Leon Trotsky Is Assassinated
Leon Trotsky, a key figure in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, was assassinated in Mexico on August 20, 1940. Born Lev Davidovich Bronstein in 1879 in Ukraine, Trotsky became a prominent Marxist revolutionary, opposing the rise of Joseph Stalin following Vladimir Lenin's death. After initially serving in various government roles, including Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of War, Trotsky's ideological conflict with Stalin led to his political isolation and eventual exile in 1929. During his years in exile, he continued to critique Stalin's regime and advocate for worldwide revolution through his writings. His notable works include "My Life" and "The Revolution Betrayed," which express his anti-Stalinist views. Trotsky's opposition provoked Stalin to order his assassination, which was carried out by Ramon Mercader using an icepick. Trotsky's legacy remains complex, reflecting the contentious political landscape of early 20th-century Russia and the ongoing debates about communism and revolutionary ideology.
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Leon Trotsky Is Assassinated
Leon Trotsky Is Assassinated
Leon Trotsky, one of the leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 in Russia, was assassinated in Mexico on August 20, 1940. He held several government posts in the early years of the Soviet Union but opposed Joseph Stalin when Stalin succeeded Vladimir Lenin as leader of the country, and this conflict eventually led to Trotsky's downfall and death.
Trotsky was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein on November 7, 1879, in Yanovka, Ukraine, in the Russian Empire. When he moved to Mikolayev in 1896, he was first exposed to the ideas of the 19th-century German philosopher Karl Marx. Marx blamed the social ills of his time on the Industrial Revolution and the capitalist principles on which it was based. He held that the ideal society would be classless, and all property and wealth would be owned by the state and distributed equally, one of the main tenets of the political system known as communism. Trotsky became an ardent Marxist and was eventually arrested and sentenced to Siberia for four years for revolutionary activities. He escaped in 1902 with a forged passport bearing the name Trotsky, a name he would use from that time forward.
He traveled to England, where he met and worked with Lenin in their revolutionary cause, and he took part in the failed uprising in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1905, for which he was once again arrested and sent to Siberia. After escaping Siberia, he traveled in exile throughout the cities and countries of Europe, including London, Vienna, Paris, Switzerland, and Spain, as well as New York City. Trotsky's antiwar views during World War I caused him to be deported from many of these places until the Russian Revolution brought him back to St. Petersburg in May 1917. His leadership of the Menshevik Party landed him in jail when the Bolsheviks seized control of the government, but he was eventually admitted into the Bolshevik Party and released from prison. By the end of 1917, Trotsky was Minister of Foreign Affairs and second in command to Lenin.
During the ensuing Russian civil war (1918–21), Trotsky served as minister of war and chairman of the Supreme Military Council, but as Lenin's health declined and Stalin rose to power, the latter saw Trotsky as a rival. Trotsky began to openly oppose Stalin in October 1923, and once Lenin died in 1924, Stalin, now the leader of the new Soviet Union, politically isolated Trotsky and then banished him in 1929.
While in exile, Trotsky continued to express his opposition to Stalin and proclaim the need for a worldwide revolution, as he had first done in his book Results and Prospects (1906). He wrote extensively during this time, and his autobiography My Life was published in 1930. A three-volume work titled History of the Russian Revolution appeared between 1931 and 1933. The Revolution Betrayed, a book highly critical of Stalinist Russia, was published in 1937. Angered, Stalin sent assassins to kill Trotsky, and Ramon Mercader was eventually successful on August 20, 1940, when he fatally wounded Trotsky with an icepick.