Return to Homepage
Trotsky & Mensheviks
Leon Trotsky
Born: 7 November 1879
Birthplace: Yanovka, Ukraine
Died: 21 August 1940 (assassination by ice axe)
Best Known As: V.I. Lenin's right-hand man
As a young man Trotsky became a disciple of Karl Marx and a friend of future Bolshevik leader.- He was Lenin's right-hand man in the Russian Revolution of 1917- Trotsky became commissar of war (1918-25) and organized the victorious Red Army in the civil war that followed- Trotsky returned to Russia where he participated in the first Russian Revolution, and in December that year he was elected President of the St Petersburg Soviet. - Trotsky and several other members of the St. Petersburg Soviet were soon arrested, and after a trial they were deported to Western Siberia in January 1907.
Trotsky in Red Army
In 1918 Trotsky was appointed People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, and as such he managed the founding of the Red Army. Trotsky was forced to recruit a large number of officers from the old army. Trotsky's achievements and in 1919 remarked to Maxim Gorky: "Show me another man who could have practically created a model army in a year and won respect of the military specialist as well."As leon became ill and died two years later, Stalin gained the control of the Soviet Union 1922. Stalin disliked and opposed leon greatly. Stalin and Trotsky represented opposite directions for Communism. He used the mighty pen, Stalin implemented communist policies that were exceedingly costly both in lives, and in depriving the Soviet people from freedom.