Leon Trotsky

File:Leo Trotsky 1888 Portrait (cropped).jpg

{{Leon Trotsky series}}

Lev Davidovich Bronstein was born on 7 November 1879 in Yanovka, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (now Bereslavka, Ukraine), into a wealthy but illiterate Jewish farming family. He was the fifth child of David Leontyevich Bronstein (1847–1922), a Russified Jewish colonist, and Anna Lvovna (née Zhivotovskaya, 1850–1910). Trotsky's younger sister, Olga (1883–1941), also became a Bolshevik and Soviet politician, and married fellow Bolshevik Lev Kamenev.{{sfn|Parrish|1996|p=69}}

Some authors, notably Robert Service, claim Trotsky's childhood first name was the Yiddish Leiba.{{sfn|Service|2010|p=11}} However, Trotskyist writer David North argues this is an assumption based on Trotsky's Jewish heritage, lacking documentary evidence, especially as Yiddish was not spoken by his family.{{sfn|North|2010|pp=144–146}} Both North and historian Walter Laqueur state Trotsky's childhood name was Lyova, a standard Russian diminutive of Lev.{{sfn|Laqueur|1990|pp=59–60}} North likens the speculation to an undue emphasis on Trotsky's Jewish surname.{{sfn|North|2010|pp=144–146}}{{sfn|Laqueur|1990|pp=59–60}} The family spoke a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian (Surzhyk), not Yiddish.{{Cite book |last=Троцкий |first=Лев |title=Моя жизнь |year=1930 |location=Berlin |pages=22,109 |language=Russian}}{{sfn|North|2010|p=145}} Although Trotsky acquired good proficiency in French, English, and German, he stated in his autobiography My Life that he was truly fluent only in Russian and Ukrainian.{{cite web |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=My Life – Chapter VIII, My First Prisons |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/mylife/ch08.htm |publisher=Marxists Internet Archive |access-date=20 May 2021}} Raymond Molinier noted Trotsky spoke French fluently.{{cite web|url=https://www.revolutionary-history.co.uk/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070604005522/http://.revolutionary-history.co.uk/supplem/bronstein.htm|url-status=usurped|title=On Meeting with Trotsky|first1=Raymond|last1=Molinier|translator-first1=Ted| translator-last1=Crawford|archive-date=4 June 2007|access-date=29 January 2022}}

When Trotsky was eight,{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leon-Trotsky|title=Leon Trotsky – Biography, Books, Assassination, & Facts|access-date=24 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170915061510/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leon-Trotsky|archive-date=15 September 2017|url-status=live}} his father sent him to Odessa for education. He enrolled in a Lutheran German-language school (St. Paul's Realschule), which admitted students of various faithsMein Leben. Ein Essay über Trockijs Autobiographie und den jungen Trockij (1879–1904), Wolfgang und Petra Libitz, 2022, p. 48. and became increasingly Russified during his time there due to the Imperial government's Russification policy.{{cite book|author=Albert S. Lindemann|title=Esau's Tears: Modern Anti-Semitism and the Rise of the Jews|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NagdhSUgB9oC&pg=PA446|access-date=26 September 2013|year= 2000| publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79538-8|page=446}} Trotsky and his wife Natalia later registered their children as Lutheran, as Austrian law then required children to receive religious education "in the faith of their parents".{{cite web |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=My Life – Chapter XVII, Preparing for a New Revolution|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/mylife/ch17.htm |publisher=Marxists Internet Archive |access-date=7 April 2022}} Odessa, a bustling cosmopolitan port city, differed greatly from typical Russian cities and contributed to the development of young Trotsky's international outlook. He excelled academically, particularly in science and mathematics, and was a voracious reader, often disciplined for reading non-curriculum books during class.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|loc=Chapter 1}}

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Trotsky became involved in revolutionary activities in 1896 after moving to the port town of Nikolayev (now Mykolaiv) on the Black Sea.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=36}} Initially a narodnik (revolutionary agrarian socialist populist), he opposed Marxism but was converted by his future first wife, Aleksandra Sokolovskaya. He graduated from high school with first-class honours the same year.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=39}} His father had intended for him to become a mechanical engineer.{{cite book |editor1-last=Brotherstone |editor1-first=Terence |editor2-last=Dukes |editor2-first=Paul |title=The Trotsky reappraisal |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |page=8}}

Trotsky briefly attended Odessa University, studying engineering and mathematics. A university colleague noted his exceptional mathematical talent. However, bored with his studies, he increasingly focused on political philosophy and underground revolutionary activities.{{Sfn|Renton|2004|p=19}} He dropped out in early 1897 to help organize the South Russian Workers' Union in Nikolayev.{{Sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=39}}{{cite book |last1=Eastman |first1=Max |title=Leon Trotsky: the Portrait of a Youth |date=1970 |publisher=AMS Press |isbn=978-0-404-02235-8 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=koErAQAAMAAJ&q=Leon+Trotsky:+The+Portrait+of+a+Youth |language=en}} Using the name "Lvov",chapter XVII of his autobiography, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch07.htm My Life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051119141154/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch07.htm |date=19 November 2005}}, Marxist Internet Archive he wrote and printed leaflets, distributed revolutionary pamphlets, and popularized socialist ideas among industrial workers and students.{{sfn|Renton|2004|pp=22–24}}

In January 1898, over 200 union members, including Trotsky, were arrested. He spent the next two years in prison awaiting trial, first in Nikolayev, then Kherson, Odessa, and finally Moscow.Commission of Inquiry into the Charges Made Against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow Trials, The Case of Leon Trotsky (1937, reprinted 1968). In Moscow, he encountered other revolutionaries, learned of Lenin, and read Lenin's The Development of Capitalism in Russia.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=40}} Two months into his imprisonment, the first Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) was held (1–3 March 1898).{{sfn|Schapiro|1970|p=645}} From then on, Trotsky identified as an RSDLP member.

{{Main|First exile of Trotsky}}

File:Leo Trotzki 1897.jpg

While imprisoned in Moscow in the summer of 1899, Trotsky married Aleksandra Sokolovskaya (1872–1938), a fellow Marxist, in a ceremony performed by a Jewish chaplain.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=42}} In 1900, he was sentenced to four years of exile in Siberia. Due to their marriage, Trotsky and his wife were exiled together to Ust-Kut and Verkholensk in the Baikal region. They had two daughters, Zinaida (1901–1933) and Nina (1902–1928), both born in Siberia.

In Siberia, Trotsky studied history, philosophy, economics, sociology, and the works of Karl Marx to solidify his political stance.{{sfn|Warth|1978|p=22}} He became aware of internal party differences, particularly the debate between "economists", who focused on workers' economic improvements, and those who prioritized overthrowing the monarchy through a disciplined revolutionary party.{{sfn|Schapiro|1970|pp=31–32}} The latter position was advocated by the London-based newspaper Iskra (The Spark), founded in 1900. Trotsky quickly sided with Iskra and began writing for it.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=67}}

In the summer of 1902, urged by his wife, Trotsky escaped from Siberia hidden in a load of hay.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=55}} Aleksandra later escaped with their daughters.{{sfn|Warth|1978|p=22}} Both daughters married and had children but died before their parents. Nina Nevelson died from tuberculosis in 1928. Zinaida Volkova, also suffering from tuberculosis and depression, followed her father into exile in Berlin but committed suicide in 1933. Aleksandra disappeared in 1935 during Stalin's Great Purge and was murdered by Soviet forces in 1938.

Until this point, Trotsky had used his birth name, Lev (Leon) Bronstein.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=7}} He adopted the surname "Trotsky"—reportedly the name of a jailer in the Odessa prison where he had been held—which he used for the rest of his life.cf, for instance, [http://www.bartleby.com/65/tr/Trotsky.html "Leon Trotsky"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090314102048/http://www.bartleby.com/65/tr/Trotsky.html |date=14 March 2009}}, The Columbia Encyclopedia This became his primary revolutionary pseudonym. After escaping Siberia, Trotsky moved to London, joining Georgi Plekhanov, Vladimir Lenin, Julius Martov, and other editors of Iskra. Writing under the pen name Pero ("quill" or "pen"), Trotsky soon became one of the paper's leading writers.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|pp=6–7}}

File:Лев Троцкий после побега из первой ссылки (ок. 1902).jpg

The six editors of Iskra were split between an "old guard" led by Plekhanov and a "new guard" led by Lenin and Martov. Lenin, seeking a majority against Plekhanov, expected the 23-year-old Trotsky to side with the new guard. In March 1903, Lenin proposed Trotsky's co-option to the editorial board:

{{Blockquote|I suggest to all the members of the editorial board that they co-opt 'Pero' as a member of the board on the same basis as other members. [...] We very much need a seventh member, both as a convenience in voting (six being an even number) and as an addition to our forces. 'Pero' has been contributing to every issue for several months now; he works, in general, most energetically for the Iskra; he gives lectures (in which he has been very successful). In the section of articles and notes on the events of the day, he will not only be very useful, but absolutely necessary. Unquestionably a man of rare abilities, he has conviction and energy, and he will go much farther.Quoted in chapter XII of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch12.htm 'My Life'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051121230553/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch12.htm |date=21 November 2005}}, Marxist Internet Archive}}

Due to Plekhanov's opposition, Trotsky did not become a full board member but participated in an advisory capacity, earning Plekhanov's animosity.

In late 1902, Trotsky met Natalia Sedova (1882–1962), who soon became his companion. They married in 1903 and remained together until his death. They had two sons, Lev Sedov (1906–1938) and Sergei Sedov (1908–1937), both of whom predeceased their parents. Trotsky later explained that, for "citizenship" requirements after the 1917 revolution, he "took on the name of my wife" so his sons would not have to change their name. However, he never publicly or privately used the name "Sedov".Trotsky's [http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6735/673549.html 'Thermidor and anti-Semitism' (1937)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051129055537/http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6735/673549.html |date=29 November 2005}} Natalia Sedova sometimes signed her name "Sedova-Trotskaya".

In August 1903, Iskra convened the RSDLP's Second Congress in London. Trotsky attended with other Iskra editors. After defeating the "economist" delegates, the congress addressed the Bund's desire for autonomy within the party.Trotsky, Leon. My life: an attempt at an autobiography. Courier Corporation, 2007.

Subsequently, the pro-Iskra delegates unexpectedly split. The initial dispute was organisational: Lenin and his supporters (the Bolsheviks) advocated for a smaller, highly organized party of committed members, while Martov and his supporters (the Mensheviks) favoured a larger, less disciplined party that included sympathizers. Trotsky and most Iskra editors supported Martov, while Plekhanov backed Lenin. During 1903–1904, allegiances shifted; Trotsky left the Mensheviks in September 1904, disagreeing with their insistence on an alliance with Russian liberals and their opposition to reconciliation with Lenin and the Bolsheviks.{{Cite journal|last=Cavendish|first=Richard|year=2003|title=The Bolshevik–Menshevik Split|url=http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/bolshevik-menshevik-split|journal=History Today|volume=53|number=11|access-date=22 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022175007/http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/bolshevik-menshevik-split|archive-date=22 October 2014|url-status=live}}

From 1904 to 1917, Trotsky described himself as a "non-factional social democrat". He attempted to reconcile party factions, leading to clashes with Lenin and others. Trotsky later admitted he was wrong to oppose Lenin on party organization. During this period, he developed his theory of permanent revolution and worked closely with Alexander Parvus (1904–1907).{{Cite journal|url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8497.1975.tb01151.x|title=Parvus, Luxemburg and Kautsky on the 1905 Russian Revolution: The Relationship with Trotsky|last=Weber|first=Nicholas|date=1975|journal=Australian Journal of Politics and History|volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=39–53 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8497.1975.tb01151.x |issn=0004-9522|url-access=subscription}} During their split, Lenin referred to Trotsky as "Judas" (Iudushka, after a character in Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin's novel The Golovlyov Family),[http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1911/jan/02.htm Lenin: "Judas Trotsky's Blush of Shame"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703011452/http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1911/jan/02.htm |date=3 July 2013}}, Marxists Internet Archive; retrieved 26 July 2013.Goryachkina, [http://feb-web.ru/feb/irl/il0/il9/il9-159-.htm?cmd=2 М.S. М.Е.Saltykov-Shchedrin]. The Selected Works. Critical and biographical essay. Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Publishers. Moscow. 1954. Pp. 5–24. a "scoundrel",[http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/periodicals/communist_review/1950/01/x01.htm CPGB: Stalin: "Slander and Truth"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130625022442/http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/periodicals/communist_review/1950/01/x01.htm |date=25 June 2013}}, Marxists Internet Archive; retrieved 26 July 2013. and a "swine".[http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/feb/17ak.htm Lenin: 123. To Alexandra Kollontai] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130110225222/http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/feb/17ak.htm |date=10 January 2013}}, Marxists Internet Archive, (9 June 2006); retrieved 26 July 2013.

Anti-government unrest culminated in Saint Petersburg on 3 January 1905 (O.S.), when a strike began at the Putilov Works. This escalated into a general strike, with 140,000 strikers in Saint Petersburg by 7 January 1905.{{sfn|Trotsky|1971|p=73}}

On Sunday, 9 January 1905, Father Georgi Gapon led a procession to the Winter Palace, ostensibly to petition the Tsar. Accounts differ, but the Palace Guard fired on the demonstration, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries. This event, known as Bloody Sunday, intensified revolutionary fervour. Gapon's own biography suggests a degree of provocation by radicals within the crowd, a claim later echoed by some police records.Gapon, Georgy. The Story of My Life. Chapman & Hall; 1st THUS edition (1 January 1905)Smith, Edward Ellis. The Okhrana; The Russian Department of Police; A Bibliography. Hoover Institution, Stanford University, 1967.

File:Leon Trotsky Mugshot.png

Following Bloody Sunday, Trotsky secretly returned to Russia in February 1905 via Kiev.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=117}} He wrote for an underground press in Kiev before moving to Saint Petersburg. There, he worked with Bolsheviks like Leonid Krasin and the local Menshevik committee, pushing the latter in a more radical direction. A police raid in May forced him to flee to rural Finland, where he further developed his theory of permanent revolution.{{cite book | author = Leon Trotsky | title = Permanent Revolution | chapter = Results and Prospects | publisher = Pathfinder Press | location = New York | year = 1969 | orig-year = 1929 | pages = 27, 122}}

On 19 September 1905, typesetters at Ivan Sytin's Moscow printing house struck for shorter hours and higher pay. By 24 September, 50 other Moscow printing shops joined. On 2 October, Saint Petersburg typesetters struck in solidarity. On 7 October, railway workers of the Moscow–Kazan Railway also struck.{{sfn|Trotsky|1971|pp=85–88}} Amidst this turmoil, Trotsky returned to Saint Petersburg on 15 October. He addressed the Saint Petersburg Soviet (Council) of Workers' Deputies at the Technological Institute, with an estimated 200,000 people gathered outside—about half the city's workers.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=126}}

File:TrotskiEnLaFortalezaDePedroYPabloEn1906.png

After his return, Trotsky and Parvus took over the newspaper Russian Gazette, increasing its circulation to 500,000. Trotsky also co-founded "Nachalo" ("The Beginning") with Parvus, Julius Martov, and other Mensheviks, which became a successful newspaper during the 1905 revolutionary climate in Saint Petersburg.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|pp=138–139}}

Before Trotsky's return, Mensheviks had independently conceived of an elected, non-party revolutionary body representing the capital's workers: the first Soviet. By Trotsky's arrival, the Saint Petersburg Soviet was functioning, headed by Khrustalyev-Nosar (Georgy Nosar, alias Pyotr Khrustalyov), a lawyer chosen as a compromise figure.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=131}} Khrustalyev-Nosar became popular and was the Soviet's public face.{{sfn|Trotsky|1971|p=218}}{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=131}} Trotsky joined the Soviet as "Yanovsky" (after his birthplace) and was elected vice-chairman. He performed much of the practical work and, after Khrustalyev-Nosar's arrest on 26 November 1905, became its chairman. On 2 December, the Soviet issued a proclamation on Tsarist government debts:

{{Blockquote|The autocracy never enjoyed the confidence of the people and was never granted any authority by the people. We have therefore decided not to allow the repayment of such loans as have been made by the Tsarist government when openly engaged in a war with the entire people.Quoted in Chapter XIV of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch14.htm My Life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060414150502/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch14.htm |date=14 April 2006}}}}

The following day, 3 December 1905, government troops surrounded the Soviet, and its deputies were arrested.{{sfn|Trotsky|1971|pp=231–233}} Trotsky and other leaders were tried in 1906 for supporting an armed rebellion. On 4 October 1906, he was convicted and sentenced to internal exile in Siberia.

File:ParvusTrotskiDeich.jpg (left) and Leo Deutsch (right) in the Peter and Paul Fortress prison, Saint Petersburg, 1906]]

En route to exile in Obdorsk, Siberia, in January 1907, Trotsky escaped at BerezovChapter XXIII of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch17.htm 1905] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060305033203/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch17.htm |date=5 March 2006}} and made his way to London. He attended the 5th Congress of the RSDLP. In October, he moved to Vienna, Austria-Hungary. For the next seven years, he participated in the activities of the Austrian Social Democratic Party and occasionally the German Social Democratic Party. In Vienna, he became close to Adolph Joffe, his friend for the next 20 years, who introduced him to psychoanalysis.Chapter XVII of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch17.htm My Life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060305033203/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch17.htm |date=5 March 2006}}, Marxist Internet Archive; retrieved 31 January 2018.

File:Троцкий читает газету „Правда“ в Вене (ок. 1910).jpg

In October 1908, Trotsky joined the editorial staff of Pravda ("Truth"), a bi-weekly, Russian-language social democratic paper for Russian workers, co-editing it with Adolph Joffe and Matvey Skobelev. It was smuggled into Russia.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=191}} The paper appeared irregularly, with only five issues in its first year.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=191}} Avoiding factional politics, it proved popular with Russian industrial workers. After the 1905–1907 revolution's failure, both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks experienced multiple splits. Funding for Pravda was scarce. Trotsky sought financial backing from the RSDLP Central Committee throughout 1909.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=192}}

In 1910, a Bolshevik majority controlled the Central Committee. Lenin agreed to finance Pravda but required a Bolshevik co-editor.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=192}} When various factions tried to reunite at the January 1910 RSDLP Central Committee meeting in Paris (over Lenin's objections),{{cite web | title = Towards Unity | author = V. I. Lenin | url = https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1910/feb/13.htm | website = Internet Marxists Archive | year = 1974 | volume = 16 | pages = 147–155}} Trotsky's Pravda was made a party-financed 'central organ'. Lev Kamenev, Trotsky's brother-in-law, joined the editorial board from the Bolsheviks. However, unification attempts failed by August 1910. Kamenev resigned amid mutual recriminations. Trotsky continued publishing Pravda for another two years until it folded in April 1912.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|loc=Chapter 1}}

The Bolsheviks launched a new workers' newspaper in Saint Petersburg on 22 April 1912, also named Pravda. Trotsky, upset by what he saw as the usurpation of his newspaper's name, wrote a bitter letter to Nikolay Chkheidze, a Menshevik leader, in April 1913, denouncing Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Though he quickly moved past the disagreement, the letter was intercepted by the Okhrana (secret police) and archived. After Lenin's death in 1924, Trotsky's opponents within the Communist Party publicized the letter to portray him as Lenin's enemy.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|pp=6–7}}

The 1910s were a period of heightened tension within the RSDLP. A major disagreement between Trotsky and the Mensheviks on one side, and Lenin on the other, concerned "expropriations"—armed robberies of banks and businesses by Bolshevik groups to fund the Party.Chapter XVI of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch16.htm My Life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060420211850/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch16.htm |date=20 April 2006}} These actions, banned by the 5th Congress, were continued by Bolsheviks.

File:Trotsky in Vienna.jpg

In January 1912, most of the Bolshevik faction, led by Lenin, held a conference in Prague, broke away from the RSDLP, and formed the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks). In response, Trotsky organized a "unification" conference of social democratic factions in Vienna in August 1912 (the "August Bloc") to reunite Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, but this attempt was largely unsuccessful.

In Vienna, Trotsky published articles in radical Russian and Ukrainian newspapers like Kievskaya Mysl, using pseudonyms such as "Antid Oto", a name chosen randomly from an Italian dictionary. Trotsky joked he "wanted to inject the Marxist antidote into the legitimate newspapers".{{sfn|Service|2010|p=62}}{{cite web | title = My Life, Chapter IX | author = L. Trotsky | url = https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/mylife/ch09.htm | website = Marxists Internet Archive}} In September 1912, Kievskaya Mysl sent him to the Balkans as its war correspondent, where he covered the two Balkan Wars for the next year. There, Trotsky chronicled ethnic cleansing carried out by the Serbian army against Albanian civilians.{{cite book |last1=Perritt |first1=Henry H. Jr. |title=The Road to Independence for Kosovo: A Chronicle of the Ahtisaari Plan |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-11624-4 |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f2nOTuF_KC0C&q=Leon+Trotsky+Kosovo&pg=PA17 |access-date=1 January 2020}} He became a close friend of Christian Rakovsky, later a leading Soviet politician and Trotsky's ally. On 3 August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, with Austria-Hungary fighting the Russian Empire, Trotsky was forced to flee Vienna for neutral Switzerland to avoid arrest as a Russian émigré.

World War I caused a sudden realignment within the RSDLP and other European social democratic parties over issues of war, revolution, pacifism, and internationalism. The RSDLP split into "defeatists" and "defencists". Lenin, Trotsky, and Martov advocated various internationalist anti-war positions, viewing defeat for their own country's ruling class as a "lesser evil" and opposing all imperialists in the war. "Defencists" like Plekhanov supported the Russian government to some extent. Trotsky's former colleague Parvus, now a defencist, sided so strongly against Russia that he wished for a German victory. In Switzerland, Trotsky briefly worked with the Swiss Socialist Party, prompting it to adopt an internationalist resolution. He wrote The War and the International,{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1914-war/index.htm |title=Marxists.org, The War and the International |access-date=31 August 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051120092354/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1914-war/index.htm |archive-date=20 November 2005 |url-status=live}} opposing the war and the pro-war stance of European social democratic parties, especially the German party.

File:Trotskynina1915.jpg

As a war correspondent for Kievskaya Mysl, Trotsky moved to France on 19 November 1914. In January 1915 in Paris, he began editing Nashe Slovo ("Our Word"), an internationalist socialist newspaper, initially with Martov (who soon resigned as the paper moved left). He adopted the slogan "peace without indemnities or annexations, peace without conquerors or conquered." Lenin advocated Russia's defeat and demanded a complete break with the Second International.{{Cite book|title=The Life of Lenin|last=Fischer|first=Louis|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson History|year=2001|isbn=978-1-84212-230-3|location=UK}}

Trotsky attended the Zimmerwald Conference of anti-war socialists in September 1915, advocating a middle course between those like Martov, who would stay in the Second International, and those like Lenin, who would break from it and form a Third International. The conference adopted Trotsky's proposed middle line. Lenin, initially opposed, eventually voted for Trotsky's resolution to avoid a split among anti-war socialists.Gus Fagan. [http://www.marxists.org/archive/rakovsky/biog/biog2.htm Christian Rakovsky biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060619133845/http://www.marxists.org/archive/rakovsky/biog/biog2.htm |date=19 June 2006}}, marxists.org; accessed 31 January 2018.

In September 1916,{{sfn|Rubenstein|2011|p=75}} Trotsky was deported from France to Spain for his anti-war activities. Spanish authorities, not wanting him, deported him to the United States on 25 December 1916. He arrived in New York City on 13 January 1917, staying for over two months at 1522 Vyse Avenue in The Bronx. In New York, he wrote articles for the local Russian-language socialist newspaper Novy Mir and, in translation, for the Yiddish-language daily Der Forverts ("Forward"). He also gave speeches to Russian émigrés.

Trotsky was in New York City when the February Revolution of 1917 led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. He left New York aboard SS Kristianiafjord on 27 March 1917, but his ship was intercepted by the Royal Navy at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Trotsky was arrested and detained for a month at the Amherst Internment Camp in Nova Scotia. In the camp, he befriended workers and sailors among his fellow inmates, describing his month there as "one continual mass meeting".[http://ns1758.ca/quote/trotsky1917.html Leon Trotsky: My Life – In a Concentration Camp] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150508001344/http://ns1758.ca/quote/trotsky1917.html |date=8 May 2015}}, ns1758.ca; accessed 31 January 2018. His speeches and agitation angered German inmates, who complained to the camp commander, Colonel Morris, about Trotsky's "anti-patriotic" attitude. Morris subsequently forbade Trotsky from making public speeches, leading to 530 prisoners protesting and signing a petition against the decision. In Russia, after initial hesitation and under pressure from workers' and peasants' Soviets, Foreign Minister Pavel Milyukov demanded Trotsky's release as a Russian citizen. The British government freed him on 29 April 1917.

File:Leo Trotzki 1917.jpg

He reached Russia on 17 May 1917. Upon his return, Trotsky largely agreed with the Bolshevik position but did not immediately join them. Russian social democrats were split into at least six groups, and the Bolsheviks awaited the next party Congress to decide on mergers. Trotsky temporarily joined the Mezhraiontsy, a regional social democratic organization in Petrograd, becoming one of its leaders. At the First Congress of Soviets in June, he was elected a member of the first All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) from the Mezhraiontsy faction.{{cite web|title=Leon Trotsky {{!}} Biography, Books, Assassination, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leon-Trotsky|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=26 May 2020}}

After an unsuccessful pro-Bolshevik uprising in Petrograd in July (the July Days), Trotsky was arrested on 7 August 1917. He was released 40 days later following the failed counter-revolutionary uprising by Lavr Kornilov. After the Bolsheviks gained a majority in the Petrograd Soviet, Trotsky was elected its chairman on {{OldStyleDate|8 October|1917|25 September}}.{{harvnb|Wade|2004|p=xxi}} He sided with Lenin against Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev when the Bolshevik Central Committee discussed staging an armed uprising, and he led the efforts to overthrow the Russian Provisional Government headed by socialist Aleksandr Kerensky.

Joseph Stalin wrote the following summary of Trotsky's role in 1917 in Pravda on 6 November 1918:[https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/ni/vol02/no06/quote.htm In One And The Same Issue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715133106/https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/ni/vol02/no06/quote.htm |date=15 July 2018}} New International, Vol. 2 No. 6, October 1935, p. 208.

{{Blockquote|All practical work in connection with the organization of the uprising was done under the immediate direction of Comrade Trotsky, the President of the Petrograd Soviet. It can be stated with certainty that the Party is indebted primarily and principally to Comrade Trotsky for the rapid going over of the garrison to the side of the Soviet and the efficient manner in which the work of the Military Revolutionary Committee was organized.}}

Although this passage was quoted in Stalin's book The October Revolution (1934), it was expunged from Stalin's Works (1949).{{cite web | author = J. V. Stalin | title = The October Revolution and the National Question | url = https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1918/11/19.htm | website = Internet Marxists Archive | volume = 4}}

After the success of the October Revolution on 7–8 November 1917, Trotsky led efforts to repel a counter-attack by Cossacks under General Pyotr Krasnov and other troops loyal to the overthrown Provisional Government at Gatchina. Allied with Lenin, he defeated attempts by other Bolshevik Central Committee members (Zinoviev, Kamenev, Rykov, etc.) to share power with other moderate socialist parties. Trotsky advocated for a predominantly Bolshevik government and was reluctant to recall Mensheviks as partners after their voluntary withdrawal from the Congress of Soviets. However, he released several socialist ministers from prison. Neither Trotsky nor his colleagues in 1917 initially wished to suppress these parties entirely; the Bolsheviks reserved vacant seats in the Soviets and the Central Executive Committee for these parties in proportion to their vote share at the Congress.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet Armed: Trotsky, 1879–1921 (1954) |date=1954 |publisher=Oxford University Press. |pages=330–336 }} Concurrently, prominent Left Socialist Revolutionaries assumed positions in Lenin's government, leading commissariats such as agriculture (Andrei Kolegayev), property (Vladimir Karelin), justice (Isaac Steinberg), posts and telegraphs (Prosh Proshian), and local government (Vladimir Trutovsky).{{cite book |last1=Abramovitch |first1=Raphael R. |title=The Soviet Revolution, 1917-1939 |date=1985 |publisher=International Universities Press |page=130 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L_q1WAmv7XkC&q=Steinberg+became+the+People%27s+Commissar+of+Justice,+Proshyan+became+the+People%27s+Commissar+for+Posts+and+Telegraphs |language=en}} According to Deutscher, Menshevik and Social Revolutionary demands for a coalition government included disarming Bolshevik detachments and excluding Lenin and Trotsky, which was unacceptable even to moderate Bolshevik negotiators like Kamenev and Sokolnikov.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet Armed: Trotsky, 1879–1921 (1954) |date=1954 |publisher=Oxford University Press. |page=331 }} By the end of 1917, Trotsky was unquestionably the second most powerful man in the Bolshevik Party after Lenin, overshadowing Zinoviev, who had been Lenin's top lieutenant for the previous decade.

File:Protección del Palacio Tauride durante el Segundo Congreso Regional de los Soviets.jpg locked and guarded by Trotsky, Sverdlov, Zinoviev, and Lashevich during the dissolution of the Russian Constituent Assembly on 19 January 1918 (N.S.).]]

After the Bolsheviks seized power, Trotsky became People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. He published the secret treaties previously signed by the Triple Entente, which detailed plans for post-war reallocation of colonies and redrawing state borders, including the Sykes–Picot Agreement. This revelation on 23 November 1917 caused considerable embarrassment to Britain and France.

{{Main|Treaty of Brest-Litovsk}}

File:Leon Trotsky Lev Kamenev Brest-Litovsk negotiations.jpg at the Brest-Litovsk negotiations, c. 1917–1918]]

In preparation for peace talks with the Central Powers, Trotsky appointed his old friend Adolph Joffe to represent the Bolsheviks. When the Soviet delegation learned that Germany and Austria-Hungary planned to annex Polish territory, establish a rump Polish state, and turn the Baltic provinces into client states ruled by German princes, the talks were recessed for 12 days. The Soviets hoped that, given time, their allies would join the negotiations or that the Western European proletariat would revolt; thus, prolonging negotiations was their best strategy. As Trotsky wrote, "To delay negotiations, there must be someone to do the delaying".{{cite web|last1=Trotsky|first1=Leon|title=My Life|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/mylife/1930-lif.pdf|website=Marxists|publisher=Charles Schribner's Sons|page=286|date=1930}} Consequently, Trotsky replaced Joffe as head of the Soviet delegation at Brest-Litovsk from 22 December 1917 to 10 February 1918.{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/treaties-of-Brest-Litovsk|title=Treaties of Brest-Litovsk|website=Encyclopaedia Britannica|date=2 February 2024 }}

The Soviet government was divided. Left Communists, led by Nikolai Bukharin, believed no peace was possible between a Soviet republic and a capitalist empire, advocating a revolutionary war for a pan-European Soviet republic.{{cite web|title=Leon Trotsky|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/leon-trotsky|website=Jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=26 May 2020}}{{Cite book |last=Service |first=Robert |url=http://archive.org/details/historyofmodernr00robe |title=A history of modern Russia from Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin |year=2005 |location=Cambridge, MA|publisher=Harvard University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-674-01801-3 |pages=75–80}} They cited early Red Army successes against Polish forces, White forces, and Ukrainian forces as proof of its capability, especially with propaganda and asymmetrical warfare. They were willing to negotiate to expose German imperial ambitions but opposed signing any peace treaty, favouring a revolutionary war if faced with a German ultimatum. This view was shared by the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, then junior partners in the coalition government.[https://www.marxists.org/glossary/orgs/l/e.htm#left-srs Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (Left SRs)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180716012705/https://www.marxists.org/glossary/orgs/l/e.htm#left-srs#left-srs |date=16 July 2018}}; Glossary of organizations on Marxists.org

File:Map Treaty of Brest-Litovsk-en.jpg

Lenin, initially hopeful for a swift European revolution, concluded that the German Imperial government remained strong and that, without a robust Russian military, armed conflict would lead to the Soviet government's collapse. He agreed a pan-European revolution was the ultimate solution but prioritized Bolshevik survival. From January 1918, he advocated signing a separate peace treaty if faced with a German ultimatum. Trotsky's position was between these factions. He acknowledged the old Russian army's inability to fight:The "Brest-Litovsk" chapter in Trotsky's 1925 book [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1925/lenin/04.htm Lenin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051125145958/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1925/lenin/04.htm |date=25 November 2005}}, marxists.org; Retrieved 1 June 2018.

{{Blockquote|That we could no longer fight was perfectly clear to me and that the newly formed Red Guard and Red Army detachments were too small and poorly trained to resist the Germans.}}

However, he agreed with the Left Communists that a separate peace treaty would be a severe morale and material blow, negating recent successes, reviving suspicions of Bolshevik-German collusion, and fuelling internal resistance. He argued that a German ultimatum should be refused, which might trigger an uprising in Germany or inspire German soldiers to disobey orders if an offensive was a naked land grab. Trotsky wrote in 1925:[http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1925/lenin/04.htm Lenin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051125145958/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1925/lenin/04.htm |date=25 November 2005}}, marxists.org; Retrieved 31 January 2018.

{{Blockquote|We began peace negotiations in the hope of arousing the workmen's party of Germany and Austria-Hungary as well as of the Entente countries. For this reason we were obliged to delay the negotiations as long as possible to give the European workman time to understand the main fact of the Soviet revolution itself and particularly its peace policy. But there was the other question: Can the Germans still fight? Are they in a position to begin an attack on the revolution that will explain the cessation of the war? How can we find out the state of mind of the German soldiers, how to fathom it?}}

In a letter to Lenin before 18 January 1918, Trotsky outlined his "no war, no peace" policy: announce war termination and demobilization without signing a treaty, placing the fate of Poland, Lithuania, and Courland on the German working people. He believed Germany would find it difficult to attack due to internal conditions and opposition from various German political factions.{{cite journal |title=Letters From Trotzky and From Kerensky's War Minister |journal=Current History |date=1918 |volume=VIII |issue=Second part |page=113 |url=https://archive.org/details/currenthistoryfo08newyuoft/page/113/ |access-date=10 April 2023}}{{cite book |last1=Magnes |first1=Judah Leon |author1-link=Judah Leon Magnes |title=Russia and Germany at Brest-Litovsk: A Documentary History of the Peace Negotiations |date=1919 |publisher=Rand School of Social Science |pages=122–123 |edition=1st |url=https://archive.org/details/russiagermanyatb00magnrich/page/122/ |access-date=10 April 2023}}The authenticity of this letter was confirmed by Trotsky to John Wheeler-Bennett in 1937. {{cite book |last1=Wheeler-Bennett |first1=John W. |author1-link=John Wheeler-Bennett |title=Brest-Litovsk: the Forgotten Peace, March 1918 |date=1938 |publisher=Macmillan and Co., Limited |location=London |pages=185–186 |edition=1st |quote=The authenticity of this letter, which has been in doubt for twenty years, was personally confirmed to the writer by Leon Trotsky in conversation in Mexico City, in September 1937.}}; the letter was auctioned in 1990. {{cite news |last1=Pyle |first1=Richard |title=Revolutionary's Letter to Lenin Auctioned |url=https://apnews.com/article/346eacc1c0640c0659dc0d8edfb866e1 |access-date=10 April 2023 |work=Associated Press |date=23 March 1990}}

Lenin initially responded on 18 January: "Stalin has just arrived; we will look into the matter with him and let you have a joint answer right away," and "please adjourn proceedings and leave for Petrograd. Send a reply; I will wait. Lenin, Stalin."{{cite book |editor1-last=Meijer |editor1-first=Jan M. |title=The Trotsky Papers, 1917–1922 |date=1964 |publisher=Mouton & Co. |location=The Hague|pages=6–7}} Trotsky, sensing disagreement, returned to Petrograd. During their debate, Lenin concluded: "In any case, I stand for the immediate signing of peace; it is safer."{{cite book |last1=Trotzky |first1=Leon |title=Lenin |date=1925 |publisher=Blue Ribbon Books Inc. |location=New York |page=107-110 |url=https://archive.org/details/lenin00trot/ |access-date=10 April 2023}}

On 10 February 1918, Trotsky and the Russian delegation withdrew from peace talks, declaring an end to the war on Russia's side without signing a peace treaty.{{cite web |last1=Trotsky |first1=L. |title=Statement By Trotsky At The Brest-Litovsk Peace Conference On Russia's Withdrawal From The War |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/foreign-relations/1917-1918/1918/February/10a.htm |website=Marxists Internet Archive |access-date=10 April 2023}} Privately, Trotsky had expressed willingness to relent to peace terms if Germany resumed its offensive, albeit with moral dissent.{{sfn|Deutscher|2015a|pp=389}} Germany resumed military operations on 18 February. The Red Army detachments proved no match for the German army. On the evening of 18 February, Trotsky and his supporters abstained in a Central Committee vote, and Lenin's proposal to accept German terms was approved 7–4. The Soviet government sent a radiogram accepting the final Brest-Litovsk terms.{{cite book | first = Yuri | last = Felshtinsky | title = Lenin and His Comrades: The Bolsheviks Take Over Russia 1917–1924 | publisher = Enigma Books | location = New York | isbn =978-1-929631-95-7 | date = 26 October 2010}}

Germany did not respond for three days, continuing its offensive. The response on 21 February contained such harsh terms that even Lenin briefly considered fighting. However, the Central Committee again voted 7–4 on 23 February to accept. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on 3 March and ratified on 15 March 1918. Closely associated with the previous "no war, no peace" policy, Trotsky resigned as Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

File:Leon Trotsky Armored Train 1920.jpg during the civil war in 1920]]

On 13 March 1918, Trotsky's resignation as Foreign Affairs Commissar was accepted. He was appointed People's Commissar of Army and Navy Affairs, replacing Podvoisky, and chairman of the Supreme Military Council. The post of commander-in-chief was abolished, giving Trotsky full control of the Red Army, responsible only to the Communist Party leadership, whose Left Socialist Revolutionary allies had left the government over the treaty.

The entire Bolshevik Red Army leadership, including former Defence Commissar Nikolai Podvoisky and commander-in-chief Nikolai Krylenko, vigorously protested Trotsky's appointment and eventually resigned. They believed the Red Army should consist only of dedicated revolutionaries, rely on propaganda and force, and have elected officers. They viewed former imperial officers as potential traitors. Their views remained popular, and their supporters, including Podvoisky (who became one of Trotsky's deputies), were a constant source of opposition. Discontent with Trotsky's policies of strict discipline, conscription, and reliance on supervised non-Communist military experts led to the Military Opposition, active within the Party in late 1918–1919.{{cite book|title=My Life|last=Trotsky|first=Leon|chapter=XXXVI|year=1930|chapter-url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/mylife/ch36.htm|title-link=My Life (Leon Trotsky autobiography)}}

{{Main|Russian Civil War}}

File:WhiteArmyPropagandaPosterOfTrotsky.jpg{{cite book |last1=Hanebrink |first1=Paul |title=A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism |date=2018 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-674-04768-6 |page=43 }} 1919 White Army propaganda poster depicting Trotsky as a demonic figure with a pentagram, alongside stereotyped Chinese Bolshevik supporters portrayed as executioners. The caption reads, "Peace and Liberty in Sovdepiya" (a derogatory term for Soviet Russia).]]

The military situation tested Trotsky's organizational skills. In May–June 1918, the Czechoslovak Legions revolted, leading to the loss of most of Russia's territory, increasingly organized resistance from anti-Communist forces (the White Army), and widespread defections by military experts Trotsky relied on.{{Cite journal|last=Bradley|first=J.F.L|date=1963|title=The Czechoslovak Revolt against the Bolsheviks|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/149174|journal=Soviet Studies|volume=15|issue=2|pages=124–151|doi=10.1080/09668136308410353|jstor=149174|url-access=subscription}}

Trotsky and the government responded with a full mobilization, increasing the Red Army from under 300,000 in May 1918 to one million by October, and introducing political commissars to ensure loyalty of military experts (mostly former Imperial officers) and co-sign their orders. Trotsky viewed the Red Army's organization as built on October Revolution ideals. He later wrote:Chapter XXXIV of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch34.htm My Life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060420212103/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch34.htm |date=20 April 2006}}, marxists.org; accessed 31 January 2018.

{{Blockquote|An army cannot be built without reprisals. Masses of men cannot be led to death unless the army command has the death-penalty in its arsenal. So long as those malicious tailless apes that are so proud of their technical achievements—the animals that we call men—will build armies and wage wars, the command will always be obliged to place the soldiers between the possible death in the front and the inevitable one in the rear. And yet armies are not built on fear. The Tsar's army fell to pieces not because of any lack of reprisals. In his attempt to save it by restoring the death-penalty, Kerensky only finished it. Upon the ashes of the great war, the Bolsheviks created a new army. These facts demand no explanation for any one who has even the slightest knowledge of the language of history. The strongest cement in the new army was the ideas of the October revolution, and the train supplied the front with this cement.}}

A controversial measure was hostage-taking of relatives of ex-Tsarist officials in the Red Army to prevent defection or betrayal.{{sfn|Kort|2015|p=130}} Service noted this practice was used by both Red and White armies.{{sfn|Service|2010|p=263}} Trotsky later defended this, arguing no families of betraying ex-officials were executed and that such draconian measures, if adopted earlier, would have reduced overall casualties.{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Stalin's Terror of 1937-1938: Political Genocide in the USSR |date=2009 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-04-4 |page=376 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dDiFNXLNPDEC&dq=trotsky+hostage+taking&pg=PA376 |language=en}} Deutscher highlights Trotsky's preference for exchanging hostages over execution, recounting General Pyotr Krasnov's release on parole in 1918, only for Krasnov to take up arms again shortly thereafter.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |pages=339–340 |language=en}}

File:Russian civil war west.svg

The Red Terror was enacted following assassination attempts on Lenin and Trotsky, and the assassinations of Petrograd Cheka leader Moisei Uritsky and party editor V. Volodarsky.{{cite book |last1=Liebman |first1=Marcel |title=Leninism under Lenin |date=1975 |location=London |publisher= J. Cape |isbn=978-0-224-01072-6 |pages=313–314 |url=https://archive.org/details/leninismunderlen0000lieb_f2h6/page/313/mode/1up}} The French Reign of Terror is seen as an influence.Wilde, Robert. 2019 February 20. "[https://www.thoughtco.com/the-red-terror-1221808 The Red Terror]." ThoughtCo. Retrieved 24 March 2021.{{Cite web |title=Библиотека газеты "Революция". Клушин В.И. Малоизвестное о Троцком |url=http://www.revolucia.ru/otrozkom.htm |access-date=17 October 2022 |website=www.revolucia.ru}} The decision was also driven by early White Army massacres of "Red" prisoners in 1917, Allied intervention, and massacres of Reds during the Finnish Civil War (10,000–20,000 workers killed by Finnish Whites)." In Terrorism and Communism, Trotsky argued the terror in Russia began with the White Terror under White Guard forces, to which the Bolsheviks responded with the Red Terror.{{cite book |last1=Kline |first1=George L |title=In Defence of Terrorism in The Trotsky reappraisal. Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |page=158}}

Felix Dzerzhinsky, director of the Cheka (predecessor to the KGB), was tasked with rooting out counter-revolutionary threats.{{Cite magazine|last=Bird|first=Danny|date=5 September 2018|title=How the 'Red Terror' Exposed the True Turmoil of Soviet Russia 100 Years Ago|url=https://time.com/5386789/red-terror-soviet-history/ |access-date=24 March 2021|magazine=Time}} From early 1918, Bolsheviks began eliminating opposition, including anarchists.{{cite journal |last1=Berkman |first1=Alexander |author-link1=Alexander Berkman |last2=Goldman |first2=Emma |author-link2=Emma Goldman |date=January 1922 |title=Bolsheviks Shooting Anarchists |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-alexander-berkman-bolsheviks-shooting-anarchists |journal=Freedom |volume=36 |issue=391 |page=4 |doi= |access-date=9 May 2023}} On 11 August 1918, Lenin telegraphed orders "to introduce mass terror" in Nizhny Novgorod and to "crush" landowners resisting grain requisitioning.{{ill|Alter Litvin|ru|Литвин, Алтер Львович}} «Красный и Белый террор в России в 1917—1922 годах» {{ISBN|5-87849-164-8}}.

On 30 August, Fanny Kaplan, a Socialist Revolutionary, unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Lenin. In September, Trotsky rushed from the eastern front to Moscow; Stalin remained in Tsaritsyn.{{cite book |last1=Kotkin |first1=Stephen |title=Stalin, Vol. I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928 |date=23 October 2014 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |isbn=978-0-7181-9298-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sFx7AwAAQBAJ&dq=rykov+lenin+funeral+italy&pg=PT402 |language=en}} Kaplan cited growing Bolshevik authoritarianism. These events persuaded the government to heed Dzerzhinsky's calls for greater terror. The Red Terror officially began thereafter, between 17 and 30 August 1918. Trotsky wrote:

{{Blockquote|The bourgeoisie today is a falling class... We are forced to tear it off, to chop it away. The Red Terror is a weapon utilized against a class, doomed to destruction, which does not wish to perish. If the White Terror can only retard the historical rise of the proletariat, the Red Terror hastens the destruction of the bourgeoisie.{{cite book|author=Leon Trotsky|title=Terrorism and Communism: A Reply to Karl Kautsky|year=1975|orig-year=1920|page=83}}}}

Trotsky appealed politically to deserters, arousing them with revolutionary ideas.

{{Blockquote|In...Kaluga, Voronezh, and Ryazan, tens of thousands of young peasants had failed to answer the first recruiting summons by the Soviets ... The war commissariat of Ryazan succeeded in gathering in some fifteen thousand of such deserters. While passing through Ryazan, I decided to take a look at them... The men were called out of their barracks. "Comrade-deserters—come to the meeting. Comrade Trotsky has come to speak to you." They ran out excited, boisterous, as curious as schoolboys... I spoke to them for about an hour and a half... I tried to raise them in their own eyes; concluding, I asked them to lift their hands in token of their loyalty to the revolution... They were genuinely enthusiastic... Later on, regiments of Ryazan "deserters" fought well at the fronts.}}

The Red Army first used punitive barrier troops in summer/autumn 1918 on the Eastern Front. Trotsky authorized Mikhail Tukhachevsky, commander of the 1st Army, to station blocking detachments behind unreliable infantry regiments, with orders to shoot if front-line troops deserted or retreated without permission. These troops comprised personnel from Cheka punitive detachments or regular infantry regiments.{{sfn|Volkogonov|1996|p=180}} In December 1918, Trotsky ordered more barrier troops raised for each infantry formation.{{sfn|Volkogonov|1996|p=180}} Barrier troops were also used to enforce Bolshevik control over food supplies, earning civilian hatred.Lih, Lars T., Bread and Authority in Russia, 1914–1921, University of California Press (1990), p. 131.

File:Demyan Bedny and Leon Trotsky.jpg near Kazan, 1918]]

Given manpower shortages and 16 opposing foreign armies, Trotsky insisted on using former Tsarist officers as military specialists, combined with Bolshevik political commissars. Lenin commented:

{{Blockquote|When Comrade Trotsky informed me recently that the number of officers of the old army employed by our War Department runs into several tens of thousands, I perceived concretely where the secret of using our enemy lay, how to compel those who had opposed communism to build it, how to build communism with the bricks which the capitalists had chosen to hurl against us! We have no other bricks! And so, we must compel the bourgeois experts, under the leadership of the proletariat, to build up our edifice with these bricks. This is what is difficult; but this is the pledge of victory.{{cite web |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1919/mar/x01.htm |title=Achievements and Difficulties of the Soviet Government |last1=Lenin |first1=Vladimir Ilych |date=1919 |website=marxists.org |publisher=Progress Publishers |access-date=6 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304090910/https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1919/mar/x01.htm |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all}}}}

File:Trotsky, Lenin, Kamenev (1919).jpg (centre) and Kamenev (right), in discussion during the Russian Civil War]]

In September 1918, facing military difficulties, the Bolshevik government declared martial law and reorganized the Red Army. The Supreme Military Council was abolished, and the position of commander-in-chief restored, filled by Jukums Vācietis, commander of the Latvian Riflemen. Vācietis handled day-to-day operations. Trotsky became chairman of the new Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, retaining overall military control. Despite earlier clashes with Vācietis, Trotsky established a working relationship. This reorganization caused another conflict between Trotsky and Stalin in late September. Trotsky appointed former imperial general Pavel Sytin to command the Southern Front, but Stalin refused to accept him in early October, and Sytin was recalled. Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov tried to reconcile Trotsky and Stalin, but their meeting failed.

In 1919, 612 "hardcore" deserters out of 837,000 draft dodgers and deserters were executed under Trotsky's draconian measures.{{cite book |last1=Reese |first1=Roger R. |title=Russia's Army: A History from the Napoleonic Wars to the War in Ukraine |date=3 October 2023 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-9356-4 |page=109 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hWS2EAAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+desertion+612&pg=PA109 |language=en}} According to Orlando Figes, most "deserters...were handed back to the military authorities, and formed into units for transfer to one of the rear armies or directly to the front". Even "malicious" deserters were returned to the ranks when reinforcements were desperate. Figes noted the Red Army instituted amnesty weeks, prohibiting punitive measures against desertion, which encouraged the voluntary return of 98,000–132,000 deserters.{{cite journal |last1=Figes |first1=Orlando |title=The Red Army and Mass Mobilization during the Russian Civil War 1918-1920 |journal=Past & Present |date=1990 |issue=129 |pages=168–211 |doi=10.1093/past/129.1.168 |jstor=650938 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/650938 |issn=0031-2746|url-access=subscription }}

File:Trotsky con la guardia roja.jpg

Throughout late 1918 and early 1919, Trotsky's leadership faced attacks, including veiled accusations in Stalin-inspired newspaper articles and a direct attack by the Military Opposition at the VIIIth Party Congress in March 1919. He weathered them, being elected one of five full members of the first Politburo after the Congress. But he later wrote:

{{Blockquote|It is no wonder that my military work created so many enemies for me. I did not look to the side, I elbowed away those who interfered with military success, or in the haste of the work trod on the toes of the unheeding and was too busy even to apologize. Some people remember such things. The dissatisfied and those whose feelings had been hurt found their way to Stalin or Zinoviev, for these two also nourished hurts.}}

In mid-1919, the Red Army had grown from 800,000 to 3,000,000 and fought on sixteen fronts, providing an opportunity for challenges to Trotsky's leadership.{{cite web|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2010/03/trotsky-stalin-russian-lenin|title=Lost leaders: Leon Trotsky|work=The New Statesman|location=UK|access-date=22 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100423073037/http://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2010/03/trotsky-stalin-russian-lenin|archive-date=23 April 2010|url-status=live}} At the 3–4 July Central Committee meeting, after a heated exchange, the majority supported Kamenev and Smilga against Vācietis and Trotsky. Trotsky's plan was rejected, and he was criticized for alleged leadership shortcomings, many personal. Stalin used this to pressure LeninChapter XXXVII of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch37.htm My Life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060420212156/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch37.htm |date=20 April 2006}} to dismiss Trotsky.

Significant changes were made to Red Army leadership. Trotsky was temporarily sent to the Southern Front, while Smilga informally coordinated work in Moscow. Most non-day-to-day Revolutionary Military Council members were relieved of duties on 8 July, and new members, including Smilga, were added. The same day, Vācietis was arrested by the Cheka on suspicion of an anti-Soviet plot and replaced by Sergey Kamenev. After weeks in the south, Trotsky returned to Moscow and resumed control. A year later, Smilga and Tukhachevsky were defeated at the Battle of Warsaw, but Trotsky's refusal to retaliate against Smilga earned his friendship and later support during 1920s intra-Party battles.Isai Abramovich's [http://lib.ru/MEMUARY/ABRAMOWICH/abramowich1.txt memoirs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060226084149/http://lib.ru/MEMUARY/ABRAMOWICH/abramowich1.txt |date=26 February 2006}} re: the Smilga episode. Abramovich (1900–1985), a friend of Smilga's, was one of the few Trotskyists who survived the Great Purges and returned from Stalin's camps in the late 1950s.

By October 1919, the government faced its worst crisis: Denikin's troops approached Tula and Moscow from the south, and General Nikolay Yudenich's troops approached Petrograd from the west. Lenin decided Petrograd had to be abandoned to defend Moscow. Trotsky argued[http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch35.htm My Life (Chapter XXXV)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060420212115/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch35.htm |date=20 April 2006}}, marxists.org; accessed 31 January 2018. Petrograd needed to be defended, partly to prevent Estonia and Finland from intervening. In a rare reversal, Trotsky, supported by Stalin and Zinoviev, prevailed against Lenin in the Central Committee.

With Denikin and Yudenich defeated in late 1919, government emphasis shifted to the economy. Trotsky spent winter 1919–1920 in the Urals region restarting its economy. A false rumour of his assassination circulated internationally on New Year's Day 1920.{{cite news |title=Assassinate Trotzky, Report; Ex-Leader Of Russia Soviet Slayer's Victim, Berlin Officials Hear |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH19200101.2.179&e=--2019---2019--en--20-LAH-1--txt-txIN-Assassinate+Trotzky-------1 |access-date=24 May 2020 |newspaper=Los Angeles Herald |date=1 January 1920 |page=1}} Based on his experiences, he proposed abandoning War Communism policies,[http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch38.htm My Life (Chapter XXXVIII)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051210202136/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch38.htm |date=10 December 2005}}, marxists.org; accessed 31 January 2018. including grain confiscation, and partially restoring the grain market. Lenin, still committed to War Communism, rejected his proposal.

File:Trotsky on a Polish poster of 1920.jpg Polish poster titled "Bolshevik freedom," depicting him atop a pile of skulls, holding a bloody knife, during the Polish–Soviet War.]]

In early 1920, Soviet–Polish tensions led to the Polish–Soviet War. Trotsky argued the Red Army was exhausted and the government should sign a peace treaty with Poland quickly, not believing the Red Army would find much support in Poland. Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders believed Red Army successes meant "The defensive period of the war with worldwide imperialism was over, and we could, and had the obligation to, exploit the military situation to launch an offensive war."{{sfn|Pipes|1996|loc=Political Report of the Central Committee of the RKP(b) to the Ninth All-Russian Conference of the Communist Party delivered by Lenin on 20 September 1920, Document 59}} Poland defeated the Red Army, turning back the offensive at the Battle of Warsaw in August 1920. Back in Moscow, Trotsky again argued for peace, and this time prevailed.

{{main|Trade union debate}}

During the 1920–1921 trade union debate, Trotsky argued that trade unions should be integrated directly into the state apparatus, advocating for a "militarization of labour" to rebuild the Soviet economy. He believed that in a workers' state, the state should control unions, with workers treated as "soldiers of labour" under strict discipline.Tony Cliff; [https://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1990/trotsky2/11-warcomm.html Trotsky: The Sword of the Revolution 1917–1923] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715195155/https://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1990/trotsky2/11-warcomm.html |date=15 July 2018}}; Chapter 11: War Communism at an impasse; paragraph "The militarisation of all labour"; Bookmarks, London 1990.

This position was sharply criticized by Vladimir Lenin, who argued unions should retain some independence and act as "schools of communism" rather than state instruments. Lenin's view prevailed at the 10th Congress in 1921. Several of Trotsky's supporters, including Nikolay Krestinsky, lost leadership positions.

{{main|Kronstadt rebellion}}

File:Kronstadt attack.JPG troops attack Kronstadt sailors in March 1921.]]

In March 1921, during the Kronstadt Rebellion, sailors and soldiers at the Kronstadt naval base revolted against the Bolshevik government, demanding greater freedom for workers and peasants, an end to one-party rule, and restoration of civil rights.Kronstadt Rebellion, Kronstädter Aufstand In: Dictionary of Marxism, http://www.inkrit.de/e_inkritpedia/e_maincode/doku.php?id=k:kronstaedter_aufstand The rebellion, occurring simultaneously with the 10th Party Congress, further destabilized the fragile political situation.

Trotsky, as Commissar of War, was instrumental in ordering the rebellion's suppression. On 18 March 1921, after failed negotiations, the Red Army stormed the island, resulting in thousands of Kronstadt sailors' deaths.[http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/07/kronstadt2.htm "More on the Suppression of Kronstadt"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071121073115/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/07/kronstadt2.htm |date=21 November 2007}} by Leon Trotsky Trotsky justified the action by presenting evidence of foreign backing, a claim contested by several historians.{{Cite book|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Trotsky_Protests_Too_Much|title=Trotsky Protests Too Much|first=Emma|last=Goldman|publisher=The Anarchist Communist Federation|year=1939}} His role has been criticized, with anarchists like Emma Goldman accusing him of betraying the revolution's democratic ideals.{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/goldman/pdfs/PublishedEssaysandPamphlets_TROTSKYPROTESTSTOOMUCH.pdf|first=Emma|last=Goldman|title=Trotsky Protests too Much|date=1938|publisher=The Anarchist Communist Federation|location=Glasgow|access-date=14 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180118090914/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/goldman/pdfs/PublishedEssaysandPamphlets_TROTSKYPROTESTSTOOMUCH.pdf|archive-date=18 January 2018|url-status=live}}

File:Leon Trotsky as the October Revolution Guard.jpg, as the Guard of the October Revolution, 14 May 1923]]

Historian Vladimir Cherniaev sums up Trotsky's main contributions:

{{Blockquote|Trotsky bears a great deal of responsibility both for the victory of the Red Army in the civil war, and for the establishment of a one-party authoritarian state with its apparatus for ruthlessly suppressing dissent... He was an ideologist and practitioner of the Red Terror. He despised "bourgeois democracy"; he believed that spinelessness and soft-heartedness would destroy the revolution, and that the suppression of the propertied classes and political opponents would clear the historical arena for socialism. He was the initiator of concentration camps, compulsory "labour camps", and the militarization of labour, and the state takeover of trade unions. Trotsky was implicated in many practices which would become standard in the Stalin era, including summary executions.V. I͡U. Cherni͡aev, "Trotsky" in {{cite book|editor1-first=Edward |editor1-last=Acton |editor2-first=Vladimir I͡u. |editor2-last=Cherni͡aev |editor3-first=William G. |editor3-last=Rosenberg|title=Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914–1921|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NAZm2EdxKqkC&pg=PA191|year=1997|publisher=Indiana University Press|page=191|isbn=978-0-253-33333-9}}}}

Historian Geoffrey Swain argues:

{{Blockquote|The Bolsheviks triumphed in the Civil War because of Trotsky's ability to work with military specialists, because of the style of work he introduced where widescale consultation was followed through by swift and determined action.{{sfn|Swain|2014a|p=210}}}}

Lenin said in 1921 that Trotsky was "in love with organisation," but in working politics, "he has not got a clue." Swain explains this by arguing Trotsky was not good at teamwork, being a loner who had mostly worked as a journalist, not a professional revolutionary like others.{{sfn|Swain|2014a|p=211}}

File:TrotskiEnMoscúConTropas1922 (cropped).jpeg

In late 1921, Lenin's health deteriorated. He suffered three strokes between 25 May 1922 and 9 March 1923, causing paralysis, loss of speech, and eventual death on 21 January 1924. With Lenin increasingly sidelined, Stalin was elevated to the new position of Central Committee General Secretary in April 1922.{{efn|Yakov Sverdlov was the Central Committee's senior secretary for personnel affairs from 1917 until his death in March 1919. He was replaced by Elena Stasova, then Nikolai Krestinsky in November 1919. After Krestinsky's ouster in March 1921, Vyacheslav Molotov became senior secretary but lacked Krestinsky's authority as he was not a full Politburo member. Stalin took over as senior secretary, formalized at the XIth Party Congress in April 1922, with Molotov as second secretary.}} Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev{{efn|It is unclear why Kamenev, a mild-mannered man with few leadership ambitions and Trotsky's brother-in-law, sided with Zinoviev and Stalin against Trotsky in 1922. Trotsky later speculated it might have been due to Kamenev's love of comfort, which Trotsky found "repelled me." He expressed [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1939/xx/kremlin.htm his feelings to Kamenev] in late 1920 or early 1921: "Our relations with Kamenev, which were very good in the first period after the insurrection, began to become more distant from that day."}} formed a triumvirate (troika) with Stalin to prevent Trotsky, publicly number two and Lenin's heir presumptive, from succeeding Lenin.

The rest of the expanded Politburo (Rykov, Mikhail Tomsky, Bukharin) initially remained uncommitted but eventually joined the troika. Stalin's patronage power{{efn|The Central Committee's Secretariat became increasingly important during and after the Civil War, as the Party shifted from elected to appointed officials. This was driven by the need for rapid manpower allocation and the party's transformation from a small revolutionary group to the ruling party, with increased membership including career seekers and former members of banned socialist parties, viewed with apprehension by Old Bolsheviks. To prevent party degeneration, membership requirements for officials were instituted, and the Secretariat gained ultimate power over local appointments, concentrating enormous power in the General Secretary's hands.}} as General Secretary played a role, but Trotsky and his supporters later concluded a more fundamental reason was the slow bureaucratisation of the Soviet regime after the Civil War. Much of the Bolshevik elite desired 'normality,' while Trotsky personified a turbulent revolutionary period they wished to leave behind.

Evidence suggests the troika initially nominated Trotsky for minor government departments (e.g., Gokhran, the State Depository for Valuables).{{sfn|Pipes|1996|loc=Document 103 (22 May 1922)}} In mid-July 1922, Kamenev wrote to the recovering Lenin that "(the Central Committee) is throwing or is ready to throw a good cannon overboard". Lenin, shocked, responded:{{sfn|Pipes|1996|loc=Document 106}}

{{Blockquote|Throwing Trotsky overboard—surely you are hinting at that, it is impossible to interpret it otherwise—is the height of stupidity. If you do not consider me already hopelessly foolish, how can you think of that????}}

Until his final stroke, Lenin tried to prevent a split in the leadership, reflected in Lenin's Testament. On 11 September 1922, Lenin proposed Trotsky become his deputy at the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom). The Politburo approved, but Trotsky "categorically refused". This proposal is interpreted by some scholars as Lenin designating Trotsky his successor as head of government.{{sfn|Pipes|1996|loc=Document 109}}{{cite book |last1=Bullock |first1=Alan |title=Hitler and Stalin: parallel lives |date=1991 |location=London |publisher= HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-00-215494-9 |page=163 |url=https://archive.org/details/hitlerstalinpara0000bull/page/132/mode/2up}}{{sfn|Mandel|1995|p=149}}{{cite book |last1=Ceplair |first1=Larry |title=Revolutionary Pairs: Marx and Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, Gandhi and Nehru, Mao and Zhou, Castro and Guevara |date=21 July 2020 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-7945-2 |page=93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pc3cDwAAQBAJ |language=en}}{{sfn|Rubenstein|2011|p=127}}

File:Rakovsky and trotsky circa 1924 trimmed.jpg

In late 1922, Trotsky allied with Lenin against Stalin and the emerging Soviet bureaucracy.Chapter XXXIX of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch39.htm My Life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060420212213/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch39.htm |date=20 April 2006}}, Marxist Internet Archive Stalin had recently engineered the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), further centralising state control. The alliance was effective on foreign trade{{efn|Lenin's [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/dec/15.htm letter] to Stalin, dictated on 15 December 1922: "I am sure Trotsky will uphold my views as well as I." Faced with united opposition from Lenin and Trotsky, the Central Committee reversed its previous decision and adopted the Lenin-Trotsky proposal.}} but was hindered by Lenin's progressing illness.

In January 1923, Lenin amended his Testament to suggest Stalin's removal as General Secretary, while also mildly criticising Trotsky and other Bolsheviks. The Stalin-Lenin relationship had completely broken down, demonstrated when Stalin crudely insulted Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya. In March 1923, days before his third stroke, Lenin asked Trotsky to denounce Stalin and his "Great-Russian nationalistic campaign" at the XIIth Party Congress.

At the XIIth Party Congress in April 1923, after Lenin's final stroke, Trotsky did not raise the issue.Chapter 11 of Trotsky's unfinished book, entitled [http://maximumred.blogspot.com/2005/08/trotskys-stalin-chap-11-from-obscurity.html Stalin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629051005/http://maximumred.blogspot.com/2005/08/trotskys-stalin-chap-11-from-obscurity.html |date=29 June 2007}} Instead, he spoke about intra-party democracy, avoiding direct confrontation with the troika.{{efn|Trotsky explained in Chapter 12 of his unfinished book [http://maximumred.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_maximumred_archive.html Stalin] that he refused to deliver the report because "it seemed to me equivalent to announcing my candidacy for the role of Lenin's successor at a time when Lenin was fighting a grave illness."}} Stalin had prepared by replacing many local delegates with his loyalists, mostly at the expense of Zinoviev and Kamenev's backers.Chapter 12 of Trotsky's unfinished book, entitled [http://maximumred.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_maximumred_archive.html Stalin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070712104730/http://maximumred.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_maximumred_archive.html |date=12 July 2007}} Delegates, mostly unaware of Politburo divisions, gave Trotsky a standing ovation. This upset the troika, already infuriated by Karl Radek's article, "Leon Trotsky – Organiser of Victory,"{{efn|Radek wrote:{{Cite web| url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1937/dewey/session13_c.htm | title=The case of Leon Trotsky | access-date=24 October 2005 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051122201847/http://marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1937/dewey/session13_c.htm | archive-date=22 November 2005}}"The need of the hour was for a man who would incarnate the call to struggle, a man who, subordinating himself completely to the requirements of the struggle, would become the ringing summons to arms, the will which exacts from all unconditional submission to a great, sacrificial necessity. Only a man with Trotsky's capacity for work, only a man so unsparing of himself as Trotsky, only a man who knew how to speak to the soldiers as Trotsky did—only such a man could have become the standard bearer of the armed toilers. He was all things rolled into one."}} published in Pravda on 14 March 1923. Stalin delivered key reports on organisational structure and nationalities; Zinoviev delivered the Central Committee political report, traditionally Lenin's prerogative. Resolutions calling for greater party democracy were adopted but remained vague and unimplemented.

The power struggle also impacted prospects for world revolution. The German Communist Party leadership requested Trotsky be sent to Germany to direct the 1923 insurrection. The Politburo, controlled by Stalin, Zinoviev, and Kamenev, rejected this, sending a commission of lower-ranking Russian Communist party members instead.{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |page=272 |language=en}}

{{Main|Left Opposition}}

File:Trotsky-Annenkov 1922 sketch.jpg portrait by Yury Annenkov. A version appeared on an early cover of Time magazine.]]

From mid-1923, the Soviet economy faced significant difficulties, leading to widespread strikes. Two secret groups within the Communist Party, "Workers' Truth" and "Workers' Group", were suppressed by the secret police. On 8 October 1923, Trotsky wrote to the Central Committee and Central Control Commission, attributing these problems to a lack of intra-Party democracy:

{{Blockquote|In the fiercest moment of War Communism, the system of appointment within the party did not have one tenth of the extent that it has now. Appointment of the secretaries of provincial committees is now the rule. That creates for the secretary a position essentially independent of the local organization. [...] The bureaucratization of the party apparatus has developed to unheard-of proportions by means of the method of secretarial selection. [...] There has been created a very broad stratum of party workers, entering into the apparatus of the government of the party, who completely renounce their own party opinion, at least the open expression of it, as though assuming that the secretarial hierarchy is the apparatus which creates party opinion and party decisions. Beneath this stratum, abstaining from their own opinions, there lies the broad mass of the party, before whom every decision stands in the form of a summons or a command.Leon Trotsky, "The First Letter to the Central Committee" contained in the Challenge of the Left Opposition: 1923–1925 (Pathfinder Press: New York, 1975) pp. 55–56.}}

Other senior communists with similar concerns sent The Declaration of 46 to the Central Committee on 15 October, stating:

{{Blockquote|[...] we observe an ever progressing, barely disguised division of the party into a secretarial hierarchy and into "laymen", into professional party functionaries, chosen from above, and the other party masses, who take no part in social life. [...] free discussion within the party has virtually disappeared, party public opinion has been stifled. [...] it is the secretarial hierarchy, the party hierarchy which to an ever greater degree chooses the delegates to the conferences and congresses, which to an ever greater degree are becoming the executive conferences of this hierarchy.}}

Though secret at the time, these letters significantly impacted the Party leadership, prompting a partial retreat by the troika and its supporters, notably in Zinoviev's Pravda article of 7 November. Throughout November, the troika sought a compromise to placate Trotsky and his supporters (made easier by Trotsky's illness in November–December). Trotsky rejected the first draft resolution, leading to a special group (Stalin, Trotsky, Kamenev) to draft a mutually acceptable compromise. On 5 December, the Politburo and Central Control Commission unanimously adopted this final draft. On 8 December, Trotsky published an open letter expounding on the resolution's ideas. The troika used this letter to launch a campaign against Trotsky, accusing him of factionalism, setting "the youth against the fundamental generation of old revolutionary Bolsheviks,"Quoted in Max Shachtman. The Struggle for the New Course, New York, New International Publishing Co., 1943. [http://www.marxists.org/archive/shachtma/1943/fnc/nc04.htm The Campaign Against "Trotskyism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060209032511/http://www.marxists.org/archive/shachtma/1943/fnc/nc04.htm |date=9 February 2006}} and other "sins".

Trotsky defended his position in seven letters collected as The New Course in January 1924.Leon Trotsky, "The New Course" contained in The Challenge of the Left Opposition: 1923–1925, pp. 63–144. The illusion of a "monolithic Bolshevik leadership" shattered, and a lively intra-Party discussion ensued in local organizations and Pravda pages through December and January, until the XIIIth Party Conference (16–18 January 1924). Opponents of the Central Committee's position became known as the Left Opposition.[https://www.marxists.org/glossary/orgs/l/e.htm#left-opposition Left Opposition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180716012705/https://www.marxists.org/glossary/orgs/l/e.htm#left-opposition#left-opposition |date=16 July 2018}}; Glossary of organizations on Marxists.org In 1924, at Sverdlov University conferences, Stalin critically cited "the Permanentists" as Trotsky's followers of 'Permanent revolution'.

File:Soviet leaders write the letter of defiance to George Curzon.jpg Lord Curzon in 1923. Painting by an unknown artist, parodying Ilya Repin's Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks.]]

Since the troika controlled the Party apparatus via Stalin's Secretariat and Pravda via editor Bukharin, it directed the discussion and delegate selection. Though Trotsky's position prevailed within the Red Army, Moscow universities, and received about half the votes in the Moscow Party organization, it was defeated elsewhere. The Conference was packed with pro-troika delegates. Only three delegates voted for Trotsky's position, and the Conference denounced "Trotskyism"{{efn|The term "Trotskyism" was first coined by Russian liberal politician Pavel Milyukov, the first foreign minister in the Provisional Government, who in April 1917 demanded the British government release Trotsky.}} as a "petty bourgeois deviation".

Left Opposition members, representing many international elements, held high-ranking posts, with Christian Rakovsky, Adolph Joffe, and Nikolay Krestinsky serving as ambassadors in London, Paris, Tokyo, and Berlin.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |page=735 |language=en}} Internationally, Trotsky's opposition received support from several Central Committee members of foreign communist parties, including Rakovsky (Chairman of the Ukrainian Sovnarkom), Boris Souvarine of the French Communist Party, and the Central Committee of the Polish Communist Party (led by Maksymilian Horwitz, Maria Koszutska, and Adolf Warski).{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |pages=139, 249, 268–269 |language=en}}

File:Trotsky Leon.jpg

Throughout most of 1924, there was little overt political disagreement within the Soviet leadership. Publicly, Trotsky remained a prominent Bolshevik leader, though his "mistakes" were often alluded to by troika partisans. Behind the scenes, he was cut off from decision-making. Politburo meetings were formalities; key decisions were made beforehand by the troika and its supporters. Trotsky's control over the military was undermined by reassigning his deputy, Ephraim Sklyansky, and appointing Mikhail Frunze, groomed to replace him.

At the XIIIth Party Congress in May, Trotsky delivered a conciliatory speech:Chapter VIII of Boris Souvarine's [http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/souvar/works/stalin/ch08.htm Stalin: A Critical Survey of Bolshevism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060430065533/http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/souvar/works/stalin/ch08.htm |date=30 April 2006}}

{{Blockquote|None of us desires or is able to dispute the will of the Party. Clearly, the Party is always right... We can only be right with and by the Party, for history has provided no other way of being in the right. The English have a saying, "My country, right or wrong"... We have much better historical justification in saying whether it is right or wrong in certain individual concrete cases, it is my party... And if the Party adopts a decision which one or other of us thinks unjust, he will say, just or unjust, it is my party, and I shall support the consequences of the decision to the end.Leon Trotsky, "Speech to the Thirteenth Party Congress on May 26, 1924" contained in The Challenge of the Left Opposition: 1923–1925, pp. 161–62.}}

File:Leon Trotsky attends The October Revolution parade 1924.jpg, Kliment Voroshilov, Leon Trotsky, Mikhail Kalinin, and Mikhail Frunze attend the October Revolution parade in Red Square, 7 November 1924]]

Meanwhile, the Left Opposition, which had formed somewhat unexpectedly in late 1923 and lacked a definite platform beyond general dissatisfaction with the intra-Party "regime," began to crystallise. It lost some less dedicated members due to troika harassment but started formulating a program. Economically, the Left Opposition opposed capitalist elements in the Soviet economy and advocated accelerated industrialization through state-led policies,Preobrazhensky, Yevgeni. The New Economics. Oxford University Press, 1965. putting them at odds with Bukharin and Rykov (the "Right" wing) who supported the troika. On world revolution, Trotsky and Karl Radek saw stability in Europe, while Stalin and Zinoviev predicted an "acceleration" of revolution in Western Europe in 1924. Theoretically, Trotsky remained committed to the idea that the Soviet Union could not create a true socialist society without world revolution, while Stalin gradually developed the policy of "socialism in one country". These ideological divisions formed the basis of the political divide.

At the XIIIth Congress, Kamenev and Zinoviev helped Stalin defuse Lenin's Testament, which had belatedly surfaced. Shortly after, the troika, an alliance of convenience, showed signs of weakness. Stalin began making veiled accusations against Zinoviev and Kamenev. In October 1924, Trotsky published Lessons of October,Leon Trotsky "Lessons of October" contained in Challenge of the Left Opposition: 1923–1925, pp. 199–258. a summary of the 1917 revolution. He described Zinoviev and Kamenev's opposition to the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, something they preferred left unmentioned. This started a new intra-party struggle, the Literary Discussion, with Zinoviev and Kamenev again allied with Stalin against Trotsky. Their criticism of Trotsky focused on:

• Trotsky's pre-1917 disagreements with Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
• Trotsky's alleged distortion of 1917 events to emphasize his role and diminish others'.
• Trotsky's harsh treatment of subordinates and other alleged Civil War mistakes.

Trotsky, ill again, was unable to respond while his opponents mobilized to denounce him. They damaged his military reputation enough to force his resignation as People's Commissar of Army and Fleet Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council on 6 January 1925. Zinoviev demanded Trotsky's expulsion from the Party, but Stalin, playing the moderate, refused. Trotsky kept his Politburo seat but was effectively on probation.

File:Leon Trotsky and Leonid Serebryakov attend the Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union May 1925.jpg attend the Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union in May 1925]]

1925 was a difficult year for Trotsky. After the Literary Discussion and losing his Red Army posts, he was effectively unemployed through winter and spring. In May 1925, he received three posts: chairman of the Concessions Committee, head of the electro-technical board, and chairman of the scientific-technical board of industry. Trotsky wrote in My LifeChapter 22 of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch42.htm My Life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060420212234/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch42.htm |date=20 April 2006}} that he "was taking a rest from politics" and "naturally plunged into the new line of work up to my ears".Leon Trotsky, My Life (Pathfinder Press: New York, 1970) p. 520. He also delivered a tribute to Lenin in his 1925 short book, Lenin.{{cite web |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=Lenin (1925) |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1925/lenin/index.htm}}{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=Lenin |date=1959 |publisher=Garden City Books |page=215 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OyAfAAAAMAAJ&q=Lenin+is+no+more%2C+but+Leninism+endures.+The+immortal+in+Lenin%2C+his+doctrine%2C+his+work%2C+his+method%2C+his+example%2C+lives+in+us%2C+lives+in+the+party+that+he+founded%2C+lives+in+the+first+workmen%E2%80%99s+State+whose+head+he+was+and+which+he+guided. |language=en}}

Some contemporary accounts depict a remote and distracted man.Nikolai Valentinov-Volsky's account of his work with Trotsky in 1925 in Novaia Ekonomicheskaia Politika i Krizis Partii Posle Smerti Lenina: Gody Raboty v VSNKh vo Vremia NEP, Moscow, Sovremennik, 1991. Later in the year, Trotsky resigned his two technical positions, citing Stalin-instigated interference and sabotage, and concentrated on the Concessions Committee.{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/mylife/ch42.htm|title=Leon Trotsky: My Life (42. The Last Period of Struggle Within the Party)|date=22 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122231754/https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/mylife/ch42.htm|access-date=21 April 2020|archive-date=22 November 2018}}

One of the few political developments affecting Trotsky in 1925 was American Marxist Max Eastman's book Since Lenin Died (1925), which described the controversy over Lenin's Testament. Trotsky publicly denied Eastman's statements in an article.{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1925/07/lenin.htm|title=Leon Trotsky: Letter on Eastman's Book|date=22 November 2018|access-date=21 April 2020}}

Meanwhile, the troika finally broke up. Bukharin and Rykov sided with Stalin, while Krupskaya and Soviet Commissar of Finance Grigory Sokolnikov aligned with Zinoviev and Kamenev. The struggle became open at the September 1925 Central Committee meeting and peaked at the XIVth Party Congress in December 1925. Zinoviev and Kamenev, dubbed The New Opposition, with only the Leningrad Party organization behind them, were thoroughly defeated. Trotsky refused to get involved and did not speak at the Congress.

File:Leon Trotsky speaks on the fifth anniversary of Soviet Georgia.jpg, Moscow, March 1926]]

In early 1926, Zinoviev, Kamenev, and their "New Opposition" supporters gravitated towards Trotsky's supporters. The two groups soon formed an alliance, incorporating some smaller opposition groups, known as the United Opposition.

The United Opposition faced repeated threats of sanctions from the Stalinist leadership. Trotsky had to agree to tactical retreats, mainly to preserve his alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev. The opposition remained united against Stalin throughout 1926 and 1927, especially regarding the Chinese Revolution. Stalinist methods against the Opposition became increasingly extreme. At the XVth Party Conference in October 1926, Trotsky could barely speak due to interruptions and catcalls; at its end, he lost his Politburo seat. In 1927, Stalin began using the GPU (Soviet secret police) to infiltrate and discredit the opposition. Rank-and-file oppositionists were increasingly harassed, sometimes expelled from the Party, and even arrested.

Soviet policy toward the Chinese Revolution became the ideological demarcation line. The revolution began on 10 October 1911,Sterling Seagrave, Dragon Lady (Alfred A. Knopf Inc.: New York, 1992) p. 454. leading to Emperor Puyi's abdication on 12 February 1912.Compilation Group for the "History of Modern China" Series, The Revolution of 1911 (Foreign Languages Press: Peking, 1976) p. 153. Sun Yat-sen established the Republic of China, but it controlled little of the country, much of which was divided among warlords. The Republican government formed the Kuomintang (KMT). In 1920, the KMT opened relations with Soviet Russia. With Soviet help, the KMT built up its army. The planned Northern Expedition to crush northern warlords became a point of contention. Stalin urged the small Chinese Communist Party to merge with the KMT for a bourgeois revolution before attempting a Soviet-style workers' revolution.Joseph Stalin, "The Prospects of Revolution in China" a speech to the Chinese Commission of the Executive Committee of the Communist International on 30 November 1926" contained in J. Stalin on Chinese Revolution (Suren Dutt Publishers: Calcutta, India, 1970), pp. 5–21.

File:Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky at Felix Dzerzhinsky funeral.jpg and Stalin bearing Felix Dzerzhinsky's coffin, 22 July 1926. Trotsky is visible over Kalinin's left shoulder.|alt=Mikhail Kalinin and Joseph Stalin carry a coffin. Leon Trotsky stands behind Kalinin.]]

Trotsky wanted the Communist Party to complete an orthodox proletarian revolution and maintain clear class independence from the KMT. Stalin funded the KMT during the expedition.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OCI3gnzsYc0C&q=trotsky+squeezed+lemon+chiang&pg=PA233|title=China in war and revolution, 1895–1949|author=Peter Gue Zarrow|year=2005|publisher=Psychology Press|edition=illustrated|volume=1 of Asia's transformations|isbn=978-0-415-36447-8|page=233|access-date=1 January 2011}} He countered Trotskyist criticism in a secret speech, saying Chiang Kai-shek's right-wing KMT were the only ones capable of defeating imperialists, that Chiang had funding from rich merchants, and his forces should be used until "squeezed for all usefulness like a lemon before being discarded". However, Chiang reversed the tables in the Shanghai massacre of 12 April 1927, massacring the Communists in Shanghai midway through the Northern Expedition.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wjCsAAAAIAAJ&q=trotsky+squeezed+lemon+chiang&pg=PA96|title=Moscow and Chinese Communists|author=Robert Carver North|year=1963|publisher=Stanford University Press|edition=2|isbn=978-0-8047-0453-3|page=96|access-date=1 January 2011}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yMwdWFtgV0QC&q=trotsky+squeezed+lemon+chiang&pg=PA282|title=A history of Russia: Since 1855|author=Walter Moss|year=2005|publisher=Anthem Press|edition=2, illustrated|volume=2 of A History of Russia|isbn=978-1-84331-034-1|page=282|access-date=1 January 2011}}

File:Leon Trotsky 1928.jpg

On the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution in November 1927, the Opposition held a street demonstration in Moscow against Stalin's government. It was dispersed by Soviet authorities, and Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party shortly thereafter.J. Arch Getty, Oleg V. Naumov. Road to Terror. pp. 26-27{{Cite web|url=https://topos.memo.ru/en/node/135|title=Anti-Stalinist Demonstration on November 7, 1927|date=2 December 2015|website=Topography of Terror, Moscow|access-date=10 January 2024|archive-date=10 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110131422/https://topos.memo.ru/en/node/135|url-status=dead}} Trotsky delivered the eulogy at his friend Adolph Joffe's funeral in November 1927; it was his last public speech in the Soviet Union. When the XVth Party Congress made United Opposition views incompatible with Communist Party membership, Zinoviev, Kamenev, and their supporters capitulated and renounced their alliance with the Left Opposition. Trotsky and most of his followers refused to surrender. Trotsky was exiled to Alma Ata (now Almaty), Kazakhstan, on 31 January 1928. He was expelled from the Soviet Union to Turkey in February 1929, accompanied by his wife Natalia Sedova and their eldest son, Lev.{{sfn|Rubenstein|2013|pp=155, 202}}

File:Soviet reaction to Leon Trotsky publication.jpg as reported in the Soviet Union, August 1929. The editors of Projector magazine titled the item: "On the service of bourgeoisie."]]

After Trotsky's expulsion, Trotskyists within the Soviet Union began to waver. Between 1929 and 1932, most leading Left Opposition members surrendered to Stalin, "admitted their mistakes," and were reinstated in the Communist Party. An initial exception was Christian Rakovsky, who inspired Trotsky from 1929 to 1934 with his refusal to capitulate as state suppression increased. In late 1932, Rakovsky failed to flee the Soviet Union and was exiled to Yakutia in March 1933. At Trotsky's request, French mathematician and Trotskyist Jean Van Heijenoort, with Pierre Frank, unsuccessfully appealed to influential Soviet author Maxim Gorky to intervene for Rakovsky, boarding Gorky's ship near Constantinople.Tova Yedlin, Maxim Gorky: A Political Biography, Praeger/Greenwood, Westport, 1992, pp. 201–02. {{ISBN|978-0275966058}} According to Heijenoort, they only met Gorky's son, Maxim Peshkov, who promised to pass on their request. Rakovsky was the last prominent Trotskyist to capitulate, in April 1934. His letter to Pravda, titled There Should Be No Mercy, depicted Trotsky and his supporters as "agents of the German Gestapo".{{sfn|Medvedev|1976|p=169}} Rakovsky was appointed to high office in the Commissariat for Health and allowed to return to Moscow, also serving as Soviet ambassador to Japan in 1935.{{sfn|Feofanov|Barry|1995|p=22}} However, he was implicated in allegations concerning Sergey Kirov's murder and was arrested and imprisoned in late 1937 during the Great Purge.Fagan, Gus; Biographical Introduction to Christian Rakovsky; chapter [https://www.marxists.org/archive/rakovsky/biog/biog5.htm Opposition and Exile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715212757/https://www.marxists.org/archive/rakovsky/biog/biog5.htm |date=15 July 2018}}

Almost all Trotskyists remaining in the Soviet Union were executed in the Great Purges of 1936–1938. Rakovsky survived until the Medvedev Forest massacre of September 1941, where he was shot with 156 other prisoners on Stalin's orders, less than three months into the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. Trotsky's sister and Kamenev's first wife, Olga Kameneva, was also among the Medvedev Forest victims.{{sfn|Parrish|1996|p=69}}

Deported from the Soviet Union in February 1929, Trotsky arrived in Turkey. For his first two months, he lived with his wife and eldest son at the Soviet Consulate in Istanbul and then a nearby hotel. In April 1929, Turkish authorities moved them to the island of Büyükada (Prinkipo), into a house called the Yanaros mansion.{{cite web|url=https://www.marxist.com/esteban-volkov-return-to-prinkipo.htm|title=Esteban Volkov: Return to Prinkipo|first=Greg|last=Oxley|date=1 February 2004|website=Marxist.com|access-date=10 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110160934/https://www.marxist.com/esteban-volkov-return-to-prinkipo.htm|archive-date=10 January 2017|url-status=live}} During his Turkish exile, Trotsky was under surveillance by Mustafa Kemal Pasha's police. He was also at risk from former White Army officers on Prinkipo. However, his European supporters volunteered as bodyguards, ensuring his safety.{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1935/06/french.htm|title=Leon Trotsky: An Open Letter to the French Workers|date=10 June 1935|website=Marxists.org|access-date=8 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123230116/https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1935/06/french.htm|archive-date=23 November 2016|url-status=live}} He requested entry to Belgium, France, Norway, Germany, and the United Kingdom, but all refused.{{Cite book|url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7728106|title=Application by Leon Trotsky for permission to reside in England.|date=24 June 1929|publisher=UK National Archives}}

File:Trotsky House Istanbul.jpg, Turkey, as it appears today. He lived there from April 1929 to July 1933.]]

Soon after arriving in Turkey, Trotsky established the Bulletin of the Opposition, a Russian-language journal first published in July 1929 in Paris.{{cite web |last1=Lubitz |first1=Petra |last2=Lubitz |first2=Wolfgang |title=Biulleten' oppozitsii |url=https://www.trotskyana.net/Leon_Trotsky/Biulleten__Oppozitsii/biulleten__oppozitsii.html |website=trotskyana.net |access-date=29 May 2024 |date=August 2004}}{{cite journal |last1=Kassow |first1=Samuel |author-link=Samuel Kassow |title=Trotsky and the Bulletin of the Opposition |journal=Studies in Comparative Communism |date=Summer 1977 |volume=10 |issue=1 / 2 |pages=184–197 |doi=10.1016/S0039-3592(77)80006-9 |jstor=45367174 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45367174 |access-date=29 May 2024 |issn=0039-3592|url-access=subscription }} In a 1931 letter titled "What is Fascism," he attempted to define fascism, asserting the Communist International wrongly described Primo de Rivera's dictatorship as "fascist" because it lacked a mass movement base in the lower classes.{{cite web|author=L. Trotsky|title=What is Fascism|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1931/11/fascism.htm|date=15 November 1931}}

On 20 February 1932, Trotsky and his family lost their Soviet citizenship and were forbidden to enter the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Swain|2006|p=191}}{{cite web|title=Open Letter to the C.E.C. of the U.S.S.R.|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1932/03/cec1.htm|date=1 March 1932}} In 1932, he entered fascist Italy{{cite web|url=https://stanforddailyarchive.com/cgi-bin/stanford?a=d&d=stanford19321205-01.2.20|title=The Stanford Daily, Volume 82, Issue 44, 5 December 1932|website=Stanforddailyarchive.com}}{{cite web|url=https://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675056639_Soviet-Leader-Leon-Trotsky_Trotsky-with-dignitaries_Roman-civilization_Trotsky-in-exile|title=Former Soviet leader Leon Trotsky, in exile visits ruins of ancient Roman sites with other dignitaries in Naples, Italy.|website=Criticalpast.com|date=1932}} en route to a socialist conference in Denmark.{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1932/11/radio.htm|title=The Stalinists and Trotsky's Radio Speech to America|date=3 December 1932|website=Marxists.org}} By late 1932, Trotsky contacted the anti-Stalin opposition inside the USSR to discuss forming a bloc.{{Cite book|last=Thurston|first=Robert W.|title=Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia, 1934–1941| page =25|date=1996|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-06401-8|jstor=j.ctt32bw0h}} There was no evidence of any alliance with Nazi Germany or the Empire of Japan, as the Soviet government claimed. Alleged bloc members included Zinovievites, rightists, and "capitulated" Trotskyists like Kamenev and Zinoviev. Trotsky feared the right gaining too much power within the bloc. Historian Pierre Broué concluded the bloc dissolved in early 1933, as some members like Zinoviev and Kamenev rejoined Stalin, and Trotsky's Harvard archive letters do not mention the bloc after 1932.{{cite web|title=Pierre Broué: The "Bloc" of the Oppositions against Stalin (January 1980)|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/broue/1980/01/bloc.html|access-date=4 August 2020|website=Marxists.org}}

{{See also|Trotskyism in France}}

In July 1933, Prime Minister Édouard Daladier offered Trotsky asylum in France. Trotsky accepted but was forbidden to live in Paris and was soon under French police surveillance. From July 1933 to February 1934, Trotsky and his wife lived in Royan. Philosopher and activist Simone Weil arranged for them and their bodyguards to stay briefly at her parents' house. Following the 6 February 1934 crisis, French Minister of Internal Affairs Albert Sarraut signed a decree to deport Trotsky. However, no foreign government would accept him. French authorities then instructed Trotsky to move to a residence in the village of Barbizon under strict police surveillance, where his contact with the outside world became even more restricted than in Turkey. In May 1935, soon after France agreed to the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance, Trotsky was officially told he was no longer welcome. He applied to move to Norway.

File:Heradsbygdveien 26, Hønefoss.jpg

After Justice Minister Trygve Lie granted permission, Trotsky and his wife became guests of Konrad Knudsen at Norderhov, near Hønefoss, living at Knudsen's house from 18 June 1935 to 2 September 1936. Trotsky was hospitalized for a few weeks at Oslo Community Hospital from 19 September 1935.Geoffrey Swain, Trotsky (Taylor & Francis, 2014) pp.199-202Oddvar Høidal, Trotsky in Norway: Exile, 1935–1937

Following French media complaints about Trotsky's role in encouraging the May–June 1936 mass strikes in France with his articles, the Norwegian government, led by Johan Nygaardsvold, grew uneasy. In summer 1936, Trotsky's asylum became a political issue for the fascist Nasjonal Samling, led by Vidkun Quisling,Oddvar Høidal's Trotsky in Norway: Exile, 1935–1937. alongside increased Soviet pressure. On 5 August 1936, Nasjonal Samling fascists burgled Knudsen's house while Trotsky and his wife were out. The burglars targeted Trotsky's works and archives. The raid was largely thwarted by Knudsen's daughter, Hjørdis, though some papers were taken.{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm|title=Leon Trotsky in Norway (1936)|date=January 1937|website=Marxists.org|access-date=8 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123230427/https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm|archive-date=23 November 2016|url-status=live}} "Evidence" from the burglary was used by the government against Trotsky.

On 14 August 1936, the Soviet TASS agency announced a "Trotskyist–Zinovievist" plot and the imminent start of the Moscow Trials. Trotsky demanded a full, open inquiry. The accused, including Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, were sentenced to death and executed on 25 August 1936. On 26 August, eight policemen arrived at Knudsen's house, demanding Trotsky sign new residency conditions: no writing on current politics, no interviews, and all correspondence inspected. Trotsky refused and was told he and his wife would be moved. The next day, police interrogated him about his political activities, officially citing him as a "witness" to the 5 August fascist raid.{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm|title=Leon Trotsky in Norway|access-date=8 March 2018|website=Marxists.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715072452/https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm|archive-date=15 July 2018|url-status=live}}

On 2 September 1936, Trygve Lie ordered Trotsky and his wife transferred to a farm in Hurum,{{cite web|url=http://www.dagsavisen.no/fremtiden/en-sensasjonell-rettssak/|title=En sensasjonell rettssak|access-date=31 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130929072142/http://www.dagsavisen.no/fremtiden/en-sensasjonell-rettssak/|archive-date=29 September 2013|url-status=dead}} where they were under house arrest. Treatment at Hurum was harsh: confined indoors 22 hours daily under constant guard, with only one hour twice daily for walks. Trotsky was prevented from posting letters or responding to critics. Only his lawyers and Norwegian Labour Party Parliamentary leader Olav Scheflo were allowed visits. From October 1936, even outdoor walks were prohibited. Trotsky smuggled out one letter on 18 December 1936, The Moscow "Confessions".{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/03/confession.htm|title=The Moscow "Confessions"|date=18 December 1936|website=Marxists.org|access-date=6 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123230450/https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/03/confession.htm|archive-date=23 November 2016|url-status=live}} On 19 December 1936, they were deported on the Norwegian oil tanker Ruth, guarded by Jonas Lie. Later, in Mexico, Trotsky scathingly criticized his treatment, accusing the Norwegian government of trying to silence his opposition to the Moscow Trials:

{{Blockquote|When I look back today on this period of internment, I must say that never, anywhere, in the course of my entire life—and I have lived through many things—was I persecuted with as much miserable cynicism as I was by the Norwegian "Socialist" government. For four months, these ministers, dripping with democratic hypocrisy, gripped me in a stranglehold to prevent me from protesting the greatest crime history may ever know.}}

File:Leon Trotsky House, Mexico City (7144251529).jpg, Mexico City, from April 1939 until his assassination in August 1940]]

File:Trotsky & Khalo.jpg is behind them (to Trotsky's right).]]

File:Trotsky Speech In Mexico (1930-1939).webm

The Ruth arrived in Mexico on 9 January 1937. President Lázaro Cárdenas welcomed Trotsky and arranged a special train, The Hidalgo, to bring him to Mexico City from Tampico.{{cite web|url=https://www.marxist.com/house-in-coyacan-reflections-trotsky.htm|title=The House in Coyoacán – Reflection on Trotsky's last years|first=Alan|last=Woods|date=30 June 2003|website=Marxist.com|access-date=10 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110162137/https://www.marxist.com/house-in-coyacan-reflections-trotsky.htm|archive-date=10 January 2017|url-status=live}}

From January 1937 to April 1939, Trotsky and his wife lived in Coyoacán at La Casa Azul (The Blue House), home of painter Frida Kahlo (with whom Trotsky had an affair) and her husband, fellow painter Diego Rivera.Herrera, Hayden (1983). A Biography of Frida Kahlo. New York: HarperCollins. {{ISBN|978-0060085896}}Patenaude, Bertrand M. (2009) Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary New York: HarperCollins. {{ISBN|978-0060820688}} Kahlo later presented him with Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky on his birthday, the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s_ZdPsktyjEC&dq=%22Self-Portrait+Dedicated+to+Leon+Trotsky%22&pg=PA41 | title=Frida Kahlo, 1907-1954: Pain and Passion | publisher=Taschen | author=Kettenmann, Andrea | year=2003 | pages=41 | isbn=9783822859834}} His final move, after a break with Rivera, was to a residence on Avenida Viena in April 1939.

Trotsky wrote prolifically in exile, including History of the Russian Revolution (1930) and The Revolution Betrayed (1936), a critique of the Soviet Union under Stalinism. He argued the Soviet state had become a "degenerated workers' state" controlled by an undemocratic bureaucracy, which would either be overthrown via a political revolution establishing workers' democracy, or degenerate into a capitalist class.Daniel Gaido, "Marxist Analyses of Stalinism", Science & Society 75/1 (Jan. 2011): 99–107. www.jstor.org/stable/25769086.

In Mexico, Trotsky worked closely with James P. Cannon, Joseph Hansen, and Farrell Dobbs of the Socialist Workers Party of the United States, and other supporters.{{Cite news|url=https://spartacus-educational.com/USAcannonJ.htm|title=James P. Cannon|work=Spartacus Educational|access-date=6 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106053432/https://spartacus-educational.com/USAcannonJ.htm|archive-date=6 November 2018|url-status=live}} Cannon, a long-time leader in the American communist movement, had supported Trotsky since reading his criticisms of the Soviet Union in 1928. Trotsky's critique of Stalinism, though banned, was distributed to Comintern leaders. Chen Duxiu, founder of the Chinese Communist Party, was another supporter.Chen, Duxiu. [https://www.marxistsfr.org/archive/chen-duxiu/1931/05/chinlo.htm "The Unification of the Chinese Opposition"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171211053628/https://www.marxistsfr.org/archive/chen-duxiu/1931/05/chinlo.htm |date=11 December 2017}}, The Militant, 15 June 1931.

Trotsky collaborated with André Breton and Diego Rivera on the Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art (1938), emphasizing artistic freedom outside capitalist and Stalinist constraints. This inspired the International Federation of Independent Revolutionary Art (FIARI) in 1938, though it was short-lived, ending before 1940.André Breton and Leon Trotsky, Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art, 1938, in Free Rein, University of Nebraska Press, 1995.

{{Main|Moscow trials}}

In August 1936, the first Moscow show trial of the "Trotskyite–Zinovievite Terrorist Center" was staged. Zinoviev, Kamenev, and 14 other prominent Old Bolsheviks confessed to plotting with Trotsky to kill Stalin and other Soviet leaders. The court found all defendants guilty, sentencing them, including Trotsky in absentia, to death. The second show trial (Karl Radek, Grigori Sokolnikov, Yuri Pyatakov, and 14 others) in January 1937 linked more alleged conspiracies and crimes to Trotsky. These trials were widely seen as fabrications. In response, an independent Commission of Inquiry, chaired by American philosopher John Dewey, was established. After investigating the allegations, the Dewey Commission found Trotsky not guilty of the charges made against him in the Moscow Trials. Its findings were published in the book Not Guilty.Not Guilty; Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Charges Made Against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow Trials, John Dewey, chairman, New York, London, Harper & brothers, 1938, xv, 422 pp. 2nd edition New York, Monad Press, distributed by Pathfinder Press 1973, c. 1972 xxiii.

{{blockquote|The Moscow trials are perpetuated under the banner of socialism. We will not concede this banner to the masters of falsehood! If our generation happens to be too weak to establish Socialism over the earth, we will hand the spotless banner down to our children. The struggle which is in the offing transcends by far the importance of individuals, factions and parties. It is the struggle for the future of all mankind. It will be severe, it will be lengthy. Whoever seeks physical comfort and spiritual calm let him step aside. In time of reaction it is more convenient to lean on the bureaucracy than on the truth. But all those for whom the word 'Socialism' is not a hollow sound but the content of their moral life—forward! Neither threats nor persecutions nor violations can stop us! Be it even over our bleaching bones the future will triumph! We will blaze the trail for it. It will conquer! Under all the severe blows of fate, I shall be happy as in the best days of my youth; because, my friends, the highest human happiness is not the exploitation of the present but the preparation of the future.|Leon Trotsky, 'I Stake My Life', opening address to the Dewey Commission, 9 February 1937{{sfn|North|2010|p=viii}}Full text of ~ [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/09/life.htm "I Stake My Life!"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101114233838/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/09/life.htm |date=14 November 2010}} – Leon Trotsky's telephone address to the N.Y. Hippodrome Meeting for the opening event of the Dewey Commission on the Moscow Trial, delivered on 9 February 1937.}}

{{Trotskyism}}

{{Main|Fourth International}}

Initially, Trotsky opposed establishing parallel communist parties or a parallel international organization to compete with the Third International (Comintern), fearing it would split the communist movement. He changed his mind in mid-1933 after the Nazi takeover in Germany and the Comintern's response. He stated:{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-ger/330715.htm|title=Marxists.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051121162621/http://marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-ger/330715.htm|archive-date=21 November 2005|access-date=26 October 2005}}

{{Blockquote|An organization which was not roused by the thunder of fascism and which submits docilely to such outrageous acts of the bureaucracy demonstrates thereby that it is dead and that nothing can ever revive it... In all our subsequent work it is necessary to take as our point of departure the historical collapse of the official Communist International.Leon Trotsky. To Build Communist Parties and an International Anew, 15 July 1933.}}

In 1938, Trotsky and his supporters founded the Fourth International, intended as a revolutionary and internationalist alternative to the Stalinist Comintern.

File:Leon Trotsky and American admirers. Mexico - NARA - 283642.jpg (left), in Mexico, shortly before his assassination, 1940]]

In late 1939, Trotsky agreed to appear as a witness before the Dies Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, a precursor to the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Representative Martin Dies Jr., the committee chairman, sought the suppression of the American Communist Party. Trotsky intended to use the forum to expose NKVD activities against him and his followers. He also planned to argue against suppressing the American Communist Party and to call for transforming World War II into a world revolution. Many supporters opposed his appearance. When the committee learned the nature of Trotsky's intended testimony, it refused to hear him, and he was denied a U.S. visa. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union immediately accused Trotsky of being paid by oil magnates and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).{{sfn|Deutscher|2003c|p=482}}

After quarrelling with Diego Rivera, Trotsky moved to his final residence on Avenida Viena in April 1939.Patenaude, Bertrand M. (2009) Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary New York: HarperCollins; {{ISBN|978-0060820688}}, pp. 171–73. On 27 February 1940, he wrote "Trotsky's Testament," expressing his final thoughts. Suffering from high blood pressure, he feared a cerebral haemorrhage. He reiterated his "unshaken faith in a communist future."[http://www.newyouth.com/content/view/169/68/ "Trotsky's Testament"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724015711/http://www.newyouth.com/content/view/169/68/ |date=24 July 2011}} (27 February 1940) Retrieved 12 June 2011. Forcefully denying Stalin's accusations of betraying the working class, he thanked his friends and, above all, his wife, Natalia Sedova, for their loyal support:

{{Blockquote|In addition to the happiness of being a fighter for the cause of socialism, fate gave me the happiness of being her husband. During the almost forty years of our life together she remained an inexhaustible source of love, magnanimity, and tenderness. She underwent great sufferings, especially in the last period of our lives. But I find some comfort in the fact that she also knew days of happiness.

For forty-three years of my conscious life I have remained a revolutionist; for forty-two of them I have fought under the banner of Marxism. If I had to begin all over again I would of course try to avoid this or that mistake, but the main course of my life would remain unchanged. I shall die a proletarian revolutionist, a Marxist, a dialectical materialist, and, consequently, an irreconcilable atheist. My faith in the communist future of mankind is not less ardent, indeed it is firmer today, than it was in the days of my youth.
Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
L. Trotsky
27 February 1940
Coyoacán.}}

{{main|Assassination of Leon Trotsky}}

File:Trotsky last office.jpg

After a failed assassination attempt in March 1939, Stalin assigned NKVD officer Pavel Sudoplatov to organize Trotsky's murder. Sudoplatov, in turn, co-opted Nahum Eitingon. According to Sudoplatov's Special Tasks, the NKVD set up three autonomous agent networks for the task, separate from existing U.S. and Mexican spy networks.{{cite book|author1=Pavel Sudoplatov|author2=Anatoli Sudoplatov|author3=Jerrold L. Schecter|author4=Leona P. Schecter|title=Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness – A Soviet Spymaster|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|location=Boston|date=1994|isbn=978-0-316-77352-2|url=https://archive.org/details/specialtasksmemo00sudo}}

On 24 May 1940, Trotsky survived a raid on his villa by armed assassins led by NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich and Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1940/05/25/archives/trotsky-injured-in-attack-on-home-leon-trotsky-and-home-in-mexico.html |title=Trotsky Injured in Attack on Home; Leon Trotsky and Home in Mexico Where He Was Attacked |date=25 May 1940 |newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=23 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723214548/https://www.nytimes.com/1940/05/25/archives/trotsky-injured-in-attack-on-home-leon-trotsky-and-home-in-mexico.html |archive-date=23 July 2018 |url-status=live}} Trotsky's 14-year-old grandson, Vsevolod Platonovich "Esteban" Volkov (7 March 1926 – 16 June 2023), was shot in the foot. A young assistant and bodyguard, Robert Sheldon Harte, disappeared with the attackers and was later found murdered; it is probable he was an accomplice who granted them access.{{sfn|Service|2010|p=485}} Trotsky's other guards fended off the attackers.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19356256 Trotsky's grandson recalls ice pick killing] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180811142439/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19356256 |date=11 August 2018}}, BBC News, Mike Lanchin, 28 August 2012. Following this, Trotsky wrote an article, "Stalin Seeks My Death" (8 June 1940), stating another attempt was certain.{{cite web |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1940/05/stalin.htm |title=Leon Trotsky: Stalin Seeks My Death |date=8 June 1940 |website=Marxists.org |access-date=4 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123231842/https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1940/05/stalin.htm |archive-date=23 November 2016 |url-status=live}}Christopher Weaver, "The Assassination of Trotsky" History Today (Oct 1971), pp. 697–707 online.

On 20 August 1940, Trotsky was attacked in his study by Spanish-born NKVD agent Ramón Mercader, who used an ice axe.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/13/trotsky-ice-axe-murder-mexico-city |title=Bloodstained ice axe used to kill Trotsky emerges after decades in the shadows |first1=Julian |last1=Borger |first2=Jo |last2=Tuckman |date=13 September 2017 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |issn=0261-3077 |access-date=25 May 2022}}{{cite book | author = Isaac Don Levine | title = The Mind of an Assassin | year = 1960 | publisher = New American Library | location = New York | isbn = 0-313-20972-3}}{{efn|The murder weapon was an ice axe (not an ice pick, an awl-like bartender's tool). This misnomer likely arose from the assassin's use of the French term picolet (referring to the mountaineering tool resembling a pickaxe) and the multiple languages involved in reporting. Many historical sources confuse the two tools.{{sfn|Conquest|1992|p=418}}}} The operation was codenamed "Utka" (Duck) within the NKVD.

A mountaineering ice axe has a narrow pick and a flat, wide adze. The adze struck Trotsky, fracturing his parietal bone and penetrating {{cvt|7|cm}} into his brain.{{sfn|Soto-Pérez-de-Celis|2010}} The blow was bungled and failed to kill him instantly. Witnesses stated Trotsky spat on Mercader and struggled fiercely, breaking Mercader's hand. Hearing the commotion, Trotsky's bodyguards burst in and nearly beat Mercader to death, but Trotsky stopped them, laboriously stating the assassin should be made to answer questions.{{sfn|Volkogonov|1996|p=466}} Trotsky was taken to a hospital and operated on but died at age 60 on 21 August 1940 from blood loss and shock.Walsh, Lynn, [http://www.marxist.net/trotsky/life/life.htm The Assassination of Trotsky] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040622084335/http://www.marxist.net/trotsky/life/life.htm |date=22 June 2004}}, Militant International Review, Summer 1980; retrieved 29 July 2007.{{sfn|Soto-Pérez-de-Celis|2010}} Mercader later testified:

{{Blockquote|I laid my raincoat on the table in such a way as to be able to remove the ice axe which was in the pocket. I decided not to miss the wonderful opportunity that presented itself. The moment Trotsky began reading the article, he gave me my chance; I took out the ice axe from the raincoat, gripped it in my hand and, with my eyes closed, dealt him a terrible blow on the head.{{sfn|Volkogonov|1996|p=466}}}}

According to James P. Cannon, secretary of the American Socialist Workers Party, Trotsky's last words were, "I will not survive this attack. Stalin has finally accomplished the task he attempted unsuccessfully before."Australian Associated Press, [http://150.theage.com.au/view_bestofarticle.asp?straction=update&inttype=1&intid=1188 Death of Leon Trotsky] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070902183410/http://150.theage.com.au/view_bestofarticle.asp?straction=update&inttype=1&intid=1188|date=2 September 2007}}, The Age 150th Anniversary edition reprint, 23 August 1940; retrieved 22 March 2007. Mercader was convicted and spent 20 years in a Mexican prison. Stalin claimed the assassin was a dangerous Trotskyist. Mercader initially received no awards, though his mother was presented with the Order of Lenin for her role. Upon his release in 1960 and arrival in the USSR in 1961, Leonid Brezhnev signed a decree awarding Mercader the Order of Lenin, the Gold Star, and the title Hero of the Soviet Union "for the special deed." KGB boss Alexander Shelepin presented these awards to Mercader personally.{{cite web|url=https://oncubanews.com/en/world/ramon-mercader-mission-of-silence/|title=Ramón Mercader, mission of silence|website=Oncubanews.com|date=27 May 2019|access-date=29 January 2022}}Don Levine, Isaac (1960), The Mind of an Assassin, D1854 Signet Book, pp. 109–10, 173.

An estimated 300,000 people passed by Trotsky's funeral casket in Mexico City over several days by 27 August 1940.{{sfn|North|2010|p=129}}{{cite book |last1=Mahoney |first1=Harry Thayer |title=The saga of Leon Trotsky: his clandestine operations and his assassination |date=1998 |publisher=Austin & Winfield |location=San Francisco |isbn=1572921242 |page=452}}{{cite book |last1=Garza |first1=Hedda |title=Leon Trotsky |date=1986 |publisher=Chelsea House |isbn=978-0-87754-444-9 |page=106 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sk0jAQAAIAAJ&q=leon+trotsky+300+000+people+funeral |language=en}}

File:Portrait of Leon Trotsky.jpg

Trotsky was regarded as an outstanding orator,{{sfn|Service|2009|pp=1–10}} preeminent theoretician,{{cite book |last1=Traugott |first1=Mark |title=The Insurgent Barricade |date=2010 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-26632-2 |page=Chapter 7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yRXPdH7IZjEC&dq=trotsky+preeminent+theoretician&pg=PT299 |language=en}} and organiser who, in historian Michael Kort's view, "forged and directed the Red Army".{{cite book |last1=Kort |first1=Michael |title=The Soviet colossus: history and aftermath |date=2010 |publisher=M. E. Sharpe |location=Armonk, N.Y. |isbn=978-0765623867 |page=176 |edition=7th}} He was an original Politburo member in Lenin's government.{{sfn|Volkogonov|1996|p=185}}{{cite book |last1=Hough |first1=Jerry F. |last2=Fainsod |first2=Merle |title=How the Soviet Union is Governed |date=1979 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-41030-5 |page=125 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=38gMzMRXCpQC&pg=PA125 |language=en}} Biographer Isaac Deutscher considered him the "prompter of [the] planned economy and industrialization" in the early Soviet Union.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky, 1921–1929 |date=1965 |publisher=New York, Vintage Books |isbn=978-0-394-70747-1 |page=468 }}

Old Bolshevik Anatoly Lunacharsky viewed Trotsky as the best-prepared Social Democratic leader during the 1905–1907 revolution, stating he "emerged from the revolution having acquired an enormous degree of popularity, whereas neither Lenin nor Martov had effectively gained any at all".{{cite book |last1=Lunacharsky |first1=Anatoly Vasilievich |title=Revolutionary Silhouettes |date=1968 |publisher=Hill and Wang |page=61 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ptRoAAAAMAAJ |language=en}} His personal secretary and later historian of mathematical logic, Jean van Heijenoort, found him amicable, inquisitive, and occasionally charming with new acquaintances in his final years in Mexico.{{cite book |last1=Heijenoort |first1=Jean Van |title=With Trotsky in Exile: From Prinkipo to Coyoacán |date=1978 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-80255-1 |page=47 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U81oAAAAMAAJ&q=With+Trotsky+in+Exile:+From+Prinkipo+to+Coyoac%C3%A1n |language=en}}

Historian Dmitri Volkogonov characterised him as a "vivid, complex, multi-faceted personality... remembered with hatred and respect, anger and admiration" decades after his assassination.{{sfn|Volkogonov|1996|p=xxxi}} Volkogonov considered Trotsky "far superior" to figures like Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Zhdanov, and "also superior to Stalin and Stalin knew it".{{cite book |last1=Volkogonov |first1=Dmitri |title=Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy |date=2000 |publisher=Phoenix |isbn=978-1-84212-026-2 |page=228 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7CQ3QAAACAAJ |language=en}}

Biographer Robert Service described him as "volatile and untrustworthy",{{sfn|Service|2009|pp=1–10}} an "arrogant individual"{{sfn|Service|2009|pp=1–10}} who impressed supporters even during "personal adversity in the 1920s and 1930s"{{sfn|Service|2009|pp=1–10}} but failed to "coax and encourage them to the full".{{sfn|Service|2009|pp=1–10}} Service stated Trotsky gave "minimum time to the Jewish question" and believed "he ceased to be a Jew in any important sense because Marxism had burned out the fortuitous residues of his origins".{{sfn|Service|2009|pp=200–201}}

Political scientist August Nimtz regarded Trotsky as having better foresight than many Marxist and non-Marxist observers with his work The Revolution Betrayed (1936), arguing the Stalinist regime was an "ephemeral phenomenon," a view Nimtz believed was proven by the Soviet collapse after 1989.{{cite book |last1=August Nimtz. Krieger, Joel (ed). |title=The Oxford Companion to Comparative Politics |date=2013 |publisher=OUP USA |isbn=978-0-19-973859-5 |page=74 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r-dMAgAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+foresight+soviet+collapse&pg=RA1-PA74 |language=en}} Other scholars have similarly described Trotsky's prescient judgment on events like the Stalinist alliance with the Kuomintang,{{sfn|Deutscher|2015a|pp=886-887}} the rise of Nazi Germany, and the Spanish Civil War."Trotsky...maintained during the period of Hitler's rise to power so persistent and, for the most part, so prescient a commentary on the course of events in Germany as to deserve record".{{cite book |last1=Carr |first1=Edward Hallett |title=The twilight of Comintern 1930–1935 |date=1986 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-333-40455-3 |page=433}}{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=James |title=Antonio Gramsci: Marxism, philosophy and politics |date=2002 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-21749-1 |pages=398 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1RWFNQ4E_ekC&dq=Trotsky+Spanish+civil+war+tactics&pg=PT10 |language=en}} Deutscher also referenced his "uncanny clear sightedness" in predicting the emergence of a single dictator who would "substitute himself" for the Central Committee, the party, and the working class.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet Armed: Trotsky, 1879–1921 |date=1954 |publisher=New York, Oxford University Press |page=522 }}

Trotsky was a Marxist intellectual.{{cite book |last1=Traverso |first1=Enzo |title=Revolution: An Intellectual History |date=19 October 2021 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-83976-333-5 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=de1DEAAAQBAJ |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Rees |first1=John |title=Trotsky and the Dialectic of History |journal=The Algebra of Revolution |date=1998 |pages=263–290 |doi=10.4324/9780203983171-12 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9780203983171-12/trotsky-dialectic-history-john-rees |publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780203983171 |url-access=subscription }}{{cite journal |last1=Blackledge |first1=Paul |title=Leon Trotsky's Contribution to the Marxist Theory of History |journal=Studies in East European Thought |date=2006 |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=1–31 |doi=10.1007/s11212-005-3677-z |jstor=20099925 |s2cid=85504744 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20099925|url-access=subscription }}{{cite book |last1=Figes |first1=Orlando |title=A people's tragedy: a history of the Russian Revolution |date=1997 |location=New York, NY |publisher= Viking |isbn=978-0-670-85916-0 |page=795 |url=https://archive.org/details/peoplestragedyhi00fige/page/794/mode/2up}} Russian historian Vladimir Buldakov considered Trotsky, in some respects, a "typical representative" of "Russia's radical intelligentsia" with "elements of bourgeois origin".{{cite book |last1=Buldakov |first1=Vladimir |title=Trotsky: October and its perspective in the Trotsky reappraisal. Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |page=102}} His diverse and profound interests exceeded those of other Bolshevik theoreticians like Nikolai Bukharin.{{sfn|Mandel|1995|pp=168–169}} Aside from political activism, Trotsky worked as a statistician and journalist.{{sfn|Renton|2004|p=6}} He loved literature, particularly French novels.{{sfn|Service|2009|pp=1–10}} He and Natalia Sedova enjoyed Viennese galleries and visited museums like the Louvre and Tate Gallery.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=152}} He retained a personal interest in science from his youth studying engineering, mathematics, and physics.{{sfn|Service|2009|p=327}}

File:Leon Trotsky with his second wife in 1932.jpg

His arch-enemy, Stalin, read and sometimes appreciated much of his writing.{{cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=Geoffrey |title=Stalin's Library: A Dictator and His Books |date=2022 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-17904-0 |page=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A96MzgEACAAJ |language=en}} According to Rubenstein, Stalin acknowledged that "after Lenin, Trotsky was the most popular figure in the country" at the Civil War's end.{{sfn|Rubenstein|2011|p=127}} Stalin himself wrote in a 1918 Pravda editorial: "All practical work in connection with the organization of the uprising was done under the immediate direction of Comrade Trotsky, the president of the Petrograd Soviet".{{cite book |last1=Black |first1=Robert |title=Stalinism in Britain |date=1970 |publisher=New Park Publications |isbn=978-0-902030-02-2 |page=422 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ofAEAQAAIAAJ&q=stalin+All+practical+work+in+connection+with+the+organization+of+the+uprising+was+done+under+the+immediate+direction+of+Comrade+Trotsky+,+the+President+of+the+Petrograd+Soviet+.+It+can+be+stated+with+certainty+that+the+Party+is+indebted |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Marriott |first1=Emma |title=Bad History: How We Got the Past Wrong |date=30 September 2011 |publisher=Michael O'Mara Books |isbn=978-1-84317-777-7 |pages=50–100 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UivdAgAAQBAJ&dq=%22All+practical+work+in+connection+with+the+organization+of+the+uprising+was+done+under+the+immediate+direction+of+Comrade+Trotsky,+the+president+of+the+Petrograd+Soviet.+It+can+be+stated+with+certainty+that+the+Party+is+indebted+primarily+and+principally+to+Comrade+Trotsky+for+the+rapid+going+over+of+the+garrison+to+the+side+of+the+Soviet+and+the+efficient+manner+in+which+the+work+of+the+Military-Revolutionary+Committee+was+organized.+The+principal+assistants+of+Comrade+Trotsky+were+Comrades+Antonov+and+Podvoisky.%22&pg=PT32 |language=en}}{{cite web |last1=Stalin |first1=Joseph |title=Telegram to V. I. Lenin (1918, on the first anniversary of the Revolution) |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1918/11/06.htm |website=www.marxists.org}}

Upon his 1929 exile, eighteen close relatives remained in the Soviet Union; all faced repression. Seven family members, including his son Sergei Sedov, sister Olga Kameneva, and brother Aleksandr Bronstein, were shot.{{cite book |editor1-last=Brotherstone |editor1-first=Terence |editor2-last=Dukes |editor2-first=Paul |title=The Trotsky reappraisal |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |page=9}} He spoke several European languages "with a markedly Russian accent"{{sfn|Service|2009|p=200}} and identified as a cosmopolitan and internationalist.{{sfn|Service|2009|pp=200–205}} Trotsky wrote about 30,000 documents, most now in archives.{{sfn|Volkogonov|1996|p=xxx}} Deutscher stated Trotsky wrote most Soviet manifestos and resolutions, edited its Izvestia newspaper, and composed the Red Army's oath of loyalty.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet Armed: Trotsky, 1879–1921 |date=2003 |publisher=Verso |isbn=978-1-85984-441-0 |pages=109, 472 |language=en}}

{{Main|Anti-Stalinist Left|The Stalin School of Falsification|Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence}}

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| quote = Had Trotsky won the struggle to succeed Lenin, the character of the Soviet regime would almost certainly have been substantially different, particularly in foreign policy, cultural policy, and the extent of terroristic repression. Trotsky's failure, however, seems to have been almost inevitable, considering his own qualities and the conditions of authoritarian rule by the Communist Party organization.

| source = —Historian Robert Vincent Daniels, 1993{{sfn|Daniels|1993|pp=945–946}}

}}

Trotsky lacked the political acumen to succeed against Stalin's machinations.{{sfn|Mccauley|2014|p=59}}{{cite book |last1=Magill |first1=Frank N. |title=The 20th Century O–Z: Dictionary of World Biography |date=13 May 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-59369-7 |page=3728|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xqvpudh8dasC&dq=trotsky+lacked+political&pg=PA3728 |language=en}} Lenin had encouraged Trotsky to challenge Stalin at the Twelfth Party Congress over the Georgian Affair, but Trotsky relented.{{cite book |last1=Patenaude |first1=Betrand |title="Trotsky and Trotskyism" in The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 1, World Revolution and Socialism in One Country 1917–1941 |date=21 September 2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-21041-6 |page=199 |language=en}} Historian Martin McCauley commented that Trotsky "displayed a lamentable lack of political judgement" on multiple occasions, such as declining Lenin's proposal to become deputy chairman of Sovnarkom, failing to build a power base before forming a bloc with Lenin against the Orgburo, and not immediately recognising the troika established to prevent his succession.{{sfn|Mccauley|2014|p=59}} Biographer Joshua Rubenstein attributed Trotsky's decision to decline Lenin's proposal to his belief the position had "little authority of its own" and overlapped with other government and party officials.{{sfn|Rubenstein|2011|p=127}} Deutscher believed he underestimated Stalin's cunning, ruthlessness, and tenacity on several occasions.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet Outcast: Trotsky, 1929–1940 |date=2003 |publisher=Verso |isbn=978-1-85984-451-9 |page=249 |language=en}}

File:SovietDelegatesAtBrestLitovsk.jpg with the Soviet delegation at Brest-Litovsk, 1917–1918]]

His enmity with Stalin developed during the Civil War due to Stalin's disregard for military specialists whom Trotsky considered indispensable. In Tsaritsyn, Stalin ordered several specialists imprisoned on a barge in the Volga; the floating prison was sunk, and the officers perished.{{cite book |last1=Brackman |first1=Roman |title=The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Life |date=23 November 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-75840-0 |page=129 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PY2RAgAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+trotsky+military+specialist&pg=PA129 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky, 1921–1929 |date=1959 |location=London; New York |publisher= Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-501094-7 |page=76 }} Another instance was Stalin's disobedience of Trotsky's order to march on Warsaw, contributing to the Red Army's defeat at the Battle of Warsaw in 1920.{{cite book |last1=Dziewanowski |first1=M. K. |title=Russia in the twentieth century |date=2003 |publisher=Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Prentice Hall |isbn=978-0-13-097852-3 |page=157 |url=https://archive.org/details/russiaintwentiet0000dzie/page/157/mode/1up?view=theater&q=befell+}}{{cite book |last1=Brackman |first1=Roman |title=The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Life |date=23 November 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-75840-0 |page=135 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PY2RAgAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+stalin+battle+of+warsaw&pg=PA135 |language=en}} Former Politburo secretary Boris Bazhanov claimed Stalin's antagonism also stemmed from Trotsky's Jewishness and that Stalin refused to obey his military orders during the Civil War.{{cite book |last1=Bazhanov |first1=Boris |last2=Doyle |first2=David W. |title=Bazhanov and the Damnation of Stalin |date=1990 |publisher=Ohio University Press |isbn=978-0-8214-0948-0 |page=59 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0_ANAQAAMAAJ |language=en}} According to Rogovin, Trotsky received hundreds of letters reporting the use of antisemitic methods during the inter-party struggle between Stalin and the United Opposition.{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |pages=440–441 |language=en}}

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| quote = With all the greater frankness can I state how, in my view, the Soviet government should act in case of a fascist upheaval in Germany. In their place, I would, at the very moment of receiving telegraphic news of this event, sign a mobilisation order calling up several age groups. In the face of a mortal enemy, when the logic of the situation points to inevitable war, it would be irresponsible and unpardonable to give that enemy time to establish himself, to consolidate his positions, to conclude alliances… and to work out the plan to attack.

| source = —Trotsky describing in 1932 the military measures he would have taken, in place of Stalin, to counter the rise of Nazi Germany.{{sfn|Deutscher|2015a|pp=1192–1193}}

}}

Rubenstein regarded Trotsky's position among Soviet elites as largely dependent on Lenin, adding that he had an outsider image within party circles as he had previously been an "outspoken critic of Lenin".{{sfn|Rubenstein|2011|p=126}} Conversely, Volkogonov stated Trotsky had the support of many party intellectuals, but this was overshadowed by Stalin's control of the vast party apparatus, including the GPU and party cadres.{{sfnm|1a1=Volkogonov|1y=1996|1p=284}}

Trotsky attributed his political defeat to external, objective conditions rather than Stalin's individual qualities. He argued that failed international insurrections (e.g., Bulgaria 1923, China 1927) diminished prospects for world socialism and demoralised the Russian working class, strengthening internal Soviet bureaucracy.{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=The Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union and where is it Going? |date=1991 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-0-929087-48-1 |pages=85–98 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hiCYS9Z3lDoC&q=trotsky+defeat+bureaucracy |language=en}} Russian historian Vadim Rogovin remarked that Trotsky, in the 1930s, did not abandon hope for revolutionary spread, arguing his prognosis was plausible as many European countries (Germany, France, especially Spain) "went through a period of revolutionary crisis".{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |page=381 |language=en}} However, Daniels contended Trotsky would have been no more prepared than other Bolsheviks to risk war or lose trade opportunities, despite his support for world revolution.{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=195 |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}

{{Main|Leninism}}

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| image1 = Lenin in 1920 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Lenin in 1920|upright=0.80

| image2 = Trotsky Profile.jpg|Trotsky_Profile|alt=Profile photograph of Trotsky, 1920

| footer = Lenin and Trotsky (both photographed in 1920) were viewed as the leading figures in the first Soviet government.

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Trotsky's relationship with Lenin is a source of intense historical debate.{{sfnm|Swain|2014b|1pp=1–10|North|2010|2pp=52–90}} Historian Paul Le Blanc and philosopher Michael Löwy described Lenin and Trotsky as the "widely leading figures in the Russia's Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 as well as in the final years of the rising world communist movement".{{cite book |last1=Rockmore |first1=Tom |last2=Levine |first2=Norman |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Leninist Political Philosophy |date=19 December 2018 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-51650-3 |pages=231–255 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0nWADwAAQBAJ |language=en}}

Swain, however, viewed the notion of Trotsky as Lenin's natural heir as a myth, citing scholars like Erik Van Ree, James D. White, and Richard B. Day who challenged the traditional characterization of their relationship.{{sfnm|Swain|2014b|1pp=1–10}} Le Blanc disputed Swain's representation, referencing historians across generations including E. H. Carr, Isaac Deutscher, Moshe Lewin, Ronald Suny, and W. Bruce Lincoln. According to Le Blanc, these historians generally supported the view that Lenin desired a collective leadership in which Trotsky played an important role, and within which Stalin would be dramatically demoted or removed.{{cite book |last1=Blanc |first1=Paul Le |title=Leon Trotsky |date=15 April 2015 |publisher=Reaktion Books |isbn=978-1-78023-471-7|pages=1–30|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VMCkCQAAQBAJ&dq=Paul+le+blanc+swain+heir&pg=PT14 |language=en}}

Historian Roy Medvedev noted the close association of Trotsky and Lenin in the Soviet republic from 1921 to 1924, mentioning public commendations where "greetings in honour of comrades Lenin and Trotsky were announced at many rallies and meetings, and portraits of Lenin and Trotsky hung on the walls of many Soviet and party institutions".{{cite book |last1=Medvedev |first1=Roj Aleksandrovič |title=Let history judge: the origins and consequences of Stalinism |date=1989 |publisher=Columbia Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-231-06351-7 |page=109 |edition=Rev. and expanded}}

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|bgcolor=|quote=Comrade Trotsky, on the other hand, as his struggle against the C.C. on the question of the People's Commissariat of Communications has already proved, is distinguished not only by outstanding ability. He is personally perhaps the most capable man in the present C.C., but he has displayed excessive self-assurance and shown excessive preoccupation with the purely administrative side of the work.|source=—Lenin's Testament, 1923{{sfn|Lewin|2005|p=80}}{{cite book |last1=Kuromiya |first1=Hiroaki |title=Stalin |date=16 August 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-86780-7 |page=60 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BRV4AAAAQBAJ&dq=Comrade+Trotsky,+on+the+other+hand,+as+his+struggle+against+the+C.C.+on+the+question+of+the+People%27s+Commissariat+of+Communications+has+already+proved,+is+distinguished+not+only+by+outstanding+ability.+He+is+personally+perhaps+the+most+capable+man+in+the+present+C.C.,+but+he+has+displayed+excessive+self-assurance+and+shown+excessive+preoccupation+with+the+purely+administrative+side+of+the+work.&pg=PA60 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Lenin |first1=Vladimir Ilʹich |title=Selected Works in Three Volumes |date=1970 |publisher=Progress Publishers |isbn=978-0-7178-0300-2 |page=682 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gh4KAQAAIAAJ&q=Comrade+Trotsky,+on+the+other+hand,+as+his+struggle+against+the+C.C.+on+the+question+of+the+People%27s+Commissariat+of+Communications+has+already+proved,+is+distinguished+not+only+by+outstanding+ability.+He+is+personally+perhaps+the+most+capable+man+in+the+present+C.C.,+but+he+has+displayed+excessive+self-assurance+and+shown+excessive+preoccupation+with+the+purely+administrative+side+of+the+work. |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Moss |first1=Walter G. |title=A History Of Russia Volume 2: Since 1855 |date=1 October 2004 |publisher=Anthem Press |isbn=978-0-85728-739-7 |pages=237–238 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yMwdWFtgV0QC&dq=Comrade+Trotsky,+on+the+other+hand,+as+his+struggle+against+the+C.C.+on+the+question+of+the+People%27s+Commissariat+of+Communications+has+already+proved,+is+distinguished+not+only+by+outstanding+ability.+He+is+personally+perhaps+the+most+capable+man+in+the+present+C.C.,+but+he+has+displayed+excessive+self-assurance+and+shown+excessive+preoccupation+with+the+purely+administrative+side+of+the+work.&pg=PA238 |language=en}} Most historians consider the document an accurate reflection of Lenin's views.{{cite book |last1=Suny |first1=Ronald |title=Red Flag Wounded |date=25 August 2020 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78873-074-7 |page=59 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I4XzDwAAQBAJ&dq=Few+other+scholars+doubt+the+authorship+of+the+document,+which+accurately+reflected+Lenin%E2%80%99s+views,+nor+was+it+questioned+at+the+time+it+was+written+and+debated+in+high+party+circles.+Kotkin%E2%80%99s+interpretation,+fascinating+as+it+is,+relies+on+conjecture+rather+than+evidence&pg=PA59 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Edele |first1=Mark |title=Debates on Stalinism |date=11 June 2020 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-1-5261-4895-7 |pages=137–239 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-rqDwAAQBAJ&dq=lenin+testament+forgery&pg=PT126 |language=en}}}}

Trotsky was generally viewed as Lenin's choice as a successor in 1923.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky, 1921–1929 |date=2003 |publisher=Verso |isbn=978-1-85984-446-5 |pages=77–78 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Schapiro |first1=Leonard |title=The Government and Politics of the Soviet Union |date=1967 |publisher=Hutchinson |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kHwKAAAAMAAJ |language=en}} He had been nominated as Lenin's deputy in 1922 and 1923 and was expected to assume responsibility over the Council of National Economy or Gosplan.{{cite book |last1=Getty |first1=J. Arch |title=Practicing Stalinism: Bolsheviks, Boyars, and the Persistence of Tradition |date=27 August 2013 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-16929-4 |page=53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RaYzAAAAQBAJ&dq=Lenin+Trotsky+chairman+gosplan+1923&pg=PA53 |language=en}} Lenin and Trotsky were the only Soviet leaders elected honorary presidents of the Communist International.{{sfn|Deutscher|2015a|pp=605}} Before the 1921 factional ban, Trotsky had considerable support among party activists and Central Committee members against Lenin's narrow majority. His supporters also controlled the Orgburo and Party Secretariat before Stalin's appointment as General Secretary.{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=162 |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Reiman|first1=Michal |title=Trotsky and the struggle for "Lenin's heritage". Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |pages=42–52}} McCauley states Lenin planned to retire and arranged for Trotsky to speak on his behalf as his natural successor, which triggered the troika's formation.{{sfn|Mccauley|2014|p=52}} Historian Orlando Figes highlighted the increasing alignment between Lenin and Trotsky in 1923, citing Lenin's testament (critical of Stalin and bureaucracy) and their shared positions on foreign trade, party reform, and the Georgian affair.{{cite book |last1=Figes |first1=Orlando |title=A people's tragedy: a history of the Russian Revolution |date=1997 |location=New York, NY |publisher= Viking |isbn=978-0-670-85916-0 |pages=796–801 |url=https://archive.org/details/peoplestragedyhi00fige/page/796/mode/2up}}

Soviet historian Victor Danilov believed Lenin's proposed appointment of Trotsky as deputy "would have made him in effect Lenin's successor". Danilov cited Politburo Secretary Bazhanov's notes of Trotsky's concluding speech in 1923, where Trotsky explained declining the deputy position due to concerns his "Jewish origins" could accentuate antisemitic attitudes towards the Soviet Union.{{cite journal |last1=Danilov |first1=Victor |last2=Porter |first2=Cathy |title=We Are Starting to Learn about Trotsky |journal=History Workshop |date=1990 |issue=29 |pages=136–146 |jstor=4288968 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4288968 |issn=0309-2984}}{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |page=438 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC&dq=Victor+Danilov+Trotsky&pg=PA438 |language=en}} McCauley stated Trotsky would "almost certainly" have become successor had Lenin died after his first stroke in 1922.{{sfn|Mccauley|2014|p=51}} Deutscher noted Zinoviev was Lenin's closest disciple from 1907 to 1917, but Zinoviev's opposition to the October Revolution strained his relations with Lenin.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky, 1921–1929 |date=1959 |location=London; New York |publisher= Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-501094-7 |pages=78–79 }}

Opponents like Winston Churchill argued "Lenin [had] indeed regarded Trotsky as his political heir" and sought to protect him before his 1924 death. In My Life, Trotsky maintained Lenin intended him as successor as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, beginning with his proposed appointment as deputy. He explained this process would have started after their 1923 alliance with a commission to mitigate state bureaucracy, facilitating his party succession.{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=My Life: An Attempt at an Autobiography |date=5 April 2012 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-12340-0 |page=479 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F4fqc7eZbjUC&dq=as+would+allow+me+to+become+lenin%27s+deputy+and+as+he+intended+his+successor+to+the+post+of+chairman+of+the+soviet+of+people%27s+commissaries&pg=PA479 |language=en}}

During the dispute about whether to maintain the state monopoly on foreign trade in particular Lenin and Trotsky closed ranks. Too sick to attend the meeting himself Lenin, in a letter addressed to Stalin on 15 December 1922, stated, “I have also come to an arrangement with Trotsky to stand up for my views of the foreign trade monopoly” and “If the idea should arise, … to postpone it until the next plenum, I should most resolutely object to this, because I am sure that Trotsky will be able to stand up for my views just as well as I myself”. Following the plenum rescinding their proposal to relax the foreign trade monopoly, Lenin wrote to Trotsky on 18 December 1922, “It looks as though it has been possible to take the position without a single shot, by a simple maneuver. I suggest that we should not stop and should continue the offensive”.{{Cite web | title=A review of Stephen Kotkin’s Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 - World Socialist Web Site | url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/06/01/kot1-j01.html#end15back | access-date=2025-05-28 | website=www.wsws.org}}

{{Main|Red Army|Petrograd Soviet|Fourth International|Leon Trotsky bibliography}}

File:Trotsky grave.jpg, Mexico City, where his ashes are interred.]]

In 1923, the historic town of Gatchina in Petrograd Governorate (now Leningrad Oblast) was renamed Trotsk ({{langx|ru|Троцк}}) by Soviet authorities after Leon Trotsky.{{cite web|url=http://classif.spb.ru/sprav/np_lo/4_Gatch_uezd.htm|script-title=ru:Гатчинский уезд (февраль 1923 г. – август 1927 г.)|publisher=Система классификаторов исполнительных органов государственной власти Санкт-Петербурга|language=ru|access-date=27 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304094855/http://classif.spb.ru/sprav/np_lo/4_Gatch_uezd.htm|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}} After Joseph Stalin became General Secretary, Trotsky was gradually exiled, and the town was renamed Krasnogvardeysk ({{lang|ru|Красногварде́йск}}, Red Guard City) in 1929. In 1944, to boost morale, its historic name Gatchina was restored.{{cite web|url=http://classif.spb.ru/sprav/np_lo/43_Trotsky_Krasnofvardeysky_Gatchinsky_rayon.htm|script-title=ru:Троцкий район (август 1927 г. – август 1929 г.), Красногвардейский район (август 1929 г. – январь 1944 г.), Гатчинский район (январь 1944 г.)|publisher=Система классификаторов исполнительных органов государственной власти Санкт-Петербурга|language=ru|access-date=27 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203001008/http://classif.spb.ru/sprav/np_lo/43_Trotsky_Krasnofvardeysky_Gatchinsky_rayon.htm|archive-date=3 December 2013|url-status=dead}}

Trotsky's house in Coyoacán is preserved much as it was on the day of his assassination and is now the Leon Trotsky House Museum, run by a board that included his grandson Esteban Volkov (1926–2023).{{cite news |last1=Pérez |first1=David Marcial |title=Muere a los 97 años Esteban Volkov, nieto y guardián de la memoria de León Trotsky |trans-title=Esteban Volkov, grandson and guardian of Leon Trotsky's memory, dies at 97 |url=https://elpais.com/mexico/2023-06-17/muere-a-los-97-anos-esteban-volkov-nieto-y-guardian-de-la-memoria-de-leon-trotsky.html |access-date=18 June 2023 |work=El País México |date=17 June 2023 |language=es-MX}} His grave is on its grounds. The "International Friends of the Leon Trotsky Museum" foundation raises funds to improve the museum.

Shortly before his assassination, Trotsky agreed to sell most of his remaining papers to Harvard University. After his death, his widow, Natalya Sedova, collected his remaining papers and sent them to Harvard. Over the years, Harvard acquired additional papers hidden from Soviet and Nazi agents in Europe.Gerald M. Rosberg, [https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/7/3/leon-trotskys-personal-papers-pbibn-the/ "Leon Trotsky's Personal Papers"], The Harvard Crimson, 3 July 1967. These papers now occupy {{convert|65|ft|m}} of shelf space in Harvard's Houghton Library.[https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/24/resources/6706 Leon Trotsky exile papers], MS Russ 13.1 in the Houghton Library.

Trotsky was never rehabilitated by the Soviet government, despite de-Stalinization-era rehabilitations of most other Old Bolsheviks. His son, Sergei Sedov (died 1937), was rehabilitated in 1988, as was Nikolai Bukharin. Beginning in 1989, Trotsky's books, forbidden until 1987, were published in the Soviet Union. Trotsky was rehabilitated on 16 June 2001 by the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation.[http://memorial-nic.org/iofe/3.html В. В. Иофе. Осмысление Гулага.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110821184248/http://memorial-nic.org/iofe/3.html |date=21 August 2011}} НИЦ «Мемориал»

Historian Harold Shukman assessed conflicting perspectives on Trotsky's legacy:

{{Blockquote|Trotsky's legacy, unlike those of Stalin and Lenin, had long been submerged and obliterated as a topic of debate, and his place in Soviet history books had correspondingly diminished to one of no importance. For Western readers, however, Trotsky has always been one of the most enigmatic and powerful personalities of the Russian revolution, a Mephistophelian figure whose life ended in an appropriately dramatic way.{{cite book |last=Volkogonov |first=Dmitri |date=18 June 2008 |others=Harold Shukman (ed. and trans.) |title=Trotsky: Eternal Revolutionary |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4391-0573-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/trotskyeternalre0000volk/page/n27/mode/2up xxi] (Preface) |url=https://archive.org/details/trotskyeternalre0000volk/page/n27/mode/2up |language=en}}}}

Political theorist and chairmen of the International Editorial Board of the Trotskyist World Socialist Web Site, associated with the International Committee of the Fourth International, David North (socialist) attributed Trotsky's diminished historical influence to the "virtually unlimited resources of the Soviet regime, and of Stalinist-run parties throughout the world, [which] were devoted to blackguarding Trotsky as an anti-Soviet saboteur, terrorist and fascist agent. Within the Soviet Union, his political co-thinkers, past and present, were ruthlessly exterminated".{{sfn|North|2010|pp=160–161}} North also criticized biographical literature on Trotsky by some historians (Ian Thatcher, Geoffrey Swain, Robert Service), viewing these trends as a "confluence of neo-Stalinist falsification and traditional Anglo-American anti-Communism".{{sfn|North|2010|pp=127}}

File:Ludwig Binder Haus der Geschichte Studentenrevolte 1968 2001 03 0275.4212 (17086177105).jpg holding a placard of Trotsky during protests in 1968]]

In 2018, John Kelly wrote that "almost 80 years after Leon Trotsky founded the Fourth International, there are now Trotskyite organisations in 57 countries, including most of Western Europe and Latin America". However, he argued no Trotskyist group had ever led a revolution or built an enduring mass political party.{{cite book |last1=Kelly |first1=John |title=Contemporary Trotskyism: Parties, Sects and Social Movements in Britain |date=14 March 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-36894-6 |page=iii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0mJRDwAAQBAJ&q=john+kelly+57+countries |language=en}} British historian Christian Høgsbjerg countered that academic literature on Trotskyism minimized its historical role in building social movements, stressing British Trotskyists' key role in the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (1966–1971), Anti-Nazi League (1977–1981), All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation (1989–1991), and Stop the War Coalition (from 2001).{{cite journal |last1=Høgsbjerg |first1=Christian |title=Trotskyology: A review of John Kelly, Contemporary Trotskyism: Parties, Sects and Social Movements in Britain |journal=International Socialism |date=18 October 2018 |issue=160 |url=https://isj.org.uk/trotskyology/}}

Outside the Fourth International, Trotsky has been admired by figures including philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre,{{cite book |last1=Birchall |first1=Ian H. |title=Sartre Against Stalinism |date=2004 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-57181-621-4 |page=86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p0FE2XWvFRcC |language=en}} military general Mikhail Tukhachevsky,{{cite book |last1=Medvedev |first1=Roy Aleksandrovich |title=On Stalin and Stalinism |date=1979 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-215842-0 |page=53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=82JpAAAAMAAJ&q=Tukhachevsky%20admired%20Trotsky |language=en}} Marxist theorist Rosa Luxemburg,{{cite book |last1=Luxemburg |first1=Rosa |title=The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg Volume IV: Political Writings 2, On Revolution (1906-1909) |date=15 March 2022 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78873-810-1 |page=xviii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YSIhEAAAQBAJ&dq=she+admired+trotskyist&pg=PR28 |language=en}} economist Paul Sweezy,{{cite book |last1=Saccarelli |first1=Emanuele |title=Gramsci and Trotsky in the Shadow of Stalinism: The Political Theory and Practice of Opposition |date=28 February 2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-89980-6 |page=242 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8GSAgAAQBAJ&dq=paul+sweezy+trotsky&pg=PA242 |language=en}} philosopher John Dewey,{{cite book |last1=Gregson |first1=John |title=Marxism, Ethics and Politics: The Work of Alasdair MacIntyre |date=11 December 2018 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-030-03371-2 |page=186 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=04J-DwAAQBAJ&dq=Admirer+of+Trotsky&pg=PA186 |language=en}} historian A. J. P. Taylor,{{cite book |last1=Roy |first1=James Charles |title=All the World at War: People and Places, 1914–1918 |date=31 May 2024 |publisher=Pen and Sword Military |isbn=978-1-3990-6034-9 |pages=1–672 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vizaEAAAQBAJ&dq=Admirer+of+Trotsky&pg=PT760 |language=en}} psychoanalyst Erich Fromm,{{cite book |last1=Wilde |first1=Lawrence |title=Erich Fromm and the Quest for Solidarity |date=30 April 2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-07511-6 |page=121 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWoYDAAAQBAJ&dq=admiration+of+trotsky&pg=PA121 |language=en}} philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre,{{cite book |last1=Saccarelli |first1=Emanuele |title=Gramsci and Trotsky in the Shadow of Stalinism: The Political Theory and Practice of Opposition |date=28 February 2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-89980-6 |page=114 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8GSAgAAQBAJ&dq=philosopher+admire+trotsky&pg=PA114 |language=en}} literary critic Edmund Wilson,{{cite book |last1=Wald |first1=Alan M. |title=The New York Intellectuals, Thirtieth Anniversary Edition: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s |date=10 October 2017 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-1-4696-3595-8 |page=157 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bDM5DwAAQBAJ |language=en}} painter Diego Rivera,{{cite book |last1=Feferman |first1=Anita Burdman |title=From Trotsky to Gödel: The Life of Jean van Heijenoort |date=28 January 2022 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-000-11079-1 |page=123 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yu1bEAAAQBAJ |language=en}} political leader Martin Tranmæl,{{cite book |last1=Hoidal |first1=Oddvar |title=Trotsky in Norway: Exile, 1935–1937 |date=1 October 2013 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-5806-5 |page=298 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8f_-DwAAQBAJ&dq=admired+trotsky&pg=PA298 |language=en}} and literary writer Lu Xun.{{cite journal |last1=Benton |first1=Gregor |title=Lu Xun and Leon Trotsky |website=www.historicalmaterialism.org |date=24 January 2020 |url=https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/book-review/lu-xun-and-leon-trotsky}}

File:Lev Trotsky.jpg

Trotsky's legacy in modern historiography has evoked a range of conflicting and diverse interpretations.{{cite book |last1=Blanc |first1=Paul Le |title=Leon Trotsky |date=15 April 2015 |publisher=Reaktion Books |isbn=978-1-78023-471-7 |pages=1–30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VMCkCQAAQBAJ&q=paul+le+blanc+trotsky |language=en}} Before the October Revolution, he was part of an old radical democracy movement including Left Mensheviks and Left Bolsheviks.{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=181 |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}} By 1917, Bolshevik figures like Anatoly Lunacharsky, Moisei Uritsky, and Dmitry Manuilsky held him in comparable stature to Lenin; the October insurrection was carried out according to Trotsky's plan.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |page=1283 |language=en}} Contemporaries and later historians viewed him as a hero of the revolution.{{sfnm|1a1=Volkogonov|1y=1996|1p=272|2a1=Rubenstein|2y=2011|2p=96|3a1=Thatcher|3y=2003|3pp=100-105|4a1=Carr|4y=1978|4pp=1-167|5a1=Deutscher|5y=2015a|5pp=310,629|6a1=Patenaude|6y=2010b|6pp=2}}

In the Soviet Union, his reputation deteriorated during the succession struggle, his views presented as sectarian and anti-Leninist.{{cite book |last1=Thatcher |first1=Ian D. |title=Trotsky |date=27 June 2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-57214-4 |pages=1–30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cU3yFMLm1voC&q=thatcher+trotsky |language=en}} Throughout the Stalin era, his name and image were erased from history books, museums, and films, becoming a bogeyman associated with ideological heresy.{{cite book |last1=Patenaude |first1=Betrand |title="Trotsky and Trotskyism" in The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 1, World Revolution and Socialism in One Country 1917–1941 |date=21 September 2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-21041-6 |page=208 |language=en}} His works remained banned until the Gorbachev era.{{cite book |last1=Marples |first1=David R. |title=Russia in the Twentieth Century: The quest for stability |date=14 January 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-86228-4 |page=114 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hCSsAgAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+gorbachev+banned&pg=PA114 |language=en}} After de-Stalinization, later Soviet and Russian historians re-evaluated his role with varying interpretations.

Scholarly consensus holds Trotsky demonstrated remarkable leadership of the Red Army during the Civil War.{{cite book |last1=Selbin |first1=Eric |title=Modern Latin American Revolutions |date=7 February 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-97459-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AvZKDwAAQBAJ&dq=The+scholarly+consensus+on+Trotsky%27s+handling+of+the+Red+Army+from+1918+to+1920+is+summed+up+in+Rosenberg+and+Young%27s+description+of+his+%22remarkable+leadership%22%3A+Rosenberg+and+Young%2C+Transforming+Russia+and+China%2C+p.+63.&pg=PT290 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Martel |first1=William C. |title=Grand Strategy in Theory and Practice: The Need for an Effective American Foreign Policy |date=12 January 2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-08206-9 |page=133 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ZvWBQAAQBAJ&dq=Trotsky+military+theories&pg=PA133 |language=en}} He received the Order of the Red Banner for his role, including organising Petrograd's defence when other Bolshevik leaders were prepared to abandon it.{{cite book |last1=Patenaude |first1=Betrand |title="Trotsky and Trotskyism" in The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 1, World Revolution and Socialism in One Country 1917–1941 |date=21 September 2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-21041-6 |page=197 |language=en}} Swain asserted the Bolsheviks would certainly have lost the Civil War within a year without Trotsky leading the Red Army.{{cite book |last1=Swain |first1=Geoffrey |title=Trotsky |date=22 May 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-86876-7 |page=3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P-ahAwAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+less+terrorised+society&pg=PA3 |language=en}}

Some scholars and Western socialists argue Trotsky represented a more democratic alternative to Stalin, emphasizing his pre-Civil War activities and leadership of the Left Opposition.{{sfnm|1a1= Daniels|1y=2008b|1pp=189-198|2a1=Barnett|2y=2013b|2p=101|3a1=Rogovin|3y=2021b|3pp=1-15,497|4a1=Day|4y=1990|4pp=159-188|5a1=Deutscher|5y=2015a|5pp=674-676, 1558}} Deutscher described Trotsky as the "Soviet's moving spirit" in 1905, representing Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and other Soviets.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=6 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-560-0 |pages=141, 674–676 |language=en}} Trotsky proposed electing a new Soviet presidium with other socialist parties based on proportional representation in September 1917.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |pages=293 |language=en}} Rogovin argued the Left Opposition, led by Trotsky, represented a "real alternative to Stalinism," which was Stalin's primary motive for the Great Terror.{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |pages=1–15 |language=en}} Daniels stated that the most distinctive features of Stalin's rule such as his campaigns against "bourgeois experts" as seen with "the Shakhty trials, his contemptuous anti-intellectualism and the dogmatization of Marxism, the purges—run totally counter to Trotsky's thought".{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=189 |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}

Conversely, figures such as Volkogonov have strongly criticised his defence of the Red Terror and the dictatorship of the proletariat.{{sfn|Volkogonov|1996|p=xxiii}} Service argued that his "ideas and practices laid several foundation stones for the erection of the Stalinist political, economic, social and even cultural edifice".{{sfn|Service|2009|pp=3}} Cherniaev considered Trotsky largely responsible for establishing a one-party, authoritarian state and initiating military practices like summary executions, which later became standard in the Stalinist era. Thatcher cited Trotsky's defence of terror in Terrorism and Communism: A Reply to Karl Kautsky but acknowledged his capacity for leniency, noting he personally urged humane treatment for White army deserters.{{cite book |last1=Thatcher |first1=Ian D. |title=Trotsky |date=27 June 2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-57214-4 |page=102 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cU3yFMLm1voC&dq=trotsky+leniency+white+soldiers&pg=PT91 |language=en}}

File:Trotsky Bust (by Duncan Ferguson) with Photos - Leon Trotsky Museum - Coyoacan - Mexico City - Mexico (15517085251).jpg at the Leon Trotsky House Museum in Coyoacán, Mexico City]]

Other writers believe Trotsky has been maligned and caricatured, necessitating historical reappraisal.{{cite book |last1=Dukes|first1=Paul |title="Introductory essay" in The Trotsky Reappraisal. Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |pages=1–20}} French socialist Pierre Broué criticised Western representations of Trotsky's role in the Kronstadt rebellion, arguing they falsely presented him as the principal figure responsible for the repression. Broué added that military tribunals and executions for desertion were common features of all wars, not exclusive to the Red Army under Trotsky.{{cite book |last1=Broue. |first1=Pierre |title=Trotsky: a biographer's problems in The Trotsky reappraisal. Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |pages=19, 20}} Historian Bertrand Patenaude regarded Service's characterisation of Trotsky as a "mass murderer and a terrorist" as reflective of a wider attempt to discredit him, noting Service's work featured inaccuracies and distortions of the historical record.{{cite journal |last1=Patenaude |first1=Bertrand M. |title=Review of Trotsky: A Biography; In Defense of Leon Trotsky |journal=The American Historical Review |date=2011 |volume=116 |issue=3 |pages=900–902 |doi=10.1086/ahr.116.3.900 |jstor=23308381 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23308381 |issn=0002-8762|url-access=subscription }}

Various historians credit Trotsky and the Left Opposition with shifting Soviet economic orientation from the NEP towards a planned economy through their proposals for mass industrialization.{{sfnm|1a1=Carr|1a2=Davies|1y=1971|1p=199|2a1=Phillips|2y=2000|2p=23|3a1=Fitzpatrick|3y=2008|3p=110|4a1=Payne|4a2=Phillips|4y=2013|4p=1936|5a1=McDermott|5y=2006|5p=61|6a1=Lee|6y=2005|6p=8|7a1=Deutscher|7y=2003b|7p=468}} Trotsky delivered a joint report to the April 1926 Central Committee Plenum proposing national industrialization and replacing annual plans with five-year plans. His proposals were rejected by the Central Committee majority (controlled by the troika) and derided by Stalin at the time.{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |page=358 |language=en}} The eventual adoption of five-year plans in 1928 served as the basis for Soviet modernization.{{cite book |last1=Engerman |first1=David C. |title=Modernization from the Other Shore: American Intellectuals and the Romance of Russian Development |date=15 January 2004 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-27241-5 |page=153 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A7zFEAAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+1928+five+year+plan+soviet+modernization&pg=PA153 |language=en}}

Several scholars regard his historical writings on the Soviet bureaucracy as having considerable influence in shaping the receptive attitudes of later Marxists and many non-Marxists.{{cite book |last1=Twiss |first1=Thomas M. |title=Trotsky and the Problem of Soviet Bureaucracy |date=8 May 2014 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-26953-8 |pages=1–15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3o2fAwAAQBAJ&q=trotsky+and+the+problem+of+soviet+bureaucracy |language=en}} Trotsky associated bureaucratism with authoritarianism, excessive centralism, and conservatism. Political scientist Baruch Knei-Paz argued Trotsky did more than any other political figure to "show the historical and social roots of Stalinism" as a bureaucratic system. British cybernetician Stafford Beer, who worked on the decentralized economic planning project Project Cybersyn (1970–1973), was reportedly influenced by Trotsky's critique of the Soviet bureaucracy."Beer also read Trotsky and found inspiration in Trotsky's critique of the Soviet bureaucracy".{{cite book |last1=Medina |first1=Eden |title=Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile |date=10 January 2014 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-52596-1 |page=292 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VBC3AgAAQBAJ&dq=Stafford+beer+Trotsky&pg=PA292 |language=en}} Professional historians have noted the literary value of his social analysis in works like 1905 and The History of the Russian Revolution for wider historiography.{{cite journal |last1=Wolfe |first1=Bertram D. |title=Leon Trotsky as Historian |journal=Slavic Review |date=1961 |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=495–502 |doi=10.2307/3000510 |jstor=3000510 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3000510|url-access=subscription }}{{cite journal |last1=White |first1=James D. |title=Leon Trotsky and Soviet Historiography of the Russian Revolution (1918–1931) |journal=Revolutionary Russia |date=3 July 2021 |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=276–295 |doi=10.1080/09546545.2021.1983938 |language=en|doi-access=free }}

{{Main|Trotskyism|Socialist democracy|Soviet democracy}}

File:Trotsky reading The Militant, circa 1936.jpg, a socialist newsweekly, c. 1936]]

Trotsky considered himself a "Bolshevik-Leninist",{{cite web | author = Leon Trotsky | title = To Build Communist Parties and an International Anew | date = July 1933 | url = https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/germany/1933/330715.htm | website = Marxists Internet Archive}} advocating for the establishment of a vanguard party. He viewed himself as an advocate of orthodox Marxism.{{sfn|Cox|1992|p=84}} Trotsky adhered to scientific socialism, seeing it as a conscious expression of historical processes.{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=In Defence of Marxism |date=25 March 2019 |publisher=Wellred Publications |isbn=978-1-913026-03-5 |page=138 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r52JwwEACAAJ |language=en}} His politics differed from those of Stalin or Mao Zedong, most importantly in his rejection of "socialism in one country" and his insistence on the need for an international "permanent revolution".

In the post-Lenin struggle, Trotsky and the Left/United Opposition advocated rapid industrialization, voluntary agricultural collectivisation, and the expansion of workers' democracy.{{cite book |last1=Mandel |first1=Ernest |title=Trotsky as Alternative |date=5 May 2020 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78960-701-7 |pages=32–66 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xVmcEAAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+as+alternative+mandel&pg=PT80 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Leon Trotsky: Platform of the Joint Opposition (1927) |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1927/opposition/index.htm |website=www.marxists.org}} In 1936, Trotsky called for restoring the right of criticism in areas like economic policy, revitalizing trade unions, and allowing free elections involving multiple Soviet parties.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |page=1348 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=The Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union and where is it Going? |date=1991 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-0-929087-48-1 |page=218 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hiCYS9Z3lDoC |language=en}} In the Transitional Program (drafted for the 1938 founding congress of the Fourth International), Trotsky reiterated the need for political pluralism and workers' control of production.{{cite book |last1=Wiles |first1=Peter |title=The Soviet Economy on the Brink of Reform: Essays in Honor of Alec Nove |date=14 June 2023 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-88190-5 |page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mHAIEQAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+legalization+of+soviet+parties+worker+control+of+production&pg=PA31 |language=en}} Supporters of the Fourth International echo Trotsky's opposition to Stalinist totalitarianism, advocating political revolution and arguing socialism cannot sustain itself without democracy.{{sfn|Ree|1998}}

{{Main|Economic planning|Planned economy|Left Opposition|The Transitional Program}}

File:Graph illustrating the Scissors Crisis.png

Trotsky was an early proponent of economic planning (from 1923) and favoured accelerated industrialization.{{cite book |last1=Twiss |first1=Thomas M. |title=Trotsky and the Problem of Soviet Bureaucracy |date=8 May 2014 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-26953-8 |pages=88–113 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3o2fAwAAQBAJ&dq=Trotsky+economic+planning+1923&pg=PA135 |language=en}} In 1921, he supported strengthening Gosplan to guide balanced economic reconstruction after the Civil War.{{sfn|Deutscher|2015a|pp=587}} He also urged economic decentralisation between the state, oblast regions, and factories to counter inefficiency and bureaucracy.{{cite book |last1=Twiss |first1=Thomas M. |title=Trotsky and the Problem of Soviet Bureaucracy |date=8 May 2014 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-26953-8 |pages=105–106 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3o2fAwAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+decentralized+planning&pg=PA106 |language=en}}

He had proposed the principles underlying the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1920 to mitigate urgent economic problems from war communism, later privately reproaching Lenin for the delayed government response in 1921–1922.{{sfn|Deutscher|2015a|pp=507-508,585}}{{sfn|Rubenstein|2011|p=161}} His position differed from the majority who fully supported the NEP.{{cite book |last1=Day |first1=Richard B. |title=Leon Trotsky and the Politics of Economic Isolation |date=1973 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-52436-0 |page=109 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cGx-pzsksksC&dq=Trotsky+economic+planning+1923&pg=PA109 |language=en}} Trotsky believed planning and NEP should coexist in a mixed framework until the socialist sector gradually superseded private industry.{{sfn|Deutscher|2015a|pp=646}} He found allies among economic theorists and administrators like Yevgeni Preobrazhensky and Georgy Pyatakov (deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy).{{sfn|Deutscher|2015a|pp=592}} Intellectuals formed the core of the Left Opposition during the succession period.

Trotsky specified the need for "overall guidance in planning i.e. the systematic co-ordination of the fundamental sectors of the state economy in the process of adapting to the present market" and urged for a national plan{{cite web |title=Trotsky: The Single Economic Plan (1923) |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1923/08/econplan.htm |website=www.marxists.org |language=en}} alongside currency stabilization.{{cite book |last1=Nove |first1=Alec |title=Socialism, Economics and Development (Routledge Revivals) |date=12 November 2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-58266-0 |pages=89–90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NWn4BbCEH6gC&dq=Trotsky+economic+planning+1923&pg=PA89 |language=en}} He rejected the Stalinist focus on heavy industry, proposing instead the use of foreign trade as an accelerator and directing investments via comparative coefficients.{{cite book |last1=Gueullette |first1=Agota |title=Trotsky and foreign economic relations. Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |page=212}}

File:Л. Д. Троцкий, Л. Б. Каменев и Г. Е. Зиновьев. Середина 1920-х годов.jpg, and Zinoviev pictured in the mid-1920s as members of the United Opposition]]

In response to the Scissors Crisis (1923–1924), which strained worker-peasant relations, Trotsky and the Left Opposition developed economic proposals including a progressive tax on wealthier groups (kulaks, NEPmen), balancing import-export to purchase machinery abroad, and accelerating industrialization.{{sfn|Mandel|1995|p=62}}{{cite web |title=Documents of the 1923 opposition |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/ilo/1923-lo/index.htm |website=www.marxists.org}} In 1932–1933, Trotsky maintained the need for mass participation in economic planning.{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=Writings of Leon Trotsky. [Edited by George Breitman and Evelyn Reed]: 1932-33 |date=1972 |publisher=Pathfinder Press |page=96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WUo8AAAAIAAJ&q=even%20if%20the%20Politburo%20consisted%20of%20seven%20universal%20geniuses,%20of%20seven%20Marxes,%20or%20seven%20Lenins,%20it%20will%20still%20be%20unable,%20all%20on%20its%20own,%20with%20all%20its%20creative%20imagination,%20to%20assert%20command%20over%20the%20economy%20of%20170%20million%20people |language=en}} When questioned by the Dewey Commission in 1937 about industrialization, he emphasized the need for Soviet democracy:

{{Blockquote|The successes are very important, and I affirmed it every time. They are due to the abolition of private property and to the possibilities inherent in planned economy. But, they – I cannot say exactly – but I will say two or three times less than they could be under a regime of Soviet democracy.{{cite book |last1=Woods |first1=Alan |last2=Grant |first2=Ted |title=Lenin and Trotsky: What They Really Stood For |date=1976 |publisher=Wellred Books |pages=147–148 |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/grant/1969/lenin-trotsky/ch07.htm#s1|language=en}}}}

According to Fitzpatrick, the scholarly consensus is that Stalin appropriated the Left Opposition's position on industrialization and collectivisation.{{cite journal |last1=Fitzpatrick |first1=Sheila |title=The Old Man |journal=London Review of Books |date=22 April 2010 |volume=32 |issue=8 |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n08/sheila-fitzpatrick/the-old-man |language=en |issn=0260-9592}} Other scholars argue Trotsky's economic programme differed from Stalin's forced collectivisation (post-1928) due to the latter's brutality.{{sfn|Mandel|1995|p=59}}

{{Main|Permanent revolution}}

File:Diego rivera Commies.jpg mural (Man, Controller of the Universe) depicts Trotsky (right, grey suit) with Marx (centre, white beard) and Engels (behind Marx), presenting them as champions of the workers' struggle.]]

Permanent Revolution theory holds that in countries with delayed bourgeois democratic development, these tasks can only be accomplished by establishing a workers' state, which inevitably involves inroads against capitalist property. Thus, bourgeois democratic tasks transition into proletarian ones. Though closely associated with Trotsky, the call for "Permanent Revolution" first appeared in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' March 1850 [https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1850/03/address-league.htm Address] of the Central Committee to the Communist League:

{{Blockquote|It is our interest and our task to make the revolution permanent until all the more or less propertied classes have been driven from their ruling positions, until the proletariat has conquered state power and until the association of the proletarians has progressed sufficiently far—not only in one country but in all the leading countries of the world—that competition between the proletarians of these countries ceases and at least the decisive forces of production are concentrated in the hands of the workers. ... Their battle-cry must be: The Permanent Revolution.}}

Trotsky's conception, drawing on Russian Marxist founder Georgy Plekhanov, argued that in "backward" countries, the bourgeoisie itself could not achieve bourgeois democratic tasks. Trotsky developed this with Alexander Parvus in 1904–1905. Relevant articles were collected in Trotsky's 1905 and Permanent Revolution (which includes his essay "Results and Prospects"). Some Trotskyists argue the state of the Third World demonstrates capitalism offers no way forward for underdeveloped countries, proving the theory's central tenet.{{cite web|title=The mass uprising in Tunisia and the perspective of permanent revolution|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2011/01/pers-j17.html|work=World Socialist Web Site|date=17 January 2011 |publisher=International Committee of the Fourth International|access-date=3 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529173202/http://wsws.org/en/articles/2011/01/pers-j17.html|archive-date=29 May 2013|url-status=live}}

According to Deutscher, Trotsky supported revolution through proletarian internationalism but opposed achieving it via military conquest. Deutscher cites Trotsky's opposition to the Polish–Soviet War (1920), his proposed armistice with the Entente, and his temperance regarding staging anti-British revolts in the Middle East.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |pages=472–473 |language=en}}

{{Main|United front|The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany}}

File:Fascism.png, based on his writings from the 1930s and published posthumously. It elaborated on the need for a united front for mass mobilisation against fascism.]]

Trotsky was a central figure in the Comintern during its first four congresses, helping generalize Bolshevik strategy and tactics to new Communist parties. From 1921, the united front—a method uniting revolutionaries and reformists in common struggle while winning workers to revolution—was the central tactic advocated by the Comintern after the German revolution's defeat.

Trotsky strongly criticized the shifting Comintern policy under Stalin that directed German Communists to treat social democrats as "social fascists". Historian Bertrand Patenaude believed this Comintern policy facilitated Hitler's rise.{{cite book |last1=Patenaude |first1=Betrand |title="Trotsky and Trotskyism" in The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 1, World Revolution and Socialism in One Country 1917–1941 |date=21 September 2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-21041-6 |page=203 |language=en}} Marxist theorist Hillel Ticktin argued Trotsky's political strategy, emphasizing an organizational bloc between the German Communist Party and Social Democratic Party during the interwar period, likely would have prevented Hitler's ascent to power.{{cite book |last1=Ticktin |first1=Hillel |title=Trotsky's political economy of capitalism. Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |page=227}} Trotsky formulated a theory of fascism, analyzing Italian Fascism and the early emergence of Nazi Germany (1930–1933) through a dialectical interpretation.{{cite journal |last1=Wistrich |first1=Robert S. |title=Leon Trotsky's Theory of Fascism |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |date=1976 |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=157–184 |doi=10.1177/002200947601100409 |jstor=260195 |s2cid=140420352 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/260195 |issn=0022-0094|url-access=subscription }}

After exile, Trotsky continued advocating a united front against fascism in Germany and Spain. According to Joseph Choonara of the British Socialist Workers Party, his articles on the united front represent an essential part of his political legacy.Joseph Choonara, [http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=397&issue=117 "The United Front"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080107230355/http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=397&issue=117 |date=7 January 2008}}, International Socialism, 117.

{{Main|Uneven and combined development}}

The concept of uneven and combined development derived from Trotsky's political theories.{{cite journal |last1=Peck |first1=Jamie |last2=Varadarajan |first2=Latha |title=Uneven Regional Development |journal=International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology |date=6 March 2017 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0721 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0721 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd |isbn=9780470659632 |language=en|url-access=subscription }} Developed alongside permanent revolution theory to explain Russia's historical context, he later elaborated on it to explain specific laws of uneven development (1930) and conditions for possible revolutionary scenarios.{{cite book |title=Cultures of Uneven and Combined Development: From International Relations to World Literature |date=8 July 2019 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-38473-6 |pages=1–20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tMqiDwAAQBAJ&q=Trotsky+uneven+and+combined+development |language=en}} According to Thatcher, this theory was later generalized to "the entire history of mankind"."Talk of uneven development becomes dominant in Trotskii's writings from 1927 onwards. From this date, whenever the law is mentioned, the claim consistently made for it is that 'the entire history of mankind is governed by the law of uneven development'." – Ian D. Thatcher, "Uneven and combined development", Revolutionary Russia, Vol. 4 No. 2, 1991, p. 237.

Political scientists Emanuele Saccarelli and Latha Varadarajan valued his theory as a "signal contribution" to international relations, arguing it presented "a specific understanding of capitalist development as 'uneven', insofar as it systematically featured geographically divergent 'advanced' and 'backward' regions" across the world economy.{{cite journal |last1=Saccarelli |first1=Emanuele |last2=Varadarajan |first2=Latha |title=Leon Trotsky and the political conundrum of international relations |journal=Global Social Challenges Journal |date=7 June 2023 |volume=-1 |issue=aop |pages=105–126 |doi=10.1332/CBXB8720 |url=https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/gsc/configurable/content/journals$002fgscj$002faop$002farticle-10.1332-CBXB8720$002farticle-10.1332-CBXB8720.xml |language=en|doi-access=free }}

{{see also|Literature and Revolution|Problems of Everyday Life}}

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|bgcolor=|quote=Faith merely promises to move mountains; but technology, which takes nothing 'on faith', is actually able to cut down mountains and move them. Up to now this was done for industrial purposes (mines) or for railways (tunnels); in the future this will be done on an immeasurably larger scale, according to a general industrial and artistic plan. Man will occupy himself with re-registering mountains and rivers, and will earnestly and repeatedly make improvements in nature.|source=—Trotsky, Literature and Revolution, 1924{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=Literature and Revolution |date=2005 |publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-931859-16-5 |page=204 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MG-981usVQEC&dq=man+will+occupy+himself+with+re+registering+mountains+and+rivers+and+will+earnestly+and+repeatedly+make+improvements+in+nature&pg=PA204 |language=en}}}}

In Literature and Revolution (1924), Trotsky examined aesthetic issues related to class and the Russian revolution. Soviet scholar Robert Bird considered it the "first systematic treatment of art by a Communist leader" and a catalyst for later Marxist cultural and critical theories.{{cite journal |last1=Bird |first1=Robert |title=Culture as permanent revolution: Lev Trotsky's Literature and Revolution |journal=Studies in East European Thought |date=1 September 2018 |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=181–193 |doi=10.1007/s11212-018-9304-6 |s2cid=207809829 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11212-018-9304-6 |language=en |issn=1573-0948|url-access=subscription }} Trotsky defended intellectual autonomy regarding literary movements and scientific theories like Freudian psychoanalysis and Einstein's theory of relativity, theories increasingly marginalised during the Stalin era.{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |pages=729–730 |language=en}} He later co-authored the 1938 Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art with endorsements from André Breton and Diego Rivera.{{sfn|Deutscher|2015a|pp=1474}} Trotsky's writings on literature, advocating tolerance, limited censorship, and respect for literary tradition (e.g., his 1923 survey), strongly appealed to the New York Intellectuals.{{cite book |last1=Patenaude |first1=Betrand |title="Trotsky and Trotskyism" in The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 1, World Revolution and Socialism in One Country 1917–1941 |date=21 September 2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-21041-6 |page=204 |language=en}}

{{Multiple image

| total_width = 350

| image1 = Trotsky Annenkow 1922 cartoon.jpg|alt1=Cubist caricature of Trotsky by Yury Annenkov, 1922

| image2 = Trotsky-Annenkov 1921 Red Army.jpg|alt2=Stylized portrait of Trotsky in Red Army uniform by Yury Annenkov, 1921

| footer = Cubist, stylized depictions of Trotsky attributed to Yury Annenkov, 1921–1922

}}

Trotsky critiqued contemporary literary movements like Futurism and emphasized cultural autonomy for developing socialist culture. According to literary critic Terry Eagleton, Trotsky recognized, "like Lenin on the need for a socialist culture to absorb the finest products of bourgeois art".{{cite book |last1=Eagleton |first1=Terry |title=Marxism and Literary Criticism |date=7 March 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-94783-6 |page=20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h7k8t09BbIQC&q=trotsky+literature+and+revolution+socialist+realism |language=en}} Trotsky viewed proletarian culture as "temporary and transitional," providing foundations for a classless culture. He argued economic well-being and emancipation from material constraints were prerequisites for artistic creativity.{{cite book |last1=Knei-Paz |first1=Baruch |title=The social and political thought of Leon Trotsky |date=1978 |location=Oxford [Eng.] |publisher= Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-827233-5 |pages=289–301 |url=https://archive.org/details/socialpoliticalt0000knei/page/300/mode/2up?q=proletarian+culture}}

Political scientist Baruch Knei-Paz characterised Trotsky's view of the party's role as transmitting culture, raising educational standards, and facilitating entry into the cultural sphere, but leaving artistic creation (language, presentation) to the practitioner. Knei-Paz noted key distinctions between Trotsky's approach and Stalin's cultural policy in the 1930s.

• The comedy film The Trotsky (2009) centres on a protagonist named Leon Bronstein (played by Jay Baruchel) who believes himself the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky.{{cite web |url=https://tiff.net/events/the-trotsky |title=The Trotsky |publisher=Toronto International Film Festival |access-date=30 December 2022}}
• The characters Snowball in George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945) and Emmanuel Goldstein in Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) are based on Trotsky.{{cite book |last1=Corney |first1=Frederick |title=Trotsky's Challenge: The 'Literary Discussion' of 1924 and the Fight for the Bolshevik Revolution |date=24 November 2015 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-30666-0 |page=82 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3pADCwAAQBAJ&dq=Trotsky+snowball+Goldstein&pg=PA82 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Shaffer |first1=Brian W. |title=A Companion to the British and Irish Novel, 1945 – 2000 |date=15 April 2008 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4051-5616-5 |page=247 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1BAc_RuD34MC&dq=Trotsky+snowball+Goldstein&pg=PA247 |language=en}}
• Trotsky's final days were dramatized in the film The Assassination of Trotsky (1972), directed by Joseph Losey and starring Richard Burton as Trotsky.{{cite book |last1=Gardner |first1=Colin |title=Joseph Losey |date=11 January 2019 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-1-5261-4156-9 |page=265 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cXICEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA265 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Flanagan |first1=Kevin M. |title=War Representation in British Cinema and Television: From Suez to Thatcher, and Beyond |date=25 October 2019 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-030-30203-0 |page=51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aDy5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA51 |language=en}}
• The 8-episode biographical drama Trotsky debuted on Russia's Channel One in 2017. Netflix acquired distribution rights in 2018.{{Cite web |title=Trotsky coming soon to Netflix: Russian revolutionary series to go on online streaming |url=https://tass.com/society/1036412 |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=TASS}}
• The 1980s UK band The Redskins' debut single was titled "Lev Bronstein", released on the CNT record label in 1982.{{cite web|url=http://socialistworker.org/2010/05/27/struggling-for-soul-cialism |title=Struggling for soul-cialism |website=SocialistWorker.org |date=27 May 2010 |access-date=1 June 2020}}
• Playwright David Ives wrote a short play, Variations on the Death of Trotsky, published in his 1994 collection All in the Timing.
• Punk band The Stranglers refer to Trotsky in their 1977 single "No More Heroes" with the lyric "Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky? / He got an ice pick / That made his ears burn".{{Cite web|title=The Stranglers – No More Heroes|url=https://genius.com/The-stranglers-no-more-heroes-lyrics|access-date=2023-05-04|website=Genius}}

• Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary's Life by Joshua Rubenstein (2011).
• The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky by Isaac Deutscher (1954–1963).
• The Prophet Armed: Trotsky, 1879–1921 by Isaac Deutscher (1954).
• The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky, 1921–1929 by Isaac Deutscher (1959).
• The Prophet Outcast: Trotsky, 1929–1940 by Isaac Deutscher (1963).
• Trotsky: A Biography by Robert Service (2009).

• Entryism
• French Turn
• Predictions of the collapse of the Soviet Union

; In popular culture

• The Assassination of Trotsky, 1972 film
• Reds, 1981 film about the October Revolution
• Variations on the Death of Trotsky, 1991 play
• Trotsky, 2017 TV series

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|24em}}

• {{Cite book |first=Leon |last=Trotsky |title=1905 |publisher=Vintage Books |location=New York |year=1971 |isbn=978-0394471778}}

{{See also|Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite book |last=Ackerman |first=Kenneth D. |title=Trotsky in New York, 1917: A Radical on the Eve of Revolution |year=2017 |publisher=Counterpoint |isbn=978-1-64009-003-3}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Avrich |first1=Paul |author-link=Paul Avrich |title=Kronstadt, 1921 |date=1970 |language=en |isbn=0-691-08721-0 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, N.J. |oclc=67322 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Barnett |first1=Vincent |title=A History of Russian Economic Thought |year= 2013b |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-26191-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s71uK9sB27AC&dq=Trotsky+alternative+historians&pg=PA101 |language=en}}
• {{cite book | last = Beilharz | first = Peter | title = Trotsky, Trotskyism and the Transition to Socialism | year = 1987 | publisher = Barnes & Noble | isbn = 978-0-389-20698-9}}
• {{cite journal | last = Blackledge | first = Paul | date = 2006 | title = Leon Trotsky's Contribution to the Marxist Theory of History | journal = Studies in East European Thought | volume = 58 | issue= 1 | pages = 1–31 | doi = 10.1007/s11212-005-3677-z | s2cid = 85504744}}
• {{cite book |last1=Bullock |first1=Alan |url=https://archive.org/details/hitlerstalinpara0000bull/page/132/mode/2up |title=Hitler and Stalin: parallel lives |year=1991b |location=London |publisher= HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-00-215494-9}}
• {{cite book |last1=Carr |first1=Edward Hallett |last2=Davies |first2=Robert William |title=Foundations of a Planned Economy, 1926–1929 |date=1971 |publisher=Macmillan |page=199 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8dEmAQAAMAAJ&q=Trotsky+five+year+plan+stole |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Carr |first1=Edward Hallett |title=Socialism in One Country: 1924-1926. Vol. 1 |date=1978 |publisher=Macmillan Press |isbn=978-0-333-24216-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jeIbzwEACAAJ |language=en}}
• {{cite book | last = Cliff | first = Tony | title = Trotsky: Towards October 1879–1917 | year = 1989 | location = London | publisher = Bookmarks}}
• {{cite book | last = Cliff | first = Tony | title = Trotsky: The Sword of the Revolution 1917–1923 | year = 1990 | location = London | publisher = Bookmarks}}
• {{cite book | last = Cliff | first = Tony | title = Trotsky: Fighting the rising Stalinist bureaucracy 1923–1927 | year = 1991 | location = London | publisher = Bookmarks}}
• {{cite book | last = Cliff | first = Tony | title = Trotsky: The darker the night the brighter the star 1927–1940 | year = 1993 | location = London | publisher = Bookmarks}}
• {{cite book | last = Conquest | first = Robert | title = The Great Terror: A Reassessment | year = 1992 | publisher = Oxford University Pgress | isbn = 0-19-507132-8}}
• {{cite journal | last = Cox | first = Michael | title = Trotsky and His Interpreters; or, Will the Real Leon Trotsky Please Stand up? | journal = Russian Review | volume = 51 | year = 1992 | issue = 1 | pages = 84–102 | doi = 10.2307/131248 | jstor = 131248}}
• {{cite book |last1=D'Agostino |first1=Anthony |title=The Russian Revolution, 1917-1945 |date=2011 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-38622-0 |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uD1-0Gxw0NMC&dq=trotsky+lenin+bloc+1922+d%27agostino&pg=PA67 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert |title=The New Encyclopædia Britannica: Micropædia |date=1993 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |isbn=978-0-85229-571-7 |page=946 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eUQuAAAAMAAJ&q=%E2%80%9CHad%20Trotsky%20won%20the%20struggle%20to%20succeed%20Lenin,%20the%20character%20of%20the%20Soviet%20regime%20would%20almost%20certainly%20have%20been%20substantially%20different,%20particularly%20in%20foreign%20policy,%20cultural%20policy,%20and%20the%20extent%20of%20terroristic%20repression.%20Trotsky%E2%80%99s%20failure,%20however,%20seems%20to%20have%20been%20almost%20inevitable,%20considering%20his%20own%20qualities%20and%20the%20conditions%20of%20authoritarian%20rule%20by%20the%20Communist%20Party%20organization |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |year=2008b |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}
• {{cite book | last = Daniels| first = Robert V | year = 1991 | title = Trotsky, Stalin & Socialism | publisher = Westview Press | isbn = 0-8133-1223-X}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Day |first1=Richard B. |title=The Blackmail of the Single Alternative: Bukharin, Trotsky and Perestrojka |journal=Studies in Soviet Thought |date=1990 |volume=40 |issue=1/3 |pages=159–188 |doi=10.1007/BF00818977 |jstor=20100543 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20100543 |issn=0039-3797|url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite book | last = Deutscher | first = Isaac | author-link = Isaac Deutscher | title = Trotsky: The Prophet Armed | title-link=The Prophet Armed: Trotsky, 1879–1921 | year = 2003a | orig-year = 1954 | publisher = Verso Books | isbn = 978-1-85984-441-0}}
• {{cite book | last = Deutscher | first = Isaac | title = Trotsky: The Prophet Unarmed | title-link=The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky, 1921–1929 | year = 2003b | orig-year = 1959 | publisher = Verso Books | isbn = 978-1-85984-446-5}}
• {{cite book | last = Deutscher | first = Isaac | title = Trotsky: The Prophet Outcast | title-link=The Prophet Outcast: Trotsky, 1929–1940 | year = 2003c | orig-year = 1963 | publisher = Verso Books | isbn = 978-1-85984-451-9}}
• {{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1= Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky | title-link=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |year = 2015a |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-560-0 |language=en}}
• {{cite book | last = Deutscher | first = Isaac | title = Ironies of History: Essays on contemporary communism | year = 1966 | asin = B0000CN8J6 |isbn=}} {{ISBN?}}
• {{cite book |last1=Douds |first1=Lara |title=Inside Lenin's Government: Ideology, Power and Practice in the Early Soviet State |year= 2019b |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-350-12649-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yf5aEAAAQBAJ&dq=on+lenin%27s+initiative+trotsky+deputy&pg=PA165 |language=en}}
• {{cite book | last1 = Dunn | first1= Bill | last2 = Radice | first2 = Hugo | title = Permanent Revolution – Results and Prospects 100 Years On | year = 2006 | location = London | publisher = Pluto Press | isbn = 978-0-7453-2522-4}}
• {{cite report |first1=Yuri |last1=Feofanov |first2=Donald |last2=Barry |url=http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1995-808-02-9-Feofanov.pdf |title=Arbitrary Justice: Courts and Politics in Post-Stalin Russia |publisher=National Council for Soviet and East European Research and Lehigh University |location=Washington, D. C. |year=1995 |access-date=19 July 2007}}
• {{cite book |last1=Figes |first1=Orlando |title=A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution – centenary edition with new introduction |date=26 January 2017 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4481-1264-7 |pages=796–797 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d7i-DQAAQBAJ |language=en}}
• {{cite book|last=Fitzpatrick|first=Sheila|title=The Russian Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v0-1p3thZyMC|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press US|isbn=978-0-19-923767-8 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Getty |first1=J. Arch |title=Practicing Stalinism: Bolsheviks, Boyars, and the Persistence of Tradition |year = 2013b |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-16929-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RaYzAAAAQBAJ&dq=Lenin+Trotsky+chairman+gosplan+1923&pg=PA53 |language=en}}
• {{cite book | last = Gilbert | first = Helen | title = Leon Trotsky: His Life and Ideas | year = 2003 | publisher = Red Letter Press | isbn = 0-932323-17-0}}
• {{cite book | last = Hallas | first = Duncan | title = Trotsky's Marxism | year = 1979 | location = London | publisher = Pluto Press}}
• {{cite book | last = Hansen | first = Joseph | title = Leon Trotsky: the Man and His Work. Reminiscences and Appraisals | year = 1969 | location = New York | publisher = Merit Publishers}}
• {{cite book | last = Heijenoort | first = Jean van | author-link = Jean van Heijenoort | title = With Trotsky in Exile: From Prinkipo to Coyoacan | year = 2013 | publisher = Harvard University Press | isbn = 978-0-674-43668-8}}
• {{cite book | last = Howe | first = Irving | year = 1964 | title = The Basic Writings of Trotsky | asin = B0018ES7TI |isbn=}} {{ISBN?}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kosheleva |first1=L |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B4WLvA5-9hQC&dq=To+the+Secretary+of+the+Central+Committee,+Com.+Stalin.+Since+Com.+Rykov+was+given+a+vacation+before+the+return+of+Tsiurupa+(he+is+expected+to+arrive+on+20+September),+and+the+doctors+are+promising+me+(of+course,+only+in+the+event+that+nothing+bad+happens)+a+return+to+work+(at+first+very+limited)+by+I+October,+I+think+that+it+is+impossible+to+burden+Com.+Tsiurupa+with+all+the+ongoing+work,+and+I+propose+appointing+two+more+deputies+(deputy+to+the+chairman+of+the+Council+of+Commissars+and+deputy+to+the+chairman+of+the+Labor+Defense+Council),+that+is,+Comrades+Trotsky+and+Kamenev.+Distribute+the+work+between+them+with+my+clearance+and,+of+course,+with+the+Politburo+as+the+highest+authority.+%22+11th+September+1922.+V.+Ulianov+(Lenin).%22++++Com.+Trotsky+must+be+aware+that+there+were+no+other+offers+then+or+now+from+Com.+Lenin+regarding+his+appointment+to+the+leadership+of+the+Council+of+Commissars+or+the+Labor+Defense+Council.+Com.+Trotsky+thus+turned+down,+not+the+post+of+chairman+of+the+Council+of+Commissars+or+the+Labor+Defense+Council,+but+the+post+of+one+of+the+four+deputies+of+the+chairman.+Com.+Trotsky+must+be+aware+that+the+Politburo+voted+on+Lenin%27s+proposal+as+follows:+those+in+favor+of+Lenin%27s+proposal+were+Stalin,+Rykov,+Kalinin;+those+who+abstained+were+Tomskii,+Kamenev;+and+Com.+Trotsky+%22categorically+refused%22;+(Zinoviev+was+absent).+Com.+Trotsky+must+be+aware+that+the+Politburo+passed+the+following+resolution+on+this+matter:+%22The+Central+Commit-tee+Politburo+with+regret+notes+the+categorical+refusal+of+Com.+Trotsky+and+proposes+to+Com.+Kamenev+that+he+assume+the+fulfillment+of+the+duties+of+deputy+until+the+return+of+Com.+Tsiurupa&pg=PA80 |title=Stalin's Letters to Molotov: 1925–1936 |year=1995b |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-06211-3|language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1= Kivelson |first1=Valerie Ann |last2=Neuberger |first2=Joan|title=Picturing Russia: Explorations in Visual Culture |year= 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-11961-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IKYl576odbgC&dq=trotsky+everyday+life&pg=PA149 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last=Knei-Paz |first=Baruch |title=The Social and Political Thought of Leon Trotsky |year=1979 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-827234-2}}
• {{cite book |last1=Patenaude |first1=Bertrand |title=Stalin's Nemesis: The Exile and Murder of Leon Trotsky |year=2010b |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-25834-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=81Se6bj7D0YC |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kort |first1=Michael G. |title=The Soviet Colossus: History and Aftermath |date=18 May 2015 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0-7656-2845-9 |page=166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BHaWGEZA5zMC |language=en}}
• {{cite book | last = Laqueur | first = Walter | title = Stalin: The Glasnost Revelations | year = 1990 | publisher = Scribner's | isbn = 978-0-684-19203-1}}
• {{cite book | last = Le Blanc | first = Paul | title = Leon Trotsky | year = 2015 | location = London | publisher = Reaktion Books | isbn = 978-1-78023-430-4}}
• {{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Stephen J. |title=Stalin and the Soviet Union |date=20 June 2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-66574-7 |page=8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cmKFAgAAQBAJ&dq=Trotsky+five+year+plan+stole&pg=PA8 |language=en}}
• {{cite book | last = Levine | first = Isaac Don | title = The Mind of an Assassin | year = 1960 | location = New York | publisher = New American Library/Signet Book}}
• {{cite book |last1=Lewin |first1=Moshe |title=Lenin's Last Struggle |date=4 May 2005 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-03052-1 |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iheBbViwVksC&q=moshe+lewin+lenin%27s+last+struggle+trotsky+bloc |language=en}}
• {{cite book | last = Mandel | first = Ernest | title = La pensée politique de Leon Trotsky | year = 1980 | publisher = La Découverte | language = fr | isbn = 978-2707139788}}
• {{cite book |last1=Mandel |first1=Ernest |title=Trotsky as alternative |date=1995 |publisher=Verso |location=London |isbn=978-1859840856 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Mccauley |first1=Martin |title=The Soviet Union 1917-1991 |date=4 February 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-90178-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PEHKAgAAQBAJ&q=martin+mccauley+soviet+union |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=McDermott |first1=Kevin |title=Stalin: Revolutionary in an Era of War |date=23 January 2006 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-230-20478-2 |page=61 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zpJKEAAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+stalin+steal+industrialisation&pg=PA61 |language=en}}
• {{cite journal | last = McNeal | first = Robert H. | title = Trotsky's Interpretation of Stalin | journal = Canadian Slavonic Papers | year = 2015 | volume = 5 | pages = 87–97 | doi = 10.1080/00085006.1961.11417867}}
• {{cite book |last=Medvedev |first=Roy |author-link=Roy Medvedev |title=Let History Judge |publisher=Spokesman Books |location=Nottingham |year=1976 |isbn=978-0-85124-150-0}}
• {{cite book | last = Molyneux | first = John | title = Leon Trotsky's Theory of Revolution | year = 1981 | location = Brighton | publisher = Harvester Press | isbn = 978-0-312-47994-7}}
• {{cite book | last = North | first = David | title = In Defense of Leon Trotsky | year = 2010 | publisher = Mehring Books | isbn = 978-1-893638-05-1|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=mVqvouA22IkC&q=david+north+in+defence+of+trotsky}}
• {{cite book | last = Parrish | first = Michael | title = The Lesser Terror: Soviet State Security, 1939–53 | year = 1996 | publisher = Praeger | isbn = 978-0-275-95113-9}}
• {{cite book | last = Patenaude | first = Bertrand M. | title = Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary | year = 2010 | location = New York | publisher = Harper Perennial | isbn = 978-0-06-082069-5}}
• {{cite book |last1=Payne |first1=Anthony |last2=Phillips |first2=Nicola |title=Development |date=23 April 2013 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-7456-5735-6 |page=1936 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IMLjKIAlpb8C&dq=stalin+steal+trotsky+five+year+plan&pg=PA1936 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Phillips |first1=Steve |title=Stalinist Russia |date=2000 |publisher=Heinemann |isbn=978-0-435-32720-0 |page=23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OjCF88H-yS4C&dq=Trotsky+five+year+plan+stole&pg=PA23 |language=en}}
• {{cite book | first = Pierre | last =Brouè | title = Trotsky | editor = Fayard | place = Paris | date = 1988 | language = fr}}
• {{cite book | last = Pipes | first = Richard | title = The Unknown Lenin | year = 1996 | publisher = Yale University Press | isbn = 0-300-06919-7}}
• {{cite book |last1=Pipes |first1=Richard |title=Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime |date=1993 |publisher=A.A. Knopf |isbn=978-0-394-50242-7 |page=469 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hr5oAAAAMAAJ&q=richard+pipes+trotsky+lenin+bloc |language=en}}
• {{cite journal | last = Ree | first = Erik Van | title = Socialism in One Country: A Reassessment | year = 1998 | journal = Studies in East European Thought | volume = 50 | issue = 2 | pages = 77–117 | doi = 10.1023/A:1008651325136 | jstor = 20099669 | s2cid = 189785735 | url = https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/3355782/34907_1998_Socialism_in_One_Country_met_offprint_pagina.pdf}}
• {{cite book |last1=Rees |first1=E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=05h9DAAAQBAJ&dq=Bazhanov+deputy+chairman+trotsky&pg=PA129 |title=The Soviet Communist Party in Disarray: The XXVIII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union |last2=Rosa |first2=Cristina F. |year = 1992b |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-38920-5 |language=en}}
• {{cite book | last = Renton | first = David | title = Trotsky | year = 2004 | publisher = Haus | isbn = 978-1-904341-62-8}}
• {{cite book | last = Rogovin | first = Vadim Z | title = 1937 Stalin's Year of Terror | year = 1998 | location = Oak Park, MI | publisher = Mehring Books Inc | isbn = 0-929087-77-1}}
• {{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |year=2021b |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1MakzgEACAAJ |language=en}}
• {{Cite book|last=Rubenstein|first=Joshua|title=Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary's Life | title-link=Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary's Life |publisher=Yale University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-300-17841-8|location=New Haven|oclc=758390021}}
• {{cite book | last = Rubenstein | first = Joshua | title = Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary's Life | year = 2013 | publisher = Yale University Press | isbn = 978-0-300-19832-4}}
• {{cite book | last = Schapiro | first = Leonard | title = Communist Party of the Soviet Union | orig-year = 1960 | year = 1970 | publisher = Methuen | isbn = 978-0-416-18380-1}}
• {{cite book | last = Service | first = Robert | title = Stalin: A Biography | year = 2005 | publisher = Cambridge: Belknap Press | isbn = 0-674-01697-1}}
• {{cite book | last = Service | first = Robert | title = Trotsky: A Biography | year = 2010 | publisher = Macmillan Publishers | isbn = 978-0-330-43969-5}}
• {{cite book |last1=Service |first1=Robert |title=Trotsky: a biography |date=2009 |publisher=Pan |location=London |isbn=978-0330439695 }}
• {{cite journal | last = Soto-Pérez-de-Celis | first = Enrique | title = The Death of Leon Trotsky | journal = Neurosurgery | date = 1 August 2010 | volume = 67 | issue = 2 | pages = 417–423 | doi = 10.1227/01.NEU.0000371968.27560.6C | pmid = 20644428 | doi-access = free}}
• {{cite book |last=Serge |first=Victor |title=Life and Death of Leon Trotsky |year=2016 |publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-60846-469-2}}
• {{cite book | last = Swain | first = Geoffrey | title = Trotsky | year = 2006 | publisher = Routledge | isbn = 978-0-582-77190-1}}
• {{Cite book | last = Swain | first = Geoffrey | title = Trotsky and the Russian Revolution | year = 2014a | publisher = Routledge | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-415-73667-1}}
• {{cite book |last1=Swain |first1=Geoffrey |title=Trotsky |date=22 May 2014b |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-86875-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Im2hAwAAQBAJ}}
• {{cite book | last = Thatcher | first = Ian D. | title = Trotsky | year = 2003 | publisher = Routledge | isbn = 0-415-23251-1}}
• {{cite book |last1=Tucker |first1=Robert C. (Robert Charles) |title=Stalin as revolutionary, 1879-1929: a study in history and personality |date=1973 |location=New York |publisher= W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. |isbn=978-0-393-05487-3 |page=336 |url=https://archive.org/details/stalinasrevoluti0000unse/page/336/mode/2up?q=bloc}}
• {{cite book | last = Volkogonov | first = Dmitri | title = Trotsky, the Eternal Revolutionary | year = 1996 | publisher = HarperCollins | isbn = 978-0-00-729166-3}}
• {{cite book | last = Warth | first = Robert D. | title = Leon Trotsky | year = 1978 | publisher = Twayne Publishers | isbn = 978-0-8057-7720-8}}
• {{cite book | last = Wade | first= Rex A. | title = Revolutionary Russia: New Approaches | year = 2004 | publisher = Psychology Press | isbn = 978-0-415-30748-2}}
• {{cite book | last = Wieczynski | first = Joseph L. | title = The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History | year = 1976 | volume = 39 | publisher = Academic International Press}}
• {{cite book|title=Trotsky: Fate of a Revolutionary|publisher=Stein & Day|location=New York|date=1982|isbn=0-8128-2774-0|author-last=Wistrich|author-first=Robert S.|author-link=Robert Wistrich}}
• {{cite book | last = Wolfe | first = Bertram D | title = Three Who Made a Revolution: A Biographical History of Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin | year = 2001 | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield | isbn = 978-0-8154-1177-2}}

{{refend}}

{{Sister project links|author=yes|wikt=no|b=no|commons=Лев Троцкий|n=no|v=no|d=Q33391}}

{{EB1922 Poster|Trotsky, Lev}}

• {{YouTube|fKI9oi1YJNM|Trotsky speaks about the Moscow Trials}}
• [http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=6621 Trotsky in Havana] by Dimitri Prieto from Havana Times
• [http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/trotsky.htm FBI records relating to Trotsky's murder]
• [http://libcom.org/library/contradiction-trotsky-claude-lefort The Contradiction of Trotsky] by Claude Lefort
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuzXR-5w4Qk Uncommon Knowledge]. Interview with Christopher Hitchens and Robert Service about Leon Trotsky
• {{PM20|FID=pe/017601}}
• [http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/article-summary/leon_trotsky_october_revolution-1917#.Xs_u8GhKizk "How We Made the October Revolution"] by Leon Trotsky. The New York Times, 1919.

• {{marxists.org|trotsky|Leon Trotsky}}
• {{Gutenberg author |id=2030| name=Leon Trotsky}}
• {{FadedPage|id=Trotsky, Leon|name=Leon Trotsky|author=yes}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Leon Trotsky}}
• {{Librivox author |id=4200}}

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