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[[Image:Trockiy2.jpg|right|thumb|Leon Trotsky]]

[[Image:Trockiy2.jpg|right|thumb|Leon Trotsky]]

'''Leon Trotsky''' ([[Russian language|Russian]]:  Лeв Давидович Трóцкий) , born '''Leon Davidovich Bronstein''' (Russian: Лeв Давидович Бронштéйн) (1879-1940) was a participant with [[Vladimir Ilyich Lenin|V. I. Lenin]] in the [[communist revolution]] in [[Russia]] in 1917. However, he had previously been a member of the [[Mensheviks]], a communist party that had once been aligned with the [[Bolsheviks]]. They did not believe in actively pursuing revolution, that it would happen when the people were ready, unlike the Bolsheviks who believed that the people needed to be led. From 1904 until 1917 Trotsky had a stormy relationship with Lenin, with him accusing Lenin of wanting to become a dictator. But the two of them resolved their differences in 1917, and after that point arguably Trotsky was totally loyal to Lenin.

'''Leon Trotsky''' ([[Russian language|Russian]]:  Лeв Давидович Трóцкий) , born '''Leon Davidovich Bronstein''' (Russian: Лeв Давидович Бронштéйн) (1879-1940), pronouced (traht'-skee)

was a leader with [[Lenin]] in the [[communist revolution]] in [[Russia]] in 1917. A charismatic orator, systematic organizer and brilliant theorist, Trotsky was primarily an intellectual whose writings greatly influenced leftist movements worldwide.  An energetic organizer he planned the successful Petrograd uprising in November 1917, created the Red Army, and played the central role in winning the civil war (1918-20).  Trotsky's independence and aloofness made him a poor backstage negotiator and he was easily outmaneuvered by Stalin, who controlled the party apparatus, After Lenin's disability in 1923, Trotsky lost power to [[Stalin]]. Forced into exile, he denounced the Soviet regime as  an impure form of Communism; Stalin had him assassinated in Mexico in 1940.   

 

Trotsky, was the son of a prosperous Jewish farmer in the Ukraine. Welleducated and rebellious, he became a professional revolutionary as a teenager.  He was arrested in 1898 and was later exiled to Siberia, where he joined the Social Democratic party.  In 1902 he escaped abroad, met Lenin.

 

In 1903, while Lenin headed the Bolsheviks, Trotsky joined the rival Mensheviks. Mensheviks did not believe trying to ignite a revolution, expecting that it would happen when the people were ready. By contrast the Bolsheviks who believed that the people needed to be led. From 1904 until 1917 Trotsky had a stormy relationship with Lenin, accusing Lenin of wanting to become a dictator. But the two of them resolved their differences in 1917, and after that point Trotsky was totally loyal to Lenin.

Trotsky was the most powerful orator in the Bolshevik party, and due to his numerous spells in jail and his active role in the failed 1905 revolution he was much more famous than Lenin was to ordinary Russians. He was the actual organizer behind the [[October Revolution]], as Lenin was still in exile and so unable to participate.

Trotsky was the most powerful orator in the Bolshevik party, and due to his numerous spells in jail and his active role in the failed 1905 revolution he was much more famous than Lenin was to ordinary Russians. He was the actual organizer behind the [[October Revolution]], as Lenin was still in exile and so unable to participate.