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==Civil War==

==Civil War==

Trotsky also helped build the [[Red Army]] that defeated the White Russian Army in the subsequent Civil War in Russia, despite having no military experience of any kind. He also beat down the [[Anarchist]] movement of [[Nestor Makhno]].

Trotsky also helped build the [[Red Army]] that defeated the White Russian Army in the subsequent Civil War in Russia, despite having no military experience of any kind. He also beat down the [[Anarchist]] movement of [[Nestor Makhno]]. Many massacres were committed under his orders, as even other leftists admit.<ref name="Slate">[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/clives_lives/2007/04/leon_trotsky.html Leon Trotsky: He was a mass murderer, not the true champion of the working class.]</ref>

==Power struggle==

==Power struggle==

After getting kicked out of Turkey and France, Trotsky settled in Mexico in 1937, where he was welcomed by the atheistic, anti-American government of [[Lazaro Cardenas]]. While in Mexico, Trotsky continued to write angry essays about the Soviet Government, alleging that it had betrayed the revolution. The Soviets responded by organizing several assassination attempts. The first attempt, in 24 May 1940, was a home invasion by 30 Communists armed with guns and bombs, but they somehow failed to kill Trotsky and his wife. Then on August 20, 1940 Spanish communist Ramón Mercader, acting on orders from Stalin, successfully murdered Trotsky in his Mexico City home, using an ice axe while his back was turned.

After getting kicked out of Turkey and France, Trotsky settled in Mexico in 1937, where he was welcomed by the atheistic, anti-American government of [[Lazaro Cardenas]]. While in Mexico, Trotsky continued to write angry essays about the Soviet Government, alleging that it had betrayed the revolution. The Soviets responded by organizing several assassination attempts. The first attempt, in 24 May 1940, was a home invasion by 30 Communists armed with guns and bombs, but they somehow failed to kill Trotsky and his wife. Then on August 20, 1940 Spanish communist Ramón Mercader, acting on orders from Stalin, successfully murdered Trotsky in his Mexico City home, using an ice axe while his back was turned.

==Permanent revolution==

==Permanent revolution==

Trotsky's most influential idea was the notion of permanent revolution.  Drawing on the experiences of the 1905 Russian Revolution, Trotsky maintained that revolution would spread worldwide after the international proletariat's aid to the Russian workers, who in turn would "export" the revolution abroad. By contrast Stalin rejected Trotsky’s theory and presented his own thesis on socialism in one country (Russia) in 1926. Trotsky asserted that the unification of developed and backward countries in the worldwide operations of capitalism created a combination of separate and uneven stages of development in backward countries like Russia, permitting the Russian proletariat the capability of carrying out a revolution but at the same time requiring the permanent extension of revolution in time and space until the extinction of class distinctions.  

Trotsky's most influential idea was the notion of permanent revolution.  Drawing on the experiences of the 1905 Russian Revolution, Trotsky maintained that revolution would spread worldwide after the international proletariat's aid to the Russian workers, who in turn would "export" the revolution abroad. By contrast Stalin rejected Trotsky’s theory and presented his own thesis on socialism in one country (Russia) in 1926. Trotsky asserted that the unification of developed and backward countries in the worldwide operations of capitalism created a combination of separate and uneven stages of development in backward countries like Russia, permitting the Russian proletariat the capability of carrying out a revolution but at the same time requiring the permanent extension of revolution in time and space until the extinction of class distinctions.