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Concept
Leon Trotsky
Summary
'Lev Davidovich Bronstein' ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky (ˈtrɒtski), was a Russian-born revolutionary, Soviet politician, and naturalized Mexican political theorist. Along with Vladimir Lenin, he was a central figure in the October Revolution and the establishment of the Soviet Union. Ideologically a Marxist, Trotsky's writings and thought inspired a school of the ideology known as Trotskyism.
Born to a wealthy Russian Jewish family in Yanovka (now Bereslavka, Ukraine), Trotsky embraced Marxism after moving to Nikolayev in 1896. In 1898, he was arrested for revolutionary activities and exiled to Siberia, but in 1902 escaped to London, where he worked with Lenin and wrote for the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party's paper Iskra. Trotsky initially sided with Julius Martov's Mensheviks against Lenin's Bolsheviks during the party's 1903 split, but was non-factional from 1904. During the 1905 Revolution, Trotsky returned to Russia and became chairman of the Saint Petersburg Soviet. He was again exiled to Siberia, but escaped in 1907 and spent time in Vienna, Switzerland, Paris, and New York. After the February Revolution of 1917 which overthrew the tsar, Trotsky returned to Russia and joined the Bolsheviks. As chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, he played an important role in the October Revolution which overthrew the Provisional Government.
In Lenin's first government, Trotsky was appointed the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and led the negotiations for the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, by which Russia withdrew from World War I (under unfavourable conditions due to Trotsky's position). From 1918 to 1925, he served as the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, founding the Red Army; establishing conscription, training, and discipline; and leading it to victory in the Russian Civil War. In 1922, Trotsky and Lenin formed an alliance against the emerging Soviet bureaucracy; Lenin proposed that Trotsky become his deputy at the Council of People's Commissars, but he declined the post.
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