Leon Trotsky

Personal Background

Leon Trotsky's revolutionary activity as a young man spurred his first of several ordered exiles to Siberia. He waged Russia's 1917 revolution alongside Vladimir Lenin. As commissar of war in the new Soviet government, he helped defeat forces opposed to Bolshevik control. As the Soviet government developed, he engaged in a power struggle against Joseph Stalin, which he lost, leading to his exile again and, eventually, murder.

Leon Trotsky was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (or Bronshtein) in Yanovka (in what is now Ukraine) on the 7th of November 1879. After living with his father, David Leontyevich Bronstein, (a prosperous Jewish farmer) and his mother, Anna, until he was eight years old, his parents sent Trotsky to Odessa for school. When Trotsky moved to Nikolayev in 1896 for his final year of schooling, his life as a revolutionary began to take shape.

Rise to Prominence

i) Introduction to Marxism

It was in Nikolayev, at age 17, that Trotsky became acquainted with Marxism. Trotsky began to skip school in order to talk with political exiles and to read illegal pamphlets and books. He surrounded himself with other young men who were thinking, reading, and debating revolutionary ideas. It didn't take long for the passive talks of revolution to metamorphose into active revolutionary planning.

In 1897, Trotsky helped found the South Russian Workers' Union. For his activities with this union, Trotsky was arrested in January 1898.

ii) In Siberia

After two years in prison, Trotsky was brought to trial and then exiled to Siberia. At a transfer prison on his way to Siberia, Trotsky married Alexandra Lvovna, the daughter of noted Russian writer Leo Tolstoy and a co-revolutionary who had also been sentenced to four years in Siberia. While in Siberia, they had two daughters together.

In 1902, after serving only two of his four years sentenced, Trotsky decided to escape. Leaving his wife and daughters behind, Trotsky...