leon trotsky essay
Question 1 ~
Identify the major features of the life of Leon Trotsky in the period 1917 to 1940
“Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.”
This quote, taken from Leon Trotsky himself, reflects the way in which he led his life and the person who he was – “perceptive, imaginative, intelligent and someone who was a tireless worker for what he believed in.” Trotsky was one of the most influential and significant figures who emerged from Russia during the period 1917 to 1940. His life, which spanned an illustrious sixty one years (1879 to 1940), encompassed a variety of achievements and failures, however his most prominent failure was his inability to conquer Stalin in his quest to replace Lenin in his leadership role. From early beginnings, when Trotsky was known as Lev Davidovich Bronstein; to death as a result of the brutality of Stalin’s orders, the major features of Trotsky’s life centre on the political stage of Russia. The major events which took place in Trotsky’s life from 1917 to 1940 include the Tsarist rule being overthrown in 1917 and his return from exile, his involvement with the Bolshevik Party, his leadership of the October Revolution, his connections with the Red Army and defending of revolutionary gains, his establishment of the Left Opposition against Stalin, the power struggle between himself and Stalin, his continual exile and deportment, and his arrival in Mexico in 1937 where he founded the Fourth International, which was the organisation that he helped build across the world to fight for true international socialism. Finally, in 1940 at the age of 61, Trotsky was murdered under the orders of Stalin, when an assassin plunged an ice pick into the head of Leon Trotsky and killed him.
In early 1917, social changes began to take place within Russia as a result of the Revolution and the overthrow of Tsarism. The replacement government, known as the Provisional Government, however, refused to pull out of World War I and break away from capitalism, which meant that they were rendered “incapable of supplying bread, land or peace for Russian workers” . Vladimir Lenin presented the slogan, ‘all power to the Soviets’, which resulted in him reaching similar conclusions to that of Leon Trotsky’s theory of ‘permanent revolution’.
Following the overthrow of the Tsarist government, Trotsky arrived back in Russia in May, after spending time in exile. In Petrograd, Trotsky assumed the role of leading the Interdistrict Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (the RSDLP) – which included both the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks – and joined the newly established Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies. Because he disapproved of the support the Mensheviks were providing the Provisional Government and the war effort, Trotsky then later joined the Bolsheviks in July, 1917. In this role, he was second only to Lenin as leader of the Revolution, and became the most influential opponent of Russia’s new government. A Military Revolutionary Committee was founded and headed by Trotsky and in October, the first ever workers state was established, which then saw unprecedented gains for Russia’s working class. Under the government controlled economy, the wealth of Russia was employed in “the best interest of the majority of the people, much unlike the anarchy of capitalism which left the financial resources of the nation to a privileged few” . This workers state “increased life expectancy to double its previous rate, the number of full-time education increased six times and the number of hospital beds increased ten times over” .
The Bolsheviks aimed to overthrow the new Provisional Government and substitute it with a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ – that is, a government which could be ruled by the Bolshevik's on behalf of the industrial workers and peasants of Russia. “The Bolsheviks succeeded because the Provisional Government was weak and unpopular … when it was attacked, nobody was prepared to defend it. The Bolsheviks had good slogans such as ‘Peace, Bread, Land’ and ‘All Power to the Soviets’ … this meant that they got the public’s support …A private Bolshevik army (the Red Guards), dedicated to the revolution, was set up and trained under Leon Trotsky … It gave the Bolsheviks the military power to win.”
As a result of Trotsky’s commitment to the Bolsheviks, the Provisional Governments Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky realised that Trotsky presented a major threat to the new government and had him arrested. “Trotsky…caused a sensation at the pre-parliament. He accused the government and the bourgeoisie of encouraging the ‘bony hand of hunger’ to strangle the revolution… that drew fury from the right…Sukhanov thought that they were ‘now taking up arms against the entire old world’…this small party was trying to create an un-heard of proletarian state and a new society…war would surely follow…”
Lavr Kornilov, the General of the Russian Army, sent troops to take control of Petrograd, which meant that Kerensky was now in great danger. Kerensky then called on the Soviets and the Red Guards to protect Petrograd. The Bolsheviks controlled these two organisations, and agreed to Kerensky’s request on the terms that he release members of the Bolsheviks from prison. Trotsky was released on the 23rd of September, and elected Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. At this stage, Lenin had gone into hiding and because of this; Trotsky assumed the role of leading the preparations for Bolshevik’s seizure of power. In October, he led masses of soldiers and workers to defend Petrograd and ensure the insurrection that brought down the Provisional Government was carried out. This was the second phase of the Russian Revolution.
In November 1917, Lenin appointed Trotsky as the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the new government, and he became a principle figure in negotiations concerning Germany and other Central Powers in 1918. The following month, however, Trotsky resigned from this position as he opposed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as it made rigorous demands on Russia as a whole. Trotsky then became Commissar of War and Chairman of the Supreme Military Council of Russia. In this role, Trotsky had the difficult task attempting to end Russian involvement in WWI, without conceding any Russian territory to the Central Powers. By using delaying tactics, Trotsky anticipated socialist revolutions would spread from Russia to Germany and Austria-Hungary before he had to sign the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. Eventually, this Treaty resulted in Russia resigning the Ukraine, Finland, the Baltic Provinces, the Caucasus and Poland.
Following the October Revolution, it was decided by Lenin that the Old Russian army would have to be turned into an instrument of the Communist Party. Trotsky began to demobilise the old imperial army and in January 1918, he formed an efficient military forced known as the ‘Red Army of Workers and Peasants’. This army had to be formed quickly, as it was needed to fight the White Army. This White Army comprised of ”some of the Russian forces, both political and military, which opposed the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution and fought against the Red Army …during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1921” .
Although Trotsky lacked extensive military skills and training, he was “a talented organiser and easily gained the respect and loyalty of his troops” . Initially this Red Army was only a volunteer army; however the broad losses suffered by the Soviet Government resulted in them needing to use conscription to fulfil soldier numbers in June 1918. Lenin was so pleased with Trotsky’s achievement that in 1919 he pronounced, “Show me another man who could have practically created a model army in a year and won the respect of the military specialist as well.”
It was mostly due to Trotsky’s strong military management that the Bolsheviks eventually won the Civil War (1918 -1921). This ensured the survival of the Bolshevik government, and resulted in Trotsky being elected as member of Communist Party Central Committee. “Much to the disappointment of his faithful supporters, Trotsky advocated the idea of State control of trade unions and their merging with government bodies. This caused him to lose his support of former Mensheviks, especially Alexandra Kollontai” .
Trotsky was second only to Lenin in the Politburo (the Communist Party’s highest decision-making body), and Lenin viewed Trotsky as extremely able. In 1921, Alexandra Kollontai published a Pamphlet called the “Workers Opposition”, which called for the trade unionists to be given more political freedom. The pamphlet also argued before the government tries to ‘rid Soviet institutions of the bureaucracy that lurks within them, the party must first rid itself of its own bureaucracy’. Trotsky’s prestige in the government was now very high and those who held these anti-bureaucratic views were either dismissed from office or were sent abroad as members of the diplomatic service. Trotsky and Lenin clashed in 1920 over the role of trade unions – Trotsky unsuccessfully demanded that the government make trade unions organs of the state so as to discipline them and maintain industrial efficiency. Despite this disagreement, the two were drawn together again by the 1921 Kronshtadt Rebellion against the Bolshevik government, when Trotsky used military support to suppress the rebellion, with the assistance and support of Lenin.
The disagreements of the New Economic Policy left Vladmir Lenin extremely exhausted and his health began to deteriorate. Dora Kaplan’s attempted assassination in 1918 also meant that Lenin suffered from “severe headaches, limiting his sleep and fatigue constantly plagued him” . When he had the first of many strokes in 1922, the Communist Party (which was now renamed from the Bolshevik Party) official, Joseph Stalin began strategically planning for the control of the party. Stalin was voted in as General Secretary later that year, resulting in him holding a number of leading positions in various parties. In 1923 Trotsky led the first opposition to Stalin, demonstrating the suppression of democracy within the Communist Party. These ideals were affirmed by other leading Communist Party members, but no one from the Politburo supported these sentiments.
Trotsky also strongly disagreed with Stalin’s belief of ‘socialism in one country’, which outlined that the success of the Russian revolution was not dependant on the revolution spreading throughout the world.
Despite Trotsky’s prestige and reputation which he upheld as a military leader, it was Stalin who controlled the Party organisation. Following Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin established a ruling coalition along with Grigory Zinovyev and Lev Kamenev, to which Trotsky was rendered unable to defend himself against damaging criticism. “The idea of a trio – Stalin, Zinoviev, Kamenev – had long been established. Their spear-point was directed at me. The whole plan of the conspirators was that after they had mustered enough support in the organizations, they would be crowned legitimate successors to Lenin.”
Trotsky’s major chance of gaining power from Lenin’s death was for Lenin’s final testament to be published, however this never occurred and in 1925, Stalin was able to arrange for Trotsky to be removed from power altogether. Though some of Trotsky’s supporters pleaded with him to organise a military coup as he was in a goof position to organise it, he rejected the idea and resigned from his position instead. As a result of this, he lost his position as Commissar of War in 1925. In 1926, Trotsky created a coalition known as the Left Opposition. “The Left Opposition was a faction within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1923-1927. It was formed in response (and in opposition to) the rise of Stalinism. Leon Trotsky was the de-facto leader of the Left Opposition. After Stalin consolidated his power, the Left Opposition was banned and Trotsky was barred from the Politburo.”
A result of Trotsky’s continual public criticism of Stalin, in 1927 he was expelled from the Communist Party in addition to the Politburo. “The second chapter of the revolution had begun – the fight against Trotskyism. In reality, it was a fight against the ideological legacy of Lenin.” In the following year, Trotsky was exiled under orders from Stalin. As he was still advocating world revolution, many countries refused to take him in. Trotsky eventually moved to Soviet Central Asia, and in 1929 Stalin ordered him to leave USSR altogether. As he was refused admission by most countries, Trotsky lived in Turkey until 1933, when he moved to France. In April 1934, the French government issued a decree ordering Trotsky’s deportation. After he was exiled from France, it was not until June 1935 that Norway accepted him. Shortly afterwards, the Norwegian government was encouraged to expel Trotsky as well. Due to pressure from Stalin, the Norwegian government placed him under house arrest before he was deported to Mexico in 1939, when he went to live with his own family. He resumed his self–appointed role of the promotion of world revolution whilst he was still exile, and later founded the Fourth International which was an organisation endorsing Trotsky’s goal of world revolution and in opposition to Stalinism (as Joseph Stalin’s rule became known).
In April 1937, Trotsky was brought before a commission of enquiry in New York, which was led by John Dewey. Following this, Trotsky was found not guilty of charges of treason made by Stalin. Later that year, Trotsky’s son, Leon Sedov died in mysterious circumstances in Paris, and it is widely accepted that he was murdered by the GPU.
During his time in exile, Leon Trotsky continued his prolific writings. From 1929 to 1940, he published the journal, “Bulletin of the Opposition”, in which he supplied articles on matters such as Soviet politics and international affairs. In 1930, he published his famous autobiography, “My Life”, which is re-known for its self – analysis. One of Trotsky’s finest works appeared from 1931 and 1933, entitled, “History of the Russian Revolution”. Texts which also emerged from Trotsky’s time in exile include, “The Russian Betrayed” (1937), and “Stalin” (1941).
After one assassination attempt in May 1940, Leon Trotsky was murdered following Stalin’s orders in August of the same year, by Ramon Mercader, a Spanish agent for the Soviet Secret Police.
As one of Soviet Russia’s most brilliant Marxist leaders, Trotsky was “a man of action” , thinker and a writer, whole political and literary activity spanned the first four decades of the 20th Century. His skills as an organiser and military strategist did a lot to ensure the success of the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 and the defeat of the Bolshevik enemies in the following Civil War. Trotsky’s writings on Bolshevism, Marxism, and world revolution made a “highly important contribution to both political theory and historical literature” .
“Few politicians have aroused more passion and controversy as Trotsky. A classical Marxist, Trotsky was deeply committed to the main tenet of Marxism – the theory of world revolution – and he saw social upheaval as global, rather than local or national in scope.” His conviction in world revolution effectively created a commitment to radical domestic policies and to the use of severe measures when needed. For Trotsky, the success of the Bolshevik revolution was a necessary factor of the process of world revolution, which is one of the reasons why he refused to sway from the use of violence against Bolshevik enemies. Yet despite his ability to be ruthless and merciless, Trotsky failed to match Stalin’s ability to manipulate and control other party members.
“I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it all of evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.” – Leon Trotsky .
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