Leon Trotsky: His early life and the 1905 Russian Revolution

In 1879, Leon Trotsky was born as Lev Davidovich Bronstein in Yanovka, the Russian Empire. He was born to two Jewish parents who sent him to school in Odessa when he was eight years old. During his years of schooling he became exposed to the ides of Socialism and Marxism. He was subsequently arrested by the Tsarist government in 1898. In prison, he married his first wife: Aleksandra Sokolovskaya. After marrying her, Lev Bronstein (Trotsky) was deported to Siberia. In exile he adopted the name Leon Trotsky after the name of one of his jailers. However, he escaped in 1902 and went into European exile. In exile he married his second wife: Natalya Sedova. Trotsky also met and became acquainted with Lenin: a major figure in the Russian Social Democratic Worker’s Party (Communist Party). During Trotsky’s first foreign exile, the RSDWP split into two factions: the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. However, Trotsky refused to join either side.

In 1905, in the midst of a unpopular and costly war with Japan, Tsarist Russia was afflicted with massive unrest and labor strikes. In response the Government violently put down strikes and marches. However, this only further inflamed the strikers and protesters. As part of the unrest worker’s councils (Soviets) are established. In the midst of this turmoil Trotsky returned to Russia. At first he gave speeches and wrote for newspapers in Ukraine but eventually made his way to the capitol of Saint Petersburg. There he took control of the St. Petersburg Soviet after the arrest of its leader. The Tsar, however, was able to split the revolutionaries along ideological lines and subsequently suppress them. As part of this suppression Trotsky and the leaders of the St. Petersburg Soviet were arrested. A year later in 1906, Trotsky was exiled to Siberia once again.