Trotsky played a leading role, together with Lenin, during the 1917 Russian Revolution. No counter-revolutionary, conservative or liberal, has been able to compete with this telling. Over the course of 1917, Trotsky began to lose faith in the Menshevik movement and drew closer to the ideas and strategies of Lenin. In Trotsky and the Russian Revolution, Geoffrey Swain restores Trotsky to his real and central role in the Russian Revolution. In 1902, Trotsky met his second wife, Natalia Ivanovna whom he married the following year. The first volume primarily looks at Russia under Tsarism, the February Revolution, the Provisional Government and the initial formulation of a new strategy upon the arrival of Lenin back to Russia. [4], Leon Trotsky was a leading leader of the Bolshevik Revolution along with Lenin. 2. Trotsky settled in Mexico in 1936. After the Bolsheviks came to power, Trotsky became the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and published the secret treaties previously signed by the Triple Entente that detailed plans for post-war reallocation of colonies and redrawing state borders. The Bolsheviks came to power in Russia on Nov. 7. Joseph Stalin, later Trotsky’s bitter rival, wrote in 1918 that “all practical work in connection with the organisation of the uprising was done under [Trotsky’s] immediate direction … the Party is indebted primarily and principally to Comrade Trotsky for the efficient manner in which the work of the Military Revolutionary Committee was organised.” Once Stalin had seized the reins of power, this passage was expunged from official records. He led the Military-Revolutionary Committee… He did more than anyone to found the Red Army. Trotsky extended the use of the death penalty to the occasional political commissar whose detachment retreated or broke in the face of the enemy. Trotsky later negotiated peace with the Germans at Brest-Litovsk, served as Commissar for War, formed the Red Army, led the Civil War effort and was a pivotal member of the Politburo. Trotsky was not without his faults. The role of Trotsky in the Bolshevik Revolution. Citation information The series stars Konstantin Khabensky in the title role. After hearing news of the February Revolution, he immediately returned to Russia, arriving in May 1917. He was an important member of the Communist Party Politburo and the lead negotiator with the Germans at Brest-Litovsk. In Trotsky and the Russian Revolution, Geoffrey Swain restores Trotsky to his real and central role in the Russian Revolution. Publisher: Alpha History The book was initially published in Germany in 1930. [6], Wikipedia:Pages needing translation into English, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War, "History Russian Revolution by Leon Trotsky Max Eastman - AbeBooks", "What was the Russian revolution? He first came to global attention in 1917. For more information on usage, please refer to our Terms of Use. The original language is Russian, but it was translated into English by Max Eastman in 1932;[1] in the English translation the second volume, originally consisting of two parts, is split into two volumes. Trotsky’s organisation of the Red Army and political and military leadership during the Civil War was also critical. [But] before 1917 Trotsky had been an enemy of Bolshevism, and many Bolsheviks did not let him forget it.” Trotsky himself worked for the Bolshevik cause in the Petrograd Soviet, where he was elected chairman again in early October. He spent most of the next decade in exile, mainly in France, Switzerland, Spain and the United States. Leon Trotsky: 6 facts about the disgraced Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky opens up about Stalin, NY and the Revolution 4 reasons to watch 'Trotsky' on Netflix With the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1905, Trotsky returned to Russia and was again exiled to Siberia when the revolution collapsed. The important quality of this book is its ability to be a memory and an account of a major historical event by a participant and theorist. [3] Famous American journalist John Reed described the Russian Revolution in the following words in his famous Ten Days That Shook the World book: No matter what one thinks of Bolshevism, it is undeniable that the Russian Revolution is one of the great events of human history, and the rise of the Bolsheviki a phenomenon of worldwide importance. [2] It was the first time in history that the toiled masses had successfully established their own rule. Trotsky took up residence in London where, in 1903, he attended the Second Congress of the Social Democratic Party. Trotsky’s importance continued into the new society. It was Trotsky who organised the Red Army as well as the fightback against all the forces of reaction that were attempting to strangle the revolution in blood.The Revolution Betrayed - a Marxist masterpiece - a … Several years later, he wrote a scathing criticism of Russia under Stalin, titled The Revolution Betrayed. Leon Trotsky The History of the Russian Revolution. Early in October, Trotsky introduced a resolution into the Bolshevik-controlled Petrograd Soviet that called for the formation of a military committee to prepare the “revolutionary defence of Petrograd”. Leon Trotsky was a leader of the Russian revolution in 1917 and is the author of My Life, The History of the Russian Revolution, and The Revolution Betrayed. By Lenin’s death in early 1924, Trotsky had been virtually excluded from power. In 1917, Trotsky returned from exile in the United States and by the middle of the year was working with the Bolsheviks, especially in the Petrograd Soviet. Utopian Imagination Arts & Humanities Authors: Jennifer Llewellyn, Steve Thompson Murphy, A. Brian, ed. It contains 179,175 words in 288 pages and was updated on October 10th 2020. In Vladimir Lenin's government in the Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky first played the role of Commissar for Foreign Affairs and then the leader of the Red Army. In 1900, Bronstein was arrested and sentenced to four years’ exile in Siberia. During the revolution, Trotsky oversaw Soviet military operations in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), the capital of the Russian Empire. At the start of 1917, Trotsky was living in New York. History of the Russian Revolution is a two-volume book by Leon Trotsky on the Russian Revolution of 1917. These shortcomings were identified by Lenin in his 1922 ‘political testament’, where he acknowledged Trotsky’s talents but noted that he “displayed excessive self-assurance and… excessive preoccupation with the purely administrative side of the work.”. He was also responsible for suppressing the Kronstadt rebellion in early 1921. Second, only to Lenin, Trotsky was a key figure in the Russian civil war and the formative years of the Soviet Union. This site is created and maintained by Alpha History. Just as historians search the records for the minutest details of the story of the Paris Commune, so they will want to know what happened in Petrograd in November, 1917, the spirit which animated the people, and how the leaders looked, talked and acted. The October Revolution was largely due to his tactical planning. He was elected vice-chairman and then chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, despite being just 26 years old. Early in October, Trotsky introduced a resolution into the Bolshevik-controlled Petrograd Soviet that called for the formation of a military committee to prepare the “revolutionary defence of Petrograd”. Trotsky also joined the Bolshevik Central Committee, where he supported Lenin’s calls for a socialist revolution. In 1940, a Stalinist agent, Ramon Mercarder, was able to gain entry to Trotsky’s home in Mexico and stab him in the head with an icepick. Back in Russia, Stalinist propaganda demonised Trotsky as a traitor, a saboteur and an enemy of the state. Trotsky’s own supporters saw him as the only true Leninist. On November 13, ousted liberal politician Aleksandr Kerensky tried to retake Petrograd with loyal troops. Trotsky and Natalia had two sons together. By all accounts, he was the finest orator of the Russian Revolution. When the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions split irrevocably in early 1912, Trotsky attempted to undo the damage by organising a ‘unity congress’, a move that failed. He has such a edgy background and I doubt people would’ve really thought what a great impact he tried to make. In the Bolshevik government, he was second only to Lenin and seemed destined to succeed him until Joseph Stalin outmaneuvered him politically and banished him from the Soviet Union. Trotsky managed to find his way to London, where he met and collaborated with V. I. Lenin on the Russian Social-Democrats' revolutionary newspaper, Iskra. By early November, Trotsky had all but sacked the capital city. 5. Leon Trotsky - Leon Trotsky - Role in Soviet government: As foreign commissar, Trotsky’s first charge was to implement the Bolsheviks’ program of peace by calling for immediate armistice negotiations among the warring powers. The whole world attributed the impact of the October Revolution to his partnership with Lenin. In the early 1910s, Trotsky made several attempts to reconcile Lenin, Martov and their followers. He later collaborated with the Mezhraiontsyi, a group of intellectuals who strived for party reconciliation. In his late teens, he became a union organiser and socialist propagandist.