in Moscow, where Trotsky was imprisoned at that time. He wrote romantic letters to her, begging her to agree to marry him. Tellingly, her parents and the prison administration supported the ardent lover, but the Bronstein couple was categorically against - apparently, they had a presentiment that they would have to raise children so unreliable (in everyday sense) parents. In defiance of his father and mother, Trotsky still marries Sokolovskaya. The wedding ceremony was performed by a Jewish priest.

First Siberian exile (1900-1902)

In 1900, he was sentenced to four years of exile in the Irkutsk region of Siberia. Because of their marriage, Trotsky and his wife are allowed to live in the same place. Accordingly, the couple was exiled to the village of Ust-Kut. Here they had two daughters: Zinaida (1901-1933) and Nina (1902-1928).

However, Sokolovskaya failed to keep such an active person as Lev Davidovich next to her. Having gained a certain fame due to articles written in exile and tormented by a thirst for activity, Trotsky lets his wife know that he is unable to remain away from the centers of political life. Sokolovskaya meekly agrees. In the summer of 1902, Lev fled from Siberia - first on a cart hidden under hay to Irkutsk, then with a false passport in the name of Leon Trotsky by rail to the borders Russian Empire. Alexandra subsequently fled Siberia with her daughters.

Leon Trotsky and Lenin

After escaping Siberia, he moved to London to join Plekhanov, Vladimir Lenin, Martov and other editors of Lenin's newspaper Iskra. Under the pseudonym "Per" Trotsky soon became one of its leading authors.

At the end of 1902, Trotsky met Natalya Ivanovna Sedova, who soon became his companion, and from 1903 until his death, his wife. They had 2 children: Lev Sedov (1906-1938) and (March 21, 1908 - October 29, 1937), both sons predeceased their parents.

At the same time, after a period of secret police repression and internal disorder that followed the first congress of the RSDLP in 1898, Iskra managed to convene the 2nd Party Congress in London in August 1903. Trotsky and other Iskrists took part in it.

The delegates to the congress were divided into two groups. Lenin and his Bolshevik supporters argued for a small but highly organized party, while Martov and his Menshevik supporters sought to create a larger and less disciplined organization. These approaches reflected their different goals. If Lenin wanted to create a party of professional revolutionaries for the underground struggle against the autocracy, then Martov dreamed of a party of the European type with an eye to parliamentary methods of fighting tsarism.

At the same time, Lenin’s closest associates gave Lenin a surprise. Trotsky and the majority of Iskra editors supported Martov and the Mensheviks, while Plekhanov supported Lenin and the Bolsheviks. For Lenin, Trotsky's betrayal was a strong and unexpected blow, for which he called the latter Judas and, apparently, never forgave him.

Throughout 1903-1904. many faction members switched sides. Thus, Plekhanov soon parted ways with the Bolsheviks. Trotsky also left the Mensheviks in September 1904 and until 1917 called himself a "non-factional Social Democrat" in an attempt to reconcile various groups within the party, resulting in many clashes with Lenin and other prominent members of the RSDLP.

How did Leon Trotsky personally treat Lenin? Quotes from his correspondence with the Menshevik Chkheidze quite clearly characterize their relationship. Thus, in March 1913, he wrote: “Lenin... is a professional exploiter of all backwardness in the Russian labor movement... The entire edifice of Leninism is currently built on lies and falsification and carries within itself the poisonous beginning of its own decay...”

Later, during the struggle for power, he will be reminded of all his hesitations regarding the general course of the party set by Lenin. Below you can see what Lev Davidovich Trotsky was like (photo with Lenin).

Revolution (1905)

So, everything that we know about the personality of our hero so far does not characterize him very flatteringly. His undoubted literary and journalistic talent is offset by painful ambition, posturing, and selfishness (remember A. Sokolovskaya, left in Siberia with two small daughters). However, during the period of the first Russian revolution, Trotsky unexpectedly showed himself in a new way - as a very courageous man, an outstanding orator, capable of igniting the masses, as their brilliant organizer. Arriving in seething revolutionary St. Petersburg in May 1905, he immediately rushed into the thick of events, became an active member of the Petrograd Soviet, wrote dozens of articles, leaflets, and spoke to crowds electrified by revolutionary energy with fiery speeches. After some time, he was already deputy chairman of the Council and actively participated in the preparation of the October general political strike. After the appearance of the tsar's manifesto of October 17, which granted the people political rights, he sharply opposed it and called for the continuation of the revolution.

When the gendarmes arrested Khrustalev-Nosar, Lev Davidovich took his place, preparing combat workers’ squads, the striking force of the future armed uprising against the autocracy. But at the beginning of December 1905, the government decided to disperse the Council and arrest its deputies. An absolutely amazing story occurs during the arrest itself, when the gendarmes burst into the meeting room of the Petrograd Soviet, and the presiding officer, Trotsky, only by the power of his will and the gift of persuasion, sends them out the door for a while, which gives those present the opportunity to prepare: destroy some documents that are dangerous to them, get rid of weapons. But the arrest nevertheless took place, and Trotsky finds himself in a Russian prison for the second time, this time in the St. Petersburg “Crosses.”

Second escape from Siberia

The biography of Lev Davidovich Trotsky is replete with bright events. But it is not our task to present it in detail. We will limit ourselves to a few striking episodes in which the character of our hero is most clearly revealed. These include the story associated with Trotsky’s second exile to Siberia.

This time, after a year of imprisonment (however, in quite decent conditions, including access to any literature and the press), Lev Davidovich was sentenced to eternal exile in the Arctic, in the region of Obdorsk (now Salekhard). Before leaving, he handed over a farewell letter to the public with the words: “We are leaving with deep faith in the speedy victory of the people over their centuries-old enemies. Long live the proletariat! Long live international socialism!”

It goes without saying that he was not ready to sit for years in the polar tundra, in some wretched dwelling, and wait for a saving revolution. Besides, what kind of revolution could we talk about if he himself did not participate in it?

Therefore, his only option was immediate escape. When the caravan with prisoners reached Berezovo (a famous place of exile in Russia, where the former Serene Highness Prince A. Menshikov spent the rest of his life), from where there was a way to the north, Trotsky feigned an attack of acute radiculitis. He ensured that he was left with a couple of gendarmes in Berezovo until he recovered. Having deceived their vigilance, he flees the town and gets to the nearest Khanty settlement. There, in some incredible way, he hires reindeer and travels across the snow-covered tundra (this happens in January 1907) for almost a thousand kilometers to the Ural Mountains, accompanied by a Khanta guide. And having reached the European part of Russia, Trotsky easily crosses it (let’s not forget that the year is 1907, the authorities tie “Stolypin ties” around their necks to people like him) and ends up in Finland, from where he moves to Europe.

This, so to speak, adventure ended quite happily for him, although the risk to which he exposed himself was incredibly high. He could easily have been stabbed with a knife or stunned and thrown into the snow to freeze, having coveted the rest of the money he had on him. And the murder of Leon Trotsky would have happened not in 1940, but three decades earlier. Neither the enchanting rise during the years of the revolution nor all that followed would have happened then. However, the history and fate of Lev Davidovich himself decreed otherwise - to the happiness of himself, but to the grief of long-suffering Russia, and to his homeland no less.

The last act of life's drama

In August 1940, the news spread around the world that Leon Trotsky had been killed in Mexico, where he lived in last years life. Was this a global event? Doubtful. It has been almost a year since Poland was defeated, and two months have already passed since the surrender of France. The wars between China and Indochina were blazing. The USSR was feverishly preparing for war.

So, except for a few supporters from among the members of the Fourth International created by Trotsky and numerous enemies, ranging from the authorities of the Soviet Union to the majority of world politicians, few people commented on this death. The Pravda newspaper published a murderous obituary written by Stalin himself and filled with hatred for the murdered enemy.

It should be mentioned that they tried to kill Trotsky more than once. Among the potential killers, there was even a great Mexican who participated in the raid on Trotsky’s villa in Mexico as part of a group of orthodox communists and who personally fired a machine-gun round at Lev Davidovich’s empty bed, not suspecting that he was hiding under it. Then the bullets passed by.

But what was used to kill Leon Trotsky? The most surprising thing is that the weapon of this murder was not a weapon - cold steel or firearms, but an ordinary ice ax, a small pickaxe used by climbers during their ascents. And she was held in the hands of NKVD agent Ramon Mercador, a young man whose mother was an active participant. Being an orthodox communist, she blamed Trotsky’s supporters for the defeat of the Spanish Republic, who, although they participated in the civil war on the side of the republican forces, refused to act in line with politics, asked from Moscow. She passed this belief on to her son, who became the true instrument of this murder.

Lev Davidovich Bronstein was born on October 26, 1879 in the Yanovka farm of Elizavetgrad district of the Kherson province in the family of a wealthy Jewish landowner, who by that time had 100 dessiatines of purchased and over 200 dessiatines of rented land. In 1888 he entered the Lutheran Real School of St. Paul in Odessa; the first student, however, repeatedly came into conflict with teachers; communicated with the local liberal intelligentsia, became familiar with Russian classical literature and European culture. In 1896 he graduated from a real school in Nikolaev and entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Novorossiysk University as a volunteer, but soon left it. He joined a populist circle in Nikolaev, and learned about Marxism for the first time from a member of the circle, Alexandra Sokolovskaya. In 1897, together with her and her brothers, he formed the social democratic “South Russian Workers' Union”, which began revolutionary propaganda among the workers. In January 1898, he was arrested, after 2 years of imprisonment in Nikolaev, Kherson, Odessa and Moscow, he was administratively exiled for 4 years to Eastern Siberia (to Ust-Kut, then Nizhneilimsk and Verkholensk, Irkutsk province). In 1899, in Butyrka prison, he married Alexandra Sokolovskaya. Political parties in Russia late XIX - first third of the XX century. Encyclopedia - M.: Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 1996, p. 613

In August 1902, with the consent of his wife, who was left with two young daughters in his arms, he escaped from exile, using a false passport in the name of the warden of the Odessa prison, Trotsky. Arriving in Samara, where the bureau of the Russian organization “Iskra” was located, having carried out a number of instructions from the bureau in Kharkov, Poltava and Kiev, he illegally crossed the border and at the end of October 1902 came to London, where he met V.I. Lenin. On his recommendation, Trotsky worked at Iskra and gave lectures for Russian emigrants and students.

In 1903, in Paris, he married Natalya Ivanovna Sedova. Participated in the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party with a mandate from the Siberian Union of the RSDLP.

At the end of 1904, he moved away from the Mensheviks, but did not join the Bolsheviks, and advocated the unification of both Social Democratic factions. After the events of January 9, 1905, he was one of the first to return to Russia (Kiev, then St. Petersburg), collaborated with member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP Leonid Borisovich Krasin, who stood in the position of Bolshevik conciliators, as well as with the Mensheviks, disagreeing, however, with them in assessing the role of the liberal bourgeoisie in the revolution. Together with Parvus (A.L. Gelfand), Trotsky developed the theory of “permanent revolution”.

During the revolution of 1905-1907, from denying the revolutionary potential of the peasantry, Trotsky gradually came to the conclusion about the importance of the participation of the peasantry in the revolution with the obligatory leadership of the proletariat.

In 1905, Trotsky’s qualities as a political figure, organizer of the masses, orator, and publicist were directly revealed. In the fall of 1905, Trotsky was one of the leaders of the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies, a speaker and author of resolutions on the most important issues. In December 1905 he was arrested, at the end of 1906 he was sentenced to “eternal settlement” in Siberia, but escaped along the way. In 1907, at the 5th Congress of the RSDLP, he headed the center group, joining neither the Bolsheviks nor the Mensheviks. Politicians Russia in 1917: Biographical Dictionary/Chief Editor: P.V. Volobuev - M: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1993, p.321

Since 1908, Trotsky collaborated in many Russian and foreign newspapers and magazines. In 1908, together with A.A. Ioffe and M.I. Skobelev established the publication in Vienna of a newspaper for workers, Pravda, in Russian. 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. In 1914 he published a brochure in German “War and the International”. In September 1916, Trotsky was expelled from France to Spain for anti-war propaganda, where he was soon arrested and sent to the United States with his family. Since January 1917, Trotsky was an employee of the Russian international newspaper " New world" In March 1917, upon returning to Russia, Trotsky and his family were arrested in Halifax (Canada) and temporarily imprisoned in an internment camp for sailors of the German merchant fleet. On May 4, 1917, he arrived in Petrograd, headed the organization of “Mezhrayontsev”, with whom he was accepted into the RSDLP (b) and elected to the Central Committee of the party, of which he was a member until 1927. On March 4, 1918, Trotsky was appointed chairman of the Supreme Military Council, on March 13 - people's commissar for military affairs, and with the creation of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic on September 2 - its chairman. In 1920-21, while remaining at military posts, he was temporarily appointed People's Commissar of Railways, and was one of the leaders in the restoration of railway transport and other sectors of the national economy. Based on hostile relations between Stalin and Trotsky, a split formed within the Politburo and the Central Committee, which resulted in an intense intra-party struggle, where Stalin and his supporters gained the upper hand. In January 1925, Trotsky was released from work in the Revolutionary Military Council, in October 1926 he was removed from the Politburo, and in October 1927 - from the Central Committee. In November 1927, Trotsky was expelled from the party, after which he was expelled from Moscow to Alma-Ata, then to Turkey. Political figures of Russia in 1917: Biographical Dictionary/Chief Editor: P.V. Volobuev - M: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1993, p.324

After being expelled from the USSR, Trotsky launched literary and journalistic activities. He fought against Stalin, whom he considered a traitor to the ideals of October. Trotsky spent the last years of his life in Mexico. Stalin set his intelligence services the task of destroying the hated enemy. The NKVD decided to carry out the murder of Trotsky through the hands of its agent Ramon Mercador. The 26-year-old son of an influential Spanish communist was a participant in the Spanish Civil War, which ended in the defeat of the Republican forces. Jacques Mornard (according to documents), who instantly turned into Frank Jackson, at first unsuccessfully tried to infiltrate the local Trotskyists. Meanwhile, the Mexican Communist Party, apparently on instructions from Moscow, decided to “duplicate” the actions of the special agent and organized its own plot to assassinate Trotsky. On May 24, 1940, his villa came under armed attack. More than twenty masked militants literally turned the entire house upside down, but the owners managed to hide. It was only fate itself that protected the Kremlin exile: Trotsky, his wife and grandson were not harmed. After this scandalous incident, which became known to the world press, Trotsky turned his house into a real fortress, where only people especially devoted to him were allowed. Among them were Sylvia (Trotsky’s courier) and her husband Frank Jackson, who managed to gain the trust of the “teacher”. At first, the young man, who showed an increased interest in Marxism, seemed too annoying to Trotsky. But in the end, the old underground worker, who considered it his sacred duty to raise a young generation of fighters for the “world revolution,” gained confidence in the charming American. Despite the hot day, on August 20, 1940, Frank Jackson showed up at Trotsky’s villa wearing a tightly buttoned raincoat and hat. Under the “family friend’s” cloak there was a whole arsenal: a mountaineering ice axe, a hammer and a large-caliber automatic pistol. The guards, who often saw this man in the house and habitually considered him “one of their own,” led the guest to the owner, who was feeding rabbits in the garden. Natalia, Trotsky's wife, found it strange that Sylvia's husband arrived without warning, but the guest was invited to stay for lunch. Declining the invitation, Mercador-Jackson asked to review an article he had just written. The men went into the office. As soon as Trotsky was deep in reading, Jackson pulled out an ice pick from under his raincoat and plunged it into the back of the victim’s head. Considering the blow not reliable enough, the killer swung the ice ax again, but Trotsky, who miraculously retained consciousness, grabbed him by the hand, forcing him to drop the weapon. Then, staggering, he made his way out of the office into the living room. “Jackson!” he shouted. “Look what you’ve done!” The guards who came running in response to the scream knocked down Jackson, who was aiming a pistol at his victim. “Don’t kill him,” Trotsky stopped the guards. “He needs to tell everything...” With these words, the wounded man lost consciousness. A few minutes later, Mercador Jackson and his victim were taken to the capital's hospital by ambulance. The tenacity with which this mortally wounded man fought for life shocked even the doctors. In their practice, there has never been a case where a victim with such a monstrous injury - a split skull - lived, periodically regaining consciousness, for more than a day... Ramon Mercador, aka Frank Jackson, aka Jacques Mornard, was sentenced to twenty years in prison . After being released from a Mexican prison in March 1960, he settled in Cuba. Shortly before his death in Havana on October 18, 1978, Trotsky's killer received the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Lev Davidovich Trotsky (Leiba Bronstein) (born November 7, 1879 - died August 21, 1940) - revolutionary, ideologist of Trotskyism. One of the organizers of the 1917 revolution. Member of the Bolshevik Party from August 1917 to November 14, 1927. Member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) - RCP (b) - VKP (b). He was a member of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) between the VIII and IX party congresses, a member of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) from September 25, 1923 to June 2, 1924.

1924 - confrontation between Trotsky and I.V. Stalin's battle for leadership ended in Trotsky's defeat. 1927 - expelled from the party, exiled to Alma-Ata, 1929 - abroad. He sharply criticized the Stalinist regime as a bureaucratic degeneration of proletarian power. 1938 - initiator of the creation of the 4th International. 1940 - was killed in Mexico by an NKVD agent, Spaniard R. Mercader.

Childhood. early years

Leiba Bronstein was born in 1879 in the village of Yanovka, Elisavetgrad district, Kherson province, into the family of a wealthy landowner from among the Jewish colonists. His father was able to learn to read only in old age. He studied at a real school in Odessa and Nikolaev, where he was the first in all disciplines. Leiba loved to draw, was fond of literature, wrote poetry, translated I. A. Krylov’s fables from Russian into Ukrainian, and took part in the publication of a school handwritten magazine. At that time, his rebellious character began to manifest itself for the first time: due to a conflict with a teacher French he was temporarily expelled from the school.

Trotsky in childhood and youth

The beginning of revolutionary activity. Arrest. Link

1896 - in Nikolaev (where he moved) he joined a revolutionary circle. To obtain higher education Leiba had to leave her new comrades and go to Novorossiysk. There he was easily able to enter the physics and mathematics department of the local university. But the revolutionary struggle has already captured young man, and he soon left this university and returned to Nikolaev.

1898, January - was arrested, imprisoned, first in Nikolaev, from there transferred to Kherson, then to Odessa and Moscow transit. In a Moscow prison he married A.L., an activist of the South Russian Workers' Union. Sokolovskaya, whom I knew from the Nikolaev period of participation in this organization. Sentenced to four years of exile in Eastern Siberia, where he and his wife were taken in the fall of 1900. At the stage I met F.E. Dzerzhinsky. In exile, he collaborated with the Irkutsk newspaper “Eastern Review”, writing under the pseudonym Antid Oto. He joined the Mensheviks.

Trotsky with his daughter Zina and first wife Alexandra Sokolovskaya

Emigration

1902, August - leaving his wife with two daughters, the youngest of whom was three months old, he fled from Siberian exile with a passport in the name of Trotsky, which he himself entered, not foreseeing that it would become his name for the rest of his life.

Leon Trotsky went to London, where he met with V.I. Lenin. There he spoke more than once to emigrant revolutionaries. Trotsky amazed everyone with his intellect and oratorical abilities. Lenin proposed to include him on the editorial board of Iskra, but Plekhanov categorically opposed this.

1903 - in Paris, Trotsky married Natalya Sedova. But officially Alexandra Sokolova remained his wife until the end of his life.

Return to Russia

After the revolution of 1905, Lev Davidovich and his wife returned to Russia. During the revolution, he showed himself to be an extraordinary organizer, speaker, and publicist; the de facto leader of the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies, editor of its Izvestia. He belonged to the most radical wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP).

Arrest. Second emigration

After the publication of the Financial Manifesto, he was arrested and convicted. 1906 - was sentenced to lifelong settlement in Siberia with deprivation of all civil rights. On the way to Obdorsk, he fled from Berezov.

He moved to Europe, where he made several attempts to unite disparate parties of a socialist orientation, but could not achieve success. In 1912-1913, Lev Davidovich Trotsky, as a military correspondent for the Kyiv Mysl newspaper, wrote 70 reports from the fronts of the Balkan Wars. Subsequently, this experience will help him organize work in the Red Army.

After the outbreak of the First World War, he fled from Vienna to Paris, where he published the newspaper “Our Word”. In it, he published his pacifist articles, which became the reason for Trotsky’s expulsion from France. The revolutionary moved to America, where he hoped to settle, since he doubted the possibility of an imminent revolution in Russia.

Trotsky at a rally in Yekaterinodar (1919)

October Revolution

May 1917 - returned to Petrograd, joined the United Social Democratic Internationalists (“Mezhrayontsy”). Soon he became the informal leader of the “Mezhrayontsy”, who took a critical position towards the Provisional Government. After the failure of the July uprising, he was arrested by the Provisional Government.

At the 6th Congress of the RSDLP(b) he was elected one of the honorary chairmen of the congress and a member of the party Central Committee. 1917, September - after being released from prison, he is elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. He was one of the organizers of the armed uprising in Petrograd, during the days of the October Revolution he played a leading role in the PVRK, and led the suppression of the Kerensky-Krasnov rebellion.

Fall from the pinnacle of power

1918, autumn - Trotsky is appointed chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR, i.e. he becomes the first commander-in-chief of the newly formed Red Army. For the next few years, he essentially lived on a train, on which he traveled on all fronts. During the defense of Tsaritsyn, Lev Davidovich entered into open 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, striving for its reorganization and a return to the traditional principles of building the armed forces. 1924 - Trotsky was removed from his post as chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council.

In exile

1927 - Lev Davidovich Trotsky was removed from the Politburo of the Central Committee and expelled from the party. 1928, January - was exiled to Alma-Ata. 1929, February - deported from the Soviet Union to Turkey.

He settled on the island of Prinkipo (Sea of ​​Marmara, near Istanbul), wrote works there about his life and revolution and harshly criticized Stalin's policy. Considering the Comintern “captured” by the Stalinists to be politically bankrupt, Lev Davidovich began organizing a new, Fourth International.

He sharply opposed it, calling for the unification of all leftist forces in Europe against German National Socialism. 1933, summer - after the Fuhrer came to power, the radical French government of E. Daladier provided Trotsky with asylum in France. 1935 - Trotsky was forced to leave this country. He was granted new asylum by the Norwegian Labor government, but at the beginning of 1937 he was expelled from there, apparently due to Soviet pressure.

Last years

The revolutionary was now given refuge by the “leftist” President of Mexico Lazaro Cardenas. Leon Trotsky settled in Coyoacan as a guest of the radical artist Diego Rivera. 1938 - The Fourth International was officially founded by Trotskyists.

Meanwhile, the USSR intelligence services did not cease to keep Trotsky under close surveillance, having agents among his associates. 1938 - under strange circumstances, his closest and tireless colleague, his eldest son Lev Sedov, died in a Paris hospital after an operation. News came from the USSR not only about unprecedentedly cruel repressions against the “Trotskyists”. His first wife and his youngest son, Sergei Sedov, were arrested and subsequently shot. The accusation of Trotskyism in the Soviet Union became the most terrible and dangerous in those days.

Death

In recent years, Lev Davidovich worked on his book about Stalin, in which he considered Stalin as a fatal figure for socialism. Anticipating his imminent death, at the beginning of 1940, Trotsky wrote a will, where he spoke of his satisfaction with his fate as a Marxist revolutionary, proclaimed his unshakable faith in the triumph of the 4th International and in the imminent world socialist revolution.

1940, May - an attempt was made on the revolutionary himself in Mexico by a group of killers led by the famous artist A. Siqueiros. However, it failed, but on August 20, 1940, NKVD agent Ramon Mercader struck Trotsky on the head with an ice pick.

Lev Davidovich Trotsky died the next day, August 21, 1940 in Coyocan (Mexico). He was buried in the courtyard of his house, where his museum is now located.

Revolutionary, military and statesman of the RSFSR and the USSR, founder of Trotskyism - one of the currents of Marxism.

Deputy Chairman of the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, People's Commissar of Railways, Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR and the USSR. Member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Family

From the family of a large landowner and tenant. Father - David Leontyevich Bronstein. Mother - Anna Lvovna Bronstein. Wives: Alexandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya, Natalya Ivanovna Sedova. Children from his first marriage: Zinaida, Nina. Children from his second marriage: Sergei and Lev.

Education

In 1888 - 1895 studied at the Lutheran real school of St. Paul in Odessa, then at the real school in Nikolaev, which he graduated in 1896. Then he entered the physics and mathematics department of Novorossiysk University, which he soon left.

Revolutionary activities

In 1897 he joined the populist circle in Nikolaev. It was there that he first became acquainted with Marxist socio-political teaching. In the same year, he was among the founders of the social democratic organization “South Russian Workers' Union”. Conducted revolutionary propaganda among workers. In 1898 he married A. Sokolovskaya, who was also one of the leaders of the Union. On January 28, 1898 he was arrested. He spent 2 years in prisons in Nikolaev, Kherson, Odessa and Moscow. During his imprisonment he finally realized himself as a Marxist. From 1900 he served exile in Eastern Siberia. First in Ust-Kut, then in Nizhneilimsk and Verkholensk, Irkutsk province. In exile, he first showed himself as a journalist, publishing his first articles in the newspaper “Eastern Review” (Irkutsk). There he met one of the Iskra agents. I received an offer to write articles and correspondence for this newspaper. In 1902, he escaped from exile using a false passport in the name of prison guard N. Trotsky. In Samara it came into the possession of the bureau of the Russian organization "Iskra". Completed a number of assignments in Kharkov, Poltava and Kyiv. At the end of October of the same year, he crossed the border illegally and arrived in London. Here he met members of the editorial board of the Social Democratic newspaper Iskra and became one of its leading authors. However, Lenin’s proposal to include Trotsky on the editorial board was met with protest from G.V. Plekhanov, who rated the new author’s journalistic abilities rather low. Plekhanov’s reluctance to strengthen the positions of the “young” in the editorial office (V.I. Lenin, Yu.O. Martov and A.N. Potresov) also played a significant role. He actively gave lectures to Russian emigrants. As a representative of the Siberian Union of the RSDLP, he was a delegate to its Second Congress. During the inter-factional struggle at the congress, he supported the position of Lenin and Plekhanov on issues of party organization and the agrarian question. At the same time, he supported the wording of paragraph 1 of the Charter of the RSDLP, proposed by Yu.O. Martov. He also protested against Lenin’s proposals to reduce the editorial staff of Iskra to three people, which closed the possibility for Trotsky personally to join its composition. After the congress he joined the Mensheviks. In the pamphlet “Our Political Tasks” (1903), he sharply criticized Lenin’s position. In September 1904, due to a conflict with Plekhanov, he broke with the Mensheviks and advocated the unification of all intra-party factions. At the beginning of 1905, after the events of Bloody Sunday, he returned to Russia. Initially he carried out revolutionary work in Kyiv, then in St. Petersburg. In 1905 he was one of the most radical theoreticians of Russian social democracy. He called for preparations for an armed uprising. In his works of this period he developed the theory of “permanent revolution” put forward by Parvus. He assumed that in the conditions of the political weakness of the liberal bourgeoisie in Russia, social democracy must fulfill the mission of the leading force of the revolution. The conquest by the Social Democrats, he believed, should inevitably lead to socialist transformations. The result of this process would be the struggle of the working class against both the bourgeoisie and the peasantry. In this situation, the main condition for the victory of the proletarian revolution in economically and culturally “backward” Russia was recognized as the success of the world revolution, its victory in advanced capitalist countries. In October 1905, he became a member of the Executive Committee, and then was elected a member of the Presidium of the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies. He became its de facto leader. On November 26, the Chairman of the Council, G.S., was arrested. Nosar. The executive committee elected Trotsky as chairman. On December 3, 1905, he was arrested at a meeting of the St. Petersburg Council. In prison he wrote a number of works outlining the theory of “permanent revolution” (“Results and Prospects”, “In Defense of the Party”, “Revolution and Its Forces”). In the fall of 1906, his speech at the trial of members of the St. Petersburg Council caused a wide resonance. He was sentenced to lifelong exile in Siberia with deprivation of all rights. Was sent to the village. Obdorskoe, Tobolsk province, but on the way to exile, in February 1907, he escaped to Finland. In 1907 he participated in the V Congress of the RSDLP. Represented the position of non-factional Social Democrats. After the congress he settled in Vienna. Participant of the Stuttgart Congress of the Second International. He contributed to the SPD organ “Die Neue Zeit” (1908). He published the book “Russia in the Revolution” (1909). He was one of the publishers and editors of the organ of non-factional Social Democrats - the newspaper Pravda (Vienna, 1908 - 1910), which from January 1910 turned into an all-party organ. He was the initiator of the party conference in Vienna (August 1912), an alternative to the Prague conference of Lenin's supporters. Its goal was to create a bloc of non-factional Social Democrats with various factions of Mensheviks, Bolshevik “conciliators” and the “Forward” group (August Bloc). In 1912 - 1913 was a foreign correspondent for the newspaper Kyiv Mysl. Author of reports on the First and Second Balkan Wars, in which he was very critical of the exaltation of the struggle of the South Slavs against Turkey. One of the organizers of the publication of the legal Social Democratic magazine “Fight” (St. Petersburg, 1914).

Trotsky abroad

On August 3, 1914, after the outbreak of the First World War, he moved to Zurich, then to Paris. He collaborated with the Social Democratic newspaper “Our Word” (Paris, 1914 - 1916). Since 1915 he became its de facto editor. He sharply criticized the position of the Menshevik defencists. In his articles, he propagated the idea of ​​the United States of Europe, the path to which was to be opened by the socialist revolution in the leading capitalist countries. Author of the slogan “No victories, no defeats.” Participant of the Zimmerwald Conference (September 5 - 8, 1915). On September 14, 1916, after the newspaper Nashe Slovo was banned for anti-war propaganda, he was expelled from France. He went to Spain, from where he was deported to Cuba. On September 13, 1917 he arrived in the USA. At the beginning of 1917, he became one of the editors of the newspaper “New World” (New York).

Trotsky and Soviet power

After the overthrow of the monarchy in Russia, he left for his homeland, but was arrested in Canada on the way. Released at the request of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies after negotiations between the Provisional Government and the British Ambassador. On May 4, 1917 he arrived in Petrograd. Soon Trotsky becomes the leader of the “Mezhrayontsy” organization. Arrested after performances in Petrograd on July 3-4. After the collective entry of the “Mezhrayontsy” into the RSDLP (b), at its VI Congress (July 26 - August 3) he was elected a member of the party’s Central Committee. After the defeat of the Kornilov rebellion, he was released in September 1917. He gained great popularity among workers, soldiers and sailors, often speaking to them at rallies at the Modern circus. On September 25, he was elected Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. He was also elected to the Pre-Parliament, leading its Bolshevik faction. Organized the departure of the Bolsheviks from this institution. He was one of the organizers and leaders of the October Revolution. Thanks to his own oratory, he won over the garrison of the Peter and Paul Fortress and other parts of the Petrograd garrison to the side of the Bolsheviks. Delegate to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets. November 8 - March 13, 1918 - People's Commissar for foreign affairs in the first composition of the Council of People's Commissars. He initiated the publication of secret diplomatic documents of the Russian Empire and the Provisional Government. His platform, which envisaged Russia's unilateral withdrawal from the war and the demobilization of the army without concluding a peace treaty, received the support of the majority of members of the Central Committee. During the second stage of peace negotiations in Brest-Litovsk, he headed the delegation of Soviet Russia. He adhered to the tactics agreed with Lenin of delaying negotiations in the hope of the rise of the revolutionary movement in Germany. After Germany presented an ultimatum, he announced, in accordance with the decisions of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, that the Council of People's Commissars refused to conclude peace on the unfavorable terms offered to it. He announced that Russia would end the war unilaterally and demobilize the army. Author of the appeal of the Council of People's Commissars "The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger", written in response to the onset of the offensive of German troops. He resigned from the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, admitting the defeat of his strategic line. When discussing the issue in the Central Committee, he supported Lenin’s idea of ​​​​immediate peace. He ensured the victory of his position in the vote on February 23 by abstaining with his supporters. Since March 14 - People's Commissar for Military Affairs of the RSFSR. Since March 28 - Chairman of the Supreme Military Council. Since September 6, Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR. In an effort to increase the combat effectiveness of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, he introduced unity of command and actively recruited officers of the Russian Empire to serve. Restored the strength of the army through general mobilization. He fought against the “military opposition”, which denied unity of command in the army and the need to recruit “military experts” into the service. In August 1918, he formed the “pre-revolutionary military council train”, in which he traveled to the fronts, exercising direct control over military operations. In November 1919, he was one of the organizers of the defense of Petrograd against the White Guard troops of Yudenich. For this in November of the same year he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Participated in the development and conduct of many of the most important operations of the Civil War. He proposed a plan to defeat Denikin by advancing the Red Army through Kharkov and Donbass. At the same time, the campaign launched by Trotsky against N. Makhno in the summer of 1919 became one of the reasons for the defeat of the Soviet troops. At the same time, he used brutal measures in order to strengthen military discipline, including the use of executions of a significant part of the soldiers who fled from positions. He was one of the apologists of the “Red Terror”, defending this political course in his work “Terrorism and Communism” (1920). ). Civil War strengthened Trotsky's influence in the party and state leadership.

Trotsky is one of the founders of the Comintern and was the author of its Manifesto.

In January 1920, in order to carry out local economic tasks, he organized the First Army on the basis of the former 3rd Army of the Red Army labor army. However, the experiment did not give the expected results and the army was disbanded at the beginning of 1922. In the spring of 1920, on behalf of the Central Committee, he developed theses on the transition to peaceful economic construction, adopted by the IX Congress of the RCP (b). In March 1920, he put forward a proposal to replace the surplus appropriation system with a tax in kind, which was rejected by Lenin and the majority of the Central Committee. In March 1920 - April 1921. served as People's Commissar of Railways. Thanks to emergency measures, he managed to bring the country's transport system out of critical condition. Influenced by his experience, he advocated the further development of state centralization and militarization of labor. He considered labor conscription and the mobilization of labor as the main feature of the socialist model of socio-economic structure. He initiated the discussion about trade unions that unfolded at the end of 1920. He proposed turning trade unions into transmission belts of militarized industry. However, he was defeated. In 1922, due to growing dissatisfaction with Stalin’s actions in the party leadership, he received Lenin’s offer to take the post of deputy chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, but rejected it. At the end of 1922 he took Lenin’s side in the discussion on national question, monopolies foreign trade, reorganization of the highest party bodies. Since November 1923 - People's Commissar of the USSR for Military and Naval Affairs. In 1923, in the struggle against Trotsky, I.V. united. Stalin, G.E. Zinoviev and L.B. Kameneva. After Lenin’s withdrawal from participation in the political struggle in March 1923, he spoke on the pages of Pravda against the bureaucratization of the party leadership and policies aimed at curtailing internal party democracy. In a series of articles, the New Deal called for greater self-activity, collective initiative, and criticism within the party. He was defeated in the internal party struggle thanks to the intrigues of Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev. In May 1924, at the XIII Congress of the RCP (b), he demanded that the “Testament of Lenin” be read out and, in accordance with it, Stalin be removed from office Secretary General Central Committee. However, Trotsky’s position was condemned by the congress as a departure from the ideas of V.I. Lenin. His participation in the internal party struggle was recognized as a manifestation of factionalism.

Decline of a career

At the end of January 1925, he resigned from the posts of chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council and People's Commissar of Military Affairs. In 1926, Trotsky became one of the leaders of the so-called “united opposition” against Stalin’s course of “building socialism in one country.” At the same time, L. Trotsky himself not only did not deny the need for socialist construction, but was one of the main supporters of industrialization in the USSR. For opposition activities in October 1926, Trotsky was expelled from the Politburo of the Central Committee, in October 1927 - from the Central Committee, and on November 16 of the same year - from the party. In January 1928, he was deported with his wife, N. Sedova, and son, L. Sedov, to Alma-Ata. He corresponded with his supporters. In January 1929 he was deported outside the USSR, to Turkey. Lived on o. Prinkipo. In July 1933 he moved to France, in June 1935 - to Norway. In January 1937 he received political asylum in Mexico. In February 1932 he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. During the period of Trotsky’s last emigration, his books were published, which laid the foundation for the Trotskyist analysis of the Soviet social model: “My Life”, “The History of the Russian Revolution”, “Stalin’s School of Falsifications”, “The Revolution Betrayed” (1936). Since July 1929 he published the “Bulletin of the Opposition”. He criticized “bureaucratic absolutism” in the USSR. He categorically rejected the accusation that Stalin was implementing the ideas of the left opposition. In 1937 he participated in the work international conference, which recognized the Moscow trials against former leaders anti-Stalinist inner-party opposition falsified. Trotsky assessed the terror and bureaucratization of the management system in the USSR as the results of the Thermidorian degeneration of the party. In 1938 he became the organizer of the IV International. Killed by NKVD agent R. Mercader. Trotsky's sons and many relatives were also subjected to repression or were killed.

Leon Trotsky was born in 1879 in the village of Yanovka, Kherson province. He was the fifth child in a classic Jewish family.

Lev received his education first in Odessa, and then in Nikolaev, where he became a member of the local Marxist circle. After graduating from the Nikolaev Real School, he entered Novorossiysk University.

The beginning of revolutionary work

In 1897 he participated in the organization of the workers' union. In 1898 he went to prison for the first time. Was convicted of revolutionary activity and expelled.

First emigration to London

In 1902, he managed to escape abroad using false documents. In exile, he closely collaborated with V. Lenin, O. Martov, G. Plekhanov, either taking the side of the “old guard” led by the latter, or taking the side of the young members of the RSDLP led by V. Lenin.

Trotsky in 1905 -1907

In 1905, Lev Davydovich returned to Russia illegally and headed the work of the Petrograd Soviet. In 1906 he was detained, sentenced to eternal exile in Siberia and deprived of all civil rights, but on the way to exile he again managed to escape.

Second emigration

According to short biography Trotsky Lev Davydovich, during the second emigration (1906-1917) Trotsky traveled a lot. Lived in Vienna, Zurich, Paris, New York (the USA made a great impression on Trotsky).

He published various newspapers and was a freelance correspondent for the newspaper, covering events on the Eastern and Western fronts of the First World War.

Trotsky after '17

In 1917, Trotsky returned to Russia and immediately became a member of the Petrograd Soviet, which was in opposition to the Provisional Government. For his activities in promoting Bolshevism, he went to prison, from which he was released after the failure of the Kornilov rebellion. He immediately became a member of the Central Committee, head of the Petrograd Soviet and a member of the faction from the RSDLP in the Constituent Assembly. In fact, he was the second person in the state and the leading organizer of the October Revolution (as I. Stalin pointed out in his memoirs).

From 1917 to 1918 he held the position of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, from 1918 to 1924 he was People's Commissar for Military Affairs. In 1919, he took part in the organization of the Comintern, and also became a member of the first Politburo of the Central Committee.

Power struggle

Since 1922, Trotsky began an active struggle for political primacy. I. Stalin, M. Zinoviev and D. Kamenev oppose him. In 1924, immediately after Lenin’s death, Trotsky was removed from the post of People’s Commissar of Military Affairs (M. Frunze was appointed).

In 1924-1925 Trotsky found himself almost completely removed from business, but in 1927 he united with M. Zinoviev and D. Kamenev against Stalin. The activities of the “new opposition” were a failure. In the same year, Trotsky was expelled from the Comintern.

In 1928-1929, he was actually in exile in Alma-Ata, from where he was deported outside the country.

Last emigration

Since 1929, Trotsky was engaged in literary work. They wrote several monographs on the history of the Russian revolution. In 1938 he announced the creation of the Fourth International.

It is known that Trotsky took with him into exile an archive, the contents of which largely compromised Stalin. That is why in 1940, Trotsky, who was living in Mexico at that time, was killed by NKVD officer Ramon Markeder. The USSR officially “denied” involvement in the murder, Markeder was sent to a Mexican prison for 20 years, but after his release he moved to the USSR, where he received the title of Hero of the USSR and was awarded the Order of Lenin.

Other biography options

• The surname “Trotsky” was entered into Lev Davydovich’s first false passport when he fled abroad in 1902. It is interesting that the real “owner” of this surname was the warden of the Odessa prison.