Lev Davidovich Trotsky is a Russian revolutionary figure of the 20th century, the ideologist of Trotskyism, one of the currents of Marxism. Twice exiled under the monarchy, deprived of all civil rights in 1905. One of the organizers of the October Revolution of 1917, one of the creators of the Red Army. One of the founders and ideologists of the Comintern, a member of its Executive Committee.

Leon Trotsky (real name Leiba Bronstein) was born on November 7, 1879 into a family of wealthy tenant landowners. In 1889, his parents sent him to study in Odessa with his cousin, the owner of a printing house and a scientific publishing house, Moses Schnitzer. Trotsky was the first student in the school. He was fond of drawing, literature, composed poetry, translated Krylov's fables from Russian into Ukrainian, participated in the publication of a school handwritten magazine.

He began to conduct revolutionary propaganda at the age of 17, joining a revolutionary circle in Nikolaev. On January 28, 1898, he was arrested for the first time and spent two years in prison, it was then that he joined the ideas of Marxism. During the investigation, he studied the Gospels in English, German, French and Italian, read the works of Marx, got acquainted with the works of Lenin.

Leiba Bronstein at the age of nine, Odessa

A year before going to prison for the first time, Trotsky joined the South Russian Workers' Union. One of its leaders was Alexandra Sokolovskaya, who became Trotsky's wife in 1898. Together they went into exile in the Irkutsk province, where Trotsky contacted Iskra agents, and soon began to cooperate with them, receiving the nickname "Pero" for his penchant for writing.

“I came to London as a big provincial, and in every sense. Not only abroad, but also in St. Petersburg, I had never been before. In Moscow, as in Kyiv, he lived only in a transit prison. In 1902, Trotsky decided to escape from exile. It was then, when receiving a fake passport, that he entered the name Trotsky there (the name of the senior warden of the Odessa prison, where the revolutionary was kept for two years).

Trotsky went to London, where Vladimir Lenin was then. The young Marxist quickly gained fame by making presentations at meetings of émigrés. He was extremely eloquent, ambitious and educated, everyone, without exception, considered him an amazing speaker. At the same time, for supporting Lenin, he was nicknamed "Lenin's club", while Trotsky himself was often critical of Lenin's organizational plans.

In 1904, serious disagreements began between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. By that time, Trotsky had established himself as a follower of the "permanent revolution", moved away from the Mensheviks and married a second time to Natalia Sedova (the marriage was not registered, but the couple lived together until Trotsky's death). In 1905, together they illegally returned to Russia, where Trotsky became one of the founders of the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies. On December 3, he was arrested and, as part of a high-profile trial, was sentenced to eternal exile in Siberia with the deprivation of all civil rights, but fled on the way to Salekhard.

The split between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks was brewing, supported by Lenin, who in 1912 at the Prague conference of the RSDLP announced the separation of the Bolshevik faction into an independent party. Trotsky continued to advocate unification of the party, organizing the "August Bloc", which the Bolsheviks ignored. This cooled Trotsky's desire for a truce, he preferred to step aside.

In 1917, after the February Revolution, Trotsky and his family tried to get to Russia, but were removed from the ship and sent to a concentration camp for interned sailors. The reason for this was the lack of documents from the revolutionary. However, he was soon released at the written request of the Provisional Government as a well-deserved fighter against tsarism. Trotsky criticized the Provisional Government, so he soon became the informal leader of the “mezhraiontsy”, for which he was accused of espionage. His influence on the masses was enormous, so he played a special role in the transition to the Bolshevik side of the soldiers of the rapidly decomposing Petrograd garrison, which was of great importance in the revolution. In July 1917, the Mezhraiontsy united with the Bolsheviks, and Trotsky was soon released from prison, where he was on charges of espionage.

While Lenin was in Finland, Trotsky actually became the leader of the Bolsheviks. In September 1917, he headed the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, and also became a delegate to the II Congress of Soviets and the Constituent Assembly. In October, the VRC (Military Revolutionary Committee) was formed, consisting mainly of Bolsheviks. It was the committee that was engaged in armed preparations for the revolution: already on October 16, the Red Guards received five thousand rifles; rallies were held among the hesitant, at which Trotsky's brilliant oratorical talent was again manifested. In fact, he was one of the main leaders of the October Revolution.

Leon Trotsky, Vladimir Lenin, Lev Kamenev

“The uprising of the masses needs no justification. What happened is an uprising, not a conspiracy. We tempered the revolutionary energy of the Petersburg workers and soldiers. We openly forged the will of the masses for an uprising, and not for a conspiracy.”

After the October Revolution, the Military Revolutionary Committee remained the only authority for a long time. Under him, a commission for combating counter-revolution, a commission for combating drunkenness and pogroms were formed, and food supplies were established. At the same time, Leni and Trotsky took a tough stance against political opponents. On December 17, 1917, in his address to the Cadets, Trotsky announces the beginning of the stage of mass terror against the enemies of the revolution in a harsher form: “You should know that no later than in a month the terror will take very strong forms, following the example of the great French revolutionaries. The guillotine will await our enemies, and not just prison. It was then, formulated by Trotsky, that the concept of "red terror" appeared.

Soon Trotsky was appointed People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the first composition of the Bolshevik government. On December 5, 1917, the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee was dissolved, Trotsky handed over his affairs to Zinoviev and completely immersed himself in the affairs of the Petrograd Soviet. The "counter-revolutionary sabotage" of the civil servants of the old Ministry of Foreign Affairs began, suppressed by the publication of the secret treaties of the tsarist government. The situation in the country was also complicated by diplomatic isolation, which was not easy for Trotsky to overcome.

To improve the situation, he announced that the government would take an intermediate position "neither peace nor war: we do not sign treaties, we stop the war, and we demobilize the army." Germany refused to tolerate such a position and announced an offensive. By this time, the army did not actually exist. Trotsky admitted the failure of his policy and resigned from the post of People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs.

Leon Trotsky with his wife Natalia Sedova and son Lev Sedov

On March 14, 1918, Trotsky was appointed to the post of people's commissar for military affairs, on March 28 to the post of chairman of the Supreme Military Council, in April - military commissar for maritime affairs, and on September 6 - chairman of the revolutionary military council of the RSFSR. At the same time, the formation of a regular army begins. Trotsky became in fact its first commander in chief. In August 1918, Trotsky's regular trips to the front began. Several times Trotsky, risking his life, speaks even to deserters. But practice has shown that the army is not capable, Trotsky is forced to support its reorganization, gradually restoring unity of command, insignia, mobilization, a single uniform, military greetings and awards.

In 1922, Joseph Stalin was elected General Secretary of the Bolshevik Party, whose views did not coincide with those of Trotsky. Stalin was supported by Zinoviev and Kamenev, who believed that the rise of Trotsky threatened with anti-Semitic attacks on the Soviet regime, condemned him for factionalism.

Lenin dies in 1924. Stalin took advantage of Trotsky's absence from Moscow to nominate himself as "heir" and consolidate his position.

In 1926, Trotsky allied himself with Zinoviev and Kamenev, whom Stalin began to oppose. However, this did not help him, and soon followed by exclusion from the party, deportation to Alma-Ata, and then to Turkey.

Hitler's victory in February 1933 was regarded by Trotsky as the biggest defeat of the international workers' movement. He concluded that the Comintern was rendered incapacitated by Stalin's openly counter-revolutionary policies and called for the creation of the Fourth International.

In 1933, Trotsky was granted a secret asylum in France, which the Nazis soon discovered. Trotsky leaves for Norway, where he writes his most significant work, The Revolution Betrayed. In 1936, at a show trial in Moscow, Stalin called Trotsky an agent of Hitler. Trotsky is expelled from Norway. The only country that gave refuge to the revolutionary was Mexico: he settled in the house of the artist Diego Rivera, then in a fortified and carefully guarded villa on the outskirts of Mexico City - in the city of Coyocan.

After Stalin's speeches in Mexico, an International Joint Commission to Investigate the Moscow Trials was organized. The commission concluded that the accusations were slanderous and that Trotsky was not guilty.

The Soviet secret services kept Trotsky under close surveillance, having agents among his associates. In 1938, under mysterious circumstances in Paris, his closest colleague, the eldest son Lev Sedov, died after an operation in a hospital. His first wife and his youngest son Sergei Sedov were arrested and subsequently shot.

Leon Trotsky was killed with an ice pick in his home near Mexico City on August 24, 1940. The executor was an NKVD agent, the Spanish Republican Ramon Mercader (pictured), who infiltrated Trotsky's entourage under the name of Canadian journalist Frank Jackson.

Mercader received 20 years in prison for the murder. After his release in 1960, he emigrated to the USSR, where he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. According to some estimates, the assassination of Trotsky cost the NKVD about five million dollars.

The ice pick that killed Trotsky

From the testament of Leon Trotsky: “There is no need for me to refute the stupid and vile slander of Stalin and his agents here again: there is not a single stain on my revolutionary honor. Neither directly nor indirectly have I ever entered into any behind-the-scenes agreements or even negotiations with the enemies of the working class. Thousands of Stalin's opponents died victims of similar false accusations.

For forty-three years of my conscious life I remained a revolutionary, of which forty-two I fought under the banner of Marxism. If I had to start over, I would, of course, try to avoid these or those mistakes, but the general direction of my life would remain unchanged. I see a bright green strip of grass under the wall, clear blue skies above the wall, and sunshine everywhere. Life is Beautiful. May future generations cleanse it of evil, oppression, violence, and enjoy it fully.

TROTSKY, wow, m. Liar, talker, talker, empty talker. Whistle like a Trotsky lie. L. D. Trotsky (Bronstein) a well-known political figure ... Dictionary of Russian Argo

TROTSKY- (real name Bronstein) Lev Davydovich (1879 1940), politician. Since 1896, in the social democratic movement, since 1904, he advocated the unification of the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. In 1905, he put forward the theory of permanent (continuous) revolution ... Russian history

TROTSKY- "TROTSKY", Russia Switzerland USA Mexico Turkey Austria, VIRGO FILM, 1993, color, 98 min. Historical political drama. About the last months of the life of the famous revolutionary, politician, chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Soviet Republic. "Our film is... Cinema Encyclopedia

Trotsky- chatterer, talker, liar, liar, liar, talker, liar Dictionary of Russian synonyms. Trotsky n., number of synonyms: 9 talker (132) ... Synonym dictionary

- (Bronstein) L. D. (1879 1940) political and statesman. In the revolutionary movement since the late 90s, during the split of the RSDLP, he joined the Mensheviks, a participant in the revolution of 1905 1907, chairman of the St. Petersburg Soviet, after the revolution ... ... 1000 biographies

TROTSKY- (Bronstein) Lev (Leiba) Davidovich (1879 1940) professional revolutionary, one of the leaders of the October (1917) revolution in Russia. Ideologist, theorist, propagandist and practitioner of the Russian and international communist movement. T. repeatedly ... The latest philosophical dictionary

TROTSKY L.D.- Russian political and statesman; founder of the radical left trend in the international communist movement, which bears his name Trotskyism. The real name is Bronstein. The pseudonym Trotsky was taken in 1902 for the purpose of secrecy. A lion… … Linguistic Dictionary

Trotsky, L. D.- was born in 1879, worked in working circles in the city of Nikolaev (Southern Russian Workers Union, which published the newspaper Nashe Delo), was exiled in 1898 to Siberia, from where he fled abroad and took part in Iskra. After the split of the party into the Bolsheviks and ... ... Popular political vocabulary

Trotsky— Noy Abramovich, Soviet architect. He studied in Petrograd at the Academy of Arts (since 1913) and at the Free Workshops (graduated in 1920), with I. A. Fomin and at the 2nd Polytechnic Institute (1921). He taught at... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

TROTSKY- (real name Bronstein). Lev (Leiba) Davidovich (1879-1940), Soviet statesman, party and military leader, publicist. His figure attracted the attention of Bulgakov, who repeatedly mentioned T. in his diary and others ... ... Encyclopedia Bulgakov

Books

• L. Trotsky. My life (set of 2 books), L. Trotsky. Lev Trotsky's book "My Life" is an outstanding literary work summing up the activities of this truly outstanding person and politician in the country he left in 1929.… Buy for 880 rubles
• Trotsky, Yu.V. Emelyanov. The figure of Trotsky is still of great interest. His portraits appear at political rallies and demonstrations. Many speak of him as an ominous demon of the revolution. Who was Trotsky?...

TROTSKY LEV DAVIDOVICH

Real name - Lev (Leiba) Davidovich Bronstein

(born in 1879 - died in 1940)

Ideologist of Trotskyism. One of the leaders of the October Revolution. Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet (1917). First People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs (1917–1918) and First People's Commissar for the Navy (1918–1925) of Soviet Russia. Leader of the Fourth International. Killed as a result of a terrorist action organized by the NKVD.

On giant frescoes in the presidential palace in Mexico City, next to Marx, Engels and Lenin, a man with a thin predatory face, pince-nez, with a goatee and a Stalinist mustache is depicted. In a sharp look - gloomy fury and ruthlessness. This is how Lenin's comrade-in-arms and Stalin's main opponent, Leon Trotsky, was seen by the outstanding Mexican artist Diego Rivera, who closely knew the famous Russian revolutionary, the "Demon of the Revolution" and "Trotskyist number one."

His hero dreamed of giving water to the "red" horses from the Vistula and the Rhine. With his first decrees, he introduced mass executions into practice, achieved the militarization of the national economy, the creation of "labor armies", and legalized forced labor in the camps. By order of Trotsky, 28 archbishops, 1215 priests, 15,375 teachers of higher educational institutions, doctors and teachers, 54,560 officers were killed. This is the result of his activities in Russia. The results of Trotsky's long life are tens of thousands of Trotskyists in the Land of Soviets and beyond. Modern Trotskyists are an indispensable part of Latin American cities. They are very colorful: long hair braided in braids, black berets, skulls on a string hanging on the chest. Until now, fans of leftist ideas come to Trotsky's house-museum in Mexico City. They chip off pieces of plaster from the walls "for prayerful memory." Latin America is an active fiefdom of the Fourth International founded by Trotsky in 1938 in Paris. And although over time this political association broke up into several groups, a new generation of "internationalists" in this region, following the precepts of their idol, claims to create the "Socialist Soviet United States of Latin America."

The real name of the ideologist of Trotskyism is Lev (Leiba) Davidovich Bronstein. He was born on November 7, 1879 on the Yanovka farm near the town of Bobrinets, Kherson province, in the family of a fairly large landowner. The father of the family came from a small Jewish town in the Poltava region. Only at the end of his life did David Bronstein learn to read in syllables in order to familiarize himself with the works of his now famous son. Despite his illiteracy, David managed to raise quite a lot of money to buy a large plot of land and trade grain even with foreign countries.

Parents made sure that the son received the best education. At first, Leo studied at a private religious Jewish school heder. He knew Yiddish poorly. But the boy mastered Russian literacy enough to write poetry, which, unfortunately, did not reach us. The next stage was the prestigious state school of St. Paul in Odessa, where he was placed with the help of a relative of M. F. Shpentzer, who was a major publisher. Here Leo quickly became the first student, read a lot of fiction and aspired to become a writer. But already at that time, the obstinate disposition of the future revolutionary, his desire for primacy and demonstrations of intellectual superiority over his peers, which so harmed him in "adult life", appeared. He was temporarily expelled from the second grade for a conflict with his French teacher.

Lev graduated from the last class of a real school in 1896 in Nikolaev. In the family where he settled, the youth was fond of populist socialist ideas. Among the members of the small circle was the daughter of the populist, Alexandra Sokolovskaya, with whom the future revolutionary was not slow to fall in love. She managed to attract the young populist socialist to Marxist ideas. Soon Bronstein became a member of the "South Russian Workers' Union" and received the first underground nickname Lvov.

Young people had a very rough idea of ​​conspiracy. January 28, 1898 Bronstein and other members of the group on the denunciation of the provocateur Shrenzel were arrested. In prison, Bronstein and Sokolovskaya, to the horror of Lev's parents, got married. Together they arrived in exile in Ust-Kut, and later lived in Verkhoyansk.

Despite the fact that in exile Bronstein was actively engaged in self-education and began to try himself in the journalistic field, the life of an exile began to burden the revolutionary. He dreamed of St. Petersburg, Moscow, one of the Western capitals. With the consent of his wife, who remained in Siberia with two young daughters, he decided to escape. He managed to safely reach the European part of Russia, illegally cross the Austrian border and find members of the Austrian Socialist Party. The name Trotsky, borrowed from an Odessa prison guard, appeared in the fugitive's fake passport.

Lev stayed in exile until 1905. From Austria, he moved to Zurich, where he first met Lenin and Krupskaya. Then there were London and Paris. Under the pseudonym "Pero", the young revolutionary collaborated in the Iskra newspaper and gave public lectures. At the suggestion of Lenin in 1903, Trotsky was introduced to the editorial board of Iskra. He became close friends with Martov, Axelrod and Zasulich. Plekhanov, on the other hand, evoked sharp antipathy towards the new "Iskrovite". The Patriarch of the Russian Social Democracy called him "the favorite of the revolution" and was pointedly cold. Perhaps the reason for this was the pronounced narcissism of the young politician. Trotsky admired himself and did not hide it.

In Paris, Lev Davidovich met the smart and beautiful Natalya Sedova. For freethinking, she was expelled from the Institute of Noble Maidens in Kharkov, and studied art history at the Sorbonne. Soon Natalya left her husband to go to Trotsky.

In August 1903, the second congress of the RSDLP was held in London. Trotsky was a delegate from the Siberian Social Democratic Organization. During the discussion of the Party Rules, he supported the Menshevik Martov, in opposition to the opinion of Lenin. For a long time, a very cool relationship was established between them.

When a revolution broke out in Russia in 1905, Trotsky arrived at home with a fake passport in the name of a retired ensign Arbuzov. He strove to be at the center of events and succeeded. After the October strike, Lev Davidovich, thanks to his oratorical abilities and amazing instinct for assessing situations, moved into the forefront of the revolutionary leaders. He was elected to the Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies.

On December 3, 1905, the entire top of the Soviet was arrested. Trotsky was again imprisoned, and after the trial he was sent to hard labor. The arrested were given government uniforms, but were allowed to keep their own clothes. This made it easier for Trotsky to escape even at the stage. Having simulated sciatica, he was left in the town of Berezov under the protection of two gendarmes. Having deceived the guards, the prisoner managed to overcome about 800 km, moving somewhere on foot, where on reindeer through the snowy expanses of Siberia, and eventually ended up in Finland, and then lived in Vienna for a long time. When the local authorities, worried about too active Russian activity, denied him the right to live, he moved for short periods to Switzerland, France and even North America. Sedova and her children accompanied him everywhere. The means of life for the revolutionary were provided by the old man Bronstein. Lev earned something by journalistic work.

Trotsky received the news of the February Revolution in America and immediately rushed to Russia. In the Canadian port of Galtfax, he and his family were arrested at the suggestion of the British embassy, ​​who claimed that he was traveling "with a subsidy from the German embassy to overthrow the Provisional Government." However, at the request of the Provisional Government, he and several other Russians were released. Lev Davidovich safely reached Scandinavia, and from there he moved to Petrograd.

Oratorical skills and intuition again failed Trotsky. A month after his arrival, he became one of the most prominent figures among radical politicians. At the end of September, at the re-election of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, Trotsky, at the suggestion of the Bolsheviks, was elected its chairman. At that time, Lev Davidovich still adhered to the democratic norms of political leadership, stating upon taking office: "The hand of the presidium will not rise to suppress the majority." He associated the beginning of the October armed uprising with the convening of the Congress of Soviets, which was supposed to liquidate the regime of the Provisional Government and establish revolutionary power. In general, Trotsky did a lot to organize the October uprising. He played a leading role in the creation and functioning of the Military Revolutionary Committee under the Petrograd Soviet, which led the preparation and implementation of the uprising.

On the morning of October 25 (November 7, according to the European calendar), the Provisional Government was overthrown, and power in Petrograd passed into the hands of the Military Revolutionary Committee. Democratic norms were immediately forgotten. A few days later, in the note “Towards Democracy”, M. Gorky wrote: “Lenin, Trotsky and those accompanying them have already been poisoned by the rotten poison of power, as evidenced by their shameful attitude towards freedom of speech, the individual and the entire amount of those rights for the triumph of which democracy fought” . The second person in the state after Lenin directed his efforts to unleashing and deepening terror.

From that moment on, the numerous disagreements between Trotsky and Lenin gradually disappeared. Lev Davidovich openly made it clear that he alone understands the leader and is faithful to his ideas and regulations. The only exception was the position of Trotsky, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, in the peace negotiations with the Germans in Brest-Litovsk. Lenin adhered to the idea of ​​concluding a separate, annexationist peace. Trotsky, on the other hand, invented the formula "no peace, no war", being sure that the peoples of Germany and Austria-Hungary would refuse to fight, and then a world revolution would break out. In order to export the revolution, he carried with him piles of leaflets and pamphlets addressed to enemy soldiers. The government of hungry Russia allocated 2 million gold rubles for revolutionary propaganda abroad. In early February 1918, in Brest-Litovsk, Trotsky announced Russia's unilateral cessation of the war, the demobilization of the army, and refused to sign a peace treaty. However, already on February 18 hostilities were resumed, and in the end, Russia had to make peace on more unfavorable terms than originally proposed. After such a fiasco, Lenin, however, decided to put Trotsky at the head of the military department. In the context of the Civil War and intervention, this was one of the most important government posts. Lev Davidovich never served in the army, but brilliantly coped with the task.

Trotsky was appointed People's Commissar for Military Affairs on March 14, 1918, and five months later he also became Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVS). He put forward the slogan "The Socialist Fatherland is in danger!" and set about building and strengthening the Red Army.

For this, the people's commissar made extensive use of the military specialists of the former regime. Each of them gave a subscription and knew that in case of treason (or suspicion of treason), his family and comrades would pay first of all. The commissars, who controlled every step of the officers, were given the right "on time" to ruthlessly crack down on "counter-revolutionaries". This meant immediate execution for any suspicion of disloyalty.

A serious problem in the Red Army during the Civil War was desertion. The mobilized peasants, who had recently received land, did not know and did not want to know what they were fighting for, and fled to their homes. To stop this, Trotsky created numerous commissions to combat desertion. In some months it was possible to detain up to 100 thousand deserters. They were subjected to cruel punishments, most often by execution. To prevent military units from fleeing the battlefield, during the battle, barrage detachments were posted behind them, which were supposed to shoot at their own in case of retreat without an order. Unlike the rest of the units, they were given cars with machine guns.

People's Commissar often traveled to the army. His legendary armored train, which covered more than 200,000 km during the war years, was a "flying command squad". He traveled the fronts, participated in battles. The following worked on the train: a secretariat, a printing house, a telegraph station, a radio, a power station, a photography and filming group, an orchestra, a library, a garage and a bathhouse. Several wagons were occupied by guards. Trotsky did not appear anywhere without bodyguards. The doctors examined him almost daily.

Particular attention was paid to issues of propaganda work.

The People's Commissar demanded that at each stop he was met by high officials with a guard of honor. Every opportunity was used to communicate with the Red Army. Particularly distinguished were given silver cigarette cases (from the royal storeroom), binoculars, shirts, leather jackets, and sometimes the people's commissar took off his watch or donated his own weapons. On his initiative, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee established the Order of the Red Banner.

Military problems, however, did not make Trotsky forget about his main goal - the victory of the world revolution. He continued to take a keen interest in the state of the international working-class movement and actively participated in the work of the Executive Committee of the Comintern. The "demon of the revolution" was an ardent supporter of the idea of ​​permanent revolution put forward by the "Russian-German" revolutionary (later a millionaire) Parvus (A. L. Gelfandt). In Trotsky's understanding, the revolution must continue, passing through the national, international and world levels until the complete liquidation of class society. Unlike Stalin, he did not believe in the possibility of building socialism in a single country. This and many other disagreements, as well as the dismissive attitude of the “chief Trotskyist” towards the future “leader” of the country of the Soviets, served as a pretext for an irreconcilable struggle between them, which was based on the usual struggle for political primacy and power. Trotsky considered himself the sole heir of Lenin, and this ultimately led to his death.

Lenin's death caught Trotsky on treatment in Kislovodsk. Upon learning of the death of the leader, the emotional Lev Davidovich fainted. But he didn't go to the funeral. The telegram, due to the intrigues of Stalin, carried misinformation.

Very quickly, Trotsky fell into disgrace. Lev Davidovich was sure that he, and not Stalin, would take the leading position in the country, and until the end of his life he believed that this was precisely the goal pursued by Lenin in his Letter to the Congress. Disagreements with Stalin led to the fact that in 1925 Trotsky was removed from the post of People's Commissar of the Navy, and then sent to Alma-Ata.

Political claims for superiority forced him to complain about the "unbearable conditions" of living in a hotel and demand permission to go hunting in the company of his beloved dog Maya. All requirements were met. Trotsky hunted for his own pleasure and even thought about going to the tigers, and in early June he went to his dacha in the mountains.

However, the "eternal" oppositionist did not leave his former habits and passionately got involved in polemics about the future fate of the NEP. Sensing danger, Stalin decided to expel his political opponent from the country, not daring to destroy him physically. Moreover, the appearance of legality was created. A special meeting of the OGPU accused the former ally of Lenin of preparing an armed struggle against the Soviet regime.

With the expulsion of Trotsky, Stalin had serious problems. Not a single country agreed to host a violent revolutionary. Only Turkish President Kemal Ataturk was not afraid. On January 22, 1929, Trotsky and Sedova were transported to Frunze, where they were put on a train and on the way they were told that they would be deported to Constantinople. Lev Davidovich was indignant. He could not imagine life with Russian emigrants. But I had to comply. On the ship Ilyich, Trotsky crossed the Turkish border with his wife and youngest son.

However, Trotsky did not stay in this country. For several years he was constantly on the move. Traveled to France, Dalmatia and Norway. In 1932, he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. The exile rushed about, not knowing how to take revenge, what to apply his strength to. Abroad, Trotsky did not stop fighting Stalin and his regime. In many articles and books, he exposed the Stalinist regime, often breaking into the tone of a quarrelsome neighbor in a communal apartment. In exile, Lev Davidovich wrote the book "Stalin's School of Falsification" - one of the best on this issue. In parallel, he emphasized his prominent role in the revolution. More serious steps have also been taken. Back in 1929 in Turkey, he and his supporters organized the "Bulletin of the Opposition" exposing the Stalinist methods of leadership and secretly smuggled it to the USSR. Close ties were maintained with Trotsky's supporters in the Soviet state. As before, one of the main goals was to "accelerate the proletarian revolution" in the world.

His activities in exile became dangerous for the Soviet government. In the USSR, the mass destruction of Trotskyists began. At the same time, innocent people also fell under the millstones of the state. The situation became threatening for Trotsky himself, his agents in various countries disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Sensing danger, he began to look for a more reliable shelter.

Trotsky had many supporters abroad. Among them was a convinced "leftist", the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera. He and his wife Frida Kahlo persuaded the President of Mexico, with whom they had a close relationship, to accept Trotsky. On the tanker "Ruth" provided by the Norwegian government, Lev Davidovich and his family crossed the ocean and on January 9, 1936, accompanied by the secretary and bodyguards, went ashore in the port of Tampico. Here a private train sent by the president was waiting for them.

Lev Davidovich and Natalya Sedova were taken to Mexico City. Gradually, a small Trotskyist commune formed in Rivera's house. Their grandson Seva Volkov joined the political emigrants. Soon an affair arose between Trotsky and the owner's wife. It is not known how long Lev Davidovich's relationship with the ardent Trotskyist continued, but Natalya Sedova quickly put an end to their relationship. After a stormy scene in a fit of humiliation, Trotsky, begging for forgiveness from his wife, called himself her "old faithful dog." Perhaps this would not have ended, but the attack of appendicitis and the subsequent operation finally defused the situation. Nevertheless, living in the house of a deceived husband was still somehow inconvenient. Trotsky began to think about moving.

However, to simply leave the family that sheltered them was to admit their guilt. Lev Davidovich decided to justify the change of residence with ideological motives. In 1939, Rivera was suddenly suspended from participation in the Fourth International. Now you could move. Soon the couple and their entourage moved to a mansion on Venskaya Street 10 minutes. walk from Rivera's house. The naive artist was still among the admirers of the "great man". He was ready to keep in touch. But the unlucky lover flatly refused him from the house.

Trotsky was assassinated more than once. The first attempt was made in Mexico in 1938. A suspicious messenger tried to break into the villa of Kayokane, where the "Inflexible Lion" lived at that time. When he was exposed, he fled, but dropped a package of explosives not far from the house. On May 24, 1940, the convinced Stalinist and famous artist David Siqueiros, on the direct orders of Stalin, at the head of an armed detachment, tried to storm the villa. When this failed, the attackers left a time bomb near the entrance, which never exploded.

The atmosphere around Trotsky grew increasingly tense. His secretary disappeared without a trace, the eldest daughter committed suicide, the youngest son who remained at home was shot, and the eldest son died under mysterious circumstances. The older brother of Lev Davidovich died in prison.

Trotsky knew that he was being hunted. At the gates of a specially bought large house, guards were constantly on duty, mostly American Trotskyists. He made a will and often repeated in the morning: “They did not kill us this night. They gave us another day."

One day, an acquaintance of one of the secretaries, revolutionary Jacques Mornard, appeared in the house. He insinuated himself into the confidence of his master and, under the pretext of jointly preparing an article, began to visit Trotsky frequently. In fact, the young man's name was Ramon Mercader del Rio Hernandez. He was a lieutenant in the Spanish Republican army and carried out a special task for the NKVD. Once Mercader brought a specially shortened ice ax under the hollow outerwear, and when the owner bent over the desk, hacked him to death.

A tragic fate befell most of the members of Trotsky's family. The elder brother Alexander, despite the fact that he “dissociated himself” from Leo, was shot in 1938. The younger sister Olga, who became the wife of L. B. Kamenev, was shot in 1941. The first wife, Sokolovskaya, was exiled to Siberia. Two of her sons were destroyed even earlier, in 1936. Trotsky's youngest son was shot in 1937. Both daughters died, and one of them, as already mentioned, committed suicide. Both of his sons-in-law perished after their arrest.

Some coincidences of events, character and appearance of the "fiery revolutionary" with other political figures of the era are curious. Trotsky was born in the same year as Stalin. On the day of his birth, the October Revolution took place. With Lenin, he had the same type of nervous system: both were hysteroids. The posthumous drawing from Trotsky is surprisingly similar to the face of the deceased leader of the Bolshevik revolution. The ideologue of Trotskyism wore the same pince-nez as Beria and Himmler.

Leon Trotsky is an outstanding revolutionary of the 20th century, who went down in history as one of the founders of the Civil War, the Red Army and the Comintern. He was actually the second person in the first Soviet government and headed the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs, where he proved himself to be a tough and uncompromising fighter against the enemies of the world revolution. After his death, he led the opposition movement, speaking out against politics, for which he was deprived of Soviet citizenship, expelled from the Union and killed by an NKVD agent.

Lev Davidovich Trotsky was born (real name at birth - Leiba Davidovich Bronstein) on November 7, 1879 in the Ukrainian outback near the village of Yanovka, Kherson province, in a Jewish family of wealthy landowners. His parents were illiterate people, which did not prevent them from earning capital from the harsh exploitation of the peasants. The future revolutionary grew up alone - he did not have peer friends with whom he could fool around and play, as he was surrounded only by the children of farm laborers, whom he looked down on. According to historians, this laid down in Trotsky the main character trait, in which a sense of his own superiority over other people prevailed.

In 1889, the young Trotsky was sent by his parents to study in Odessa, since even then he showed an interest in education. There he entered the quota for Jewish families at St. Paul's School, where he became the best student in all disciplines. At that time, he did not even think about revolutionary activities, being carried away by drawing, poetry and literature.

But in his final years, the 17-year-old Trotsky fell into a socialist circle, which was engaged in revolutionary propaganda. Then he became interested in studying the works of Karl Marx and subsequently became a fanatical adherent of Marxism. It was during that period that a sharp mind, a penchant for leadership, and a polemical gift began to appear in him.

Immersed in revolutionary activity, Trotsky organized the "South Russian Workers' Union", which was joined by the workers of the Nikolaev shipyards. At that time, they were little interested in wages, since they received a fairly high salary, but they were worried about social relations under the tsarist rule.

In 1898, Leon Trotsky was imprisoned for the first time for his revolutionary activities, where he had to spend 2 years. This was followed by his first exile to Siberia, from which he escaped a few years later. Then he managed to make a fake passport, in which Lev Davidovich randomly entered the name Trotsky, like the senior warden of the Odessa prison. It was this surname that became the future pseudonym of the revolutionary, with whom he lived for the rest of his life.

revolutionary activity

In 1902, after escaping from Siberian exile, Leon Trotsky went to London to join Lenin, with whom he established contact through the Iskra newspaper, founded by Vladimir Ilyich. The future revolutionary became one of the authors of Lenin's newspaper under the pseudonym "Pero".

Having become close to the leaders of Russian social democracy, Trotsky very quickly gained popularity and fame, speaking with agitating essays for migrants. He impressed those around him with his eloquence and oratory, which allowed him to win a serious attitude in the Bolshevik movement, despite his youth.

At that time, Leon Trotsky supported Lenin's policy as much as possible, for which he was dubbed "Lenin's club." But this did not last long - literally in 1903, the revolutionary went over to the side of the Mensheviks and began to accuse Lenin of dictatorship. But he “didn’t get along” with the leaders of Menshevism either, because he wanted to try on and unite the factions of the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, which caused great political disagreements. As a result, he declared himself a "non-factional" member of the social democratic society, setting out to create his own movement, which would be above the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.

In 1905, Leon Trotsky returned to his homeland, to St. Petersburg, seething with revolutionary moods, and immediately burst into the thick of things. He quickly organizes the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies and delivers fiery speeches to crowds of people who were already electrified to the maximum with revolutionary energy. For his active work, the revolutionary again went to prison, as he advocated the continuation of the revolution even after the tsar's manifesto appeared, according to which the people received political rights. At the same time, he was also deprived of all civil rights and exiled to Siberia for an eternal settlement.

On the way to the "polar tundra", Leon Trotsky manages to escape from the gendarmes and get to Finland, from where he will soon move to Europe. Since 1908, the revolutionary settled in Vienna, where he began to publish the newspaper Pravda. But four years later, the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Lenin, intercepted this publication, as a result of which Lev Davidovich went to Paris, where he started publishing the newspaper Nashe Slovo.

After the February Revolution in 1917, Trotsky decided to return to Russia. Directly from the Finland Station, he went to the Petrograd Soviet, where he was granted membership with an advisory vote. In just a few months of his stay in St. Petersburg, Lev Davidovich became the informal leader of the Mezhrayontsy, who advocated the creation of a single Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.

In October 1917, the revolutionary created the Military Revolutionary Committee, and on October 25 (November 7, according to a new style) he carried out an armed uprising to overthrow the provisional government, which went down in history as the October Revolution. As a result of the revolution, the Bolsheviks came to power under the leadership of Lenin.

Under the new government, Leon Trotsky received the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, and in 1918 he became People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. From that moment on, he took up the formation of the Red Army, taking harsh measures - he imprisoned and shot all violators of military discipline, deserters and all his opponents, giving no quarter to anyone, even the Bolsheviks, which went down in history under the concept of "red terror".

In addition to military affairs, he worked closely with Lenin on domestic and foreign policy issues. Thus, by the end of the Civil War, the popularity of Leon Trotsky reached its peak, but the death of the "leader of the Bolsheviks" did not allow him to carry out the planned reforms to switch from "war communism" to the New Economic Policy.

Trotsky was never able to become Lenin's "successor" and his place at the helm of the country was taken by Joseph Stalin, who saw Lev Davidovich as a serious opponent and hastened to "defuse" him. In May 1924, the revolutionary was subjected to real persecution by opponents under the leadership of Stalin, as a result of which he lost the post of People's Commissar for Naval Affairs and membership in the Central Committee of the Politburo. In 1926, Trotsky tried to regain his position and organized an anti-government demonstration, as a result of which he was exiled to Alma-Ata, and then to Turkey with the deprivation of Soviet citizenship.

In exile from the USSR, Leon Trotsky did not stop his struggle with Stalin - he began to publish the Bulletin of the Opposition and created an autobiography, My Life, in which he justified his activities. He also wrote the historical essay "History of the Russian Revolution", in which he proved the exhaustion of tsarist Russia and the need for the October Revolution.

In 1935, Lev Davidovich moved to Norway, where he came under pressure from the authorities, who did not want to worsen relations with the Soviet Union. All the works were taken away from the revolutionary and put under house arrest. This led to the fact that Trotsky decided to leave for Mexico, from where he "safely" followed the development of affairs in the USSR.

In 1936, Leon Trotsky finished his book The Revolution Betrayed, in which he called the Stalinist regime a counter-revolutionary coup. Two years later, the revolutionary proclaimed the creation of an alternative to "Stalinism" of the Fourth International, the heirs of which still exist today.

Personal life

The personal life of Leon Trotsky was inextricably linked with his revolutionary activities. His first wife was Alexandra Sokolovskaya, whom he met at the age of 16, when he had not even thought about his revolutionary future. According to historians, it was Trotsky's first wife, who was 6 years older than him, who became the young man's guide to Marxism.

Sokolovskaya became Trotsky's official wife in 1898. Immediately after the wedding, the newlyweds were sent to Siberian exile, where they had two daughters, Zinaida and Nina. When the second daughter was only 4 months old, Trotsky fled Siberia, leaving his wife with two small children in her arms. In his book “My Life”, Lev Davidovich, when describing this stage of his life, indicated that his escape was carried out with the full consent of Alexandra, who helped him escape abroad without hindrance.

While in Paris, Leon Trotsky met his second wife, Natalya Sedova, who participated in the work of the Iskra newspaper under the direction of Lenin. As a result of this fateful acquaintance, the revolutionary's first marriage fell apart, but he retained friendly relations with Sokolovskaya.

In the second marriage with Sedova, Leon Trotsky had two sons - Lev and Sergey. In 1937, a series of misfortunes began in the family of a revolutionary. His youngest son, Sergei, was shot for his political activity, and a year later, Trotsky's eldest son, who was also an active Trotskyite, died under suspicious circumstances during an appendicitis operation in Paris.

The daughters of Leon Trotsky also suffered a tragic fate. In 1928, his youngest daughter Nina died of consumption, and his eldest daughter Zinaida, deprived of Soviet citizenship along with her father, committed suicide in 1933, being in a state of deep depression.

Following his daughters and sons, in 1938 Trotsky also lost his first wife, Alexandra Sokolovskaya, who until her death remained his only legal wife. She was shot in Moscow as a stubborn supporter of the Left Opposition.

The second wife of Leon Trotsky, Natalya Sedova, despite the fact that she lost both sons, did not lose heart and supported her husband until the last days. She, together with Lev Davidovich, moved to Mexico in 1937 and after his death lived there for another 20 years. In 1960 she moved to Paris, which became her "eternal" city, where she met Trotsky. Sedova died in 1962, she was buried in Mexico next to her husband, with whom she shared his difficult revolutionary fate.

Murder

On August 21, 1940, at 7:25 am, Leon Trotsky died. He was killed by NKVD agent Ramon Mercader in the house of a revolutionary in the Mexican city of Cayoacán. The murder of Trotsky was the result of his correspondence struggle with Stalin, who at that time was the head of the USSR.

The operation to eliminate Trotsky began in 1938. Then Mercader, on the instructions of the Soviet authorities, managed to infiltrate the environment of the revolutionary in Paris. He appeared in the life of Lev Davidovich as a Belgian citizen, Jacques Mornard.

Despite the fact that Trotsky turned his house in Mexico into a real fortress, Mercader managed to get into it and carry out Stalin's order. In the two months preceding the assassination, Ramon managed to ingratiate himself with the revolutionary and his friends, which allowed him to often appear in Cayoacán.

12 days before the assassination, Mercader arrived at Trotsky's house and presented him with a written article about American Trotskyists. Lev Davidovich invited him to his office, where for the first time they managed to be alone. On that day, the revolutionary was alerted by the behavior of Ramon and his attire - in extreme heat, he appeared in a raincoat and hat, and while Trotsky was reading the article, he stood behind his chair.

On August 20, 1940, Mercader again came to Trotsky with an article that, as it turned out, was a pretext to allow him to retire with the revolutionary. He was again dressed in a cloak and hat, but Lev Davidovich invited him into his office without taking any precautions.

Sitting behind Trotsky's chair, carefully reading the article, Ramon decided to fulfill the order of the Soviet authorities. He took an ice pick from his raincoat pocket and struck a strong blow on the revolutionary's head with it. Lev Davidovich uttered a very loud cry, to which all the guards ran. Mercader was seized and beaten, after which he was handed over to special police agents.

Trotsky was immediately taken to the hospital, where two hours later he fell into a coma. The blow to the head was so strong that it damaged the vital centers of the brain. Doctors fought desperately for the revolutionary's life, but he died 26 hours later.

For the murder of Trotsky, Ramon Mercader received 20 years in prison, which was the highest penalty under Mexican law. In 1960, the killer of the revolutionary was released and immigrated to the USSR, where he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. According to historians, the preparation and execution of the operation to kill Lev Davidovich cost the NKVD $5 million.

Leiba Bronstein was born in 1879 in the family of a very rich Kherson grain merchant and landowner. Mother, Anna Lvovna, came from a family of large businessmen and bankers Zhivotovsky.

From the age of seven, the boy studied at the cheder at the synagogue, and then at the Odessa real school. After he entered the Odessa University, but took up the revolution and abandoned his studies. It is worth noting that at first, Lev Davidovich showed contempt for all the beautiful-hearted revolutionary impulses of those around him. Being extremely ambitious, he built far-reaching plans, knowing full well that it was impossible to extract any practical benefit from utopian dreams. And yet, gradually, the revolution interested the young Lyova Bronstein.

In 1898 he was arrested and received four years of exile. In the Butyrka transit prison, Lev Davidovich married the revolutionary Alexandra Sokolovskaya. They went to Siberia husband and wife. In 1902, an escape was arranged for Trotsky. The escape was brilliantly organized: clothes, documents, money, the route - everything was done to the highest standard. It was from this time that Leiba Bronstein became Leon Trotsky - he got a passport from the deceased Colonel Nikolai Trotsky. Lev Davidovich went to Austria-Hungary, to Vienna. And here he was taken under control and guardianship by Victor Adler.

Leiba Bronstein, 1888 (aif.ru)

Adler supplied Trotsky with money and the necessary documents, and Lev Davidovich went to London, to Lenin, went to work in the Iskra newspaper. Trotsky became friends with the future leader of the world proletariat very quickly. Vladimir Ilyich could not get enough of the new employee, who fully shared his views. He handed out laudatory recommendations to Trotsky, his faithful disciple, and patronized him. And Lev Davidovich, in turn, supported his leader in everything. This went on until Trotsky decided that he had already become quite a famous person. He immediately declared his disagreement with the general line of the party, for which he earned from Lenin two characteristics that have since been firmly stuck to him - "Judas" and "political prostitute."

In 1903, the Second Congress of the RSDLP was convened in Europe, at which it was supposed to unite disparate groups of social democrats. However, at the congress, the revolutionaries quarreled and split into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks. Trotsky, without joining either one or the other, once again quarreled with Lenin and was left completely alone. The abandonment of Lev Davidovich did not last long - after some time he received an invitation from the ideologist of the "permanent revolution" Israel Lazarevich Parvus and went to him in Munich.

Revolutionary Leon Trotsky

In 1905, immediately after the so-called "Bloody Sunday", Parvus and Trotsky headed for Russia. Having set up the production of three newspapers - Russkaya Gazeta, Nachala and Izvestia, filling up Moscow and St. Petersburg with their circulations, Israel Lazarevich began to "unwind" Lev Davidovich. To begin with, he, still an unknown politician, was pushed to the post of deputy chairman of the Petrosoviet. The Chairman of the Council was Georgy Stepanovich Khrustalev-Nosar, a purely decorative figure. In reality, Parvus was in charge of everything. Using controlled publications, Israel Lazarevich created a real “financial storm” in Russia (the reason for this was the published “Financial Manifesto”), for which, together with Trotsky, he was arrested and sent into exile. However, neither one nor the other reached the place of detention. Money and documents were handed over to them on the way. Both fled first to Finland and then moved to Switzerland.

Trotsky at a rally, 1919 (kykyryzo.ru)

For a long time Lev Davidovich worked in Vienna (as a publicist), often visited Viktor Adler and Sigmund Freud. Then he moved to France, where he not only participated in the production of socialist newspapers, but also engaged in active subversive anti-Russian activities (in particular, he was one of the organizers of uprisings in Russian regiments that fought on the Western Front), for which he was arrested, but thanks to high patrons in released by the French government and deported to Spain. From Spain, Trotsky, together with his family (in 1903, he began to cohabit with Natalia Sedova), on a steamer, in a first-class cabin, departed for the United States. In New York, Lev Davidovich, together with Volodarsky, Bukharin, Kollontai and other revolutionary figures, worked in the Novy Mir newspaper.

Trotsky in power

Immediately after the February Revolution, Trotsky went to Russia with a group of his associates. However, on the way, in the Canadian port of Halifax, he was removed from the ship and placed in an internment camp. The Provisional Government immediately demanded the release of the honored fighter against tsarism. As a result of this demand, or for other reasons, the British, having kept Lev Davidovich at home for two months and having several conversations with them, let him go.

In Petrograd, Trotsky was given a solemn welcome. Having settled in the apartment of the director of factories, Nobel Serebrovsky, Lev Davidovich immediately got involved in the work, with the assistance of Yakov Sverdlov, he began to look for ways to reconcile with Lenin. Trotsky's activity yielded results exactly two months after his arrival: in early July 1917, anti-government demonstrations by workers and soldiers began in Petrograd. The provisional government suppressed the unrest, Lenin and Trotsky were accused of espionage. Vladimir Ilyich managed to escape in advance, but Lev Davidovich landed in the "Crosses", from where soon (after the Kornilov revolt) he was safely released by the same Provisional Government.

October 1917 was Trotsky's finest hour: he, the head of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, finally managed to take power into his own hands. After the coup, Lev Davidovich took over as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. A striking episode of Trotsky's activity on the international field was the signing of the shameful Brest Peace. After that, he went to the people's commissars for military affairs, where he again distinguished himself - now in the formation of the Red Army.

In the early 1920s, Lev Davidovich headed the People's Commissariat for Communications. An extremely controversial and unpleasant episode is connected with this period of his career: having ordered Sweden a thousand steam locomotives for 200 million gold rubles, he spent a quarter of the country's gold reserves.

A few words should also be said about Trotsky's role in the genocide of the Cossacks. According to his famous order No. 100 of May 25, 1919, the soldiers, commanders and commissars of the punitive troops were ordered to completely exterminate "the nests of countless traitors and traitors." There was no mercy from the People's Commissariat of Defense.

Trotsky and Stalin

Until 1922, there was no sharp struggle for power in the Soviet government. However, Lenin's illness sharply raised the question of who would be his successor. Trotsky tried to take the first roles, but he was not allowed to do this.

Trotsky in Mexico, 1940 (twitter.com)

A fatal role in the fate of Lev Davidovich was played by the fact that at the end of his life Lenin elevated Stalin to the political Olympus. And Joseph Vissarionovich knew how to deal with real opponents. In February 1929, Trotsky was expelled from the USSR. Abroad, he tried to organize an anti-Stalinist opposition, but he did not succeed in achieving his goal - to overthrow Stalin.

Trotsky rushed around the world. From France, where he arrived in 1933 in order to find shelter, he was sent to Norway, from Norway to Mexico. It was here, in the country of cowboys, cacti and tequila, that Lev Davidovich spent the last years of his life. In August 1940, the Soviet agent Ramon Mercader killed him with an ice pick.