L. D. Trotsky is an outstanding revolutionary of the twentieth century. He entered the history of the world as one of the founders of the Red Army, the Comintern. L. D. Trotsky became the second person of the first Soviet government. It was he who headed the People’s Commissariat, was engaged in naval and military affairs, and proved to be an outstanding fighter against the enemies of the world revolution.
Childhood
Leiba Davidovich Bronstein was born on November 7, 1879 in the Kherson province. His parents were illiterate but wealthy Jewish landowners. The boy had no peer friends, so he grew up alone. Historians believe that it was at this time that such a character trait of Trotsky was formed as a sense of superiority over other people. From childhood, he looked with disdain on the children of laborers, never played with them.
Youthful period
What was Trotsky? His biography has many interesting pages. For example, in 1889, he was sent by his parents to Odessa, the purpose of the trip was to educate the young man. He managed to enter the school of St. Paul according to a special quota allocated for Jewish children. Trotsky (Bronstein) quickly became the best student in all subjects. In those years, the young man did not think about revolutionary activity, he was fond of literature, drawing.
At seventeen, Trotsky was in the circle of socialists engaged in revolutionary propaganda. It was at this time that he began to study with interest the works of Karl Marx.
It is hard to believe that Leon Trotsky, whose books were studied by millions of people, quickly turned into a real fanatic of Marxism. Even then, he differed from his peers with a sharp mind, showed leadership qualities, knew how to conduct discussions.
Trotsky plunges into the atmosphere of revolutionary activity, creates the "South Russian Workers' Union", whose members were workers of the Nikolaev shipyards.
Persecution
When was Trotsky first arrested? The biography of the young revolutionary contains information about many arrests. The first time he was imprisoned for revolutionary activity in 1898 for two years. Next was his first exile to Siberia, from which he managed to escape. The name Trotsky was inscribed in a fake passport, it was she who became his pseudonym for his whole life.
Trotsky is a revolutionary
After escaping from Siberia, the young revolutionary leaves for London. It is here that he meets Vladimir Lenin, becomes the author of the Iskra newspaper, publishing under the pseudonym Perot. Having found common interests with the leaders of the Russian Social Democrats, Trotsky quickly became popular, accepting active agitators among migrants.
Trotsky easily established trusting relations with the Bolsheviks, using his oratory abilities and eloquence.
Books
During this period of his life, Leon Trotsky fully supports Lenin’s ideas, therefore he is nicknamed the “Leninist baton”. But after a few years, the young revolutionary takes the side of the Mensheviks and accuses Vladimir Ulyanov of dictatorship.
He could not find mutual understanding with the Mensheviks, since Trotsky tried to unite them with the Bolsheviks. After unsuccessful attempts to reconcile the two factions, he declares himself a "non-factional" member of the social democratic society. Now, as the main goal, he chooses the creation of his own movement, different from the views of the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks.
In 1905, Trotsky returned to revolutionary Petersburg, being in the thick of events taking place in the city.
It was he who created the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies, voiced revolutionary ideas in front of people with a revolutionary mood.
Trotsky actively advocated the revolution, so he again ended up in prison. It was at this time that he was deprived of civil rights, sent to Siberia for eternal settlement.
But he manages to escape from the gendarmes, cross over to Finland, then leave for Europe. Since 1908, Trotsky settles in Vienna, begins to publish the newspaper Pravda. After a couple of years, the Bolsheviks intercepted the publication, and Lev Davidovich went to Paris, where he supervised the publishing house of the newspaper Nashe Slovo. In 1917, Trotsky decided to return to Russia and sent from the Finland Station to the Petrosoviet. He is given membership, granted an advisory vote. A couple of months after staying in St. Petersburg, Lev Davidovich manages to become the informal leader of those who advocate the creation of a single social-democratic workers' party.
In October of the same year, Trotsky forms the Military Revolutionary Committee, and on November 7 carries out an armed uprising, the purpose of which is to overthrow the interim government. This event in history is known as the October Revolution. As a result, the Bolsheviks come to power, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin becomes their leader.
The new government gives Trotsky the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, a year later he becomes People's Commissar for Naval and Military Affairs. Since that time, he has been engaged in the formation of the Red Army. Trotsky imprisons, shoots deserters, violators of military discipline, not sparing those who interfere with his active work. This period in history has been called the Red Terror.
In addition to military affairs, Trotsky at that time actively collaborated with Lenin on issues related to foreign and domestic policy. Its popularity reached its maximum by the end of the Civil War, but due to the death of Lenin, Trotsky was unable to carry out all the reforms aimed at the transition from military communism to the New Economic Policy. He failed to become a full-fledged successor of Lenin, this place was taken by Joseph Stalin. In Leo Trotsky he saw a serious rival, so he tried to take steps to neutralize the enemy. Since the spring of 1924, the real persecution of Trotsky begins, as a result of which Lev Davidovich loses his post and membership in the Central Committee of the Politburo.
Who replaced Trotsky as People's Commissar of Defense? In January 1925, this position was taken by Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze. In 1926, Trotsky tried to return to the political life of the country, he organized an anti-government demonstration. But the attempts were unsuccessful, he was exiled to Alma-Ata, then to Turkey, deprived of Soviet citizenship.
We have already noted who replaced Trotsky as the people's commissar of defense, but he himself did not stop the active struggle with Stalin. Trotsky began to publish the Opposition Bulletin, in which he tried to write about Stalin's barbaric activities. In exile, Trotsky is working on the creation of an autobiography, writes the essay "History of the Russian Revolution", talking about the necessity and inevitability of the October Revolution.
Personal life
In 1935, he moved to Norway and came under pressure from the authorities, which did not plan to spoil relations with the Soviet Union. His works were taken from the revolutionary, they were placed under house arrest. Trotsky did not want to put up with such an existence, so he decides to go to Mexico, watching at a distance the events unfolding in the USSR. In 1936, he completed work on the book Devotional Revolution, where he called the Stalinist regime an alternative counterrevolutionary coup.
Alexandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya became Trotsky's first wife. He met her at the age of 16, when he still did not think about revolutionary activity.
Alexandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya was six years older than Trotsky. It was she who, according to historians, became his guide to Marxism.
She became an official wife only in 1898. After the wedding, the young went to the Siberian exile, in which they had two daughters: Nina and Zinaida. The second daughter was only four months old when Trotsky managed to escape from exile. The wife was left in Siberia alone with two babies. Trotsky himself wrote about that period of his life that he escaped with the consent of his wife, and it was she who helped him move to Europe.
In Paris, Trotsky meets Natalya Sedova, who is actively involved in the publication of the Iskra newspaper. This led to the collapse of the first marriage, but Trotsky managed to maintain friendly relations with Sokolovskaya.
A series of troubles
In the second marriage, Trotsky had two sons: Sergey and Leo. Since 1937, Trotsky's family began to face numerous misfortunes. The youngest son was shot for political activity. A year later, during the operation, his eldest son dies. The tragic fate befell the daughters of Leo Davydovich. In 1928, Nina dies of consumption, and in 1933 she ends her life by Zina's suicide, she is unable to get out of a state of severe depression. Soon in Moscow, they shot Alexander Sokolovskaya, Trotsky's first wife.
The second wife of Lev Davydovich lived after his death for another 20 years. She died in 1962, she was buried in Mexico.
Mystery Biography
Trotsky’s death is still an unsolved secret for many people. Who is he, that secret agent who is associated with the death of Lev Davydovich? Who killed Trotsky? This issue deserves a separate consideration. Pavel Sudoplatov, whose name is associated with the death of Trotsky, was born in 1907 in the city of Melitopol. Since 1921, he became an employee of the Cheka, then was transferred to the NKVD.
Some historians believe that it was he who committed the assassination of Trotsky on the orders of Stalin. The task from the “leader of the peoples” was to eliminate the enemy of Stalin, who at that time lived in Mexico.
Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov was appointed to the post of deputy head of the 1st branch of the NKVD, where he worked until 1942.
Perhaps it was the assassination of Trotsky that enabled him to so high up the ranks. Lev Bronstein his whole life was Stalin's personal enemy, his opponent. No one knows for sure how Trotsky was killed; many legends are connected with the name of this man. Someone considers Trotsky a state criminal, who fled abroad, trying to save his life.
How was Trotsky killed? This question is still tormenting domestic and foreign historians. It was Lev Bronstein who made a significant contribution to Russian history. There is no exact information about how Trotsky was killed, but Stalin tried to eliminate his rival by any means throughout his political life.
The views on the reality of Soviet Russia by Lenin and Trotsky differed significantly. Leo Bronstein considered the Stalinist regime a bureaucratic degeneration of the proletarian regime.
Secrets of Doom
How was Trotsky killed? In 1927, he was seriously charged with carrying out counter-revolutionary activities under Art. 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, Trotsky was expelled from the party.
The investigation into his case was short. After only a few days, the car with the prison bars brought Trotsky's family to Alma-Ata, far from the capital. This journey was for the founder of the Red Army his farewell to the capital's streets.
For Stalin, Trotsky’s death would be an excellent way to eliminate a strong enemy, but he was afraid to deal with him directly.
In search of an answer to the question of who killed Trotsky, we note that many KGB agents tried to crack down on Trotsky.
In exile, Mexican artist Rivera provided refuge for his family. He protected Trotsky from the attacks of local communists. Police officers were constantly on duty at Rivera’s house; American supporters of Trotsky reliably guarded their leader and helped him conduct active propaganda work.
Soviet counterintelligence in Europe was led at that time by Ignatius Reiss. He decided to stop his espionage work and informed Trotsky that Stalin was trying to end him, his supporters, who were outside the Soviet Union. To do this, it was supposed to use various methods: blackmail, cruel torture, terrorist acts, interrogations. A few weeks after sending this letter to Trotsky, Reiss was found dead on his way to Lausanne, and about ten bullets were found in his body. Mexican police found that the people who killed Reiss were spying on Trotsky’s son. In 1937, Stalin's supporters prepared an assassination attempt on Leo, but Trotsky's son did not come to Mulhouse at the appointed time. This incident made Stalin's supporters think about a possible leak of information; they started searching for an informant. The Trotsky family, having learned about the planned murder, became even more circumspect and cautious.
Lev Davydovich wrote to his son that when committing an attempt on his life, Stalin would act as the customer of the murder.
In September 1937, an international commission led by Dewey published the results of the case of Leon Trotsky. They spoke of the complete innocence of Lev Sedov (son) and Leo Trotsky (father) on the charges against them in Moscow. This news gave Stalin's opponent strength for work and creative activity. But his joy was overshadowed by the death of Leo's son during the operation. The young man became a victim of the NKVD, death overtook him at 32 years old. The death of his son knocked Trotsky, he grew a beard, the gleam in his eyes disappeared.
The youngest son refused to renounce his father, for which he was sentenced to five years in the camps, sent to Vorkuta.
Only Zina’s son, Seva (Trotsky’s grandson), who was born in 1925 and lived in Germany, survived.
Life in exile
Historians put forward different versions regarding the place where Trotsky was killed. In the spring of 1939, he settled in a house near Coyoacan in Mexico. An observation tower was built at the gate, police were on duty on the street, and an alarm was set in the house. Trotsky raised cacti, raised rabbits and chickens.
Conclusion
In the winter of 1940, Trotsky wrote a will, where in each line one could read the expectation of tragic events. By that time, his relatives and supporters were destroyed, but Stalin did not want to stop there. Criticism of Trotsky, sounded from the other end of the world, cast a shadow on that bright image of the leader, which was created over so many years.
Lev Davydovich in his messages addressed to Soviet sailors, soldiers, peasants, tried to warn them about the depravity of agents of the GPU, commissars. Stalin he called the main source of danger to the Soviet Union. Of course, such statements were painfully perceived by the “leader of the peoples”; he could not allow Trotsky to live. By order of Stalin, the NKVD agent Jackson, who was the son of the Spanish Communist Caridad Mercader, was sent to Mexico.
The operation was carefully planned, thought out to the smallest detail. Jackson met Sylvia Agelof, Trotsky's secretary, and gained access to the house. On the night of May 24, 1940, an attempt was made on Lev Davydovich.
Together with his wife and grandson Trotsky was hiding under the bed. Then they managed to survive, but on August 20, Stalin's plans to eliminate the enemy were realized. Trotsky, who was hit on the head with an ice drill, did not die immediately. He managed to give some orders regarding his wife and grandson to his devoted employees.
When the doctor arrived at the house, part of Trotsky’s body was paralyzed. Lev Davydovich was taken to the hospital, they began to prepare for the operation. Craniotomy was performed by five surgeons. Most of the brain was damaged by bone fragments, and part was destroyed. Trotsky survived the operation, and for almost a day his body fought desperately for life.
Trotsky died on August 21, 1940, without regaining consciousness after the operation. Trotsky’s grave is located in the courtyard of the house in the Mexico City Coyoacane, a white stone was erected above it, a red flag was set.