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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), pronounced (traht'-skee) was a leader with [[Lenin]] in the Bolshevik (Communist) [[October 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.     

'''Leon Trotsky''' ([[Russian language|Russian]]:  Лeв Давидович Трóцкий) , born '''Lev Davidovich Bronstein''' (Russian: Лeв Давидович Бронштéйн) (1879-1940), pronounced (traht'-skee) was a leader with [[Lenin]] in the Bolshevik (Communist) [[October 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 made many blunders and exaggerations, including losing his nerve when Germany invaded Russia in 1918; taking the credit due the generals for the Red victory in the civil war; claiming to be the father of the New Economic Policy of the 1920s; claiming to be on good terms with Lenin in the 1920s; displaying profound naivety in dealing with Stalin in 1924; and his [[wishful thinking]] that Stalinism was on the verge of collapse in the 1930s.

Trotsky made many blunders and exaggerations, including losing his nerve when Germany invaded Russia in 1918; taking the credit due the generals for the Red victory in the civil war; claiming to be the father of the New Economic Policy of the 1920s; claiming to be on good terms with Lenin in the 1920s; displaying profound naivety in dealing with Stalin in 1924; and his [[wishful thinking]] that Stalinism was on the verge of collapse in the 1930s.