Trotsky

Leon Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich Bronstein in 1879 in Yanov (then part of the Russian Empire, now Ukraine), was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and a leading figure in the Bolshevik movement. He adopted the surname Trotsky as a political alias and became a central organizer of the October 1917 uprising and of the Red Army’s campaigns during the Civil War. After Lenin’s death, he opposed Joseph Stalin’s consolidation of power and was eventually expelled from the Soviet leadership.

As a top Bolshevik official, Trotsky helped direct the revolution’s early state apparatus, serving as war commissar and a key diplomat. He played a central role in military strategy and foreign policy, guiding the Red Army to victory in the Civil War and participating in critical negotiations during and after the Bolshevik consolidation of power.

Trotsky’s theoretical contributions include the theory of permanent revolution, which argued that socialist transformation in backward countries requires continual international working-class action and opposed the idea of socialism in one country. He also criticized bureaucratic tendencies within the early Soviet state and called for democratic processes within socialist governance.

From the late 1920s, Trotsky was sidelined in the Soviet leadership, expelled from the Communist Party, and exiled from the Soviet Union. He lived in several countries before settling in Mexico. In exile he founded the Fourth International in 1938, advocating a new international socialist movement. He authored works such as The Revolution Betrayed (1936).

Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico City in 1940 by Ramón Mercader, an agent acting on orders from the Soviet secret police. His death intensified the split between Stalinist Russia and rival socialist currents. Trotsky’s writings and organizational efforts continued to influence leftist movements and debates within Marxist theory.