Trotsky’s background
Leon Trotsky was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein, in 1879, the son of a wealthy
Jewish farmer in the Ukraine. From an early age, he demonstrated his outstanding
academic ability and was sent to school in Odessa for his education. In his final year,
he moved to Nicolayev, where he was introduced to the ideas of Karl Marx and the
Russian revolutionary movement. He immediately became involved in political
activities, and was arrested two years later (1898) and sentenced to two years jail,
before being expelled from Russia. It was during his exile in London that he met
Lenin and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. When the Party split in
1903, Trotsky sided with the Mensheviks, opposing the kind of centralized, dictatorial
control advocated by Lenin. In his view, the party should be open to all workers who
wished to join, and should operate on democratic principles.
When revolution broke out in Russia in 1905, Trotsky returned to his homeland to
organize the working class. He soon become chairman of the St. Petersburg Soviet of
Workers’ Deputies, and gained considerable respect as a result of his political and
organizational skills. However, the revolutionary forces were defeated, and Trotsky
was sent to prison, then exiled to Siberia.
With time on his hands, Trotsky turned his attention to the central dilemma facing
Russian Marxists – how to achieve socialism in a society which had not yet fully
industrialized. His answer was the theory of permanent revolution. According to this
view, Russia could by-pass the capitalist stage of development and move directly to
socialism because it would receive aid from other industrialized nations which had
already become socialist.
After escaping Siberia in 1907, Trotsky spent the next decade abroad, writing and
organizing revolutionary activities. Here he met up with Lenin again, and gradually
the two men moved closer together politically and ideologically. In particular, they
both stridently opposed the First World War, branding it an imperialist conflict which
could only harm the interests of the working class.
By the time Trotsky returned to Russia in 1917, he was ready to join the Bolsheviks
once more – an arrangement which laid the foundations for the November Revolution.
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The main events in the life of Leon Trotsky – long version
Leon was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein, in 1879, and demonstrated his
outstanding academic abilities from an early age. As a young man, he was attracted to
the ideas of Karl Marx, and became involved in revolutionary activity. He was
arrested in 1898 and sentenced to two years jail, before being expelled from Russia. It
was during his exile in London that he met Lenin and joined the Russian Social
Democratic Labour Party. When the Party split in 1903, Trotsky sided with the
Mensheviks, opposing the kind of centralized, dictatorial control advocated by Lenin.
When revolution broke out in Russia in 1905, Trotsky returned to his homeland to
organize the working class. He soon become chairman of the St. Petersburg Soviet of
Workers’ Deputies, and gained considerable respect as a result of his political and
organizational skills. However, the revolutionary forces were defeated, and Trotsky
was sent to prison, then exiled to Siberia, from where he escaped into exile in 1907.
Trotsky did not return to Russia until after the overthrown of the Tsarist regime in
1917. In May of that year, he arrived in the capital, joined the Bolshevik Party, and
immediately set about building up support within the Petrograd Soviet. Given his
reputation and ability, he was elected president in September 1917. The following
month, Lenin entrusted him with the task of carrying out an insurrection, something
he achieved due to his brilliant planning and meticulous organization. Petrograd fell
with little bloodshed; Moscow followed soon after.
With the Bolsheviks in power, Trotsky was given the unenviable task of negotiating
a peace with Germany – something he did, despite personal reservations. The Treaty
of Brest-Litovsk allowed the Bolsheviks to honour their pre-revolutionary promise of
ending the war and distributing land to the peasants.
Trotsky was now given the most daunting task of his career – to defend the
Revolution against the encircling White armies. The newly appointed Commissar for
War introduced conscription for all workers and peasants, and built the Red Army
into a force of 5 million men. He then devised a strategy to win the war, and used his
organizational skills to put this plan into effect. Finally, the used his oratorical skills
to inspire the troops, touring the various fronts in a special armoured train.
By 1921, the Bolsheviks had won the Civil War, but the ruthless methods they
employed alienated many soldiers, peasants and workers. In February of that year, the
Kronstadt Garrison mutinied, forcing Lenin to crush the rebellion by force. Trotsky
led the attack, and although he took no part in the massacre that followed, he did
shoulder much of the blame.
Trotsky was now Lenin’s natural and preferred successor, but when the Bolshevik
leader died in 1924, Trotsky found himself with a rival in the form of Joseph Stalin.
Trotsky could have destroyed Stalin from the outset, by releasing Lenin’s so-called
‘Testament’ to the public, but he let the opportunity slip. So confident was he of his
own abilities that he underestimated the his rival, and dismissed him as a serious
threat. Stalin then used his position as Party general secretary to undermine Trotsky’s
authority, eventually stripping him of his rank, his Party membership, and finally his
citizenship. Trotsky was sent into exile in 1929, never to return.
Trotsky spent his remaining years trying to rehabilitate himself. In the 1930s, he
established the Fourth International, an organization dedicated to the overthrow of
Joseph Stalin and the system he had imposed on the USSR. However, Trotsky
enjoyed little success. He was forced to move from country to country, under threat of
his life, and finally settled in Mexico in 1936. There, he was murdered by Ramon
Mercader, a Stalinist agent in 1940.
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The main events in the life of Leon Trotsky – short version
Leon Trotsky was born in 1879. As a young man, he was attracted to the ideas of
Karl Marx, and became involved in revolutionary activity. He was arrested in 1898
and sentenced to jail, but escaped to London where he met Lenin. When the Russian
Social Democratic Labour Party split in 1903, Trotsky sided with the Mensheviks,
opposing the kind of centralized, dictatorial control advocated by Lenin.
When revolution broke out in 1905, Trotsky returned to Russia to organize the
working class, and soon become chairman of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers’
Deputies. But when the revolutionary forces were defeated, he was again exiled. He
did not return until after the overthrown of the Tsarist regime in 1917. He soon joined
the Bolshevik Party, and set about building up support within the Petrograd Soviet.
Given his reputation and ability, he was elected president in September 1917. The
following month, Lenin gave him the task of carrying out an insurrection, something
he achieved due to his brilliant planning and meticulous organization.
Trotsky was now given the task of negotiating a peace treaty with Germany, but
when civil war broke out he was given command of the Red Army in the battle
against the Whites. Trotsky built it into a potent fighting force and let it to victory.
That victory came at a high price, however, and when the Kronstadt Garrison
mutinied, Trotsky was ordered to crush the rebellion. This he did ruthlessly.
Trotsky was now Lenin’s natural and preferred successor, but when the Bolshevik
leader died in 1924, Trotsky found himself with a rival in the form of Joseph Stalin.
Trotsky could easily have destroyed Stalin, by releasing Lenin’s ‘Testament’, but he
let the opportunity slip. Stalin then used his influence to undermine Trotsky,
eventually stripping him of his rank and sending him into exile.
Trotsky spent his remaining years on the run, eventually settling in Mexico. There,
he was murdered by Ramon Mercader, a Stalinist agent in 1940.
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Assess Trotsky’s contribution to the Bolshevik seizure of power in
1917
Without doubt, Leon Trotsky’s contribution to the Bolshevik seizure of power was
crucial. He gave the Bolsheviks the organisational capacity they lacked, and his skills
of persuasion ensured that the Petrograd Soviet and the Petrograd Garrison supported
rather than opposed the November Revolution.
Trotsky’s role in the Revolution began with his return to Russia in May 1917. His
role in the 1905 Revolution was well known, and his decision to join the Bolsheviks
gave them more credibility. Trotsky immediately set about building Bolshevik
support within the Petrograd Soviet, and by September 1917 he had been elected its
president. According to the historian Isaac Deutscher, it was Trotsky who persuaded
Lenin to delay the insurrection until the end of October, so that power could be seized
in the name of the Soviet rather than the Bolshevik Party itself, thereby reducing the
likelihood of opposition among the workers, peasants and soldiers whom the Soviet
represented. In Deutscher’s view, the Revolution might have failed if it had been
attempted any earlier.
In October, Trotsky was given the job of carrying out the insurrection. The
instrument he used was the Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC) of the
Petrograd Soviet, which had been established to organise forces defending the
revolution. This body was controlled by Trotsky and the Bolsheviks, since the
Menshiviks and right Socialist Revolutionaries refused to participate.
Trotsky’s organisation of the insurrection was flawless. On October 26th, he
persuaded the Petrograd garrison to place itself under the control of the MRC, leaving
the Provisional Government defenceless. He had already organised for the MRC's
commissars to assume control over arsenals, warehouses and other military
installations. He now arranged for them to divert rifles and other military equipment
to the Red Guard (which was under Trotsky's own command).
On November 6th, Kerensky ordered the arrest of the MRC leaders and the transfer
of loyal troops to the capital. Lenin realised that the Bolsheviks had to strike
immediately or risk losing everything. In response, Trotsky arranged for the Red
Guard to capture key public buildings and installations in Petrograd. Thanks to his
meticulous preparation, the city fell with little bloodshed, since the army offered
virtually no resistance. The Revolution had begun.
According to Isaac Deutscher, Trotsky’s role was crucial in the seizure of power. He
doubts that any other leader could have pulled it off. Richard Pipes, by contrast,
believes that Trotsky’s importance has been exaggerated; in fact, it was Lenin who
was the key player in the coup. Deutscher counters this by reminding people that
Lenin was still in hiding at the time, so could not have been centrally involved.
Hence it can be seen that Trotsky’s contribution to the Bolshevik seizure of power
was twofold. His organisational skills gave the Bolsheviks an advantage over their
opponents in the Provisional Government, while his skills of persuasion ensured that
the Petrograd Soviet and the Petrograd Garrison would support rather than oppose the
Bolshevik coup.
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Assess Trotsky’s contribution to the Bolsheviks’ consolidation of
power in the period between 1918 and 1921
While Trotsky’s role had been of secondary importance in the November
Revolution, it was crucial to the Bolshevik consolidation of power in the years
between 1918 and 1921.
Trotsky’s first contribution was in his role as Commisar of Foreign Affairs in the
newly created Council of People's Commissars. Lenin gave him the task of
negotiating a peace treaty with Germany. Initially, Trotsky had hoped to end the war
without the loss of territory. However, when the Germans rejected his demands and
resumed the offensive, he was forced to agree to their terms. Despite the treaty’s
onerous clauses – the loss of 25 percent of Russia’s land, 30 percent of its population,
and 6 billion gold marks in reparations – it gave the Bolsheviks the breathing space
they needed to remain in power. With the war over, they could honour the promises
they had made before coming to power – to provide land, bread and peace to the
peasants, workers and soldiers. This allowed them to consolidate their support with
these groups.
Even so, the Bolsheviks still faced considerable opposition in 1918, and soon found
themselves at war with an alliance of monarchists, liberals and disaffected leftists.
While Lenin confined his attention to political and economic matters, he gave Trotsky
the task of defeating the White Armies, appointing him Commissar for War in March
1918.
Lenin’s confidence in Trotsky’s abilities was not misplaced. Although the new War
Commissar had no military training and no experience of war, he had a brilliant mind,
and soon mastered the skills needed to defeat his enemies. He also brought his
organisational skills to the Red Army, and soon turned it into a formidable fighting
force.
Realising the need for experienced military leaders – and against considerable
opposition from within the Bolshevik Party – Trotsky recruited 50,000 former
imperial army officers into the Red Army. To ensure the loyalty of these men, he
attached to each a political commissar, who shared command.
With the reintroduction of conscription for all workers and peasants, and the Red
Army grew from 800,000 men to 5 million men between 1918 and 1920. Trotsky
subjected these men to harsh discipline, to maintain their loyalty. Commanders who
failed in battle were severely punished; those who succeeded were promoted.
Although desertions were high (particularly among peasant conscripts), Trotsky
reduced this by reintroducing the death penalty. He also toured the various fronts in a
special armoured train, directing battles and inspiring the troops.
However, what distinguished Trotsky as a great commander was his ability to
marshal his forces to the fronts where they were needed, taking advantage of his
shorter lines of communication. In this way, he was able to defeat the White Armies
one at a time.
Hence it can be seen that without Leon Trotsky, the Bolsheviks’ control of Russia
might have been very short-lived. It was his organisational and military genius that
defeated the White Armies and allowed the communists to consolidate their power.
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Assess Trotsky’s contribution to communist ideology
Trotsky was not a major contributor to communist ideology, but he did develop one
important idea, and was a major critic of the views of others. His contribution centres
on his theory of ‘permanent revolution’. Like Lenin, he was well aware that Marxist
theory predicted that revolutions would occur in the rich, industrialised nations, not
pre-capitalist ones like Russia. However, he also realised that opportunities for
revolution were rare, and that the Russian Marxists needed to act before the
revolutionary wave subsided. For this reason, he threw in his lot with the Bolsheviks.
With the success of the November Revolution, he and Lenin now faced a dilemma:
how to develop Russia industrially and build up the working class. Lenin developed a
domestic solution to this dilemma – NEP – but Trotsky preferred an international
approach. According to his theory of permanent revolution the Bolshevik seizure of
power would trigger revolutions in the capitalist nations – particularly Germany.
Those nations would then provide Russia with the economic and political support it
needed to develop.
Following Lenin’s death, Stalin attacked this theory, arguing that it would embroil
Russia in endless conflicts overseas, without fostering development. His arguments
helped him defeat Trotsky in the power struggle of the 1920s. With hindsight, it is
clear that Trotsky was wrong to pin his hopes on the spread of revolution as a way to
save Russia. As it turned out, none of the developed nations experienced Marxist-type
uprisings; the working class preferred evolution to revolution. However, the
communists very nearly did succeed in Germany in 1918, and had they done so the
history of the world might have been very different.
Trotsky’s other contribution to communist ideology was his critique of changes
made to the Bolshevik Party’s internal structure following the Kronstadt Rebellion.
Lenin had banned factions within the Party, as a means of unifying it at a time of
political unrest. Trotsky feared that this might lead to dictatorship after Lenin’s death
– something which proved to be correct. Following his expulsion from Russia, he
refined his critique, arguing that Stalin’s totalitarian regime was really a “deformed
worker’s state” and that another revolution was needed to establish true socialism.
Stalin might have been able to defeat Trotsky politically, and steer Russia along a
path antithetical to Trotsky’s ideas. However, he could not defeat him ideologically.
Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution had great appeal in the developing world,
and inspired revolutionaries like Castro, Guevara and Ho Chi Minh. Similarly, his
critique of Stalinist bureaucracy inspired the establishment of the Fourth International,
and helped revive the communist movement in Europe at a time when it was reeling
from revelations of Stalin’s abuses.
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Trotsky in exile
Leon Trotsky was sent into exile in 1929, and never returned to Russia. He spent the
rest of his life moving from one country to another, devoting his time to organising,
writing and attempting to clear his name.
While in exile, Trotsky came to believe that Russia needed a second revolution, to
overthrow the system established by Stalin. To this end, he established the Fourth
International, an anti-Stalinist organisation dedicated to the overthrow of the dictator.
The Fourth International garnered some support among communists, but most chose
to believe the propaganda emanating from Russia about the achievements of the Stalin
and the Communist Party he led.
As far as writing was concerned, Trotsky’s work was in serious demand in Western
countries, and he was able to make a living as a journalist, mainly writing about
Soviet affairs. He also published Bulletin of the Opposition, a journal providing a
critique of Soviet politics and life under Stalin. Of greater significance was the
autobiography he wrote, entitled My Life, as well as the three volume History of the
Russian Revolution. His most controversial work was The Revolution Betrayed, in
which he attacked all aspects of Stalin’s rule. None of these books were circulated in
Russia itself, meaning Trotsky could only hope to persuade those living abroad of the
justice of his cause.
The publication of The Revolution Betrayed in 1937 persuaded Stalin that Trotsky
was more of a threat than he had assumed, and he took steps to have his rival
eliminated. It was Ramon Mercader, a Stalinist agent, who delivered the death blow in
1940, while Trotsky was living in Mexico City.
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