Story. L.D. Trotsky: personality and political activity The structure of the work. The course work consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, a list of sources and references.

Trotsky Lev Davidovich a brief biography of a Russian and international politician is set out in this article.

Lev Trotsky short biography

The future politician (the years of the life of Lev Davidovich Trotsky 1879-1940) was born on November 7 in the village of Yanovka (Kherson province) in the family of a tenant.

After he graduated from a real school, he joined the social democratic movement in 1896. He was arrested more than once, so the fate of Leon Trotsky more than once threw the figure abroad. During the next exile, he met in 1902.

For participation in the revolutionary events in 1905, Trotsky was arrested and sentenced to a settlement in Siberia for the rest of his life. But even from there, the leader managed to escape and returned to his homeland only in May 1917.

Lev Davidovich is one of the organizers of the October Revolution. In 1917, he took the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, and a year later he became the head of the Soviet delegation in Brest-Litovsk. Trotsky disrupted the negotiations by refusing to accept the ultimatum of the Austrian German command. In 1918 he was appointed Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic and Commissar for Military Affairs.

Since Trotsky was the creator of the Red Army, the practitioner and theorist of the Red Terror, he advocated the distribution of food and labor armies.

In 1924, Trotsky takes part in the internal party struggle for power, but loses it to Stalin. Subsequently, he is dismissed from all positions and expelled from the party. In 1928, Lev Davydovich was once again sent to Alma-Ata, then to Turkey. The final measure was the deprivation of citizenship in 1932.

After Turkey, he often changed his place of residence, moving to France, Mexico, Norway. The life of Leon Trotsky abroad was in full swing around journalistic and literary activities, the purpose of which was to expose the Stalinist regime and create the Fourth International.

Lev Davidovich Bronstein was born on October 26, 1879, on the farm of Yanovka, Elizavetgrad district, Kherson province, in the family of a wealthy Jewish landowner, who by that time had 100 acres of purchased and over 200 leased land. In 1888 he entered the Lutheran real school of St. Paul in Odessa; the first student, however, repeatedly came into conflict with teachers; communicated with the local liberal intelligentsia, joined the Russian classical literature and European culture. In 1896 he graduated from a real school in Nikolaev and entered as a volunteer at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Novorossiysk University, but soon left it. He joined a populist circle in Nikolaev, and learned about Marxism for the first time from a member of the circle, Alexandra Sokolovskaya. In 1897, together with her and her brothers, he formed the Social Democratic "South Russian Workers' Union", which began revolutionary propaganda among the workers. In January 1898, he was arrested, after a 2-year imprisonment in Nikolaev, Kherson, Odessa and Moscow, he was administratively exiled for 4 years to Eastern Siberia (to Ust-Kut, then Nizhneilimsk and Verkholensk, Irkutsk province). In 1899, in Butyrskaya prison, he married Alexandra Sokolovskaya. Political parties of Russia at the end of the 19th - the first third of the 20th century. Encyclopedia - M.: Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 1996, p. 613

In August 1902, with the consent of his wife, who was left with two young daughters in her arms, he fled from exile, using a fake passport for the name of the warden of the Odessa prison Trotsky. Arriving in Samara, where the bureau of the Russian Iskra organization was located, having fulfilled a number of instructions from the bureau in Kharkov, Poltava and Kiev, he illegally crossed the border and at the end of October 1902 arrived in London, where he met V.I. Lenin. On his recommendation, Trotsky worked for Iskra, and delivered lectures for Russian émigrés and students.

In 1903, in Paris, he married Natalya Ivanovna Sedova. Participated in the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party with a mandate from the Siberian Union of the RSDLP.

At the end of 1904, he moved away from the Mensheviks, but did not join the Bolsheviks either, he advocated the unification of both social democratic factions. After the events of January 9, 1905, he was one of the first to return to Russia (Kiev, then St. Petersburg), collaborated with Leonid Borisovich Krasin, a member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, who stood in the position of the Bolshevik conciliators, as well as with the Mensheviks, disagreeing, however, with them in assessing the role of the liberal bourgeoisie in the revolution. Together with Parvus (A.L. Gelfand), Trotsky developed the theory of "permanent revolution".

During the revolution of 1905-1907, from denying the revolutionary potential of the peasantry, Trotsky gradually came to the conclusion about the importance of the participation of the peasantry in the revolution with the obligatory leadership of the proletariat.

In 1905, Trotsky's qualities as a politician, organizer of the masses, orator, publicist were directly revealed. In the autumn of 1905, Trotsky was one of the leaders of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies, a speaker and author of resolutions on the most important issues. In December 1905 he was arrested, at the end of 1906 he was sentenced to "eternal settlement" in Siberia, but fled along the way. In 1907, at the 5th Congress of the RSDLP, he headed the center group, not adjoining either the Bolsheviks or the Mensheviks. Political figures of Russia in 1917: Biographical dictionary / Editor-in-chief: P.V. Volobuev - M: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1993, p.321

Beginning in 1908, Trotsky contributed to many Russian and foreign newspapers and magazines. In 1908, together with A.A. Ioffe and M.I. Skobelev organized the publication in Vienna in Russian of the newspaper for workers Pravda. Not recognizing the legitimacy of the Prague Party Conference organized by the Bolsheviks in 1912, Trotsky, together with Martov, F.I. Danom convened a general party conference in Vienna in August 1912, the anti-Bolshevik bloc (“Augustovsky”) created at it collapsed in 1914, and Trotsky himself left it. In 1914 he published a pamphlet in German "War and International". In September 1916, Trotsky was exiled from France to Spain for anti-war propaganda, where he was soon arrested and sent to the United States with his family. From January 1917, Trotsky was an employee of the Russian international newspaper Novy Mir. In March 1917, upon returning to Russia, Trotsky, along with his family, was arrested in Halifax (Canada) and temporarily imprisoned in an internment camp for sailors of the German merchant fleet. On May 4, 1917, he arrived in Petrograd, headed the organization of "mezhraiontsy", with whom he was admitted to the RSDLP (b) and elected to the Central Committee of the party, of which he was a member until 1927. On March 4, 1918, Trotsky was appointed chairman of the Supreme Military Council, on March 13 - people's commissar for military affairs, and with the creation of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic on September 2 - its chairman. In 1920-21, while remaining in military posts, he was temporarily appointed People's Commissar of Railways, was one of the leaders in the restoration of railway transport and other sectors of the national economy. On the basis of hostile relations between Stalin and Trotsky, a split formed within the Politburo and the Central Committee, which resulted in a sharp internal party struggle, where Stalin and his supporters gained the upper hand. In January 1925, Trotsky was released from work in the Revolutionary Military Council, in October 1926 he was removed from the Politburo, in October 1927 - from the Central Committee. In November 1927, Trotsky was expelled from the party, after which he was expelled from Moscow to Alma-Ata, then to Turkey. Political figures of Russia in 1917: Biographical dictionary / Editor-in-chief: P.V. Volobuev - M: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1993, p.324

After expulsion from the USSR, Trotsky launched a literary and journalistic activity. He fought against Stalin, whom he considered a traitor to the ideals of October. The last years of his life, Trotsky was in Mexico. Stalin set before his special services the task of destroying the hated enemy. The NKVD decided to carry out the assassination of Trotsky by the hands of its agent Ramon Mercador. The 26-year-old son of an influential Spanish communist was a participant in the Spanish Civil War, which ended in the defeat of the Republican forces. Jacques Mornard (according to the documents), who instantly turned into Frank Jackson, at first unsuccessfully tried to infiltrate the local Trotskyists. Meanwhile, the Mexican Communist Party, apparently on instructions from Moscow, decided to "duplicate" the actions of the special agent and organized their own plot to assassinate Trotsky. On May 24, 1940, his villa was attacked. More than twenty masked militants literally turned the whole house upside down, but the owners managed to hide. It was fate itself that kept the Kremlin exile: Trotsky, his wife and grandson did not suffer. After this scandalous incident, which became known to the world press, Trotsky turned his house into a real fortress, where only people especially devoted to him were allowed. Among them were Sylvia (Trotsky's courier) and her husband Frank Jackson, who managed to gain confidence in the "teacher". At first, the young man, who showed an increased interest in Marxism, seemed to Trotsky too importunate. But in the end, the old underground worker, who considered it his sacred duty to raise a young succession of fighters for the "world revolution", was imbued with confidence in the charming American. Despite the hot day, on August 20, 1940, Frank Jackson appeared at Trotsky's villa in a tightly buttoned raincoat and hat. Under the cloak of a "family friend" fit a whole arsenal: a climbing ice ax, a hammer and a large-caliber automatic pistol. The guards, who often saw this man in the house and habitually considered him "their own", led the guest to the owner, who was feeding rabbits in the garden. It seemed strange to Natalya, Trotsky's wife, that Sylvia's husband had arrived unannounced, but the guest was invited to stay for dinner. Decreasing the invitation, Mercador-Jackson asked to see the article he had just written. The men went into the office. As soon as Trotsky went deep into reading, Jackson pulled an ice pick from under his cloak and stuck it in the back of the victim's head. Considering the blow to be insufficiently reliable, the killer swung the ice ax again, but Trotsky, miraculously retaining consciousness, grabbed his hand, forcing him to drop the weapon. Then he staggered out of the office and into the living room. "Jackson!" he shouted. "Look what you've done!" The guards, who came running to the scream, knocked down Jackson, who was aiming a pistol at his victim. "Don't kill him," Trotsky stopped the guards. "We need him to tell everything..." With these words, the wounded man lost consciousness. A few minutes later, Mercador Jackson and his victim were taken to the capital's emergency hospital. The tenacity with which this mortally wounded man fought for his life shocked even the doctors. In their practice, there has never been a case where a victim with such a monstrous injury - a split skull - lived, periodically regaining consciousness, for more than a day ... Ramon Mercador, aka Frank Jackson, aka Jacques Mornard, was sentenced to twenty years in prison . After leaving a Mexican prison in March 1960, he settled in Cuba. Shortly before his death in Havana on October 18, 1978, the assassin of Trotsky received the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Lev (Leiba) Davidovich Trotsky (real name - Bronstein) was born on October 26, 1879 near Yanovka (Kherson province, Little Russia), in the family of a wealthy Jewish landowner. Already in his early youth, he became interested in revolutionary ideas and began their propaganda among the workers of Nikolaev, where he took a course at a real school. In January 1898, Leo was arrested, spent about two years in prison, and then was exiled to Lena.

In 1902, he escaped from exile on a false passport issued under the name Trotsky, went to London and began to work there in the Marxist newspaper " Spark". In terms of his views, Trotsky stood closer to the left wing of the Iskra editorial board. But, not wanting to submit to the primacy of the leader of this wing, Lenin, he II Congress of the RSDLP(1903) joined not to Bolsheviks, and to Mensheviks. Soon, Trotsky put forward the theory of "permanent revolution", according to which in Russia the working class should take power before the bourgeoisie, assist the proletarian revolution in Europe and, together with it, go towards socialism.

Leon Trotsky. Photo ok. 1920-1921

Trotsky. Series. Series 1-2

Trotsky and Bolshevism. Polish poster, 1920

After education Council of People's Commissars Trotsky became People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs there. In December 1917 - January 1918, he led the Soviet delegation in negotiations with the Germans on the Brest Peace. During them, Trotsky put forward the famous slogan: "no peace, no war, but disband the army" - that is, stop the war without recognizing the German conquests as a formal peace treaty.

In March 1918 Trotsky assumed the post of military people's commissar and took an active part in the creation of the Red Army. Leading it during the Civil War, he acted with merciless cruelty. Trotsky reinforced the discipline of the Red Army by shooting every tenth in badly fought units, and ordered the whites and the insurgent people to be destroyed without pity. Through " decossackization"He tried to exterminate the Cossacks - the most organized and militant part of the Russians. At the end of the Civil War, Trotsky was going to drive the entire population of the Soviet state into military prisons arranged according to the model " labor armies", but the growth of widespread uprisings in 1920 - early 1921 forced the Bolsheviks to make a "strategic retreat" and proclaim NEP.

Leon Trotsky and the Red Army

In 1922-1923, due to Lenin's illness, a struggle for power began in the RCP (b). The "troika" of Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev. The Trotskyists were defeated in a fight with her at the top. In January 1925, Trotsky lost the posts of military people's commissar and chairman Revolutionary Military Council.

Trotsky. Series. Series 3-4

However, soon after this, Stalin entered into rivalry with Zinoviev and Kamenev. The last two began to seek support from their former enemy Trotsky and formed with him " united opposition”, mainly from the “old Bolsheviks”. She demanded to start "accelerated industrialization" by plundering the "petty-bourgeois" village - that is, to roll up the NEP. Stalin, at this stage, for personal purposes, deceitfully presented himself as a supporter of its preservation.

Dispersed November 7, 1927 demonstrations, arranged by the opposition in honor of the 10th anniversary of October, Stalin achieved the expulsion of Trotsky to Alma-Ata (January 1928), and then his deportation from the USSR (February 1929).

Trotsky settled in Turkey, on the island of Prinkipo (near Istanbul). He did not stop his political and writing activities there, vehemently condemning the "gravedigger of the revolution" Stalin. Trotsky conducted his agitation not only for the USSR, but also for Western communists. He won over to his side a considerable part of them, which broke with the "Stalinist" Comintern and founded her own Fourth International.

In 1933 Trotsky moved to France, and in 1935 to Norway. Forced to leave this country because of Soviet pressure, he moved (1937) to Mexico, to the "left" President Lazaro Cardenas. Trotsky lived there in a villa in Coyoacan, a guest of the radical artist Diego Rivera.

Stalin, meanwhile, ordered an operation to assassinate him. In May 1940, Trotsky survived a dangerous attack by a group led by a famous artist. A. Siqueiros, but on August 20, 1940, another NKVD agent, Ramon Mercader, dealt him a fatal blow with an ice ax on the head.

Childhood

Trotsky Lev was the 5th child of David Leontyevich and Anna Lvovna Bronstein. The couple were wealthy Jewish landowners-colonists who moved to the Kherson province from the Poltava region. The boy was named Leiba, and he was fluent in Russian and Ukrainian, as well as Yiddish.

By the time the youngest son was born, the Bronsteins had 100 acres of land, a large garden, a mill and a repair shop. Near Yanovka, where the Leiba family lived, there was a German-Jewish colony. There was a school where he was sent at the age of 6. After 3 years, Leiba was sent to Odessa, where he entered the Lutheran real school of St. Paul.

Beginning of revolutionary activity

After graduating from the 6th grade of the school, the young man moved to Nikolaev, where in 1896 he joined a revolutionary circle.

To receive a higher education, Leiba Bronstein had to leave his new comrades and go to Novorossiysk. There he easily entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the local university. However, the revolutionary struggle had already captured the young man, and he soon left this university to return to Nikolaev.

Arrest

Bronstein, who took the underground nickname Lvov, became one of the organizers of the South Russian Workers' Union. At the age of 18, he was arrested for anti-government activities, and for two years he wandered through prisons. There he became a Marxist and managed to marry Alexandra Sokolovskaya.

In 1990, the young family was exiled to Irkutsk, where Bronstein had two daughters. They were sent to Yanovka. In the Kherson region, the girls ended up under the care of their grandparents.

Abroad

In 1992, it became possible to escape from exile. Leib entered the name Trotsky Lev at random into a fake passport. With this document, he was able to go abroad.

Finding himself out of reach of the Russian Okhrana, Trotsky went to London, where he met with V. Lenin. There he repeatedly spoke to emigrants-revolutionaries. Leon Trotsky (a biography of his early youth is presented above) struck everyone with his intellect and oratorical talent. Lenin, who sought to weaken the "old men," suggested that he be included in the editorial board of Iskra, but Plekhanov categorically opposed this.

While in London, Trotsky married Natalya Sedova. However, officially, Alexandra Sokolova remained his wife until the end of her life.

In 1905

When the revolution broke out in the country, Trotsky and his wife returned to Russia, where Lev Davidovich organized the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies. On November 26, he was elected its chairman, but already on November 3 he was arrested and sentenced to a life-long settlement in Siberia. At the trial, Trotsky delivered a fiery speech against violence. She made a strong impression on the audience, among whom were his parents.

Second emigration

On the way to the place where he was supposed to live in exile, Trotsky was able to escape and moved to Europe. There he made several attempts to unite the disparate parties of the socialist persuasion, but did not succeed.

In 1912-1913. Trotsky, as a military correspondent for the newspaper Kyiv Mysl, wrote 70 reports from the fronts of the Balkan wars. This experience helped him organize work in the Red Army in the future.

When the First World War began, Trotsky Lev fled from Vienna to Paris, where he began to publish the newspaper Nashe Slovo. In it, he published his articles of a pacifist orientation, which was the reason for the expulsion of the revolutionary from France. He moved to the United States, where he hoped to settle down, as he did not believe in the possibility of an imminent revolution in Russia.

In 1917

When the February Revolution broke out, Trotsky and his family went by ship to Russia. However, on the way he was removed from the ship and sent to a concentration camp, as he could not show his Russian passport. Only in May 1917, after long ordeals, did Trotsky and his family arrive in Petrograd. He was immediately included in the Petrosoviet.

In the following months, Leon Trotsky, whose brief biography before the revolution you already know, was engaged in the demoralization of the garrison of the Northern capital. In the absence of Lenin, who was in Finland, he actually led the Bolsheviks.

In the days of the revolution

On October 12, Trotsky headed the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, and a few days later he ordered 5,000 rifles to be issued to the Red Guards.

During the days of the October Revolution, Lev Davidovich was one of the main leaders of the rebels.

In December 1917, it was he who announced the beginning of the "Red Terror".

In 1918-1924

At the end of 1917, Trotsky was included in the first composition of the Bolshevik government as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. During Lenin's ultimatum demanding the acceptance of German conditions, he took the side of Vladimir Ilyich, which ensured his victory.

In the autumn of 1918, Trotsky was appointed chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR, that is, he became the first commander in chief of the newly formed Red Army. The following years, he practically lived on a train, which traveled on all fronts.

During the defense of Tsaritsyn, Leon Trotsky entered into a frank confrontation with Stalin. Over time, he began to understand that there could be no equality in the army, and began to introduce the institution of military experts into the Red Army, seeking to reorganize it and return to the traditional principles of building the armed forces.

In 1924, Trotsky was removed from the post of chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council.

In the second half of the 20s

By the beginning of 1926, it became clear that the long-awaited world revolution would not come in the near future. Leon Trotsky became close to the Zinoviev/Kamenev group on the basis of the unity of political views on the issue of "building socialism in one country". Soon the number of oppositionists increased, and Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya joined them.

In 1927, the Central Control Commission considered the cases of Trotsky and Zinoviev, but did not expel them from the party, but issued a severe reprimand.

Exile

In 1928, Trotsky was exiled to Alma-Ata, and a year later he was expelled from the USSR.

In 1936, Lev Davidovich settled in Mexico, where he was sheltered by the family of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. There he wrote a book entitled The Revolution Betrayed, in which he sharply criticized Stalin.

2 years later, Trotsky announced the creation of an alternative to the Comintern communist organization "The Fourth International", which gave rise to many political movements that currently exist in different parts of the world.

Until the last day of his life, Lev Davidovich worked on a book, where he proved the version of the poisoning of Lenin on the orders of the "father of all peoples."

On August 20, 1940, Trotsky was assassinated by NKVD agent Ramon Mercader. However, attempts on his life were made from the very first days of his arrival in Mexico.

After his death, Trotsky was one of the few victims of Stalin who was never rehabilitated.

Now you know what life path Lev Davidovich Trotsky went through. A brief biography of the politician tells only about a small part of the events in which he was directly involved. Many consider him a villain, and for some, Trotsky is a strong personality, true to his ideals.

Leon Trotsky was born in 1879 in the village of Yanovka, Kherson province. He was the fifth child in a classical Jewish family.

Leo was educated first in Odessa, and then in Nikolaev, where he became a member of the local Marxist circle. After graduating from the Nikolaev real school, he entered the Novorossiysk University.

Beginning of revolutionary work

In 1897 he participated in the organization of the workers' union. In 1898 he went to prison for the first time. He was convicted of revolutionary activities and exiled.

First emigration to London

In 1902, he managed to escape abroad on false documents. In exile, he closely collaborated with V. Lenin, O. Martov, G. Plekhanov, either taking the side of the "old guard" led by the latter, or taking the side of the young members of the RSDLP led by V. Lenin.

Trotsky in 1905-1907

In 1905, Lev Davydovich illegally returned to Russia and headed the work of the Petrograd Soviet. In 1906 he was detained, sentenced to eternal exile in Siberia and deprived of all civil rights, but on the way to exile he again managed to escape.

Second emigration

According to a brief biography of Lev Davydovich Trotsky, during the second emigration (1906-1917) Trotsky traveled a lot. He lived in Vienna, Zurich, Paris, New York (the United States made a great impression on Trotsky).

He published various newspapers, was a freelance correspondent for the newspaper, covering events on the Eastern and Western fronts of the First World War.

Trotsky after the 17th year

In 1917, Trotsky returned to Russia and immediately became a member of the Petrograd Soviet, which was in opposition to the Provisional Government. For his activities in promoting Bolshevism, he ended up in prison, from where he left after the failure of the Kornilov rebellion. He immediately became a member of the Central Committee, head of the Petrosoviet and a member of the faction from the RSDLP in the Constituent Assembly. In fact, he was the second person in the state and the leading organizer of the October Revolution (as I. Stalin pointed out in his memoirs).

From 1917 to 1918 he served as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, from 1918 to 1924 he was People's Commissar of the Navy. In 1919, he took part in the organization of the Comintern, and also became a member of the first Politburo of the Central Committee.

power struggle

Since 1922, Trotsky began an active struggle for political primacy. I. Stalin, M. Zinoviev and D. Kamenev are against him. In 1924, immediately after the death of Lenin, Trotsky was dismissed from the post of People's Commissar for the Navy (M. Frunze was appointed).

In 1924-1925. Trotsky was almost completely removed from business, but in 1927 he unites with M. Zinoviev and D. Kamenev against Stalin. The activity of the "new opposition" was a failure. In the same year, Trotsky was expelled from the Comintern.

In 1928-1929, he was actually in exile in Alma-Ata, from where he was expelled from the country.

Last emigration

Since 1929, Trotsky was engaged in literary work. They wrote several monographs on the history of the Russian revolution. In 1938 he announced the creation of the Fourth International.

It is known that Trotsky took the archive with him into exile, the content of the documents of which largely compromised Stalin. That is why in 1940 Trotsky, who lived at that time in Mexico, was killed by the NKVD officer Ramon Markeder. The USSR officially "disowned" involvement in the murder, Markeder was put in a Mexican prison for 20 years, but after his release he moved to the USSR, where he received the title of Hero of the USSR and was awarded the Order of Lenin.

Other biography options

The surname "Trotsky" was entered into the first false passport of Lev Davydovich when he fled abroad in 1902. Interestingly, the real "owner" of this surname was the warden of the Odessa prison.

Biography score

New feature! The average rating this biography received. Show rating