Lev Davidovich Trotsky nicknames contemporaries. Leon Trotsky: personal life, wife, children. The beginning of revolutionary activity

Sewerage 13.01.2021

Sewerage

Lev (Leiba) Davidovich Trotsky (real name - Bronstein) was born on October 26, 1879 near Yanovka (Kherson province, Little Russia), in the family of a wealthy Jewish landowner. Already in his early youth, he was carried away by revolutionary ideas and began to propagate them among the workers of Nikolaev, where he took a course at a real school. In January 1898, Lev was arrested, spent about two years in prison, and then was exiled to Lena.

In 1902, he escaped from exile on a false passport, written in the name of Trotsky, went to London and began to collaborate there in a Marxist newspaper " Spark". In his views, Trotsky stood closer to the left wing of the Iskra editorial board. But, not wishing to submit to the primacy of the leader of this wing, Lenin, he II Congress of the RSDLP(1903) did not join the Bolsheviks, and to Mensheviks... Soon, Trotsky put forward the theory of "permanent revolution", according to which the working class in Russia must take power into its own hands before the bourgeoisie, assist the proletarian revolution in Europe and move towards socialism together with it.

Leon Trotsky. Photo approx. 1920-1921

Trotsky. TV series. Series 1-2

Trotsky and Bolshevism. Polish poster, 1920

After education Council of People's Commissars Trotsky became the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs there. In December 1917 - January 1918, he led the Soviet delegation in negotiations with the Germans on the Brest Peace. During them, Trotsky put forward the famous slogan: "no peace, no war, but dissolve the army" - that is, end the war without recognizing the German conquests as a formal peace treaty.

In March 1918, Trotsky took the post of military commissar and took an active part in the creation of the Red Army. As its leader during the Civil War, he acted with merciless brutality. Trotsky reinforced the Red Army discipline by shooting every tenth in poorly fought units, and ordered the whites and the insurgent people to be destroyed without pity. Through " decossackization"He tried to exterminate the Cossacks - the most organized and militant part of the Russians. At the end of the Civil War, Trotsky was going to drive the entire population of the Soviet state into military-prison-style " labor armies", But the growth of widespread uprisings in 1920 - early 1921 forced the Bolsheviks to make a" strategic retreat "and proclaim NEP.

Leon Trotsky and the Red Army

In 1922-1923, due to Lenin's illness, a struggle for power began in the RCP (b). The authoritative Trotsky was opposed by a "troika" of Stalin, Zinoviev and Kameneva... The Trotskyists were defeated in a battle with her at the top. In January 1925, Trotsky lost the posts of military commissar and chairman Revolutionary Military Council.

Trotsky. TV series. Series 3-4

However, soon after this, Stalin entered into a rivalry with Zinoviev and Kamenev. The latter two began to seek support from their former enemy Trotsky and formed together with him “ united opposition", Mainly from the" old Bolsheviks ". She demanded to start "accelerated industrialization" by robbing the "petty-bourgeois" village - that is, to curtail the NEP. Stalin, on the other hand, at this stage, for personal purposes, falsely presented himself as a supporter of its preservation.

Dispersed on 7 November 1927 demonstrations organized by the opposition in honor of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, Stalin achieved the expulsion of Trotsky to Alma-Ata (January 1928), and then his deportation from the USSR (February 1929).

Trotsky settled in Turkey, on the Prinkipo island (near Istanbul). He did not stop political and writing activities there, vehemently condemning the "gravedigger of the revolution" Stalin. Trotsky led his agitation not only for the USSR, but also for the Western communists. He won over to his side a considerable part of them, which broke with the "Stalinist" The Comintern and founded her own - Fourth International.

In 1933 Trotsky moved to France, and in 1935 to Norway. Forced to leave this country because of Soviet pressure, he moved (1937) to Mexico, to the "left" president Lazaro Cardenas. Trotsky lived there in a villa in Coyoacan, a guest of the radical artist Diego Rivera.

Stalin, meanwhile, ordered an operation to assassinate him. In May 1940, Trotsky survived a dangerous attack by a group led by a renowned artist A. Siqueirosa, but on August 20, 1940, another NKVD agent, Ramon Mercader, inflicted a fatal blow on the head with an ice pick.

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Introduction
3. Struggle for power. Exile. Death
Conclusion
List of sources and literature

Introduction

Relevancethemes. Lev Davidovich Trotsky (Bronstein) is one of those major historical figures whose fate, replete with dramatic twists, is of great interest to researchers. This is the personality of a very prominent revolutionary and politician, and not only of Russian, but also of an international scale. On his life path there were many mistakes, blunders, recessions, but he also had many ups and downs, merits before the revolution. He was one of the most popular people of the time, but had very few supporters. There were few Trotskyists in the country. When voting in a party, in the course of general party discussions, debates at congresses, this was always noticeable. Trotsky was appreciated for his intelligence, oratory, journalism, organizational skills, but very many in the party could not forgive him that he looked down on everyone, as it were, constantly emphasizing his intellectual superiority, was convinced of his genius and even imposed this idea on others. They argue and talk about Trotsky today, as they did 70 years ago. They speak with hatred and reverence, malice and admiration. A man of unusual destiny leaves no one indifferent. The portrait of Leon Trotsky cannot be written unequivocally in either black or white. The evolution of public assessments of the most famous revolutionary figure described a full arc: from enthusiastic glorification of the great leader of the world revolution to anathema to him, and finally, it comes to a calm and objective perception of a bright, complex and ambiguous personality, who took his place in the gallery of historical portraits. In this course work, we will try to give an objective historical assessment of the personality of Leon Davidovich Trotsky.

Historiography. We have already mentioned that Trotsky is an outstanding controversial personality and it is not surprising that the number of works about him in different languages in the aggregate amounts to several dozen. Most of the books about Trotsky are not just politicized, but written from a position of hatred towards him, or literature is expressed in apologetic tones.

In Soviet historiography of the Stalinist period, he was portrayed as the embodiment of absolute evil, a notorious enemy of Soviet power. Later, while retaining the main Stalinist myths, Soviet authors only moved him from the "avant-garde" to the "train" of reaction. "Perestroika" historiography continued to endow him with demonic features, but now he (at the suggestion of the writer-general D. Volkogonov) turned into a "demon of revolution" Volkogonov DA. Trotsky. "Demon of the Revolution". - M., 2011; Its the same. Trotsky: A Political Portrait. - M., 1992, T. 1-2. ... A two-volume book by D.A. Volkogonov is useful for researchers with new archival materials, first extracted from previously classified funds, but represents an attempt to create a portrait rather than a biography of Trotsky.

A completely different image of Trotsky is portrayed by another historiographic tradition, for which he is not a demon, but a prophet of revolution and genuine communism. It is in this vein that the largest work of recent decades about the ideas and activities of Trotsky and his followers after the revolution, the seven-volume study by V. Rogovin "Was there an alternative?" Rogovin V.Z. "Trotskyism": a look through the years. - M., 1992 .-- T. 1.. Having collected a wealth of factual material, gleaned mainly from published sources, the author did not avoid idealizing his hero, presenting him to us as an impeccable politician. Isaac Deutscher's work is also characterized by a communist bias. In his three-volume biography, Deutscher I. Trotsky: The Armed Prophet. 1879 - 1921 .-- M., 2006; His... Trotsky: An unarmed prophet. 1921 - 1929 .-- M., 2006; His... Trotsky: The Exiled Prophet. 1929 - 1940. - Moscow, 2006. Trotsky appears to be the only one who openly opposed Stalinism, right up to his tragic end.

Readers and researchers have at their disposal a mass of short essays and articles devoted to particular problems, but there is almost not a single versatile and detailed biography of Trotsky, but here one should highlight a reliable and worthy article by A.V. Pantsova A.V. Pantsov Lev Davidovich Trotsky // Questions of history. 1990. No. 5. S. 65 - 87.

Another attempt to investigate life path Leon Trotsky was undertaken by the Kharkov historian G.I. Chernyavsky Chernyavsky G.I. Leon Trotsky. Revolutionary. 1879-1917. - M., 2010. He set himself the goal of illuminating Trotsky's biography as objectively as possible, without hatred and enthusiasm, Black Hundred and Stalinist myths, and, in my opinion, the author undoubtedly succeeded. Chernyavsky also did a great job of publishing documents of Trotsky and the Trotskyist opposition from the American archives: together with Yu. Felshtinsky, he compiled a nine-volume collection "Archives of Leonid Trotsky", which is now freely available on the Internet, Trotsky's Archives (9 volumes) [Electronic resource] / Under total. ed. G.I. Chernyavsky, Yu.G. Felshtinsky. - Kharkov., 1999-2001. T. 1-9. URL: http: //www.lib.ru/TROCKIJ (date accessed: 17.04.2015). ...

Target term paper study the personality and political activities of L.D. Trotsky.

Tasks term paper:

1. Give a description of the early biography and the beginning political activities.

2. Consider the role of Trotsky in the 1917 revolution and the Civil War.

3. Investigate Trotsky's involvement in the struggle for power, the final stage of his life in exile and death.

Chronologicalframeworkresearch cover the entire period of Trotsky's life, respectively, it is 1879 - 1940.

Geographicframeworkresearch include territory the former USSR, places of Trotsky's first and second emigration - London, Paris, New York, and places associated with exile and murder - Alma-Ata, Turkey, France, Norway, Mexico.

An objectresearch: personality and political activity of L.D. Trotsky.

Itemresearch: key and controversial moments in the biography of Trotsky, characterizing him as a person and a political leader.

Sourcebase course work are the collected works of Trotsky in Russian Trotsky L. My life. An autobiography experience. - M., 1991; Its the same. Trotsky L.D. Diaries and letters / Under total. ed. SOUTH. Felshtinsky. - M., 1994., magazines published under his leadership, press materials, documents of parties and organizations with which he was associated, and all kinds of materials of personal origin not only of Trotsky, but also of his contemporaries. Of the published materials concentrated in foreign archives, the four-volume edition compiled by Yu.G. Felshtinsky Felshtinsky Yu.G. Trotsky's Archives: Communist Opposition in the USSR. - M., 1990, T. fourteen. . Its continuation is a nine-volume collection of documents "Archives of L. D. Trotsky" also prepared by Felshtinsky and Chernyavsky, as noted earlier, published on the Internet Trotsky Archives (9 volumes) [Electronic resource] / Under total. ed. G.I. Chernyavsky, Yu.G. Felshtinsky. - Kharkov., 1999-2001. T. 1-9. URL: // http: //www.lib.ru/TROCKIJ (date of access: 19.04.2015). ...

Methodsresearch: the work is based on such principles of historical research as the principle of objectivity, which involves considering historical reality as a whole, with the help of facts and studying them in aggregate; the principle of consistency, which takes into account all aspects and interrelationships of the research and allows us to consider the object of research as a set of interacting elements; the principle of historicism, which includes the consideration of all historical facts, phenomena and events in accordance with specific historical circumstances, in their interdependence and the principle of reliance on historical sources, since without reliance on them, our research would not be scientific and historical.

The work uses the following methods of historical research: the historical-genetic method (retrospective), which allows to show the cause-and-effect relationships and patterns of development of a historical event; problem-chronological method, which involves dividing broad topics into a number of narrow problems, each of which will be considered in chronological order; the historical-comparative method, with the help of which it is possible to identify both general and special features in the development of phenomena, events; the historical-typological method, which gives us the opportunity to consistently consider the dynamics of historical processes and classify historical phenomena and events.

Structurework. The course work consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, a list of sources and literature.

trotsky revolution civil war

1. Early biography and the beginning of political activity

Bronstein Lev Davidovich (pseudonym Trotsky) was born on October 25, 1879 - in the family of a wealthy landowner. "My childhood was not a childhood of hunger and cold. By the time I was born, the parental family already knew prosperity. But it was a harsh wealth of people rising up from need and not wanting to stop halfway. All muscles were tense, all thoughts were directed to work and accumulation. "Cit. on. Trotsky L. My life. An autobiography experience. - M., 1991.S. 23. Young Leva saw how hard prosperity was given to his father; he also saw that the neighbors were jealous of him, not wanting to do anything themselves. The spirit of thrift and hoarding constantly reigned in the family. "The instincts of acquiring, the petty-bourgeois way of life and outlook - I pushed away from them with a sharp impulse, and departed for the rest of my life" Ibid. P. 96. Why did this happen? Perhaps it was a simple childish desire to do the opposite, perhaps school influenced.

In 1888 Trotsky entered the preparatory class of the Odessa real school of St. Paul. At the school, Trotsky very soon showed his ambitious aspirations: "during his studies he showed great diligence, all the time he went first." Leva read a lot from childhood: "nature and people, not only in school, but also in later years of youth, occupied a lesser place in my spiritual life than books and thoughts" Ibid. P. 74. Also in his youth, Trotsky was fond of theater: Leo was struck by the "witchcraft of the theater." "Love for the word accompanied me from an early age, then weakening, then growing, and in general, undoubtedly, strengthening. Writers, journalists, artists remained for me the most attractive world, which is open only to the elite" Ibid. P. 101.

A significant event was the discovery of myopia in Leo. The need to wear glasses brought him a feeling of joy, since, in his opinion, they gave significance to G.I. Chernyavsky. Leon Trotsky. Revolutionary. 1879-1917. - M., 2010.S. 27. “Unexpectedly for me, it was discovered that I was nearsighted. I was taken to an eye doctor, and he prescribed glasses for me. I cannot say that it upset me: after all, glasses gave me significance. I was not without pleasure anticipating my appearance in glasses in Yanovka. But for my father the glasses turned out to be an unbearable blow. He believed that all this was pretense and airs, and categorically demanded that I take off my glasses. in Yanovka wear only secretly "Cit. on. Trotsky L. My life. An autobiography experience. P. 80.

But the years of study were by no means only joyful: "the memory of the school remained colored, if not black, then gray." The school had conflicts with teachers more than once, for which Trotsky was once even expelled from the school (on next year accepted again). And the "regime of heartlessness and bureaucratic formalism" itself could not but irritate the future revolutionary. "There was a deep hostility to the existing system, to injustice, to arbitrariness. Where? From the conditions of the era Alexander III, from police arbitrariness, landlord exploitation, bureaucratic bribery, national restrictions. from the entire social atmosphere in general. " This was connected with his idea of ideal democracy. Trotsky very soon became, as we say today, the informal leader of a group of young people who were looking for a way out of their overwhelming desire to be active “for the good of society.” This was largely predetermined by Trotsky's choice of his future activities. In 1896 in Nikolaev, where Trotsky was finishing his last class at a real school, he and his friends were able to create the South-Russian Workers' Union, in which there were up to 200 members, mainly workers of the city. leaders flattered Trotsky's pride, gave him special weight, maybe not even so much in natural eyes, how many in the opinion of others. Nature has awarded Lev Bronstein with a beautiful appearance; blue lively eyes, lush black hair, regular facial features were complemented by good manners and the ability to dress tastefully. Many admired him, and many disliked him - talent is rarely forgiven. Over time, the awareness of his exclusiveness formed in Trotsky pronounced egoistic and egocentric traits. Volkogonov D.A. Trotsky. "Demon of the Revolution". - M., 2011.S. 10. It was these qualities that were later distinguished in Trotsky by the professor of medicine G.A. Ziv. In his opinion, Trotsky's individuality was expressed not in knowledge and not in feeling, but in will, "Actively manifest your will, rise above everyone, be the first everywhere and always - this has always been the main essence of Bronstein's personality," wrote Ziv. his psychology was only service superstructures and extensions "Ziv GA. Trotsky. Characteristics (Based on personal memories). - New York, 1921.S. 12.

Young technician Ivan Andreevich Mukhin, brothers and sister Sokolovskiy, workers Korotkov, Babenko, Polyak and others took an active part in the activities of the Union, which did not last long. Basically, the work was reduced to rewriting and reproduction of social democratic texts on a hectograph, distributing them among the workers of shipyards and other enterprises.

The leadership of Soyuz was inexperienced. Conspiracy is at a primitive level. It is quite natural that provocateurs infiltrated the organization. One of them bore, Trotsky later recalled, the surname Schrenzel. January 28, 1898 Bronstein, Shvigovsky, other organizers of the "Union" were arrested Volkogonov DA. Decree. op. P. 15. Young Lev Bronstein wasted no time - and in prison he was engaged in self-education. Using my school knowledge of German and French, I also studied English and Italian, read a lot, tried to write a serious work about the essence of Freemasonry and the materialistic understanding of history. "Based on school acquaintance with German and French, I, verse by verse, read the Gospel also in English and in Italian. In a few months, I have made significant progress in this way. ... It was during this period that I was interested in the question of Freemasonry. For several months I have been diligently reading books on the history of Freemasonry, which were delivered to me by my family and friends from the city "Quoted by Trotsky L. My Life. An Autobiography Experience. Pp. 160-162..

On the way to Eastern Siberia, where he was exiled for four years, L. Bronstein first heard about Vladimir Ulyanov and studied his book The Development of Capitalism in Russia. Prison cells, one might say, finally turned the young revolutionary into a social democrat.

At this time, he finally became friends with A. Sokolova, who sympathized with him. They got married in a Moscow transit prison in 1899. By the fall of 1900, their daughter Zina was born, the family settled in the village of Ust-Kut, Irkutsk province. In the same places, Trotsky met with the young F.E. Dzerzhinsky, M.S. Uritsky. In exile in the Irkutsk province, Trotsky took an active part in the life of the settlers. Under the pseudonym Antid Oto, he worked for the local newspaper Vostochnoye Obozreniye. His sharp, brightly written articles attracted attention to him in foreign circles of the RSDLP. Soon, Trotsky received an invitation from the Iskra editorial office to work for the newspaper. It strengthened the decision to escape. After spending more than a year in exile, Trotsky, leaving his wife and two young daughters, fled abroad. His flight led to the disintegration of the family, although at first neither he nor Alexander had anticipated this.

In 1902, on a rainy autumn morning, he appeared in London at the apartment of V.I. Lenin. Trotsky was greeted very cordially. Lenin was impressed by the sharpness of his judgments, the desire to defend his opinion. In addition, Trotsky very energetically carried out any of Lenin's orders. On March 2, 1903, V.I. Lenin in a letter to G.V. Plekhanov was asked to co-opt Trotsky as a member of the Iskra editorial board. He gave him a very flattering characterization: "A man, undoubtedly, with remarkable abilities, convinced, energetic, who will go even further," wrote VI Lenin. AND. Full collection op. - M., 1970.T. 46.P. 277. But Plekhanov defiantly rejected Trotsky's articles directed to him by Lenin, he retained his hostility towards the latter until the end of his life, the reasons for such an attitude are rather difficult to establish. Despite this, Trotsky continued to work actively under the leadership of Lenin.

In the spring of 1903, Trotsky visited Brussels, Liege and Paris, in the circles of the Russian revolutionary emigration, he spoke with an essay on the topic: "What is historical materialism and how socialists - revolutionaries understand it." Lenin became interested in the topic and invited Trotsky to revise the abstract into an article for Zarya, the theoretical organ of Social Democracy. However, he flatly refused: "I did not dare to speak with a purely theoretical article alongside Plekhanov and others." on. Trotsky L. My life. An autobiography experience. P. 200.

In London, Trotsky began to intensively study socialist literature. "I began eagerly to devour the published issues of Iskra and the book of Zarya. It was brilliant literature, combining scientific depth with revolutionary passion. I fell in love with Iskra, I was ashamed of my ignorance and strove with all my might to overcome it as soon as possible." In the same place. S. 195.

During one of his trips to Paris, he met Natalya Sedova, a young woman who also participated in the revolutionary movement. She was three years younger than Trotsky (she was born in 1882 and outlived him for almost 20 years, she died in 1962 in the outskirts of Paris), Natalia's father was a Don Cossack who had become a merchant of the first guild, and her mother came from an impoverished gentry family. Sedova was carried away by Trotsky, divorced her husband and became Trotsky's second wife. They could not conclude an official church marriage, since Lev Davidovich did not divorce Alexandra and formally until the October Revolution of 1917, remained the husband of A.L. Sokolovskaya. He lived with Sedova until the end of his life. They had two sons - Leo (1906) and Sergei (1908).

In 1903, Lev Davidovich participated in the II Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party with a mandate from the Siberian Union of the RSDLP. Here it becomes clear that Trotsky did not at all possess the qualities of an obedient follower that Lenin Chernyavsky G.I. Decree. op. P. 56. The congress was held from July 17 (30) to August 10 (23), first in Brussels, and then (after the actual prohibition of his work by the Belgian police) in London.

Trotsky was an active participant in the congress, in the minutes of S.V. Tyutyukin discovered over a hundred of his speeches. Tyutyukin S.V. Lev Davidovich Trotsky // Historically Silhouettes. - M., 1991.S. 205. It was then that the closeness of Lenin and Trotsky collapsed. The congress, which began with hopes for friendly work, was known to split when discussing the Charter, especially its first point. The dispute was about the degree of centralism in the newly formed party, about the future composition of the Iskra editorial board. Recalling these events later, Trotsky wrote: “My whole being protested against this merciless cutting off of old people (Axelrod, Zasulich). It was from this indignation that I broke with Lenin at the Second Congress. His behavior seemed to me unacceptable, terrible, outrageous. so it was politically correct and, therefore, organizationally necessary "Cit. on. Trotsky L. My life. An autobiography experience. P. 220. But this is how he appraised these events many years later, and then, with all the ardor of youth, Trotsky, whom D.B. Ryazanov called "Lenin's club", fell on his yesterday's idol. Although Trotsky's position made a negative impression on Lenin, he nevertheless did not lose hope that he would change his position. Even during the work of the congress, on behalf of Lenin, Dmitry Ulyanov turned to him, trying to reason with him. But, as Trotsky wrote, "I flatly refused to follow them." Naturally, further cooperation between Lenin and Trotsky became impossible.

Trotsky repeatedly returned to clarifying the reasons for his departure from Lenin at the Second Congress. There were several reasons. In "My Life" he calls them. First, of the members of the Iskra editorial board, Trotsky, although he supported Lenin, stood closer to Martov, Zasulich and Axelrod. "Their influence on me was undeniable." on. Trotsky L. My life. An autobiography experience. S. 219., - he testified. Secondly, it was in Lenin that Trotsky saw the primary source of "encroachments" on the unity of the Iskra editorial board, while the idea of a split in the collegium seemed sacrilegious to him. And finally, thirdly (and this is the most essential reason), Trotsky's unwillingness to obey anyone, in this case- the "revolutionary centralism" professed by Lenin, which "is a tough, imperative and demanding principle. In relation to individuals and to whole groups of yesterday's like-minded people, he often takes the form of ruthlessness" Ibid. P. 219.

It seems that the matter was not at all in Lenin's "ruthlessness". The question of Trotsky's transition to the position of Menshevism is much more complicated than his personal ambitions. At that time, he was, in essence, only approaching the realization of the revolutionary strategy and tactics of struggle. He did not yet have any solid beliefs tested by experience. He too superficially presented the essence of the disagreements between Lenin and other "Iskra-ists" on programmatic issues.

The vagueness of the ideological positions also led to the precariousness of the political platform, which was aggravated by the tendency to change principles under the influence of a particular personality, circumstances of the moment and other - at first glance, secondary, but entailing serious consequences - aspects of the political environment. This feature of Trotsky's behavior predetermined his most important feature as a politician, and then as a theoretician of Trotskyism.

After the congress, Trotsky, together with Martov, Axelrod and other Menshevik leaders, set out to abolish the principles of creating a revolutionary party proposed by Lenin at the Second Congress. It was already a little like conducting an ideological dispute. Trotsky continued the intolerant, defiant tone of his speeches in his first book, Our Political Tasks (Tactical and Organizational Questions), published in 1904 in Geneva, with a dedication to P.B. Axelrod. It was not for nothing that this book was called "the manifesto of Russian Menshevism." Its purpose, according to Trotsky himself, was to challenge the significance of Lenin's What Is To Be Done? and "One step forward, two steps back." However, Trotsky did not like much in the position of the Mensheviks either. In particular, he was constantly annoyed by the cautious, with an eye to the position of the authorities, possibilist policy of the Russian variety of right-wing opportunism. Therefore, disagreeing with the Bolsheviks regarding party building, the role of the peasantry in the revolution, Trotsky instinctively at the same time gravitated towards decisive forms of the Bolshevik struggle, pursued in this struggle by far-reaching revolutionary goals. All this led to the fact that, returning at the beginning of 1905 to Russia (to Kiev), Trotsky found himself "between two chairs." He arrived in Kiev as a respectable, successful entrepreneur. N. Sedova, who had left earlier, found an apartment, established the necessary connections with the underground, introduced her husband, who had arrived to Kiev, to the young engineer L. Krasin, a prominent Bolshevik whom Lenin knew well. Trotsky used the Kiev stop, in fact, for a more detailed acquaintance with the situation in the country, in the social democratic organizations and with the mood of the people. Krasin, who stood on the positions of conciliation between the two factions, seriously helped him. But Trotsky did more than familiarize himself with the situation. His pen worked continuously. Trotsky wrote about everything: about the role of the strike in the growth of the revolution, about the dual nature of liberals, about renegade in Marxism D.A. Volkogonov. Decree. op. S. 20.. "Organizationally," he wrote, "I was not a member of any of the factions." on. Trotsky L. My life. An autobiography experience. S. 230. Collaborating with the Mensheviks, Trotsky strove to maintain contacts with the Bolsheviks.

Having moved to St. Petersburg with Krasin's help, Trotsky plunged headlong into revolutionary work, participating in the current meetings of the strike committees, preparing bright proclamations that were pasted around the city and distributed in factories and plants. But when Sedova was arrested at the May Day, and there was a threat of his arrest, Trotsky from the apartment of Colonel A.A. Litkens, where he lived illegally, was forced to take refuge in Finland. During the three months of his stay in the secluded, remote boarding house "Mir" Trotsky wrote dozens of articles, leaflets, proclamations, which were sent to St. Petersburg Volkogonov D.A. Decree. op. S. 21 - 22. When on May 14, 1905, the Russian squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Z.P. Rozhestvensky near Tsushima Island took a battle with the Japanese squadron of Admiral H. Togo, no one could have imagined how terrible the result would be. The royal fleet suffered a catastrophic defeat. Russia was shocked. Trotsky immediately wrote a large proclamation: "Down with the shameful massacre!" The leaflet passed from hand to hand not only in St. Petersburg, but also in many cities of Russia.

Even before the announcement of the tsarist manifesto, Trotsky returned to Petersburg. In the new conditions, he turned out to be one of the most demanded figures. He came to the capital with a plan to create an elected non-partisan body, which would consist of representatives of enterprises, one delegate per thousand workers, but learned that a similar slogan for an elected body of a slightly larger scale had already been put forward by the Menshevik organization, and this body was called the Soviet of Workers' Deputies ... Trotsky from the very beginning took an active part in the work of the Council, where he spoke under the name Yanovsky Chernyavsky G.I. Decree. op. P. 77. In the fall of 1905, Trotsky, together with Parvus, publishes the Russkaya Gazeta, then with the Mensheviks the newspaper Nachalo, publishes articles in Izvestia, the organ of the Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. At the same time, he becomes Deputy Chairman of the Council S.G. Khrustalev-Nosar. Here Trotsky's ability to work without rest, the qualities of an orator and a publicist, were manifested. In these days, the theoretical differences between the Bolsheviks and Trotsky have largely receded into the background before the task of a direct struggle against tsarism. The activities of the St. Petersburg Soviet continued for fifty-two days. On December 3, troops surrounded the building of the Technological Institute, where the Soviet sat, and arrested its deputies.

Trotsky spent fifteen months in the prisons of the capital. In the fall of 1906, the trial began, which lasted about a month. There were about 50 people in the dock. The verdict was rather mild: indefinite exile to the village of Obdorskoye, which is beyond the Arctic Circle. Not having reached 500 versts to his destination, Trotsky escaped. On a reindeer sleigh with a charioteer, having traveled about 700 kilometers, he reached the Urals. Posing as an engineer from Baron Toll's polar expedition, or as an official, Trotsky got to railroad... At one of the stations not far from St. Petersburg he was met by Natalya Ivanovna, summoned by a telegram. Having visited Martov and Lenin on the Karelian Isthmus, he lived with his wife and son near Helsingfors (Helsinki) for about three months. There was written a book about escape - "There and Back". This is how the first Russian revolution ended for Trotsky personally. In the course of the revolution of 1905-1907, from denying the revolutionary potential of the peasantry, Trotsky gradually came to the conclusion about the importance of the participation of the peasantry in the revolution with the obligatory leadership of the proletariat. The revolution of 1905 played an important role in the life of Trotsky: with his decisive, bold actions in organizing the struggle, he earned the respect of the workers, as well as the already experienced revolutionaries. "The revolution of 1905 created a turning point in the life of the country, in the life of the party and in my personal life. The turning point was towards maturity." on. Trotsky L. My life. An autobiography experience. P. 250.

In May 1907, Trotsky was a member of the V (London) Congress of the RSDLP with the right of an advisory vote. At the congress, Trotsky again took an unclear position, tried to form a certain group of the center, realizing the instability of the balance between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks no worse than others, seeing that much will depend at the congress on who the delegates of other currents will join.

From November 1908 to April 1912, Trotsky and his supporters in Vienna published a small circulation of the newspaper Pravda (the organ of the "non-factional" Social Democrats), which became a publication that preached the principles that dominated the reformist parties of Western Europe. He was a permanent correspondent for the central press organs of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, attended its congresses, regularly maintained contacts with its leaders K. Kautsky, K. Zetkin, immediately upon arrival in Vienna joined the Austrian Social Democratic Party, participated in its work, many wrote in the party press, went to meetings, rallies, demonstrations, entered the University of Vienna. In Vienna, Trotsky's second son, Sergei, was born in 1908. The family did not live poorly, but modestly. Sometimes it was necessary to pawn things in a pawnshop, to sell books, although basically literary earnings ensured existence.

In April 1910, by decision of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, L.B. Kamenev. After participating in the publication of two issues of the newspaper, he refused to cooperate. "The experience of working together with Trotsky - boldly to say, an experience sincerely done by me."

Kamenev, - showed that conciliationism is irresistibly slipping towards the defense of liquidationism, decisively takes the side of the latter against the RSDLP "Quoted by Yu. Kamenev. Two parties. With a foreword by N. Lenin. - Leningrad, 1924, p. 136.

Not recognizing the legality of the Prague Party Conference organized by the Bolsheviks in 1912, Trotsky, together with Martov, F.I. Dan convened a general party conference in Vienna in August 1912, the anti-Bolshevik bloc ("Augustow") created at it collapsed in 1914, and Trotsky himself left it. On August 1, 1914, the first World War... The attitude towards her changed the alignment of forces in the international labor movement. On August 3, Trotsky and his family left for Switzerland, as he was threatened with internment. In 1914 he published a pamphlet in German "War and the International", for the distribution of which in Germany a German court sentenced the author in absentia to eight months in prison. In November 1914, Trotsky moved to France with a certificate as a correspondent for Kievskaya Mysl. Six months later, his family joined him. Not long before that, the newspaper "The Voice" began to appear in Paris, in which V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko, A.M. Kollontai, A.V. Lunacharsky, Yu.O. Martov, M.S. Uritsky and others. Trotsky quickly becomes one of the central figures in the editorial board, and although the burden of old disagreements with Lenin made itself felt, during these years the political basis for future rapprochement was created. Lenin had already agreed to join Trotsky in the editorial office of the German-language magazine "Predictor", but at the end of 1916 the French government closed the newspaper and expelled Trotsky from the country. Decree. op. S. 45-50. ... England, Italy, Switzerland refused him entry. Only Spain remained. Two weeks later, in Madrid, he was arrested by the Spanish police. From here they wanted to send Trotsky to Havana, and only the intervention of Republican deputies and liberal newspapers helped him get permission to leave with his family to New York. In January 1917, Trotsky arrived in the United States. In two months he managed to write many articles, make presentations in Russian and German in a number of cities, work in a library, studying the economic life of a new country for him, become one of the editors of the newspaper "Novy Mir" together with Bukharin, Volodarsky and Chudnovsky. Here the news of the February Revolution found him.

We examined in the first chapter the political undertakings of L.D. Trotsky, in particular, did not pass by his personal life, without which, in our opinion, it is impossible to give a complete political portrait. Let's summarize some of the results. First of all - L.D. Trotsky was a revolutionary. He joined the Social Democratic movement as early as 1898. He was exiled to Siberia. Then he fled abroad. The fact that even then he took an active part in the political struggle against tsarism is evidenced by the fact that Trotsky was a participant in the famous II Congress of the RSDLP. On it, he parted with Lenin in political views and joined the Mensheviks, but soon left their ranks. He also kept aloof from the Bolsheviks, considered himself an "independent social democrat."

When the first Russian revolution broke out, Trotsky returned to seething Petersburg. Here he managed to be promoted to the governing nucleus of the Petersburg Soviet, moreover, to become its chairman for some time. Then there was another arrest, followed by a link to the north, again an escape. In emigration, acquaintance with almost all of the most prominent leaders of the European Social Democratic movement. From 1908 to 1912 he published the newspaper Pravda. In August 1912, he created an anti-Bolshevik bloc ("Augustow"), which disintegrated in 1914. For his anti-war propaganda, Trotsky was exiled from France to Spain, where he was arrested. After receiving permission to leave Spain, Trotsky went with his family to the United States.

Having studied in aggregate the factors that influenced the formation of Trotsky's personality in his early youth, as well as the first successes and failures in the political arena, in the second chapter we will begin to identify new controversial points related to the role of Lev Davidovich in the 1917 revolution and the events associated with Civil War.

2. Trotsky in the 1917 revolution and the Civil War

The years of the second Russian revolution and the Civil War were the most significant time for Trotsky as a politician, statesman, leader. At the end of March, Trotsky and his family sailed to Europe on the Norwegian steamer Christianiafjord, but a few days later in the Canadian port of Halifax, along with several emigrants, he was arrested and imprisoned in a camp for German sailors. Trotsky himself wrote about this incident: “In Halifax (Canada), where the steamer was inspected by the British naval authorities, the police officers ... subjected us, the Russians, to direct interrogation: what are our beliefs, political plans, etc.? I refused to join them in Investigative officers insisted that I was a terrible socialist (terrible socialist). The whole search was so obscene and put the Russian revolutionaries in such an exceptional position compared to other passengers who did not have the misfortune of belonging to the allied England nation, that some of the interrogated immediately sent a vigorous protest to the British authorities against the behavior of police agents ... On April 3, English officers accompanied by sailors appeared on board the Christianiafjord and, on behalf of the local admiral, demanded that I, my family and five other passengers leave the ship ... promised to "figure out" the entire Halifax incident. they obeyed him. Armed sailors pounced on us and, with shouts of "sham" (shame) from a significant part of the passengers, carried us in their arms to a military boat, which, under the escort of a cruiser, delivered us to Halifax "Quoted by Trotsky L. My life. Experience of autobiography. 320. Under pressure from the Petrograd Soviet, the Provisional Government was forced to intervene, and a month later Trotsky and his comrades were released.Through Sweden and Finland, on May 5, 1917, he arrived in Petrograd (as we can see, Trotsky missed the April crisis, as a result of which the first coalition Provisional Government was formed). He was awaited here by a solemn meeting. For his merits in 1905 he was included in the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet with the right of an advisory vote. "It was decided to include me with an advisory vote. I got my membership card and my glass of tea with black bread "Quoted by L. Trotsky. My life. An autobiography experience. S. 340..

Upon his return, Trotsky faced the question of choosing political guidelines. Lev Davidovich considered the best option join mezhdistrict - Petersburg interdistrict committee. Basically, the Mezhraiontsy supported the slogans of the Bolsheviks, with the exception of turning the imperialist war into a civil war. Trotsky, although he did not take an official post, became the de facto leader of the organization Chernyavsky G.I. Decree. op. P. 178.

On May 10, Lenin, Kamenev and Zinoviev attended a conference of the inter-rayons and proposed a plan according to which all leftist groups would merge into a single party. Trotsky spoke out on this matter with restraint and positiveness, but so far he was in no hurry to accept Lenin's proposal. Note that this was the first step towards Trotsky's annexation to Bolshevism Ibid. S. 179-180. ...

A month after Trotsky's arrival in Petrograd, he was already one of the most prominent figures against the motley political background of the revolution. After looking around, orienting himself, the revolutionary recklessly and irrevocably plunged into a seething stream of human passions, disputes, disputes, political claims. In the summer and autumn of 1917, Trotsky was "snapped up": he was invited by the Baltic sailors, workers of the Putilov factory and the tram depot, students, invited to meetings of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Bolsheviks, to meetings of the soldiers' committees of military units. The singer of the revolution almost never refused. Sometimes he went to rallies with Lunacharsky, also a brilliant orator. This tandem, or rather, a duet of revolutionary agitators, was very popular in Petrograd in those distant days, D.A. Volkogonov. Trotsky: A Political Portrait. - M., 1992, T. 1, p. 50.

At the time of the beginning of the July events in Petrograd, Trotsky had not yet formally joined the Bolshevik party, although in fact he had already stood on their platform. With the beginning of events, Trotsky played a noticeable role in protecting the Minister of Agriculture of the Provisional Government from the revolutionary crowd - the leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, V.M. Chernov, who at that time enjoyed considerable popularity. The crowd tried to arrest Chernov instead of the Minister of Justice Pereverzev; The Kronstadt sailors had already dragged Chernov into the car, tearing his jacket, but then Trotsky spoke to the crowd of Kronstadt sailors with a fiery speech and the crowd parted.

After the events of July 3-4, arrests were made among the leaders of the Bolsheviks. Lenin and Zinoviev went underground. It was during these days that Trotsky decided to take a defiant and spectacular step: he demanded his own arrest in print. In an open letter to the Provisional Government, he noted: "Citizens ministers! I know that you have decided to arrest comrades Lenin, Zinoviev and Kamenev. But an arrest warrant is not being issued against me. Therefore, I consider it necessary to draw your attention to the following facts. In principle, I agree. the position of Lenin, Zinoviev and Kamenev and defended it in all my public speeches "Trotsky L.D. Letter to the Provisional Government [Electronic resource] // URL: http: //www.magister. msk.ru/library/trotsky/trotl266. htm (date accessed: 19.04.2015). ... The authorities did not tolerate such insolence and soon arrested the author of the letter. Trotsky spent more than 40 days at Kresty. During this time, his popularity grew at the same rate as his articles and notes appeared in the Bolshevik "worker and soldier", the magazine "Vperyod" and other printed publications. In prison, he wrote two works: "What's next? (Results and prospects)" and "When is the end of the damned massacre?" Both brochures were published by the Priboy publishing house of the Bolsheviks and immediately attracted attention.

A few days after Trotsky's arrest at the end of July, the 6th Congress of the RSDLP (b) opened, which worked in semi-legal conditions. At the beginning, the meetings of the congress were held on the Vyborg side, and then behind the Narva outpost. Many party leaders who were forced to go underground or who ended up in the prison of the Provisional Government were not at the congress. In essence, at the congress the main Leninist characterization of the moment sounded: since the counter-revolution temporarily gains the upper hand, the possibility of a peaceful seizure of power disappears. The issue of an armed uprising was put on the agenda. From that moment on, the radical line of the Bolsheviks manifested itself even more clearly.

For the revolutionary fate of Trotsky, the congress was of great importance. He was even elected an honorary member of the presidium. After the negotiations and approvals, a large group of "Mezhraiontsy" was admitted to the party. Thus, while Trotsky was in prison, the question of his partisanship was also resolved in a new way. Together with Trotsky, M.M. Volodarsky, A.A. Ioffe, A.V. Lunacharsky, D.Z. Manuilsky, M.S. Uritsky and many of their associates. Trotsky's authority was already so high that when he was elected at the Central Committee congress, he was immediately elected to it.

At the request of the Petrograd Soviet on September 2, 1917, Lev Davidovich was released on a bail of three thousand rubles. But in reality, Kerensky, who only with the help of the Bolsheviks was able to repel the threat of Kornilov, felt that the tightening of the regime only weakened his position. There is reason to believe that it was Kornilov's August adventure that strengthened the position of the Bolsheviks and made the October events possible. Trotsky, together with Lunacharsky, Kamenev, Kollontai, and other revolutionaries, leaves prison as a hero and plunges headlong into party affairs. Volkogonov D.A. Decree. op. S. 53-56. ...

During the Bolshevization of the Soviets in September 1917, the Bolsheviks managed to get the majority of seats in the Petrograd Soviet. On September 25, re-elections of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet took place, the Bolsheviks proposed L.D. Trotsky. After the election, the new chairman made a speech to the approval of the audience, in which he expressed confidence that his second election to the Council (after 1905) he would try to "celebrate with a more successful outcome" DA Volkogonov. Decree. op. S. 56. On October 12, Trotsky, as chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, formed the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee - the main organ of leadership of the Bolshevik uprising.

With the formation of the Pre-Parliament, Trotsky was also elected to this body and headed the Bolshevik faction in it. From the very beginning, Trotsky demanded a boycott of the work of the Pre-Parliament, as it was too "bourgeois" in composition. After receiving the approval of Lenin, then hiding in Finland, Trotsky on October 7 (20), on behalf of the Bolsheviks, officially announced the boycott of the Pre-Parliament.

On the whole, by the fall of 1917, the old disagreements between Lenin and Trotsky are becoming a thing of the past. At the same time, disagreements arose between Lenin and Trotsky over the preparation of an armed uprising. While Kamenev and Zinoviev at that time, fearing a repetition of the July defeat, demanded not to raise any uprising, Lenin insisted on an immediate uprising. Trotsky disagreed with him about the form of the coup. If Lenin demanded that the Bolsheviks take power on their own behalf, Trotsky proposed raising the question of transferring power to the Soviets at the Second Congress of Soviets. In two or three weeks, Trotsky made a dizzying take-off in Bolshevik circles, becoming the second person in them after Lenin. In the absence of the latter, Trotsky became the main spokesman for his positions and ideas. Decree. op. S. 193.

We will not dwell on the events of the October coup, we will only say that, ultimately, the uprising began on October 23-24, when the government decree banned "Rabochaya Pravda" and "Izvestia" of the Petrograd Soviet. Trotsky reacted immediately and gave the order to send detachments of the Sixth Sapper Battalion and the Lithuanian Regiment to the printing house. Trotsky then did not leave the phone, receiving more and more confirmation of the successful course of events. In the evening of October 24, Lenin appeared in Smolny, who immediately learned about the coup d'etat Chernyavsky G.I. Decree. op. S. 196-197. ... Decisive events unfolded on October 25, the opening day of the Congress of Soviets. At a meeting of the Central Committee on the night of 25, during the discussion of the new government, Trotsky's proposal was accepted to be called not ministers, but people's commissars. On October 26, Trotsky made a report on the composition of the government at a meeting of the congress. It is at this congress that Trotsky utters his famous words referring to the Mensheviks: "You are miserable individuals, you are bankrupts, your role has been played, go where you should be from now on: into the rubbish basket of history." on. Trotsky L. My life. An autobiography experience. P. 380. Trotsky made his choice: he is a Bolshevik and he is in power. He himself became the people's commissar for foreign affairs.

Trotsky in 1935 assessed his role in the October events as follows: "If it had not been for me in 1917 in St. Petersburg, the October Revolution would have taken place - provided that Lenin was present and led. If there were neither Lenin, nor me in St. Petersburg, there would have been no October Revolution: the leadership of the Bolshevik Party would have prevented it from happening ... If Lenin had not been in St. Petersburg, I would hardly have coped ... the outcome of the revolution would have been questioned. to Victory "Trotsky L.D. Diaries and letters / Under total. ed. SOUTH. Felshtinsky. - M., 1994.S. 119. There is eloquent testimony from Lenin about Trotsky's leading role in the October armed uprising. "After the Petersburg Soviet passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks," says in the XXIV volume of the first Collected Works of V.I. Sobr. Op. - M., 1923. T. 24.P. 482.

However, after the death of Lenin, Stalin gave Trotsky a completely different assessment of the revolution. "But I must say that Trotsky did not play and could not play any special role in the October uprising, that, as Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, he carried out only the will of the relevant party authorities that guided Trotsky's every step." Compositions. - M .; Tver, 1946-2006. T. 6.S. 328-329. ... So what role did Lev Davidovich play in the October coup? Based on numerous documents, eyewitness accounts, an analysis of Lenin's works of that period, we can conclude that Trotsky in October showed himself as one of the main leaders of the revolution, as a person who fell into his native element.

Trotsky showed himself to be a reliable ally of Lenin during the internal crisis of the Central Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, which took place in the very first days of the existence of the new government. On October 29, the Central Committee of the Bolsheviks agreed to negotiate the creation of a homogeneous socialist government. The "right" Bolsheviks (Kamenev, Zinoviev, Nogin, Rykov and others) insisted on an agreement. Lenin, with the active support of Trotsky, succeeded in breaking the vacillations of the members of the Central Committee and insisting on the advancement of conditions unacceptable for the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries and the majority of Mensheviks. And although on November 4 fifteen members of the Central Committee, people's commissars and their deputies resigned, Lenin and Trotsky won the victory. During these days, Trotsky was actively involved in organizing the rebuff to the troops of Kerensky - Krasnov, in the defeat of the cadets' revolt in Petrograd. With Lenin he goes to the Putilov factory, to the headquarters of the Petrograd military district.

Regarding his direct duties - the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs - Trotsky later admitted that "the matter nevertheless turned out to be somewhat more complicated than I had assumed." on. Trotsky L. My life. An autobiography experience. P. 400. Trotsky's first major action in his new post was the publication of secret treaties concluded between Russia and the Entente countries. Trotsky's assistant sailor Nikolai Markin was directly involved in the organization of the decryption and publication of these documents. Within a few weeks, seven yellow collections were released, causing a stir in the multilingual press. Their content was previously published by newspapers. By this the Bolsheviks proved their promise to put an end to secret diplomacy. But Trotsky himself has been in Brest-Litovsk since the end of December, leading the Russian delegation in negotiations with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria. There he delivered fiery speeches that were designed not so much for the negotiating partners as for the general public. Trotsky's speeches were also printed in German newspapers, and the Soviet press published full transcripts of the meetings. From the very beginning, Trotsky played the role of "procrastinating" the negotiations: "It was necessary to give the European workers time to take properly the very fact of the Soviet revolution, and in particular its policy of peace" Cit. on. Trotsky L. My life. An autobiography experience. S. 440. The negotiations were extremely difficult: the Soviet side proposed a democratic peace without annexations and indemnities on the basis of the self-determination of peoples, and the German side, with its outwardly "friendly" attitude, set out deliberately unacceptable conditions. At the same time, peace had to be concluded: "The impossibility of continuing the war was obvious: the trenches were almost empty. No one dared to speak even conditionally about the continuation of the war. Peace, peace at all costs!" Ibid. S. 440. But how can you achieve it? Here disagreements arose. "Three points of view emerged. Lenin was in favor of trying to drag out the negotiations still, but, in the event of an ultimatum, immediately surrender. before the obvious use of force. Bukharin demanded war to expand the arena of the revolution "Ibid. P. 443. Since the latter position "drowned" in the sea of criticism of Lenin and Trotsky, the main contradiction was in the timing of the signing of the ultimatum peace: after words about the possible continuation of the war or after the actual offensive. Trotsky succeeded in proving to other Bolsheviks that precisely the latter was required, since in this case the entire proletarian world would be able to see that revolutionary Russia was physically forced to sign peace with bourgeois Germany. In addition, Trotsky and his supporters hoped that Germany, ravaged by years of war, would not be able to carry out an actual offensive. But everything happened exactly according to the worst scenario: the Germans attacked and, receiving no resistance, quickly advanced deep into Russia. The Soviet government urgently declares an armistice and on March 3, 1918 signed the harsh Peace of Brest-Litovsk. Russia was losing vast territories and was obliged to pay a huge indemnity Chernyavsky G.I. Decree. op. S. 221-223. ... In return, according to Trotsky, she retained "the sympathy of the world proletariat or a significant part of it. Over time, everyone will be convinced that we have no other choice." on. Trotsky L. My life. An autobiography experience. P. 452.

Childhood and youth

He was the fifth child in the family of David Leontyevich Bronstein and Anna (Anetta) Lvovna Bronstein (née Zhivotovskaya). In 1879, the family moved from the Jewish agricultural colony of Gromoklei to the Yanovka estate, partially purchased and partially rented from the widow of Colonel Yanovsky. In Yanovka, in the same year, Leib's son, Lev, was born, and in 1883, the youngest daughter Olga. Leo had an older brother, Alexander (born in 1870) and a sister, Elizabeth (born in 1875). In total, eight children were born in the Bronstein family, but four children died in childhood from various diseases.

As a child, he was sent to study at a Jewish religious school (cheder), but he did not show a great desire to study there, he never really learned Hebrew. But early he learned to read and write in Russian, as a child he became addicted to writing poetry (not preserved). In 1888 he was sent by his parents to study in Odessa, in the real school of St. Paul. He studied with honors, "I was the first student all the time." He was an impressionable child. Since childhood, I read a lot of fiction, both European and Russian (my favorite domestic author -). As a second grade student, he tried to publish a handwritten journal - only one issue was made, almost completely prepared by himself.

His uncle M.F.Spentser (father of a rather famous poet Vera Inber at one time), a journalist, and then the owner of a printing house and publishing house, contributed a lot to the fact that Trotsky, in his early youth, was already seriously "ill" with writing: as the process of writing a book or articles, as well as the delivery to print, typing, proofreading, the work of the printing press, a heated discussion of upcoming and just published books - the love for journalism and the printed word remained for life.

The beginning of political activity

In 1896, Trotsky went to finish his studies (seventh grade of a real school) in Nikolaev, where he began his introduction to political life: he entered a kind of political circle, which, in his words, consisted of "visiting students, former exiles and local youth." There were heated discussions in the circle. Young Trotsky, who took an ardent part in them, possessed, according to I. Deicher, "a wonderful gift of bluffing" - he could get involved in a dispute and lead it with dignity, without really knowing the subject of the dispute. This does not mean that this state of affairs suited Trotsky: he eagerly pounces on political literature, at first does not even read books, but "swallows" them. However, the members of the circle study the most interesting things together. Creation of a circle of distribution of literature "Rassadnik". In 1896-97. Trotsky at first inclines not to Marxism, but to K.

Parents learn about Trotsky's new acquaintances (from Nikolaev to Yanovka not so far), and after a stormy explanation, Trotsky declares his independence and refuses material assistance. For several months Trotsky has been living in the "commune" created by the members of the circle. Earns money by tutoring. Commune members rush from one project to another: having failed in the distribution of literature, they try to create a "university on the basis of mutual education" end.

Reconciled with his parents, Trotsky thought about entering the mathematical faculty of Novorossiysk University (located in Odessa), but the activity that really occupied him in Nikolaev was revolutionary work. The result of the acquaintance of the members of the "commune" with the worker-electrical engineer Mukhin, who was engaged in the propaganda of revolutionary ideas under the guise of returning to true Christianity, is the creation of the group "". According to Trotsky, it all started quite spontaneously:

It was like this: I was walking along the street with the youngest member of our commune, Grigory Sokolovsky, a young man of about my age. “All the same, we ought to start,” I said. "We must start," Sokolovsky replied. "But how?" "Exactly: how? - We need to find workers, not wait for anyone, not ask anyone, but find the workers and start." "I think you can find it," Sokolovsky said.
Sokolovsky on the same day went to the biblical boulevard. That was gone for a long time. There was a woman, and this woman had an acquaintance, also a sectarian. Through this acquaintance of an unfamiliar woman, Sokolovsky on the same day met several workers, among whom was the electrical engineer Ivan Andreevich Mukhin, who soon became the main figure of the organization. Sokolovsky returned from the search with burning eyes. "These are people, so people!"

The young organization has a success that was unexpected even for its founders:

The workers walked towards us by gravity, as if the factories had been waiting for us for a long time. Each brought a friend, some came with their wives, several elderly workers entered the circles with their sons. We were not looking for workers, but they were looking for us. Young and inexperienced leaders, we soon began to choke on the movement we caused.

According to the testimony of a close friend of Trotsky, Dr. GA Ziv, during the years of work in the "South Russian Workers' Union" Trotsky departs from the ideas of populism - "only genuine social democracy." (Ziv G. A. Trotsky. Characteristics (Based on personal memories)

Arrest and exile

On January 28, 1898, Trotsky and other organizers of the Union were arrested. He himself later wrote about this: “There was no serious conspiracy in our organization. All of us were quickly arrested. Gave him away by the provocateur Schrenzel. " From the Nikolaev prison, Trotsky was transferred to Odessa, from there to Kherson. By the end of 1899, those arrested in the case of the "South Russian Union" without trial, "administratively" were sentenced: 4 years of exile to Eastern Siberia. Before exile, they had to spend several months in the Butyrka transit prison, where Trotsky marries a woman close to him in the "commune" and "Union" - Alexandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya.

The place of exile is the village of Ust-Kut on the Lena River (now a city in the Irkutsk Region), also lived on the Ilim River, and later moved to Verkholensk. Soon after his arrival, Trotsky began to collaborate in the Irkutsk newspaper Vostochnoye Obozreniye, whose editor at the time was a former exiled Narodnoye Volodymyr. Takes himself a literary pseudonym Antid Oto (from the Italian "antidoto", which means "antidote"). In the Ust-Kut exile, Trotsky meets and. Trotsky spends two years in exile, during which time he and Sokolovskaya have two daughters.

Escape and work at Iskra

In the summer of 1902, the exiles received news of a new upsurge in the revolutionary movement, the creation of a Marxist newspaper abroad, and also that several of Trotsky's Siberian articles had reached the editorial board of Iskra and drew friendly responses. Trotsky (then, of course, still Bronstein) decides to flee from exile and by all means get to the center of the revolutionary movement. In exile, he leaves his wife with two young daughters. In Irkutsk, friends hand over decent clothes and a blank passport to the fugitive, where he writes in his new surname: Trotsky.

It is known that such a surname was borne by the jailer in the Odessa prison, where those arrested in the case of the "South Russian Union" spent about a year and a half - a domineering, stately and self-satisfied man. Why the young Bronstein chose this particular surname is not known for sure.

Trotsky's first stop was in Samara. There he spends about a week with the head of Iskra's Russian headquarters at that time. Krzhizhanovsky takes Trotsky into the unofficial organization that still exists and gives the young journalist the conspiratorial nickname "Pero". On the instructions of Krzhizhanovsky, Trotsky makes a trip to Ukraine, with the aim of meeting with the Ukrainian "Iskra-ists" and trying to attract revolutionaries who did not take "Iskra-ist" positions to the organization - in this respect, according to Trotsky, the trip yielded almost nothing. From there comes an instruction to send Trotsky to the editorial office of Iskra in London. Illegally (with smugglers) crossing the Austrian border, Trotsky through Vienna (where the head of the Austrian Social Democrats helps him with money for the onward journey) and Zurich (where he meets) arrives in London in October 1902 and from the station goes directly to Lenin. meets him with the words: - The pen has arrived!

As early as November 1902, Trotsky's article appeared in Iskra. On Lenin's advice, Trotsky began to lecture, first in London, and then on the continent - in Brussels, Zurich, Paris. In Paris (in 1903), Trotsky meets with his parents, who came from Russia especially for this. Parents promise him to provide financial support to his family that remains in Russia and, if necessary, to himself. In Paris, Trotsky meets Natalya Ivanovna Sedova, a student from Russia who was expelled for reading forbidden literature from the Kharkov Institute of Noble Maidens and who studied art history at the Sorbonne. Sedova recalled their first meeting as follows:

The autumn of 1902 was abundant in abstracts in the Russian colony of Paris. The Iskra group, to which I belonged, saw first Martov, then Lenin. There was a struggle with the "economists" and with the socialist revolutionaries. In our group they talked about the arrival of a young comrade who had escaped from exile ... The performance was very successful, the colony was delighted, the young Iskra-ist exceeded expectations.

Subsequently, Sedova will become Trotsky's wife.

On Lenin's proposal in March 1903, Trotsky was admitted to the editorial board of Iskra with the right of an advisory vote. The editorial board at that time consisted of six people: three "old men" (,), and three "young" (Lenin,). The sympathies of the 23-year-old revolutionary are more likely on the side of the "old people" - he admires Vera Zasulich, who was already then a "living legend" (she reciprocates to him), highly values the scholarship of P. B. Axelrod, and only with Plekhanov, relations do not develop - recognized the authority in the revolutionary movement is inclined to regard the young revolutionary as an upstart and creature of Lenin.

Within a few months, at where Trotsky represented, a gap occurred between Lenin and Trotsky. The "external" reason was in the personalities: Trotsky could not agree with Lenin's proposal to reduce the composition of the editorial board of Iskra, excluding from it not very active members (although Trotsky personally would only benefit from this). Subsequently, Trotsky will write about this:

The point was simply to put Axelrod and Zasulich outside the editorial board of Iskra. My attitude towards both of them was imbued not only with respect, but also with personal tenderness. Lenin also highly valued them for their past. But he came to the conclusion that they are increasingly becoming a hindrance to the future. And he made an organizational conclusion: to remove them from leadership positions. I could not put up with this. My whole being protested against this merciless cutting off of the old people who have finally reached the threshold of the party. It was from this indignation of mine that my break with Lenin at the Second Congress followed. His behavior seemed to me unacceptable, terrible, outrageous. And yet it was politically correct and, therefore, organizationally necessary.

Revolution of 1905 and further struggle against the party

Trotsky met the 1905 revolution with the notorious theory of "permanent" revolution. This was the theory of disarming the proletariat, demobilizing its forces. After the defeat of the 1905 revolution, Trotsky supported the Menshevik liquidators. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin then wrote about Trotsky:

"Trotsky behaved like the most vile careerist and factionalist. ... He talks about the Party, but behaves worse than all other factionalists."

Trotsky, as is known, was the organizer of the August * anti-revolutionary * Menshevik bloc of all groups and trends opposed to Lenin.

Trotsky met the imperialist war that began in August 1914, as expected, on the other side of the barricades - in the camp of the defenders of the imperialist massacre. He covered up his betrayal of the proletariat with "left" phrases about the struggle against the war, phrases calculated to deceive the working class. For all critical issues war and socialism, Trotsky opposed Lenin, against the Bolshevik Party.

The ever-increasing strength of the influence of the Bolsheviks on the working class, on the soldiers' masses after the February bourgeois-democratic revolution, the enormous popularity of Lenin's slogans among the masses, the Menshevik Trotsky assessed in his own way. He joined our party in July 1917, together with a group of his associates, declaring that he "disarmed" to the end.

Subsequent events showed, however, that the Menshevik Trotsky did not disarm, did not stop the struggle against Lenin for a minute, and entered our party in order to blow it up from within.

A few months after the Great October Revolution in the spring of 1918, Trotsky, together with a group of so-called "Left" Communists and Left SRs, organized a villainous conspiracy against Lenin, seeking to arrest and physically destroy the leaders of the proletariat, Lenin, Stalin and Sverdlov. As always, Trotsky himself - a provocateur, an organizer of murderers, an intriguer and an adventurer - remains in the shadows. His leading role in the preparation of this atrocity, fortunately unsuccessful, was fully disclosed only two decades later, at the trial of the anti-Soviet "Trotskyist bloc" in March 1938. Only twenty years later the dirty tangle of crimes of Trotsky and his henchmen was finally unraveled.

In years civil war When the country of the Soviets was repelling the onslaught of numerous hordes of White Guards and interventionists, Trotsky, with his treacherous actions and sabotage orders, in every possible way weakened the strength of the Red Army's resistance, as a result of which he was forbidden by Lenin to visit the Eastern and Southern Fronts. It is a well-known fact when Trotsky, due to his hostile attitude to the old Bolshevik cadres, tried to shoot a number of responsible front-line communists who were unwanted by him, thereby playing into the hands of the enemy.

At the same trial of the anti-Soviet "right-Trotskyist bloc", Trotsky's entire treacherous, treasonous path was revealed to the whole world: intelligence agencies were international spies. They, led by Trotsky, zealously served the intelligence services and the general staffs of England, France, Germany and Japan.

When in 1929 the Soviet government expelled the counter-revolutionary, traitor Trotsky, from our homeland, the capitalist circles of Europe and America took him into their arms. This was no coincidence. It was natural. For Trotsky long ago passed into the service of the exploiters of the working class.

Trotsky became entangled in his own webs, reaching the limit of human fall. He was killed by his own supporters. The very terrorists whom he taught about murder from around the corner, betrayal and atrocities against the working class, against the country of the Soviets, finished with him. Trotsky, who organized the villainous murder of Kirov, Kuibyshev, M. Gorky, became a victim of his own intrigues, betrayals, betrayals, and atrocities.

This is how this despicable man ended his life ingloriously, going down to the grave with the seal of an international spy and a murderer on his forehead.

Essays

Year	Name	First publication	Text
1900	"A little noticeable, but very important screw in the state machine"	"Eastern Outlook" N 230, October 15, 1900
1900	Something about the "superman" philosophy	"Eastern Outlook" NN 284, 286, 287, 289, 22, 24, 25, 30 December 1900	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1900	Something about the Zemstvo	"Eastern Outlook" N 285, December 23, 1900	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	"Old house"	"Eastern Outlook" No. 10, January 14, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	"Tear-off" calendar as a kulturtrager	"Eastern Review" N 19, January 25, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Herzen and the "young generation"	"Bulletin World History"No. 2, January 1901.	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	About one old question	"Eastern Outlook" N 33 - 34, February 14 - 15, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	On pessimism, optimism, XX century and more	"Eastern Outlook" N 36, February 17, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	"Declaration of Rights" and "Velvet Book"	"Eastern Outlook" NN 56, 57, 13, March 14, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	About Balmont	"Eastern Outlook" No. 61, March 18, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Ordinary village ( Unspoken words about the village in general, etc.)	"Eastern Outlook" N 70, March 29, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Hauptmann's last drama and Struve's comments on it	"Eastern Outlook", NN 99, 102, 5, 9 May 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Ordinary village ( More about "district" medicine, etc.)	"Eastern Outlook" N 117, May 30, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	About Ibsen	"Eastern Outlook" NN 121, 122, 126, 3, 4, June 9, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Penitentiary Ideals and a Humane Prison View	"Eastern Outlook" NN 135, 136, 20, 21 June 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	We are ripe	"Eastern Outlook" N 154, July 13, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	New times - new songs	"Eastern Outlook" NN 162, 164, 165, 22, 25, 26 July 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Ordinary village ( Belated foreword, etc.)	"Eastern Outlook" N 173 - 176, 4 - 9 August 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Two writers' souls at the mercy of a metaphysical demon	"Eastern Outlook" No. 189, August 25, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	"Illiberal" moment of "liberal" relations	"Eastern Outlook" N 194, September 2, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Poetry, machine and machine poetry	"Eastern Outlook" No. 197, September 8, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Plain rustic	"Eastern Outlook" N 212, September 26, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	S.F.Sharapov and German agrarians	"Eastern Outlook" N 225, October 13, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	"Russian Darwin"	"Eastern Outlook" N 251, November 14, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	N. A. Dobrolyubov and "Whistle"	"Eastern Outlook" N 253, November 17, 1901	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1901	Literary history, Boborykin and Russian criticism	?	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1902	Something about "creative freedom"	"Eastern Outlook" No. 8, January 10, 1902	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1904	Political letters. "Before the disaster"	Iskra, No. 75, October 5, 1904	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1904	Political letters. Public Education Fund, etc.		in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov
1904	The appearance of the liberals to the people	Iskra, No. 76, October 20, 1904	in the library of Oleg Kolesnikov

Biographies

Vasetsky N.A. Trotsky. An experience political biography... - M .: Republic, 1992. ISBN 5-250-01159-4
Volkogonov D.A. Trotsky / Political portrait. - In two books. - M .: AO Novosti Publishing House, 1994. ISBN 5-7020-0216-4
Deutscher I. Trotsky. Armed prophet. 1879-1921 - M .: ZAO Tsentrpoligraf, 2006. ISBN 5-9524-2147-4
Deutscher I. Trotsky. An unarmed prophet. 1921-1929 - M .: ZAO Tsentrpoligraf, 2006. ISBN 5-9524-2155-5
Deutscher I. Trotsky. The exiled prophet. 1929-1940 - M .: ZAO Tsentrpoligraf, 2006. ISBN 5-9524-2157-1
Ziv G.A. Trotsky: Characteristics (from personal memoirs). New York: People's Rule, 1921
David King. Trotsky. Biography in photographic documents. - Yekaterinburg: "SV-96", 2000. ISBN 5-89516-100-6
Paporov Yu. N. Trotsky. The murder of the "big entertainer" - St. Petersburg: Publishing House "Neva", 2005. ISBN 5-7654-4399-0
"Was there an alternative?": "Trotskyism - a look through the years", "Power and the opposition", "Stalinist neo-ep", "1937", "Party of the executed", "World revolution and world war", "The end means the beginning" ...
Startsev V. I. L. D. Trotsky. Pages of political biography. - M .: Knowledge, 1989. ISBN 5-07-000955-9
Chernyavsky G.I., Lev Trotsky - M .: Young Guard, 2010. ISBN 978-5-235-03369-6
Isaac Don Levine. The Mind of an Assassin, New York, New American Library / Signet Book, 1960.
Dave Renton. Trotsky, 2004.
Leon Trotsky: the Man and His Work. Reminiscences and Appraisals, ed. Joseph Hansen. New York, Merit Publishers, 1969.
The Unknown Lenin, ed. Richard Pipes, Yale University Press (1996) ISBN 0-300-06919-7

Lev Davidovich Trotsky (real name Leib Davidovich Bronstein; October 26, 1879, Yanovka farm, Kherson province, Russian Empire - August 22, 1940, Villa Coyacana, Mexico) - leader of the international workers' and communist movement, theorist of Marxism, ideologist of one of its currents - Trotskyism. One of the organizers of the October Revolution of 1917 and one of the founders of the Red Army. One of the founders and ideologists of the Comintern, a member of the Executive Committee of the Comintern. In the Soviet government - the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs; in 1918-1925 - People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR, then the USSR. Member of the Politburo of the CPSU (b) in 1919-1926.

Encyclopedic reference

From the family of a well-to-do colonist, he was educated at the Nikolaev real school. He joined a circle of revolutionary-minded youth who tried to carry on propaganda among the workers. Together with the Sokolovsky brothers, in 1897 he formed the Social Democratic "South Russian Workers' Union". Arrested in January 1898. He spent about 2 years in prisons, after which he was sentenced to 4 years in prison. Initially he served his exile in the village of Ust-Kutsk (from August 1900), from February 1901 - in Nizhneilimsk, then in Verkholensk, Irkutsk province. Here L.D. Trotsky actively studied Marxism, was engaged in literary activities. The newspaper "Vostochnoye Obozreniye" published his articles under the pseudonym "Antid Oto".

In February 1902 L.D. Trotsky arrived in, where he delivered an essay to the local Social Democrats, and in August, with the help of the Siberian Social Democratic Union, fled to Samara. In, before entering the train car, he entered the name Trotsky in a blank passport form.

In the autumn of the same year he went to see V. I. Lenin in London. After January 9, 1905 he returned to Russia, entered the Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies, and then, after the arrest of GS Nosar (Khrustalev), was elected its chairman. In December 1905 he was arrested and in October 1906 exiled to Obdorsk, Tobolsk province, but fled from the road to Finland.

In 1907-1917 he tried to distance himself from both the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks, taking his own position on the issues of the socialist revolution. On September 25, 1917, at the suggestion of the Bolsheviks, he was re-elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, took an active part in preparing the coup, and was a member of the All-Russian Revolutionary Committee.

After the October Revolution, L.D. Trotsky was the people's commissar for foreign affairs, communications, military and naval affairs, chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council. He was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), took part in a number of all-Russian discussions. In November 1927 he was expelled from the party, in 1928 he was expelled from Moscow, and a year later from the country. Abroad L.D. Trotsky continued to fight against Stalin. Organizer of the IV International (1938). He spent the last years of his life in Mexico. On August 19, 1940, he was mortally wounded by an agent of the GPU R. Mercader.

Irkutsk. Historical and Local Lore Dictionary. - Irkutsk, 2011

Trotsky in Siberia

At the very beginning of the 20th century, Trotsky spent almost two years in exile in the Irkutsk province (his daughters were born here). It was on the Irkutsk land that Leib Bronstein, thinking before escaping, what name to write in the transmitted false passport, remembering his prison warden, wrote in the passport: "Trotsky." In Irkutsk, through which he fled (to Samara), his comrades brought him on the train a suitcase with linen, a tie, and, as he put it, " other attributes of civilization". In the book" My Life. The experience of an autobiography "he recalled:

Biography

Childhood and youth

Leiba Bronstein was born the fifth child in the family of David Leontyevich Bronstein (1843-1922) and his wife Anna (Anetta) Lvovna Bronstein (née Zhivotovskaya) - wealthy landowners from among the Jewish colonists of an agricultural farm not far from the village of Yanovka, Elisavetgrad district of the Kherson Selson province district of the Kirovograd region, Ukraine). Parents of Leon Trotsky came from the Poltava province. As a child, he spoke Ukrainian and Russian, and not the then widespread Yiddish. Studied at St. Paul's School in Odessa, where he was the first student in all disciplines. During his studies in Odessa (1889-1895), Leon Trotsky lived and was brought up in the family of his cousin (on the maternal side), owner of the printing house and scientific publishing house "Matezis" Moisei Filippovich Spenzer and his wife Fanny Solomonovna, the parents of the poet Vera Inber.

The beginning of revolutionary activity

In 1896 in Nikolaev, Lev Bronstein participated in a circle, together with other members of which he conducted revolutionary propaganda. In 1897 he participated in the founding of the South Russian Workers' Union. On January 28, 1898 he was arrested for the first time. In the Odessa prison, where Trotsky spent 2 years, he becomes a Marxist. “The decisive influence,” he said on this occasion, “was exerted on me by two studies by Antonio Labriola on the materialistic understanding of history. Only after this book did I move on to Beltov and Capital. " The appearance of his pseudonym Trotsky also dates back to the same time; it was the name of the local warden-jailer, who impressed the young Lev (he would write it down in his fake passport after his escape). In 1898, in prison, he married Alexandra Sokolovskaya, who was one of the leaders of the Union. From 1900 he was in exile in the Irkutsk province, where he established contact with the Iskra agents and, on the recommendation of GM Krzhizhanovsky, who gave him the nickname “Pen” for his obvious literary gift, was invited to cooperate with Iskra. In 1902 he escaped from exile abroad; in the false passport "at random" entered the name Trotsky, after the name of the senior warden of the Odessa prison.

Arriving in London to see Lenin, Trotsky became a regular employee of the newspaper, gave essays at meetings of emigrants and quickly gained fame. A. V. Lunacharsky wrote about the young Trotsky:

“... Trotsky impressed the foreign public with his eloquence, education, significant for a young man, and aplomb. ... They did not take him very seriously because of his youth, but everyone resolutely recognized him as an outstanding oratorical talent and, of course, felt that this was not a chicken, but an eaglet. "

First emigration

Unsolvable conflicts in the edition of Iskra between the "old people" (G.V. Plekhanov, P. B. Axelrod, V. I. Zasulich) and the "young" (V. I. Lenin, Yu. O. Martov and A. N Potresov) prompted Lenin to propose Trotsky as the seventh member of the editorial board; however, supported by all the members of the editorial board, Trotsky was blackballed by Plekhanov in an ultimatum.

At the Second Congress of the RSDLP, in the summer of 1903, he supported Lenin so ardently that D. Ryazanov christened him "Lenin's club." However, the new composition of the editorial board proposed by Lenin: Plekhanov, Lenin, Martov - the exclusion of Axelrod and Zasulich from it prompted Trotsky to go over to the side of the offended minority and be critical of Lenin's organizational plans.

In 1903, in Paris, Trotsky married Natalya Sedova (this marriage was not registered, since Trotsky never divorced A. L. Sokolovskaya).

In 1904, when serious political differences emerged between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, Trotsky moved away from the Mensheviks and became close to A. L. Parvus, who carried him away with the theory of "permanent revolution". At the same time, like Parvus, he advocated the unification of the party, believing that the impending revolution would smooth out many contradictions.
Revolution of 1905-1907.

In 1905, Trotsky returned illegally to Russia with Natalya Sedova. He was one of the founders of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies, became a member of its Executive Committee. Formally, the Council was chaired by GS Khrustalev-Nosar, but in fact the Council was led by Parvus and Trotsky; after the arrest of Khrustalev on November 26, 1905. The Executive Committee of the Soviet officially elected Trotsky as chairman; but on December 3 he was arrested along with a large group of deputies. In 1906, at the trial of the St. Petersburg Council, which received a wide public response, he was sentenced to eternal settlement in Siberia with the deprivation of all civil rights. On the way to Obdorsk (now Salekhard), he fled from Berezovo.

Second emigration

In 1908-1912 he published the newspaper Pravda in Vienna (in 1912 the Bolsheviks founded their own newspaper Pravda with the same name, which caused numerous controversies). Trotsky recalled in 1923:

« During my stay in Vienna for several years, I came into close contact with Freudians, read their works and even attended their meetings at that time.».

In 1914-1915 in Paris he published the daily newspaper Nashe Slovo.

In September 1915 he took part in the work of the Zimmerwald Conference together with Lenin and Martov.

In 1916 he was exiled from France to Spain, from where he was exiled to the United States by the Spanish authorities, where he continued his journalistic activities.

Return to Russia

Immediately after the February Revolution, Trotsky headed from America to Russia, but on the way, in the Canadian port of Halifax, together with his family he was removed from the ship by the British authorities and sent to an internment camp for sailors of the German merchant fleet. The reason for the detention was the lack of Russian documents (Trotsky possessed an American passport issued personally by President Woodrow Wilson, with visas for entry into Russia and a British transit visa attached), as well as British fears about Trotsky's possible negative influence on stability in Russia. However, soon, at the written request of the Provisional Government, Trotsky was released as an honored fighter against tsarism and continued on his way to Russia. On May 4, 1917, Trotsky arrived in Petrograd and became the informal leader of the "Mezhraiontsy", who held a critical position towards the Provisional Government. After the failure of the July uprising attempt, he was arrested by the Provisional Government and accused, like many others, of espionage; however, he was charged with traveling through Germany.

In July, at the 6th Congress of the RSDLP (Bolsheviks), the “Mezhraiontsy” united with the Bolsheviks; Trotsky himself, who at that time was in the "Kresty", which did not allow him to speak at the congress with the main report - "On the current situation" - was elected to the Central Committee. After the failure of the Kornilov speech in September, Trotsky was released, like the other Bolsheviks arrested in July.

Expulsion from the USSR

In 1929 he was exiled from the USSR - to Turkey on the island of Buyukada or Prinkipo - the largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul. In 1932 he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. In 1933 he moved to France, in 1935 to Norway. Norway, fearing to worsen relations with the USSR, tried with all its might to get rid of the unwanted immigrant, confiscating all of Trotsky's works and placing him under house arrest; Trotsky was also threatened to extradite him to the Soviet government. Unable to withstand the oppression, Trotsky emigrated to Mexico in 1936, where he lived in the house of the family of artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

In early August 1936, Trotsky finished work on the book Revolution Betrayed, in which he called what was happening in the Soviet Union "Stalin's Thermidor." Trotsky accused Stalin of Bonapartism.

Trotsky wrote that “ the lead ass of the bureaucracy outweighed the head of the revolution", While he stated that" with the help of the petty bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy managed to tie the proletarian vanguard hand and foot and crush the Bolshevik opposition"; real indignation aroused in him the strengthening of his family in the USSR, he wrote: “ The revolution made a heroic attempt to destroy the so-called "family hearth", that is, an archaic, musty and inert institution ... The place of the family ... was supposed to be taken by a complete system of public care and services…».

In 1938 he proclaimed the creation of the Fourth International, the heirs of which still exist.

In 1938, Trotsky's eldest son, Lev Sedov, died in a hospital in Paris after an operation.

Trotsky Archive

During his exile from the USSR in 1929, Trotsky was able to take out his personal archive. This archive included copies of a number of documents signed by Trotsky during his time in power in the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, the Central Committee, the Comintern, a number of Lenin's notes addressed personally to Trotsky and not published anywhere else, as well as a number of valuable information for historians about the revolutionary movement before 1917, thousands letters received by Trotsky, and copies of letters sent to him, telephone and address books, etc. Based on his archive, Trotsky in his memoirs easily quotes a number of documents signed by him, including sometimes even secret ones. In total, the archive consisted of 28 boxes.

Stalin was unable to prevent (or he was allowed, which Stalin later called a big mistake in personal conversations, like the expulsion) Trotsky to take out his archive, but in the 30s the GPU agents repeatedly tried (sometimes successfully) to steal some of their fragments, and in March 1931, part of the documents burned down during a suspicious fire. In March 1940, Trotsky, badly in need of money and fearing that the archive would still fall into the hands of Stalin, sold most of his papers to Harvard University.

At the same time, a number of other documents related to Trotsky's activities are, according to the historian Yu.G. Felshtinsky, also in other places, in particular, in the archives of the president. Russian Federation, in the archives of the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam, etc.

Murder

In May 1940, an unsuccessful attempt was made on Trotsky's life. The attempt was led by a secret agent of the NKVD Grigulevich. The group of raiders was led by the Mexican artist and staunch Stalinist Siqueiros. Bursting into the room where Trotsky was, the assailants unintentionally shot all the cartridges and hastily disappeared. Trotsky, who managed to hide behind the bed with his wife and grandson, was not injured. According to Siqueiros, the failure was due to the fact that the members of his group were inexperienced and very worried.

Early in the morning on August 20, 1940, NKVD agent Ramon Mercader, who had previously penetrated into Trotsky's entourage as a convinced of his adherent, came to Trotsky to show his manuscript. Trotsky sat down to read it, and at this time Mercader struck him on the head with an ice pick, which he carried under his cloak. The blow was delivered from behind and from above on the seated Trotsky. The wound reached 7 centimeters in depth, but Trotsky, after the wound he received, lived for almost a day and died on August 21. After cremation, he was buried in the courtyard of a house in Koyokan.

The Soviet government publicly denied any involvement in the murder. The killer was sentenced by a Mexican court to twenty years imprisonment; In 1960, Ramon Mercader, who was released from prison and arrived in the USSR, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin.

Essays

Trotsky L. My life. Experience of an autobiography, in 2 volumes. Berlin: Granite, 1930.

Literature

Shaposhnikov V.N. Trotsky - an employee of the "Eastern Review" // Izv. Sib. Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences: Ser. history, philology and philosophy. 1989. Issue. 3.

Startsev V.I. Leonid Trotsky: Pages of polit, biography. M., 1989;

Ivanov A. Leon Trotsky in Siberian exile // Land of Irkutsk. 1998. No. 10.

Trotsky L.D. My life. An autobiography experience. M., 1991.

Links

Trotsky, Lev Davidovich. // Wikipedia

Leiba Bronstein was born on October 26 (November 7), 1879 in the village of Yanovka, Kherson province, in the family of landowner David Bronstein. In 1888 he entered the St. Paul's School in Odessa, graduated from graduation classes in Nikolaev. Lev Bronstein, 1888

The II Congress entered my life as a great milestone, if only for the fact that it divorced me and Lenin for a number of years

Trotsky L.
"My life"

In 1904, Trotsky left the Menshevik party. He and his wife arrived in Munich and settled in the apartment of Alexander Parvus. In Trotsky, having learned about the strike movement that had begun in Russia, he illegally arrived in Petersburg, where, together with Parvus, they actually led the Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. During the workers' strike in October, Trotsky was in the thick of things.

Fifty-two days of the existence of the first Council were filled with work to capacity: the Council, the Executive Committee, continuous meetings and three newspapers. How we lived in this maelstrom is not clear to me myself

Trotsky L.
"My life"

On December 3, Trotsky was arrested for the Financial Manifesto, which called for accelerating the financial collapse of tsarism. In 1906, at the trial of the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies, which received a wide public response, Trotsky was sentenced to eternal settlement in Siberia with the deprivation of all civil rights. In 1907, he fled from a stage through Germany to Vienna, where he settled with his wife and children. Trotsky in the chamber of the Peter and Paul Fortress, 1905

During this period, his relationship with Lenin heated up. Trotsky publishes the newspaper Pravda for workers and opposition intelligentsia, and actively promotes the idea of uniting the Social Democrats. A hostile campaign was launched against the Vienna Pravda by the Bolsheviks. Lenin called Trotsky a "Jew" in the article "On the color of shame in Judas Trotsky", which was published only in 1932 in the newspaper "Pravda" in the USSR. Lenin sent letters and articles to party organs and the press in which he wrote that Trotsky and "Trotskyism" were dangerous. As a result, Lenin borrowed the name of Trotsky's newspaper and began publishing the Bolshevik Pravda in St. Petersburg. In the Soviet Union, it became the most influential newspaper.

On July 28, 1914, the First World War began. Trotsky becomes a war correspondent and is actively published. For revolutionary propaganda in the newspaper "Nashe Slovo" in September 1916 expelled from France.

In January 1917, Trotsky arrived on a steamer in New York, where he worked for the Russian newspaper Novy Mir. Having received the news about, together with his family he went to Russia on a steamer. In Halifax, Canada, he and several other socialists were dropped off and sent to a prisoner of war concentration camp. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government, Miliukov, under pressure from the Council of Workers' Deputies, requested the release of the detainees. French passport of Leon Trotsky

Trotsky arrived in Petrograd via Sweden and Finland, where he joined the Inter-District Organization and became its leader. By mid-1917, the group had grown from a few hundred to four thousand members. Lenin strove to unite with the Mezhdistrict members. The unification took place at the Sixth Congress of the RSDLP (b), at the same time Trotsky was elected to the Central Committee of the party.

Lenin and Trotsky at the celebration of the second anniversary of the October Revolution, 1919

In this struggle, Trotsky was defeated - on January 26, 1925, he was deprived of military leadership. In 1926, Trotsky forms an opposition bloc with Kamenev and Zinoviev, his former opponents, and begins to openly oppose the Stalinist line. Soon the opposition platform went underground. There was organized harassment against her.

take the power of Mexico. Trotsky settled in Coyoacan, first in the "Blue House" by the artist Frida Kahlo, and then in a villa nearby.

Leon Trotsky (second from left) with Frida Kahlo.

Meanwhile, a show trial was held in Moscow, at which Trotsky was named Hitler's agent and sentenced in absentia to death penalty.
Trotsky, on the other hand, began writing a book about Stalin, met with journalists from various publications, proclaimed the creation of the Fourth International - a Trotskyist international organization, which set as its main goal world revolution and the victory of the working class.

Trotsky, in response to the Moscow trials, recorded a video message to the world community, in which he accused Stalin of despotism. “It was not communism and socialism that gave birth to this court, but Stalinism,” Trotsky says. He claims that the trial of him and his former comrades in the opposition (Kamenev, Zinoviev, Pyatakov and others) is based on false evidence in the interests of the ruling elite.

There were two attempts on Trotsky's life. On May 24, Mexican artist, Stalinist Jose David Alfaro Siqueiros with a group of militants drove up to Trotsky's villa and fired about two hundred bullets into the walls, doors and windows of the house. Trotsky and his family survived. In parallel with the Siqueiros group, the NKVD agent infiltrated Trotsky's confidence. He entered his house and on August 20, 1940, dealt a fatal blow with an ice pick, from which Trotsky died the next day.

	People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR
November 8, 1917 - March 13, 1918

	People's Commissar of the RSFSR - USSR for military and naval affairs
August 29, 1918 - January 26, 1925

Lev Davidovich Trotsky nicknames contemporaries. Leon Trotsky: personal life, wife, children. The beginning of revolutionary activity

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Introduction

Target term paper study the personality and political activities of L.D. Trotsky.

Tasks term paper:

1. Give a description of the early biography and the beginning political activities.

2. Consider the role of Trotsky in the 1917 revolution and the Civil War.

3. Investigate Trotsky's involvement in the struggle for power, the final stage of his life in exile and death.

Chronologicalframeworkresearch cover the entire period of Trotsky's life, respectively, it is 1879 - 1940.

Geographicframeworkresearch include territory the former USSR, places of Trotsky's first and second emigration - London, Paris, New York, and places associated with exile and murder - Alma-Ata, Turkey, France, Norway, Mexico.

An objectresearch: personality and political activity of L.D. Trotsky.

Itemresearch: key and controversial moments in the biography of Trotsky, characterizing him as a person and a political leader.

Structurework. The course work consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, a list of sources and literature.

1. Early biography and the beginning of political activity

On the way to Eastern Siberia, where he was exiled for four years, L. Bronstein first heard about Vladimir Ulyanov and studied his book The Development of Capitalism in Russia. Prison cells, one might say, finally turned the young revolutionary into a social democrat.

In April 1910, by decision of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, L.B. Kamenev. After participating in the publication of two issues of the newspaper, he refused to cooperate. "The experience of working together with Trotsky - boldly to say, an experience sincerely done by me."

Kamenev, - showed that conciliationism is irresistibly slipping towards the defense of liquidationism, decisively takes the side of the latter against the RSDLP "Quoted by Yu. Kamenev. Two parties. With a foreword by N. Lenin. - Leningrad, 1924, p. 136.

2. Trotsky in the 1917 revolution and the Civil War

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