Category: Leon Trotsky

Following his escape and during his exile into Western Europe Trotsky Continued to agitate for world revolution. This made him very unpopular with many governments and resulted in him being continually deported. By early 1917 he had ended up in New York City, USA. Then in February 1917 a democratic liberal government overthrew the Tsar and attempted to establish a democracy. Learning of this, Trotsky immediately set out on a German ship bound for Russia. However, his ship was seized by British troops and imprisoned in Canada. Yet, he was soon freed when the Russian Government -under pressure from the socialists- demanded his return. Trotsky arrived in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) on May 17 but did not join the Bolsheviks right away (even though he agreed with many of their ideas at this point.)

At first Trotsky joined a regional Petrograd party and was even elected a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Following a failed Bolshevik seizure of power in April, Trotsky was arrested along with other Communists but released 40 days later. Meanwhile, he joined the Bolshevik party and was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet. Here he supported Lenin and his plan for an immediate armed uprising. After seizing power on November 7-8 Trotsky led Communist forces against the counterattack from the recently deposed democratic government. However, the Bolsheviks had yet to form a functional government and with the exception of the Left SRs no other political party supported them. In fact, many were downright hostile and would make certain that a Bolshevik rise to power would not be easy.

Following his escape and during his exile into Western Europe Trotsky Continued to agitate for world revolution. This made him very unpopular with many governments and resulted in him being continually deported. By early 1917 he had ended up in New York City, USA. Then in February 1917 a democratic liberal government overthrew the Tsar and attempted to establish a democracy. Learning of this, Trotsky immediately set out on a German ship bound for Russia. However, his ship was seized by British troops and imprisoned in Canada. Yet, he was soon freed when the Russian Government -under pressure from the socialists- demanded his return. Trotsky arrived in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) on May 17 but did not join the Bolsheviks right away (even though he agreed with many of their ideas at this point.)

At first Trotsky joined a regional Petrograd party and was even elected a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Following a failed Bolshevik seizure of power in April, Trotsky was arrested along with other Communists but released 40 days later. Meanwhile, he joined the Bolshevik party and was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet. Here he supported Lenin and his plan for an immediate armed uprising. After seizing power on November 7-8 Trotsky led Communist forces against the counterattack from the recently deposed democratic government. However, the Bolsheviks had yet to form a functional government and with the exception of the Left SRs no other political party supported them. In fact, many were downright hostile and would make certain that a Bolshevik rise to power would not be easy.

Following his arrest in the St. Petersburg Soviet in 1905, Leon Trotsky was put on trial. He was charged by the Tsarist court with supporting an armed rebellion and sentenced to Siberian exile in 1906. However, en route to the isolated settlement of Obdorsk, Trotsky faked sickness and escaped to Europe. There he again met with members of the Russian Social Democratic Worker’s Party and attended their fifth congress. In Europe he also joined the editorial staff of the RSDWP newspaper Pravda (truth). However, due to lack of funding and the division between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks the newspaper would cease publication in 1912. Throughout this time Trotsky would continue to try to unite the two warring factions from his hideout in Vienna.

However, a seemingly unimportant event would change everything. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand would set off a chain reaction whose result was the engulfing of Europe in War. Many Socialists and Marxists (communists) saw World War One as a “frivolous capitalist-imperialist conflict” and therefore opposed it. However, many Socialist parties (especially parties from countries fighting in the war) declared loyalty and support for the war. Marxists and many Left Socialists hated this and caused further splintering in the world wide Communist/Socialist movement. Trotsky was also opposed to the war but did not agree with Lenin’s calls for Russian defeat.

While the world powers were fighting amongst themselves, a event in St. Petersburg would shape the world forever.

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.