On Channel One there is a film about the life of Leon Trotsky "Trotsky". How was the personal life of Leon Trotsky, who were his wives and children?

Leon Trotsky's personal life is full of events and contradictions, just like the time in which he lived. Trotsky's height is 174 cm.

Leiba Davidovich Bronstein (Leon Trotsky) was born on October 25 (November 7), 1879, Yanovka village, Elisavetgrad district, Kherson province, Russian Empire (now Bereslavka, Kirovograd region, Ukraine).

Leon Trotsky is a revolutionary figure of the 20th century, an ideologist of Trotskyism, one of the currents of Marxism. Twice exiled under the monarchy, deprived of all civil rights in 1905.

One of the organizers of the October Revolution of 1917, one of the creators of the Red Army. One of the founders and ideologists of the Comintern, a member of its Executive Committee.

In the first Soviet government - People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, then in 1918-1925 - People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR, then the USSR. Since 1923 - leader of the internal party left opposition (New Deal). Member of the Politburo of the CPSU (b) in 1919-1926.

In 1927 he was removed from all posts and sent into exile; in 1929 - expelled from the USSR. In 1932, he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. After being expelled from the USSR, he was the creator and chief theoretician of the Fourth International (1938). Author of works on the history of the revolutionary movement in Russia (“Our Revolution”, “Betrayed Revolution”), creator of major historical works on the 1917 revolution (“History of the Russian Revolution”), literary critical articles (“Literature and Revolution”) and autobiography “ My life" (1930).

Leon Trotsky was married twice, and his second wife remained with him until his last days. But at the end of his life he was carried away by another woman, whose passion almost deprived him of his sanity.

His chosen one was the brightest Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, known for her stormy temperament.

On August 20, 1940, Leon Trotsky was mortally wounded by NKVD agent R. Mercader in Mexico City (Mexico) and died the next day.

First wife - Alexandra Lvovna Sokolovskaya (born 1872, executed 1938). They were married in 1899-1902. The first marriage produced two daughters: Zinaida Volkova (born 1901, committed suicide in 1933) and Nina Bronstein (married Nevelson) (born 1902, died of tuberculosis in 1928).

Second wife - Natalya Ivanovna Sedova (April 5, 1882 - January 23, 1962). They were married in 1903-1940. In the second marriage, two sons were born: Lev Sedov (born 1906, died in 1938 after surgery, wife - Anna Samoilovna Ryabukhina, shot on January 8, 1938) and Sergei Sedov (born 1908, shot in the USSR in 1937, wife - Henrietta Rubinstein).

All four of Trotsky’s children from two marriages died, as well as his first wife and sister, two nephews (sons of Olga’s sister) and two sons-in-law (daughter’s second husband Platon Volkov and sister Kamenev’s first husband).

The sister of the second wife, Natalya Sedova, was repressed. Trotsky's daughter Nina Nevelson died of tuberculosis in 1928 during Trotsky's exile in Alma-Ata, and Trotsky himself was denied permission to visit her.

The second daughter, Zinaida Volkova, also became infected with tuberculosis and received permission from the Soviet authorities to go to Berlin for treatment. In January 1933, after Germany demanded that she immediately leave the country, she committed suicide in a state of depression.

Her husband Platon Volkov was shot in Moscow on October 3, 1936 in the case of Pavel and Valentin Olberg.

Trotsky's eldest son Lev Sedov, an active Trotskyist and one of his father's closest aides during the Alma-Ata exile and after expulsion from the USSR, died after an operation in Paris in 1938 under suspicious circumstances. Trotsky dedicated the article “Lev Sedov. Son, friend, fighter,” in which he actually blamed “GPU poisoners” for his death.

Trotsky's other son, Sergei Sedov, refused to take part in his father's political activities. According to Trotsky himself, Sergei “turned his back on politics from the age of 12.” During his father’s exile, he visited him several times; during his exile, he traveled with him to Odessa, but refused to leave the USSR.

On the night of March 3-4, 1935, Sergei Sedov was arrested on suspicion of connections with Kamenev’s nephew L.B., Rosenfeld Boris Nikolaevich. In May 1935, Trotsky managed to receive a message about the arrest of his son. Trotsky and Natalya Sedova tried to appeal to the international community, but to no avail; all their letters were ignored.

The investigation's version of the preparation by Sedov and Rosenfeld for the murder of Stalin was not confirmed, but Sedov himself, by a resolution of an extrajudicial body - the Special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR - in July 1935 was exiled for 5 years to Krasnoyarsk for "Trotskyist talk."

By the time his son was expelled from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk, Trotsky was already in a gradually increasing isolation from news from the USSR, and in his diary he only noted that letters from his son had stopped, “obviously, he was expelled from Moscow.” In September, Sergey Sedov was hired as a specialist engineer for gas generator units at the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant.

Already in May-June 1936, Sergei Sedov was arrested on charges of so-called “sabotage” and an attempt to allegedly “poison workers with generator gas.” According to the research of historian Dmitry Volkogonov, the pretext for the repression was an incident: the mechanic on duty B. Rogozov fell asleep, forgetting to turn off the gasifier tap, after which the workshop was filled with gas. In the morning, the workers ventilated the room; the incident did not cause any consequences. On October 29, 1937, Sergei Sedov was shot without pleading guilty or giving any evidence.

Sergei Sedov's wife, Henrietta Rubinstein, was sentenced to 20 years in the camps, the couple is survived by their daughter Yulia (married Axelrod, born August 21, 1936, emigrated to the USA in 1979, and to Israel in 2004).

By the time his son was executed, Trotsky’s isolation from events in the USSR had become final: at least as early as August 24, 1938, he did not know about what had happened, believing that Sergei Sedov “disappeared without a trace.”

Trotsky's sister and first wife of Kamenev L.B. - Olga - was expelled from Moscow in 1935. Both of her children (Trotsky’s nephews) were shot in 1938-1939, Olga Trotskaya herself was shot in 1941.

The grandson of Leon Trotsky (the son of his eldest daughter Zinaida Volkova) - Vsevolod Platonovich Volkov (Seva, born March 7, 1926, Moscow) - later the Mexican chemist and Trotskyist Esteban Volkov Bronstein.

One of the four daughters of Vsevolod (great-granddaughters of L. D. Trotsky) - Nora D. Volkow (born March 27, 1956, Mexico City) - a famous American psychiatrist, professor at Brookhaven National Laboratory, since 2003 - director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse within the National Institutes of Health (USA).

Another daughter is Patricia Volkow-Fernández (born March 27, 1956, Mexico City) - a Mexican doctor, author of scientific research in the field of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

The eldest daughter is Veronica Volkow (b. 1955, Mexico City) - a famous Mexican poet and art critic.

The youngest daughter, Natalia Volkow, or Natalia Volkow Fernández, is an economist, deputy director for relations with educational institutions of the Mexican National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics.

As for Trotsky's great-great-grandchildren, they currently live in three different countries: Olga Bakhvalova's son Denis in Moscow, several grandchildren of Vsevolod Volkov in Mexico City, as well as three children of David Axelrod in Israel.

Lev Davidovich

Battles and victories

A major figure in the communist movement, Soviet military-political figure, People's Commissar for Military Affairs.

Trotsky, not being a military specialist, managed to practically organize the Red Army from scratch, turning it into an effective and powerful armed force and becoming one of the organizers of the victory of the Red Army in the Civil War. "Red Bonaparte"

Trotsky (Bronstein) Lev Davidovich was born in the Kherson province into a family of wealthy Jewish colonists. Graduated from St. Paul's College in Odessa. He had a broad outlook and developed intellect. From his youth he participated in revolutionary activities, collaborated with the Social Democrats (although he repeatedly came into conflict with V.I. Lenin). He was repeatedly arrested, exiled and escaped. He spent many years in exile in France, Austria-Hungary, and visited the North American United States.

As a war correspondent, Trotsky participated in the First and Second Balkan Wars, gaining his first ideas about war and the army. Even during that period, he proved himself to be a serious organizer and specialist. Although he demanded payment for himself as a correspondent that exceeded the monthly salary of the Serbian minister, with this money he paid for a secretary who performed technical work and compiled certificates, and he himself supplied customers with extremely accurate and verified information. It included not only a presentation of events, but also attempts to analyze and synthesize material, a deep understanding of the life of the Balkan region and fairly accurate forecasting, which is fully confirmed by the research of modern domestic and foreign Balkan researchers. There is no reason to believe that, while at the head of the Soviet military department, Trotsky showed less thoroughness in his work.

During the First World War, again as a war correspondent, Trotsky became acquainted with the French army. He independently studied issues of militarism.

In 1917, Trotsky came to Russia and actively participated in revolutionary propaganda among the troops of the Petrograd garrison. In September 1917, he took over the post of chairman of the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, and in October he created the Military Revolutionary Committee, which headed the work to prepare an armed seizure of power in the capital. Through the efforts of Trotsky, the Petrograd garrison did not support the Provisional Government, and the Bolsheviks seized power. Trotsky organized the defense of Petrograd from the offensive of the troops of General P.N. Krasnov, personally checked the weapons and was on the front line.

At the end of 1917 - beginning of 1918. Trotsky served as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. He supported the unsuccessful policy of “neither peace nor war,” as a result of which he left the post of People’s Commissar.

In mid-March 1918 L.D. Trotsky, by decision of the Party Central Committee, became People's Commissar for Military Affairs (he held this post until 1925) and Chairman of the Supreme Military Council. Trotsky was the military leader of the Red Army during the Civil War, concentrating immense power in his hands. In the fall of 1918, he headed the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic.

Not being a military specialist, he showed outstanding organizational skills and managed to organize the Red Army virtually from scratch on a regular basis, turning it into a massive, effective and powerful armed force based on the principles of universal conscription and strict discipline. At the highest military posts in Soviet Russia, Trotsky demonstrated his character - iron will and determination, colossal energy, fanatical commitment to achieving the intended result with undoubted ambition.

Under the leadership of Trotsky, the military-administrative apparatus of Soviet Russia took shape, military districts, armies and fronts were created, and mass mobilizations were carried out in a country decomposed by revolutionary ferment. The Red Army achieved its victories over the internal counter-revolution.

Trotsky became the main ideologist and proponent of the policy of recruiting former officers of the old army, who were called military specialists, into the Red Army. This policy encountered fierce resistance both in the party and among the mass of soldiers who ended up in the Red Army. One of Trotsky’s ardent opponents on this issue was Central Committee member I.V. Stalin, who sabotaged this course. IN AND. Lenin also doubted the correctness of Trotsky's course. However, the correctness of this policy was confirmed by successes at the fronts, and in 1919 it was declared the official party course.

During the Civil War, Trotsky showed himself to be a talented organizer who understood the nature of war and methods of management in its conditions, as well as a person who knew how to find a common language with military experts. Trotsky's strength as the leader of the Red Army was his clear understanding of the strategy of the Civil War. In this matter, he was significantly superior even to old military specialists with an academic education, who poorly understood the social nature of the Civil War.

This was especially clearly manifested during the discussion about Soviet strategy on the Southern Front in the summer - autumn of 1919. Commander-in-Chief S.S. Kamenev planned the main attack of the offensive through the Cossack areas, where the Reds faced fierce resistance from the local population. Trotsky sharply criticized the direction of the main attack proposed by Kamenev. He was against the offensive through the Don region, since he reasonably believed that the Reds would meet the greatest resistance in the Cossack territories. Meanwhile, the Whites achieved significant successes in their main Kursk direction, which threatened the very existence of Soviet Russia. Trotsky’s idea was to separate the Cossacks from the volunteers by delivering the main blow precisely in the Kursk-Voronezh direction. In the end, the Red Army moved to implement Trotsky's plan, but this happened only after several months of fruitless attempts to implement Kamenev's plan.

Trotsky spent the hottest time of the Civil War traveling around the fronts in his famous train (“flying control apparatus,” as Trotsky called it), organizing troops on the ground. He repeatedly traveled to the most threatened fronts and established work there. He made an outstanding contribution to strengthening the front near Kazan in August 1918, when the Red Army was demoralized. Trotsky was able to strengthen the morale of the troops with punitive measures, propaganda and strengthening the grouping of Soviet troops in the Kazan region.

He later recalled his trips to the fronts:

Looking back at the three years of the civil war and looking through the log of my continuous trips along the front, I see that I almost did not have to accompany the victorious army, participate in the offensive, or directly share its successes with the army. My trips were not of a festive nature. I only went to unfavorable areas when the enemy broke through the front and drove our regiments in front of them. I retreated with troops, but never advanced with them. As soon as the defeated divisions were put in order and the command gave the signal for the offensive, I said goodbye to the army for another troubled sector or returned to Moscow for a few days to resolve the accumulated issues in the center.

“Of course, this method cannot be called correct,” Trotsky noted in another of his works. - A pedant will say that in supply, as in all military affairs in general, the most important thing is the system. This is right. I myself am inclined to sin rather towards pedantry. But the fact is that we did not want to die before we managed to create a coherent system. That is why we were forced, especially in the first period, to replace the system with improvisations, so that the system could be based on them in the future.”

For example, what did Trotsky do during the defense of Petrograd in the fall of 1919? Documents indicate that with his authority he ensured the supply of everything necessary for the 7th Army defending the “Cradle of the Revolution”. He dealt with army supply problems and resolved personnel issues. He carried out strategic planning: he put forward very practical proposals for turning Petrograd into an impregnable fortress, and raised in advance the question of the prospects for relations with the Estonians in the event of the defeat of Yudenich’s army and its withdrawal to Estonia. He exercised general supreme control, and also instructed the military and political leadership and, as Trotsky himself noted, gave “an impetus to the initiative of the front and the immediate rear.” In addition, with his characteristic ebullient energy, he held rallies, made speeches, and wrote articles. The benefits of his presence in Petrograd were undoubted.

Trotsky wrote about the achievements of the first days near Petrograd: “The command staff, embroiled in failures, had to be shaken up, refreshed, renewed. Even greater changes were made in the commissar composition. All units were strengthened from within by the communists. Individual fresh units also arrived. Military schools were brought to the forefront. In two or three days we managed to bring up the completely depleted supply apparatus. The Red Army soldier ate more, changed his underwear, changed his shoes, listened to the speech, shook himself, pulled himself up and became different.”

Already at this time, Trotsky developed a universal formula for victories in the Civil War. On October 16, 1919, he wrote to former General Dmitry Nikolayevich Nadezhny, who was entrusted with command of the 7th Army: “As always in such cases, this time we will achieve the necessary turning point with the help of organizational, agitational and punitive measures.”

According to Trotsky, “it is impossible to create a strong army on the fly. Plugging and mending holes at the front will not help matters. The transfer of individual communists and communist detachments to the most dangerous places can only temporarily improve the situation. There is only one salvation: to transform, reorganize, educate the army through hard, persistent work, starting with the main cell, with the company, and rising higher through the battalion, regiment, division; establish proper supply, proper distribution of communist forces, proper relationships between command staff and commissars, ensure strict diligence and unconditional integrity in reports (highlighted in the document. - A.G.)". Thus, the secret of Trotsky’s success lay not only in the number of bayonets.

Trotsky outlined the reasons for the Whites’ defeats as follows:

While they, Dutov, Kolchak, Denikin, had partisan detachments from the most qualified officer and cadet elements, until then they developed a large striking force in relation to their number, because, I repeat, this is an element of great experience, high military qualifications. But when the heavy mass of our regiments, brigades, divisions, and armies, built on mobilization, forced them to move on to mobilizing the peasants in order to oppose the masses to the masses, the laws of class struggle began to work. And mobilization turned into internal disorganization for them, causing the forces of internal destruction to work. To manifest this, to reveal it in practice, all it took was blows from our side.

The Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic tried to find a common language with elements disloyal to the Bolsheviks. Thus, in the spring of 1919, Trotsky proposed integrating Nestor Makhno’s anarchists into the Red Army by sending detachments of party workers, security officers, sailors and workers to the “anarchist gangs” of the Makhnovists.

Trotsky was an excellent speaker, his speeches at the fronts played a role in raising the morale of the Red Army soldiers. He showed concern for ordinary Red Army soldiers. In the fall of 1919, he wrote to the Central Committee about the need for warm clothing for the army, because... “You cannot demand more from the human body than it can bear.”

Trotsky contributed in every possible way to the dissemination of military knowledge in the Red Army and the development of military science. Thus, under his patronage, a serious military-scientific magazine “Military Affairs” was published in Moscow by a group of former officers.

While taking care of the training of commanders, the leaders of the Red Army did not forget about ordinary soldiers. Since 1918, their training has been carried out through Vsevobuch (General Military Training). In a short time, training and formation departments appeared in all work centers. According to Trotsky's plan, Vsevobuch was to create large military units up to and including armies. As part of Vsevobuch, pre-conscription training was carried out in labor schools, which 60,000 people, or 10% of all those registered, completed.

Trotsky attached great disciplinary importance to the factor of repression in the army. The secret “Instructions to responsible employees of the 14th Army,” signed by Trotsky on August 9, 1919, spoke about the principles of punitive policy: “All leading institutions of the army - the Revolutionary Military Council, the Political Department, the Special Department, the Revolutionary Tribunal must firmly establish and implement the rule that not a single crime in the army goes unpunished. Of course, the punishment must be strictly consistent with the actual nature of the crime or offense. The sentences must be such that every Red Army soldier, reading about them in his newspaper, clearly understands their fairness and necessity for maintaining the combat effectiveness of the army. Punishments should follow the crime as quickly as possible.”

Not only the rank and file, but also command staff and even commissars needed to strengthen discipline. The leader of the Red Army, Trotsky, in this regard was ready to go to the end, even to the point of shooting party workers. It was on his orders that a tribunal was appointed, which sentenced to death the commander of the 2nd Petrograd Regiment Gneushev, the regimental commissar Panteleev and every tenth Red Army soldier who, with part of the regiment, abandoned their positions and fled by ship from near Kazan in the summer of 1918. This incident sparked a discussion in the party about the admissibility of executions of party workers and a wave of criticism against Trotsky. The high-profile case gives reason to believe that the executions of party members were still an exceptional and isolated phenomenon.

Another means of intimidation, which actually did not find any real application in the Red Army, was orders to take hostage the families of defectors from among military experts.

A few years after the Civil War, Trotsky commented on the meaning of such harsh orders (primarily orders to shoot commissars): “It was not an order to shoot, it was the usual pressure that was then practiced. I have here dozens of telegrams of the same kind from Vladimir Ilyich... This was a common form of military pressure at that time.” Thus, it was primarily about threats. Trotsky is often accused of some kind of excessive cruelty, which is not true.

Of course, Trotsky also made mistakes that corresponded to the scale of his activities. Thus, with his actions to disarm the Czechoslovaks, he provoked an armed uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps. His hopes for a world revolution, as well as the specific plans and calculations associated with these hopes, did not come true.

Having lost in the internal party political struggle, Trotsky went into exile, and in 1929 he was expelled from the USSR and subsequently deprived of Soviet citizenship. In exile he became the founder of the Fourth International, created a number of historical works and memoirs. Mortally wounded by an NKVD agent in 1940 in Mexico.

During the Soviet period, researchers and memoirists sought to downplay the role of L.D. Trotsky in the creation of the Red Army, since his figure was virtually excluded from the historical process in the Stalinist interpretation of the history of the Civil War and was mentioned only in extremely negative terms. However, in the post-Soviet period it became possible to speak with an open mind about Trotsky’s outstanding role in the creation of the Soviet armed forces. Of course, Trotsky was not a commander, but he was an outstanding military administrator and organizer.

GANIN A.V., Ph.D., Institute of Slavic Studies RAS

Literature

My life. M., 2001

Stalin. T. 2. M., 1990

Kirshin Yu.Ya. Trotsky is a military theorist. Klintsy, 2003

Krasnov V., Daines V. Unknown Trotsky. Red Bonaparte. M., 2000

Felshtinsky Yu., Chernyavsky G. Leon Trotsky is a Bolshevik. Book 2. 1917-1924. M., 2012

Shemyakin A.L. L.D. Trotsky about Serbia and the Serbs (military impressions of 1912-1913). V.A. Tesemnikov. Research and materials dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the birth of V.A. Tesemnikova. M., 2013. pp. 51-76

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Katukov Mikhail Efimovich

Perhaps the only bright spot against the background of Soviet armored force commanders. A tank driver who went through the entire war, starting from the border. A commander whose tanks always showed their superiority to the enemy. His tank brigades were the only ones(!) in the first period of the war that were not defeated by the Germans and even caused them significant damage.
His First Guards Tank Army remained combat-ready, although it defended itself from the very first days of the fighting on the southern front of the Kursk Bulge, while exactly the same 5th Guards Tank Army of Rotmistrov was practically destroyed on the very first day it entered the battle (June 12)
This is one of the few of our commanders who took care of his troops and fought not with numbers, but with skill.

General Ermolov

Rokossovsky Konstantin Konstantinovich

Sheremetev Boris Petrovich

Makarov Stepan Osipovich

Russian oceanographer, polar explorer, shipbuilder, vice admiral. Developed the Russian semaphore alphabet. A worthy person, on the list of worthy ones!

Wrangel Pyotr Nikolaevich

Participant in the Russo-Japanese and First World Wars, one of the main leaders (1918−1920) of the White movement during the Civil War. Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in Crimea and Poland (1920). General Staff Lieutenant General (1918). Knight of St. George.

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich

The Soviet people, as the most talented, have a large number of outstanding military leaders, but the main one is Stalin. Without him, many of them might not have existed as military men.

Antonov Alexey Innokentievich

He became famous as a talented staff officer. He participated in the development of almost all significant operations of the Soviet troops in the Great Patriotic War since December 1942.
The only one of all Soviet military leaders awarded the Order of Victory with the rank of army general, and the only Soviet holder of the order who was not awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Baklanov Yakov Petrovich

The Cossack general, “the thunderstorm of the Caucasus,” Yakov Petrovich Baklanov, one of the most colorful heroes of the endless Caucasian War of the century before last, fits perfectly into the image of Russia familiar to the West. A gloomy two-meter hero, a tireless persecutor of highlanders and Poles, an enemy of political correctness and democracy in all its manifestations. But it was precisely these people who achieved the most difficult victory for the empire in the long-term confrontation with the inhabitants of the North Caucasus and the unkind local nature

Rurik Svyatoslav Igorevich

Year of birth 942 date of death 972 Expansion of state borders. 965 conquest of the Khazars, 963 march south to the Kuban region, capture of Tmutarakan, 969 conquest of the Volga Bulgars, 971 conquest of the Bulgarian kingdom, 968 founding of Pereyaslavets on the Danube (the new capital of Rus'), 969 defeat of the Pechenegs in the defense of Kyiv.

Markov Sergey Leonidovich

One of the main heroes of the early stage of the Russian-Soviet war.
Veteran of the Russian-Japanese, First World War and Civil War. Knight of the Order of St. George 4th class, Order of St. Vladimir 3rd class and 4th class with swords and bow, Order of St. Anne 2nd, 3rd and 4th class, Order of St. Stanislaus 2nd and 3rd th degrees. Holder of the St. George's Arms. Outstanding military theorist. Member of the Ice Campaign. An officer's son. Hereditary nobleman of the Moscow Province. He graduated from the General Staff Academy and served in the Life Guards of the 2nd Artillery Brigade. One of the commanders of the Volunteer Army at the first stage. He died the death of the brave.

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich

Personally took part in the planning and implementation of ALL offensive and defensive operations of the Red Army in the period 1941 - 1945.

Golovanov Alexander Evgenievich

He is the creator of Soviet long-range aviation (LAA).
Units under the command of Golovanov bombed Berlin, Koenigsberg, Danzig and other cities in Germany, striking important strategic targets behind enemy lines.

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich

The largest figure in world history, whose life and government activities left a deep imprint not only on the fate of the Soviet people, but also on all humanity, will be the subject of careful study by historians for many more centuries. The historical and biographical feature of this personality is that she will never be consigned to oblivion.
During Stalin's tenure as Supreme Commander-in-Chief and Chairman of the State Defense Committee, our country was marked by victory in the Great Patriotic War, massive labor and front-line heroism, the transformation of the USSR into a superpower with significant scientific, military and industrial potential, and the strengthening of our country's geopolitical influence in the world.
Ten Stalinist strikes is the general name for a number of the largest offensive strategic operations in the Great Patriotic War, carried out in 1944 by the armed forces of the USSR. Along with other offensive operations, they made a decisive contribution to the victory of the countries of the Anti-Hitler Coalition over Nazi Germany and its allies in World War II.

Skopin-Shuisky Mikhail Vasilievich

I beg the military historical society to correct the extreme historical injustice and include in the list of the 100 best commanders, the leader of the northern militia who did not lose a single battle, who played an outstanding role in the liberation of Russia from the Polish yoke and unrest. And apparently poisoned for his talent and skill.

Minikh Christopher Antonovich

Due to the ambiguous attitude towards the period of Anna Ioannovna’s reign, she is a largely underrated commander, who was the commander-in-chief of the Russian troops throughout her reign.

Commander of Russian troops during the War of the Polish Succession and architect of the victory of Russian weapons in the Russian-Turkish War of 1735-1739.

Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky Pyotr Alexandrovich

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich

Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. Under his leadership, the Red Army crushed fascism.

Platov Matvey Ivanovich

Ataman of the Great Don Army (from 1801), cavalry general (1809), who took part in all the wars of the Russian Empire at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries.
In 1771 he distinguished himself during the attack and capture of the Perekop line and Kinburn. From 1772 he began to command a Cossack regiment. During the 2nd Turkish War he distinguished himself during the assault on Ochakov and Izmail. Participated in the battle of Preussisch-Eylau.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, he first commanded all the Cossack regiments on the border, and then, covering the retreat of the army, won victories over the enemy near the towns of Mir and Romanovo. In the battle near the village of Semlevo, Platov’s army defeated the French and captured a colonel from the army of Marshal Murat. During the retreat of the French army, Platov, pursuing it, inflicted defeats on it at Gorodnya, Kolotsky Monastery, Gzhatsk, Tsarevo-Zaimishch, near Dukhovshchina and when crossing the Vop River. For his merits he was elevated to the rank of count. In November, Platov captured Smolensk from battle and defeated the troops of Marshal Ney near Dubrovna. At the beginning of January 1813, he entered Prussia and besieged Danzig; in September he received command of a special corps, with which he participated in the battle of Leipzig and, pursuing the enemy, captured about 15 thousand people. In 1814, he fought at the head of his regiments during the capture of Nemur, Arcy-sur-Aube, Cezanne, Villeneuve. Awarded the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called.

Rokossovsky Konstantin Konstantinovich

Soldier, several wars (including World War I and World War II). passed the way to Marshal of the USSR and Poland. Military intellectual. did not resort to “obscene leadership”. He knew the subtleties of military tactics. practice, strategy and operational art.

Golenishchev-Kutuzov Mikhail Illarionovich

(1745-1813).
1. A GREAT Russian commander, he was an example for his soldiers. Appreciated every soldier. “M.I. Golenishchev-Kutuzov is not only the liberator of the Fatherland, he is the only one who outplayed the hitherto invincible French emperor, turning the “great army” into a crowd of ragamuffins, saving, thanks to his military genius, the lives of many Russian soldiers.”
2. Mikhail Illarionovich, being a highly educated man who knew several foreign languages, dexterous, sophisticated, who knew how to animate society with the gift of words and an entertaining story, also served Russia as an excellent diplomat - ambassador to Turkey.
3. M.I. Kutuzov is the first to become a full holder of the highest military order of St. St. George the Victorious four degrees.
The life of Mikhail Illarionovich is an example of service to the fatherland, attitude towards soldiers, spiritual strength for Russian military leaders of our time and, of course, for the younger generation - future military men.

Oktyabrsky Philip Sergeevich

Admiral, Hero of the Soviet Union. During the Great Patriotic War, commander of the Black Sea Fleet. One of the leaders of the Defense of Sevastopol in 1941 - 1942, as well as the Crimean operation of 1944. During the Great Patriotic War, Vice Admiral F. S. Oktyabrsky was one of the leaders of the heroic defense of Odessa and Sevastopol. Being the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, at the same time in 1941-1942 he was the commander of the Sevastopol Defense Region.

Three Orders of Lenin
three Orders of the Red Banner
two Orders of Ushakov, 1st degree
Order of Nakhimov, 1st degree
Order of Suvorov, 2nd degree
Order of the Red Star
medals

Rurikovich (Grozny) Ivan Vasilievich

In the diversity of perceptions of Ivan the Terrible, one often forgets about his unconditional talent and achievements as a commander. He personally led the capture of Kazan and organized military reform, leading a country that was simultaneously fighting 2-3 wars on different fronts.

Blucher, Tukhachevsky

Blucher, Tukhachevsky and the whole galaxy of heroes of the Civil War. Don't forget Budyonny!

Ushakov Fedor Fedorovich

A man whose faith, courage, and patriotism defended our state

Olsufiev Zakhar Dmitrievich

One of the most famous military leaders of Bagration's 2nd Western Army. Always fought with exemplary courage. He was awarded the Order of St. George, 3rd degree, for his heroic participation in the Battle of Borodino. He distinguished himself in the battle on the Chernishna (or Tarutinsky) River. His reward for his participation in defeating the vanguard of Napoleon's army was the Order of St. Vladimir, 2nd degree. He was called "a general with talents." When Olsufiev was captured and taken to Napoleon, he said to his entourage the words famous in history: “Only Russians know how to fight like that!”

Dubynin Viktor Petrovich

From April 30, 1986 to June 1, 1987 - commander of the 40th combined arms army of the Turkestan Military District. The troops of this army made up the bulk of the Limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan. During the year of his command of the army, the number of irretrievable losses decreased by 2 times compared to 1984-1985.
On June 10, 1992, Colonel General V.P. Dubynin was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces - First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation
His merits include keeping the President of the Russian Federation B.N. Yeltsin from a number of ill-conceived decisions in the military sphere, primarily in the field of nuclear forces.

Kutuzov Mikhail Illarionovich

After Zhukov, who took Berlin, the second should be the brilliant strategist Kutuzov, who drove the French out of Russia.

Kolovrat Evpatiy Lvovich

Ryazan boyar and governor. During Batu's invasion of Ryazan he was in Chernigov. Having learned about the Mongol invasion, he hastily moved to the city. Finding Ryazan completely incinerated, Evpatiy Kolovrat with a detachment of 1,700 people began to catch up with Batya’s army. Having overtaken them, the rearguard destroyed them. He also killed the strong warriors of the Batyevs. Died on January 11, 1238.

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich

He led the armed struggle of the Soviet people in the war against Germany and its allies and satellites, as well as in the war against Japan.
Led the Red Army to Berlin and Port Arthur.

Shein Mikhail Borisovich

He headed the Smolensk defense against Polish-Lithuanian troops, which lasted 20 months. Under the command of Shein, multiple attacks were repelled, despite the explosion and a hole in the wall. He held back and bled the main forces of the Poles at the decisive moment of the Time of Troubles, preventing them from moving to Moscow to support their garrison, creating the opportunity to gather an all-Russian militia to liberate the capital. Only with the help of a defector, the troops of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth managed to take Smolensk on June 3, 1611. The wounded Shein was captured and taken with his family to Poland for 8 years. After returning to Russia, he commanded the army that tried to recapture Smolensk in 1632-1634. Executed due to boyar slander. Undeservedly forgotten.

Stessel Anatoly Mikhailovich

Commandant of Port Arthur during his heroic defense. The unprecedented ratio of losses of Russian and Japanese troops before the surrender of the fortress is 1:10.

Slashchev Yakov Alexandrovich

Linevich Nikolai Petrovich

Nikolai Petrovich Linevich (December 24, 1838 - April 10, 1908) - a prominent Russian military figure, infantry general (1903), adjutant general (1905); general who took Beijing by storm.

Loris-Melikov Mikhail Tarielovich

Known mainly as one of the minor characters in the story “Hadji Murad” by L.N. Tolstoy, Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov went through all the Caucasian and Turkish campaigns of the second half of the mid-19th century.

Having shown himself excellently during the Caucasian War, during the Kars campaign of the Crimean War, Loris-Melikov led reconnaissance, and then successfully served as commander-in-chief during the difficult Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, winning a number of important victories over the united Turkish forces and in the third once he captured Kars, which by that time was considered impregnable.

Vladimir Svyatoslavich

981 - conquest of Cherven and Przemysl. 983 - conquest of the Yatvags. 984 - conquest of the Rodimichs. 985 - successful campaigns against the Bulgars, tribute to the Khazar Khaganate. 988 - conquest of the Taman Peninsula. 991 - subjugation of the White Croats. 992 - successfully defended Cherven Rus in the war against Poland. In addition, the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles.

Dokhturov Dmitry Sergeevich

Defense of Smolensk.
Command of the left flank on the Borodino field after Bagration was wounded.
Battle of Tarutino.

Gagen Nikolai Alexandrovich

On June 22, trains with units of the 153rd Infantry Division arrived in Vitebsk. Covering the city from the west, Hagen's division (together with the heavy artillery regiment attached to the division) occupied a 40 km long defense line; it was opposed by the 39th German Motorized Corps.

After 7 days of fierce fighting, the division's battle formations were not broken through. The Germans no longer contacted the division, bypassed it and continued the offensive. The division appeared in a German radio message as destroyed. Meanwhile, the 153rd Rifle Division, without ammunition and fuel, began to fight its way out of the ring. Hagen led the division out of encirclement with heavy weapons.

For the demonstrated steadfastness and heroism during the Elninsky operation on September 18, 1941, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 308, the division received the honorary name “Guards”.
From 01/31/1942 to 09/12/1942 and from 10/21/1942 to 04/25/1943 - commander of the 4th Guards Rifle Corps,
from May 1943 to October 1944 - commander of the 57th Army,
from January 1945 - the 26th Army.

Troops under the leadership of N.A. Gagen took part in the Sinyavinsk operation (and the general managed to break out of encirclement for the second time with weapons in hand), the Battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, battles in the Left Bank and Right Bank Ukraine, in the liberation of Bulgaria, in the Iasi-Kishinev, Belgrade, Budapest, Balaton and Vienna operations. Participant of the Victory Parade.

Kotlyarevsky Petr Stepanovich

General Kotlyarevsky, son of a priest in the village of Olkhovatki, Kharkov province. He worked his way up from a private to a general in the tsarist army. He can be called the great-grandfather of Russian special forces. He carried out truly unique operations... His name is worthy of being included in the list of the greatest commanders of Russia

Batitsky

I served in the air defense and therefore I know this surname - Batitsky. Do you know? By the way, the father of air defense!

Bennigsen Leonty Leontievich

Surprisingly, a Russian general who did not speak Russian, became the glory of Russian weapons of the early 19th century.

He made a significant contribution to the suppression of the Polish uprising.

Commander-in-Chief in the Battle of Tarutino.

He made a significant contribution to the campaign of 1813 (Dresden and Leipzig).

Dolgorukov Yuri Alekseevich

An outstanding statesman and military leader of the era of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Prince. Commanding the Russian army in Lithuania, in 1658 he defeated Hetman V. Gonsevsky in the Battle of Verki, taking him prisoner. This was the first time since 1500 that a Russian governor captured the hetman. In 1660, at the head of an army sent to Mogilev, besieged by Polish-Lithuanian troops, he won a strategic victory over the enemy on the Basya River near the village of Gubarevo, forcing hetmans P. Sapieha and S. Charnetsky to retreat from the city. Thanks to the actions of Dolgorukov, the “front line” in Belarus along the Dnieper remained until the end of the war of 1654-1667. In 1670, he led an army aimed at fighting the Cossacks of Stenka Razin, and quickly suppressed the Cossack rebellion, which subsequently led to the Don Cossacks swearing an oath of allegiance to the Tsar and transforming the Cossacks from robbers into “sovereign servants.”

Duke of Württemberg Eugene

General of the Infantry, cousin of the Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. In service in the Russian Army since 1797 (enlisted as a colonel in the Life Guards Horse Regiment by Decree of Emperor Paul I). Participated in military campaigns against Napoleon in 1806-1807. For participation in the battle of Pułtusk in 1806 he was awarded the Order of St. George the Victorious, 4th degree, for the campaign of 1807 he received a golden weapon “For Bravery”, he distinguished himself in the campaign of 1812 (he personally led the 4th Jaeger Regiment into battle in the Battle of Smolensk), for participation in the Battle of Borodino he was awarded the Order of St. George the Victorious, 3rd degree. Since November 1812, commander of the 2nd Infantry Corps in Kutuzov's army. He took an active part in the foreign campaigns of the Russian army in 1813-1814; units under his command particularly distinguished themselves in the Battle of Kulm in August 1813, and in the “Battle of the Nations” at Leipzig. For courage at Leipzig, Duke Eugene was awarded the Order of St. George, 2nd degree. Parts of his corps were the first to enter defeated Paris on April 30, 1814, for which Eugene of Württemberg received the rank of infantry general. From 1818 to 1821 was the commander of the 1st Army Infantry Corps. Contemporaries considered Prince Eugene of Württemberg one of the best Russian infantry commanders during the Napoleonic Wars. On December 21, 1825, Nicholas I was appointed chief of the Tauride Grenadier Regiment, which became known as the “Grenadier Regiment of His Royal Highness Prince Eugene of Württemberg.” On August 22, 1826 he was awarded the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. Participated in the Russian-Turkish war of 1827-1828. as commander of the 7th Infantry Corps. On October 3, he defeated a large Turkish detachment on the Kamchik River.

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich

During the Patriotic War, Stalin led all the armed forces of our homeland and coordinated their military operations. It is impossible not to note his merits in competent planning and organization of military operations, in the skillful selection of military leaders and their assistants. Joseph Stalin proved himself not only as an outstanding commander who competently led all fronts, but also as an excellent organizer who carried out enormous work to increase the country's defense capability both in the pre-war and during the war years.

A short list of military awards of I.V. Stalin received by him during the Second World War:
Order of Suvorov, 1st class
Medal "For the Defense of Moscow"
Order "Victory"
Medal "Golden Star" of the Hero of the Soviet Union
Medal "For victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945"
Medal "For Victory over Japan"

Karyagin Pavel Mikhailovich

Colonel Karyagin's campaign against the Persians in 1805 does not resemble real military history. It looks like a prequel to "300 Spartans" (20,000 Persians, 500 Russians, gorges, bayonet attacks, "This is madness! - No, this is the 17th Jaeger Regiment!"). A golden, platinum page of Russian history, combining the carnage of madness with the highest tactical skill, amazing cunning and stunning Russian arrogance

Chichagov Vasily Yakovlevich

Superbly commanded the Baltic Fleet in the campaigns of 1789 and 1790. He won victories in the battle of Öland (7/15/1789), in the Revel (5/2/1790) and Vyborg (06/22/1790) battles. After the last two defeats, which were of strategic importance, the dominance of the Baltic Fleet became unconditional, and this forced the Swedes to make peace. There are few such examples in the history of Russia when victories at sea led to victory in the war. And by the way, the Battle of Vyborg was one of the largest in world history in terms of the number of ships and people.

Chuikov Vasily Ivanovich

Soviet military leader, Marshal of the Soviet Union (1955). Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1944, 1945).
From 1942 to 1946, commander of the 62nd Army (8th Guards Army), which particularly distinguished itself in the Battle of Stalingrad. He took part in defensive battles on the distant approaches to Stalingrad. From September 12, 1942, he commanded the 62nd Army. IN AND. Chuikov received the task of defending Stalingrad at any cost. The front command believed that Lieutenant General Chuikov was characterized by such positive qualities as determination and firmness, courage and a great operational outlook, a high sense of responsibility and consciousness of his duty. The army, under the command of V.I. Chuikov, became famous for the heroic six-month defense of Stalingrad in street fighting in a completely destroyed city, fighting on isolated bridgeheads on the banks of the wide Volga.

For the unprecedented mass heroism and steadfastness of its personnel, in April 1943, the 62nd Army received the honorary title of Guards and became known as the 8th Guards Army.

Minich Burchard-Christopher

One of the best Russian commanders and military engineers. The first commander to enter Crimea. Winner at Stavuchany.

Kotlyarevsky Petr Stepanovich

Hero of the Russian-Persian War of 1804-1813.
"Meteor General" and "Caucasian Suvorov".
He fought not with numbers, but with skill - first, 450 Russian soldiers attacked 1,200 Persian Sardars in the Migri fortress and took it, then 500 of our soldiers and Cossacks attacked 5,000 askers at the crossing of the Araks. They destroyed more than 700 enemies; only 2,500 Persian soldiers managed to escape from ours.
In both cases, our losses were less than 50 killed and up to 100 wounded.
Further, in the war against the Turks, with a swift attack, 1,000 Russian soldiers defeated the 2,000-strong garrison of the Akhalkalaki fortress.
Then again, in the Persian direction, he cleared Karabakh of the enemy, and then, with 2,200 soldiers, he defeated Abbas Mirza with a 30,000-strong army at Aslanduz, a village near the Araks River. In two battles, he destroyed more than 10,000 enemies, including English advisers and artillerymen.
As usual, Russian losses amounted to 30 killed and 100 wounded.
Kotlyarevsky won most of his victories in night assaults on fortresses and enemy camps, not allowing the enemies to come to their senses.
The last campaign - 2000 Russians against 7000 Persians to the Lenkoran fortress, where Kotlyarevsky almost died during the assault, lost consciousness at times from loss of blood and pain from wounds, but still commanded the troops until the final victory, as soon as he regained consciousness, and then was forced take a long time to heal and retire from military affairs.
His exploits for the glory of Russia are much greater than the “300 Spartans” - for our commanders and warriors more than once defeated an enemy 10 times superior, and suffered minimal losses, saving Russian lives.

Nakhimov Pavel Stepanovich

Ivan III Vasilievich Shein Mikhail Borisovich

Voivode Shein is a hero and leader of the unprecedented defense of Smolensk in 1609-16011. This fortress decided a lot in the fate of Russia!

Romodanovsky Grigory Grigorievich

An outstanding military figure of the 17th century, prince and governor. In 1655, he won his first victory over the Polish hetman S. Potocki near Gorodok in Galicia. Later, as commander of the army of the Belgorod category (military administrative district), he played a major role in organizing the defense of the southern border of Russia. In 1662, he won the greatest victory in the Russian-Polish war for Ukraine in the battle of Kanev, defeating the traitor hetman Yu. Khmelnytsky and the Poles who helped him. In 1664, near Voronezh, he forced the famous Polish commander Stefan Czarnecki to flee, forcing the army of King John Casimir to retreat. Repeatedly beat the Crimean Tatars. In 1677 he defeated the 100,000-strong Turkish army of Ibrahim Pasha near Buzhin, and in 1678 he defeated the Turkish corps of Kaplan Pasha near Chigirin. Thanks to his military talents, Ukraine did not become another Ottoman province and the Turks did not take Kyiv.

Kutuzov Mikhail Illarionovich

It is certainly worthy; in my opinion, no explanation or evidence is required. It's surprising that his name isn't on the list. was the list prepared by representatives of the Unified State Examination generation?

Paskevich Ivan Fedorovich

The armies under his command defeated Persia in the war of 1826-1828 and completely defeated Turkish troops in Transcaucasia in the war of 1828-1829.

Awarded all 4 degrees of the Order of St. George and the Order of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called with diamonds.

Vasilevsky Alexander Mikhailovich

The greatest commander of the Second World War. Two people in history were awarded the Order of Victory twice: Vasilevsky and Zhukov, but after the Second World War it was Vasilevsky who became the Minister of Defense of the USSR. His military genius is unsurpassed by ANY military leader in the world.

Kornilov Vladimir Alekseevich

During the outbreak of the war with England and France, he actually commanded the Black Sea Fleet, and until his heroic death he was the immediate superior of P.S. Nakhimov and V.I. Istomina. After the landing of the Anglo-French troops in Evpatoria and the defeat of the Russian troops on Alma, Kornilov received an order from the commander-in-chief in the Crimea, Prince Menshikov, to sink the ships of the fleet in the roadstead in order to use sailors for the defense of Sevastopol from land.

Stalin (Dzhugashvili) Joseph Vissarionovich

Comrade Stalin, in addition to the atomic and missile projects, together with Army General Alexei Innokentievich Antonov, participated in the development and implementation of almost all significant operations of the Soviet troops in the Second World War, and brilliantly organized the work of the rear, even in the first difficult years of the war.

Barclay de Tolly Mikhail Bogdanovich

Participated in the Russian-Turkish War of 1787-91 and the Russian-Swedish War of 1788-90. He distinguished himself during the war with France in 1806-07 at Preussisch-Eylau, and from 1807 he commanded a division. During the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-09 he commanded a corps; led the successful crossing of the Kvarken Strait in the winter of 1809. In 1809-10, Governor-General of Finland. From January 1810 to September 1812, the Minister of War did a lot of work to strengthen the Russian army, and separated the intelligence and counterintelligence service into a separate production. In the Patriotic War of 1812 he commanded the 1st Western Army, and, as Minister of War, the 2nd Western Army was subordinate to him. In conditions of significant superiority of the enemy, he showed his talent as a commander and successfully carried out the withdrawal and unification of the two armies, which earned M.I. Kutuzov such words as THANK YOU DEAR FATHER!!! SAVED THE ARMY!!! SAVED RUSSIA!!!. However, the retreat caused discontent in noble circles and the army, and on August 17 Barclay surrendered command of the armies to M.I. Kutuzov. In the Battle of Borodino he commanded the right wing of the Russian army, showing steadfastness and skill in defense. He recognized the position chosen by L. L. Bennigsen near Moscow as unsuccessful and supported M. I. Kutuzov’s proposal to leave Moscow at the military council in Fili. In September 1812, due to illness, he left the army. In February 1813 he was appointed commander of the 3rd and then the Russian-Prussian army, which he successfully commanded during the foreign campaigns of the Russian army of 1813-14 (Kulm, Leipzig, Paris). Buried in the Beklor estate in Livonia (now Jõgeveste Estonia)

Suvorov Alexander Vasilievich

Well, who else but him is the only Russian commander who has not lost more than one battle!!!

Chernyakhovsky Ivan Danilovich

To a person to whom this name means nothing, there is no need to explain and it is useless. To the one to whom it says something, everything is clear.
Twice hero of the Soviet Union. Commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front. The youngest front commander. Counts,. that he was an army general - but just before his death (February 18, 1945) he received the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.
Liberated three of the six capitals of the Union Republics captured by the Nazis: Kyiv, Minsk. Vilnius. Decided the fate of Kenicksberg.
One of the few who drove back the Germans on June 23, 1941.
He held the front in Valdai. In many ways, he determined the fate of repelling the German offensive on Leningrad. Voronezh held. Liberated Kursk.
He successfully advanced until the summer of 1943, forming with his army the top of the Kursk Bulge. Liberated the Left Bank of Ukraine. I took Kyiv. He repulsed Manstein's counterattack. Liberated Western Ukraine.
Carried out Operation Bagration. Surrounded and captured thanks to his offensive in the summer of 1944, the Germans then humiliatedly walked through the streets of Moscow. Belarus. Lithuania. Neman. East Prussia.

Field Marshal General Gudovich Ivan Vasilievich

The assault on the Turkish fortress of Anapa on June 22, 1791. In terms of complexity and importance, it is only inferior to the assault on Izmail by A.V. Suvorov.
A 7,000-strong Russian detachment stormed Anapa, which was defended by a 25,000-strong Turkish garrison. At the same time, soon after the start of the assault, the Russian detachment was attacked from the mountains by 8,000 mounted highlanders and Turks, who attacked the Russian camp, but were unable to break into it, were repulsed in a fierce battle and pursued by the Russian cavalry.
The fierce battle for the fortress lasted over 5 hours. About 8,000 people from the Anapa garrison died, 13,532 defenders led by the commandant and Sheikh Mansur were taken prisoner. A small part (about 150 people) escaped on ships. Almost all the artillery was captured or destroyed (83 cannons and 12 mortars), 130 banners were taken. Gudovich sent a separate detachment from Anapa to the nearby Sudzhuk-Kale fortress (on the site of modern Novorossiysk), but upon his approach the garrison burned the fortress and fled to the mountains, abandoning 25 guns.
The losses of the Russian detachment were very high - 23 officers and 1,215 privates were killed, 71 officers and 2,401 privates were wounded (Sytin's Military Encyclopedia gives slightly lower data - 940 killed and 1,995 wounded). Gudovich was awarded the Order of St. George, 2nd degree, all the officers of his detachment were awarded, and a special medal was established for the lower ranks.

Kolchak Alexander Vasilievich

Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak (November 4 (November 16) 1874, St. Petersburg - February 7, 1920, Irkutsk) - Russian oceanographer, one of the largest polar explorers of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, military and political figure, naval commander, active member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society (1906), admiral (1918), leader of the White movement, Supreme Ruler of Russia.

Participant of the Russian-Japanese War, Defense of Port Arthur. During the First World War, he commanded the mine division of the Baltic Fleet (1915-1916), the Black Sea Fleet (1916-1917). Knight of St. George.
The leader of the White movement both on a nationwide scale and directly in the East of Russia. As the Supreme Ruler of Russia (1918-1920), he was recognized by all the leaders of the White movement, “de jure” by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, “de facto” by the Entente states.
Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army.

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich

Chairman of the State Defense Committee, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Armed Forces during the Great Patriotic War.
What other questions might there be?

Margelov Vasily Filippovich

Author and initiator of the creation of technical means of the Airborne Forces and methods of using units and formations of the Airborne Forces, many of which personify the image of the Airborne Forces of the USSR Armed Forces and the Russian Armed Forces that currently exists.

General Pavel Fedoseevich Pavlenko:
In the history of the Airborne Forces, and in the Armed Forces of Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union, his name will remain forever. He personified an entire era in the development and formation of the Airborne Forces; their authority and popularity are associated with his name not only in our country, but also abroad...

Colonel Nikolai Fedorovich Ivanov:
Under the leadership of Margelov for more than twenty years, the airborne troops became one of the most mobile in the combat structure of the Armed Forces, prestigious for service in them, especially revered by the people... A photograph of Vasily Filippovich in demobilization albums was sold to soldiers at the highest price - for a set of badges. The competition for admission to the Ryazan Airborne School exceeded the numbers of VGIK and GITIS, and applicants who missed out on exams lived for two or three months, before the snow and frost, in the forests near Ryazan in the hope that someone would not withstand the load and it would be possible to take his place .

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich

He was the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War! Under his leadership, the USSR won the Great Victory during the Great Patriotic War!

Kolchak Alexander Vasilievich

A person who combines the body of knowledge of a natural scientist, a scientist and a great strategist.

Suvorov Alexander Vasilievich

The great Russian commander, who did not suffer a single defeat in his military career (more than 60 battles), one of the founders of Russian military art.
Prince of Italy (1799), Count of Rymnik (1789), Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Generalissimo of the Russian land and naval forces, Field Marshal of the Austrian and Sardinian troops, Grandee of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Prince of the Royal Blood (with the title "King's cousin"), Knight of all Russian orders of their time, awarded to men, as well as many foreign military orders.

G.K. Zhukov showed the ability to manage large military formations numbering 800 thousand - 1 million people. At the same time, the specific losses suffered by his troops (i.e., correlated with numbers) turned out to be lower over and over again than those of his neighbors.
Also G.K. Zhukov demonstrated remarkable knowledge of the properties of the military equipment in service with the Red Army - knowledge that was very necessary for the commander of industrial wars.

Generals of Ancient Rus'

Since ancient times. Vladimir Monomakh (fought the Polovtsians), his sons Mstislav the Great (campaigns against Chud and Lithuania) and Yaropolk (campaigns against the Don), Vsevood the Big Nest (campaigns against Volga Bulgaria), Mstislav Udatny (battle of Lipitsa), Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (defeated Knights of the Order of the Sword), Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Vladimir the Brave (the second hero of the Mamaev Massacre)…

K.K. Rokossovsky

The intelligence of this marshal connected the Russian army with the Red Army.

Leiba Bronstein was born in 1879 into the family of a very wealthy Kherson grain merchant and landowner. Mother, Anna Lvovna, came from a family of large entrepreneurs and bankers, the Zhivotovskys.

From the age of seven, the boy studied at the cheder at the synagogue, and then at the Odessa real school. Afterwards he entered Odessa University, but became involved in the revolution and abandoned his studies. It is worth noting that at first Lev Davidovich showed contempt for all the beautiful revolutionary impulses of those around him. Being extremely ambitious, he made far-reaching plans, knowing full well that it was impossible to derive any practical benefit from utopian dreams. And yet, gradually the revolution became interested in the young Leva Bronstein.

In 1898 he was arrested and received four years of exile. In the Butyrka transit prison, Lev Davidovich married revolutionary Alexandra Sokolovskaya. They went to Siberia as husband and wife. In 1902, an escape was arranged for Trotsky. The escape was organized brilliantly: clothes, documents, money, route - everything was executed to the highest standard. It was from this time that Leiba Bronstein became Leon Trotsky - he got a passport from the deceased Colonel Nikolai Trotsky. Lev Davidovich went to Austria-Hungary, to Vienna. And here Victor Adler took control and guardianship of him.

Leiba Bronstein, 1888. (aif.ru)

Adler provided Trotsky with money and the necessary documents, and Lev Davidovich went to London, to Lenin, and went to work for the Iskra newspaper. Trotsky became friends with the future leader of the world proletariat very quickly. Vladimir Ilyich could not be happier with his new employee, who completely shared his views. He distributed laudatory recommendations to Trotsky, his faithful student, and provided him with patronage. And Lev Davidovich, in turn, supported his leader in everything. This continued until Trotsky decided that he had already become quite a famous person. He immediately declared his disagreement with the general line of the party, for which he earned from Lenin two characteristics that have since firmly stuck to him - “Judas” and “political prostitute.”

In 1903, the Second Congress of the RSDLP was convened in Europe, at which it was supposed to unite disparate groups of Social Democrats. However, at the congress the revolutionaries quarreled and divided into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks. Trotsky, not joining either one or the other, once again quarreled with Lenin and was left completely alone. Lev Davidovich's abandonment did not last long - after some time he received an invitation from the ideologist of the “permanent revolution” Israel Lazarevich Parvus and went to see him in Munich.

Revolutionary Leon Trotsky

In 1905, immediately after the so-called “Bloody Sunday,” Parvus and Trotsky headed for Russia. Having established the publication of three newspapers - “Russkaya Gazeta”, “Nachala” and “Izvestia”, filling Moscow and St. Petersburg with circulation, Israel Lazarevich began to “promote” Lev Davidovich. To begin with, he, a still unknown politician, was pushed to the post of deputy chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. The Chairman of the Council was Georgy Stepanovich Khrustalev-Nosar, a purely decorative figure. In reality, Parvus was in charge. Using controlled publications, Israel Lazarevich created a real “financial storm” in Russia (the reason for this was the published “Financial Manifesto”), for which he, along with Trotsky, was arrested and sent into exile. However, neither one nor the other reached the place of detention. Money and documents were handed over to them along the way. Both fled first to Finland and then moved to Switzerland.

Trotsky at a rally, 1919. (kykyryzo.ru)

For a long time, Lev Davidovich worked in Vienna (as a publicist), often visiting Viktor Adler and Sigmund Freud. Then he moved to France, where he not only participated in the publication of socialist newspapers, but was also engaged in active subversive anti-Russian activities (in particular, he was one of the organizers of uprisings in Russian regiments that fought on the Western Front), for which he was arrested, but thanks to high patrons in released by the French government and deported to Spain. From Spain, Trotsky and his family (in 1903 he began cohabiting with Natalya Sedova) departed for the United States on a ship in a first-class cabin. In New York, Lev Davidovich, together with Volodarsky, Bukharin, Kollontai and other revolutionary figures, worked in the newspaper “New World”.

Trotsky in power

Immediately after the February Revolution, Trotsky and a group of his comrades went to Russia. However, along the way, in the Canadian port of Halifax, he was removed from the ship and placed in an internment camp. The Provisional Government immediately demanded the release of the honored fighter against tsarism. As a result of this demand or for other reasons, the British, after keeping Lev Davidovich for two months and having several conversations with them, released him.

In Petrograd, Trotsky was given a solemn meeting. Having settled in the apartment of plant director Nobel Serebrovsky, Lev Davidovich immediately got involved in work, and with the assistance of Yakov Sverdlov, he began to look for ways to reconcile with Lenin. Trotsky’s activities yielded results exactly two months after his arrival: at the beginning of July 1917, anti-government protests by workers and soldiers began in Petrograd. The Provisional Government suppressed the unrest and accused Lenin and Trotsky of espionage. Vladimir Ilyich managed to escape in advance, but Lev Davidovich ended up in “Kresty”, from where he was soon (after the Kornilov mutiny) safely released by the same Provisional Government.

October 1917 became Trotsky’s finest hour: he, the head of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, finally managed to take power into his own hands. After the coup, Lev Davidovich took over as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. A striking episode of Trotsky’s activity on the international field was the signing of the shameful Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty. After that, he went to the People's Commissars for Military Affairs, where he again distinguished himself - now in the formation of the Red Army.

In the early 1920s, Lev Davidovich headed the People's Commissariat of Railways. An extremely controversial and unpleasant episode is associated with this period of his career: having ordered a thousand steam locomotives from Sweden for 200 million gold rubles, he spent a quarter of the country’s gold reserves.

A few words should be said about Trotsky’s role in the genocide of the Cossacks. According to his famous order No. 100 of May 25, 1919, soldiers, commanders and commissars of the punitive troops were ordered to completely exterminate “the nests of countless traitors and traitors.” There was no mercy from the People's Commissar of Military Affairs.

Trotsky and Stalin

Before 1922, there was no acute struggle for power in the Soviet government. However, Lenin's illness acutely raised the question of who would become his successor. Trotsky tried to take the leading roles, but he was not allowed to do this.

Trotsky in Mexico, 1940. (twitter.com)

A fatal role in the fate of Lev Davidovich was played by the fact that at the end of his life Lenin elevated Stalin to political Olympus. And Joseph Vissarionovich knew how to fight real opponents. In February 1929, Trotsky was expelled from the USSR. Abroad, he tried to organize an anti-Stalinist opposition, but he never succeeded in achieving his goal - to overthrow Stalin.

Trotsky rushed around the world. From France, where he arrived in 1933 in order to find refuge, he was sent to Norway, and from Norway to Mexico. It was here, in the country of cowboys, cacti and tequila, that Lev Davidovich spent the last years of his life. In August 1940, Soviet agent Ramon Mercader killed him with an ice pick.

Who is Leon Trotsky?

Leon Trotsky (/trɒtski/; pronounced; born Leiba Davidovich Bronstein; November 7 (Old Style October 26) 1879 – August 21, 1940, was a Marxist revolutionary and theorist, a Soviet politician who planned the transfer of all political power to the Soviets during during the October Revolution of 1917, and is also the founding leader of the Red Army.

Trotsky initially supported the Menshevik Internationalist faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. He joined the Bolsheviks shortly before the October Revolution of 1917 and eventually became the leader of the Communist Party. He was, along with Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Stalin, Sokolnikov and Bubnov, one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 to lead the Bolshevik revolution. In the early days of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and the Soviet Union, he first served as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and then as the founder and commander of the Red Army with the title of People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. He played a major role in the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War (1918-1923).

Having led a failed leftist opposition struggle against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and against the growing role of the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, Trotsky was deprived of power (October 1927), expelled from the Communist Party (November 1927), and exiled to Alma-Ata ( January 1928) and expelled from the Soviet Union (February 1929). As head of the Fourth International, Trotsky continued to oppose the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union from exile. On Stalin's orders, he was assassinated in Mexico in August 1940 by Ramon Mercader, a Spanish-born Soviet agent.

Trotsky's ideas formed the basis of Trotskyism, a major school of Marxist teaching that opposes the theories of Stalinism. He was written out of the history books under Stalin and was one of the few Soviet political figures not to be rehabilitated by the government under Nikita Khrushchev in the 1950s. It was not until the late 1980s that his books were published in the Soviet Union, which soon collapsed.

Biography of Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky, Lev Davidovich Bronstein, born November 7, 1879, was the fifth child in a Russian-Jewish family of wealthy (but illiterate) farmers in Yanovka or Yanivka, in the Kherson province of the Russian Empire (now Bereslavka, in Ukraine), a small village 24 kilometers away from the nearest post office. His parents were David Leontievich Bronstein (1847-1922) and his wife Anna Lvovna (née Zhivotovskaya) (1850-1910). The family was of Jewish origin. The language they spoke at home was Surzhik, a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian. Trotsky's younger sister, Olga, who also became a Bolshevik and Soviet politician, married prominent Bolshevik Lev Kamenev.

Many anti-communists, anti-Semites and anti-Trotskyists noted Trotsky's real surname, emphasizing the political and historical significance of the Bronstein surname. Some authors, notably Robert Service, have also claimed that Trotsky had the Yiddish name "Leiba" as a child. American Trotskyist David North said that this was an obvious attempt to emphasize Trotsky's Jewish origins, but, contrary to Service's claims, there is no documentary evidence for this. He believes it is very unlikely that the family were Jewish since they did not speak Yiddish, the main language of Eastern European Jews. Both North and Walter Laqueur wrote in their books that Trotsky was called Levoy as a child, the standard Russian diminutive for "Lev".

When Trotsky was nine years old, his father sent him to Odessa to study at a Jewish school. He was enrolled in a German language school, which became Russian-language during his life in Odessa as a result of the imperial government's Russification policy. As Isaac Deutscher notes in his biography of Trotsky, Odessa was then a bustling, cosmopolitan port city, unlike the typical Russian city of the time. This environment contributed to the development of the young man's international outlook. Although Trotsky indicated in his autobiography My Life that he was never able to speak fluently any language other than Russian and Ukrainian, Raymond Molyneux wrote that Trotsky spoke fluent French.

Trotsky's revolutionary activities

Trotsky became involved in revolutionary events in 1896, after moving to the port city of Nikolaev on the Ukrainian Black Sea coast. First as a populist (revolutionary populist), he initially opposed Marxism, but became a Marxist that same year thanks to his future first wife, Alexandra Sokolovskaya. Instead of studying mathematics, Trotsky helped organize the South Russian Workers' Union in Nikolaev in early 1897. Using the name "Lvov", he wrote and printed leaflets and proclamations, distributed revolutionary pamphlets and promoted socialist ideas among industrial workers and revolutionary students.

In January 1898, more than 200 trade union members were arrested, including Trotsky. Over the next two years he was held in prison awaiting trial, first in Nikolaev, then in Kherson, then in Odessa and finally in Moscow. In a Moscow prison he came into contact with other revolutionaries. There he first heard about Lenin and read Lenin’s book “The Development of Capitalism in Russia.” Two months after the start of his imprisonment, on March 1-3, 1898, the first Congress of the newly formed Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) took place. From that moment on, Trotsky was a party member.

Trotsky's first marriage and Siberian exile

While in prison in Moscow in the summer of 1899, Trotsky married Alexandra Sokolovskaya (1872-1938), a Marxist. The wedding ceremony was performed by a Jewish chaplain.

In 1900 he was sentenced to four years of exile in Siberia. Because of the marriage, Trotsky and his wife were allowed to be together in Siberia. They were sent to Ust-Kut and Verkholensk in the area of ​​Lake Baikal in Siberia. They had two daughters, Zinaida (1901 – January 5, 1933) and Nina (1902 – June 9, 1928), both born in Siberia.

In Siberia, Trotsky studied philosophy. He learned about various trends within the party that were destroyed by arrests in 1898 and 1899. Some Social Democrats, known as "economists", argued that the party should focus on helping industrial workers improve their lives and not worry about them by changing the government. They believed that social reform would grow out of workers' struggles for higher wages and better working conditions. Others argued that overthrowing the monarchy was more important, and that a well-organized and disciplined revolutionary party was of great importance. The latter position was expressed by the London newspaper “Iskra” or in English “The Spark”, which was founded in 1900. Trotsky quickly sided with Iskra's position and began writing for the newspaper.

In the summer of 1902, at the insistence of his wife, Trotsky fled Siberia, hidden in a carriage loaded with hay. Alexandra later fled Siberia with her daughters.

Leo and Alexandra were separated and soon divorced, but maintained friendly relations. Their children were later raised by Trotsky's parents in Ukraine. Both daughters got married. Zinaida gave birth to children, but the daughters died before their parents. Nina Nevelson died of tuberculosis (TB), cared for by her older sister in the last months of her life. Zinaida Volkova died after her father went into exile in Berlin. She took her son from her second marriage with her and left her daughter in Russia. Suffering from tuberculosis, and then from a fatal illness and depression, Volkova committed suicide. Their mother Alexandra Trotskaya disappeared in 1935 during the Great Terror in the Soviet Union under Stalin and was killed by Stalinist forces three years later.

Trotsky's first emigration

Up to this point in his life, Trotsky had used his birth name, Lev or Leon Bronstein. He changed his last name to "Trotsky", a name he would bear for the rest of his life. They say that he appropriated the name of the jailer of the Odessa prison in which he was previously held. It became his main revolutionary pseudonym. After escaping from Siberia, Trotsky moved to London, joining Georgi Plekhanov, Vladimir Lenin, Yuli Martov and other Iskra editors. Under the pseudonym Pero ("pen" or "pen" in Russian), Trotsky soon became one of the newspaper's leading writers.

Unknown to Trotsky, the six editors of Iskra were evenly distributed between the "old guard" led by Plekhanov and the "new guard" led by Lenin and Martov. Plekhanov's supporters were older (in their 40s and 50s) and had spent the last 20 years together in exile in Europe. The members of the new guard were much younger and had only recently emigrated from Russia. Lenin, who was trying to create a permanent majority against Plekhanov in Iskra, expected Trotsky, who was 23 at the time, to take the side of the new guard.

In March 1903, Lenin wrote:

I invite all members of the editorial board to accept Pero as a member of the board on the same basis as other members. We really need a seventh member, both for voting convenience (six is ​​an even number) and as an addition to our forces. "Pen" contributes to the solution of each problem for several months; he works most energetically for Iskra; he lectures (at which he is very successful). In the section of articles and notes about the events of the day, it is not only useful, but also absolutely necessary. He is undoubtedly a man of rare ability, he has conviction and energy, and he will go much further.

Due to Plekhanov's disagreement, Trotsky did not become a full member of the board. But, from then on, he took part in its meetings as a consultant, which earned him Plekhanov's hostility.

At the end of 1902, Trotsky met Natalya Ivanovna Sedova, who soon became his lover. They married in 1903, and she was with him until her death. They had two children, Lev Sedov (1906 – February 16, 1938) and Sergei Sedov (March 21, 1908 – October 29, 1937), who both predeceased their parents. Regarding the names of his sons, Trotsky later explained everything after the 1917 revolution:

In order not to force my sons to change their name, I, as required by “citizenship,” took my wife’s surname.

Trotsky never used the surname "Sedov" either privately or publicly. Natalya Sedova sometimes signed herself “Sedova-Trotskaya”.

Meanwhile, after a period of secret police repression and internal confusion following the first Party Congress in 1898, Iskra managed to convene the 2nd Party Congress in London in August 1903. Trotsky and other Iskra editors were present there. The First Congress took place as planned, with Iskra supporters defeating several “economist” delegates. The congress then discussed the position of the Jewish Bund, which had established the RSDLP in 1898 but wanted to remain autonomous within the party.

Soon after this, the pro-Iskra delegates split into two factions. Lenin and his supporters, the Bolsheviks, stood for a smaller but highly organized party, while Martov and his supporters, the Mensheviks, stood for a larger and less disciplined party. Unexpectedly, Trotsky and the majority of Iskra editors supported Martov and the Mensheviks, while Plekhanov supported Lenin and the Bolsheviks. In 1903 and 1904, many members changed factions. Plekhanov soon parted ways with the Bolsheviks. Trotsky abandoned the Mensheviks in September 1904 because of their insistence on an alliance with Russian liberals and their resistance to reconciliation with Lenin and the Bolsheviks.

From 1904 to 1917, Trotsky called himself a "non-factional Social Democrat". He worked between 1904 and 1917 trying to reconcile different groups within the party, which led to numerous clashes with Lenin and other prominent party members. Trotsky later argued that he was wrong to oppose Lenin on party issues. During these years, Trotsky began to develop his theory of permanent revolution and in 1904-1907 established a close working relationship with Alexander Parvus.

During the split, Lenin referred to Trotsky as "Judas", a "scoundrel" and a "pig".

Bloody Sunday

Unrest and agitation against the Russian government began in St. Petersburg on January 3, 1905 (Julian calendar), when a strike began at the Putilov plant in the city. This single strike became a general strike, and by January 7, 1905, there were 140,000 strikers in St. Petersburg. On Sunday, January 9, 1905, Father Georgy Gapon led a peaceful procession of citizens through the streets to the Winter Palace to plead with the Tsar for food and help from the cruel government. The palace guards opened fire on peaceful demonstrators, killing 1,000 people. Sunday January 9, 1905 became known as Bloody Sunday.

After the events of Bloody Sunday, Trotsky secretly returned to Russia in February 1905 through Kyiv. At first he wrote leaflets for an underground printing house in Kyiv, but soon moved to the capital, St. Petersburg. There he worked with Bolsheviks such as Central Committee member Leonid Krasin and the local Menshevik committee, which he pushed in a more radical direction. The latter, however, were betrayed by a secret police agent in May, and Trotsky had to flee to rural Finland. There he worked on concretizing his theory of permanent revolution.

On September 19, 1905, typesetters at the Sytinsky Printing Plant in Moscow went on strike for shorter working hours and higher wages. By the evening of September 24, workers from 50 other printing houses in Moscow also went on strike. On October 2, 1905, typesetters in printing houses in St. Petersburg decided to support the Moscow strikers. On October 7, 1905, railway workers of the Moscow-Kazan Railway went on strike. As a result of the confusion, Trotsky returned from Finland to St. Petersburg on October 15, 1905. On that day, Trotsky spoke before the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies, which was held at the Technological Institute. About 200,000 people gathered in the street to hear the speech.

After their return, Trotsky and Parvus took over the newspaper Russkaya Gazeta, increasing its circulation to 500,000 newspapers. Trotsky was also the co-founder, along with Parvus and Yuli Martov and other Mensheviks, of the newspaper Nachalo, which also proved very successful in the revolutionary atmosphere of St. Petersburg in 1905.

Shortly before Trotsky's return, the Mensheviks independently came up with the same idea as Trotsky: an elected non-party revolutionary organization representing the capital's workers, the first "Council" of workers. By the time Trotsky arrived, the St. Petersburg Council was already functioning, headed by Khrustalev-Nosar (Georgy Nosar, pseudonym Pyotr Khrustalev). Khrustalev-Nosar was a compromise figure when he was elected head of the St. Petersburg Council. Khrustalev-Nosar was a lawyer who stood above the political factions contained in the Council. However, from the moment of his election he proved very popular among the workers, despite the initial resistance of the Bolsheviks. Khrustalev-Nosar became famous in his capacity as a representative of the St. Petersburg Council. Indeed, for the outside world, Khrustalev-Nosar was the embodiment of the St. Petersburg Council. Trotsky joined the Council under the name "Yanovsky" (after the village in which he was born, Yanovki) and was elected deputy chairman. He did a lot of work in the Council and after the arrest of Khrustalev-Nosar on November 26, 1905, he was elected Chairman of the Council. On December 2, the Council issued a proclamation containing the following statement about the Tsarist government and its foreign debts:

The autocracy never enjoyed the confidence of the people and never received any powers from the people. Therefore, we decided to prevent the repayment of such loans, as was done by the tsarist government, by openly participating in the war with the entire people.

The next day, the Council was surrounded by troops loyal to the government and the deputies were arrested. Trotsky and other Soviet leaders were tried in 1906 on charges of supporting an armed rebellion. At his trial on October 4, 1906, Trotsky gave one of the best speeches of his life. It was this speech that cemented his reputation as a successful public speaker. He was convicted and sentenced to internal exile in Siberia.

Trotsky's second emigration

On his way into exile in Obdorsk in Siberia in January 1907, Trotsky fled the village of Berezovo and headed back to London. He attended the 5th Congress of the RSDLP. In October he moved to Vienna, Austria-Hungary. Over the next seven years, he frequently took part in the activities of the Austrian Social Democratic Party and sometimes the German Social Democratic Party.

In Vienna, Trotsky approached Adolf Joffe, who was his friend for the next 20 years and introduced him to psychoanalysis. In October 1908, he was invited to join the twice-weekly editorial staff of Pravda, a Russian-language Social Democratic newspaper for Russian workers, which he co-edited with Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and Victor Kopp. The newspaper was smuggled into Russia. Pravda was published very irregularly; only five issues were published in the first year. Avoiding factional politics, the newspaper proved popular among Russian industrial workers. Both the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks split several times after the failure of the 1905-1907 revolution. There was not enough money to publish Pravda. Trotsky applied to the Central Committee of the Russian Federation to obtain financial support for the newspaper during 1909.

The Central Committee in 1910 was controlled by the Bolshevik majority. Lenin agreed to finance Pravda, but demanded that the Bolshevik be appointed co-editor of the newspaper. When various Bolshevik and Menshevik factions attempted to reunite at the January 1910 meeting of the RSDLP Central Committee in Paris over Lenin's objections, Trotsky's Pravda became the "central organ" financed by the parties. Lev Kamenev, Trotsky's son-in-law, joined the editorial board from the Bolsheviks, but attempts at unification failed in August 1910. Kamenev left the editorial office amid mutual accusations. Trotsky continued to publish Pravda for two more years, until the newspaper finally closed in April 1912.

On April 22, 1912, the Bolsheviks began publishing a new worker-oriented newspaper in St. Petersburg, also called Pravda. Trotsky was so upset by what he saw as the usurpation of his newspaper's name that in April 1913 he wrote a letter to Nikolai Chkheidze, the Menshevik leader, harshly denouncing Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Although he quickly put an end to the controversy, the letter was intercepted by Russian police and a copy was placed in their archives. Shortly after Lenin's death in 1924, the letter was discovered and published by Trotsky's opponents in the Communist Party to portray him as an enemy of Lenin.

The 1910s were a period of heightened tension within the RSDLP, which led to numerous tensions between Trotsky, the Bolsheviks, and the Mensheviks. The most serious disagreement that Trotsky and the Mensheviks had with Lenin at the time was over the issue of “expropriation,” i.e., the armed robberies of banks and other companies by Bolshevik groups to raise money for the party. These actions were prohibited by the 5th Congress, but continued to be carried out by the Bolsheviks.

In January 1912, most of the Bolshevik faction, led by Lenin and a few Mensheviks, held a conference in Prague and expelled their opponents from the party. In response, Trotsky organized a "unification" of Social Democratic factions (also known as the "August Bloc") in Vienna in August 1912 and attempted to reunite the party. The attempt was largely unsuccessful.

In Vienna, Trotsky constantly published articles in radical Russian and Ukrainian newspapers such as Kyiv Mysl under various pseudonyms, often using "Antid Oto". In September 1912, Kievskaya Mysl sent him to the Balkans as its war correspondent, where he covered the two Balkan Wars over the next year and became a close friend of Christian Rakovsky. The latter later became a leading Soviet politician and Trotsky's ally in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. On August 3, 1914, during the First World War, in which Austria-Hungary fought against the Russian Empire, Trotsky was forced to leave Vienna for neutral Switzerland to avoid arrest as a Russian émigré.

Trotsky and the First World War

The outbreak of World War I caused a sudden regrouping in the RSDLP and other European social democratic parties on issues of war, revolution, pacifism and internationalism. In the RSDLP, Lenin, Trotsky and Martov defended various internationalist anti-war viewpoints, and Plekhanov and other social democrats (both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks) supported the Russian government to some extent. In Switzerland, Trotsky worked briefly for the Swiss Socialist Party, encouraging it to adopt an international resolution. He wrote a book against the war, War and the International, and also against the war stance of the European Social Democratic parties, especially the German party. As a war correspondent for Kievskaya Mysl, Trotsky moved to France on November 19, 1914. In January 1915, in Paris, he began editing (first with Martov, who soon left when the paper became more left-wing) Nashe Slovo, an international socialist newspaper. He developed the slogan “a world without annexations and indemnities, a world without conquerors and the conquered.” Lenin advocated recognition of Russia's defeat in the war and demanded a complete break with the Second International.

Trotsky participated in the Zimmerwald Conference of Anti-War Socialists in September 1915 and argued for a middle course between those who, like Martov, decided to remain at all costs in the Second International, and those who, like Lenin, would break off relations with the Second International and form the Third International. The conference accepted the middle line proposed by Trotsky. Although initially opposed, Lenin eventually voted in favor of Trotsky's decision to avoid a split among the anti-war socialists.

On March 31, 1916, Trotsky was deported from France to Spain for his anti-war activities. Spanish authorities did not want him to come and deported him to the United States on December 25, 1916. He arrived in New York on January 13, 1917. He lived for almost three months at 1522 Wise Avenue in the Bronx. In New York, he wrote articles for the local Russian-language socialist newspaper Novy Mir and the Yiddish daily True Day. He also gave speeches to Russian emigrants. He officially earned about $15 a week.

Trotsky was living in New York when Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown by the February Revolution of 1917. He left New York on March 27, 1917, but his ship, the SS Kristianiafjord, was intercepted by British naval forces in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He was detained for a month in the Amherst prison camp in Nova Scotia. While imprisoned in the camp, Trotsky befriended the workers and sailors among his fellow inmates, describing his month in the camp as "one constant mass meeting." Trotsky's speeches and agitation aroused the anger of the German prisoner officers, who complained to the British camp commander, Colonel Morris, about Trotsky's "unpatriotic" attitude. Morris then banned Trotsky from making public speeches, causing 530 prisoners to protest and sign a petition against Morris's order. At this time in Russia, after initial doubts and pressure from the workers' and peasants' councils, Russian Foreign Minister Pavel Milyukov was forced to demand Trotsky's release as a Russian citizen and the British government released him on April 29, 1917.

He reached Russia on May 17, 1917. After his return, Trotsky actually agreed with the position of the Bolsheviks, but did not immediately join them. Russian Social Democrats were divided into at least six groups and the Bolsheviks waited for the next Party Congress to decide which factions to merge with. Trotsky temporarily joined Mezhrayontsy, a regional social democratic organization in St. Petersburg, and became one of its leaders. At the first Congress of Soviets in June, he was elected a member of the first All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) from the Mezhrayontsy faction.

After the failed pro-Bolshevik uprising in Petrograd, Trotsky was arrested on August 7, 1917. After 40 days he was released after the failed counter-revolutionary uprising of Lavr Kornilov. After the Bolsheviks gained a majority in the Petrograd Soviet, Trotsky was elected chairman on October 8. He sided with Lenin against Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev when the Bolshevik Central Committee discussed the issue of armed uprising, he led the attempts to overthrow the Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky.

The following summary of Trotsky's role in 1917 was written by Stalin in Pravda on November 10, 1918. Although this passage was quoted in Stalin's book The October Revolution (1934), it was excluded from Stalin's Works (1949).

All practical work related to the organization of the uprising was carried out under the direct leadership of the President of the Petrograd Soviet, Comrade Trotsky. It is safe to say that the party is obliged first of all and mainly to Comrade Trotsky for the quick transition of the garrison to the side of the Soviet and the effective organization of the work of the Military Revolutionary Committee.

Following the success of the uprising on November 7–8, 1917, Trotsky made efforts to repel a counterattack by the Cossacks led by General Pyotr Krasnov and other troops still loyal to the overthrown Provisional Government in Gatchina. In alliance with Lenin, he suppressed attempts by other members of the Bolshevik Central Committee (Zinoviev, Kamenev, Rykov, etc.) to share power with other socialist parties. By the end of 1917, Trotsky was undoubtedly the second-in-command in the Bolshevik Party after Lenin. He eclipsed the ambitious Zinoviev, who had been Lenin's leading lieutenant for the previous decade but whose star seemed to be fading. This change of position contributed to the ongoing competition and enmity between the two men, which continued until 1926 and contributed to their mutual destruction.

Trotsky during the Russian Revolution

After the Bolsheviks came to power, Trotsky became People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and published secret treaties previously signed by the Entente, which detailed plans for the post-war redistribution of colonies and redivision of state borders.

Trotsky led the Soviet delegation during the peace negotiations in Brest-Litovsk from December 22, 1917 to February 10, 1918. Left communists, led by Nikolai Bukharin, continued to believe that there could be no peace between a Soviet republic and a capitalist country and that only a revolutionary war leading to a pan-European Soviet republic would bring lasting peace. They cited the successes of the newly formed (15 January 1918) voluntary Red Army against the Polish forces of General Józef Dovbor-Municki in Belarus, the White movement in the Don region and the newly independent Ukrainian troops as evidence that the Red Army could resist German forces, especially if propaganda and asymmetrical warfare were used. They were not opposed to negotiating with the Germans to expose Germany's imperial claims (territorial conquests, reparations, etc.) in the hope of hastening the desired Soviet revolution in the West, but they were adamantly opposed to signing any peace treaty. In the event of the German ultimatum, they advocated the declaration of a revolutionary war against Germany in order to inspire Russian and European workers to fight for socialism. This opinion was shared by the left social revolutionaries, who were then junior partners of the Bolsheviks in the coalition government.

Lenin, who had previously hoped for a speedy Soviet revolution in Germany and other parts of Europe, quickly decided that the Imperial German government was still firmly in control of the state and that without strong Russian troops, an armed conflict with Germany would lead to the collapse of the Soviet government in Russia. He agreed with the communist left that eventually a pan-European Soviet revolution would solve all problems, but until then the Bolsheviks had to remain in power. Lenin was not opposed to continuing negotiations for maximum propaganda effect, but from January 1918 he advocated signing a separate peace treaty if faced with a German ultimatum. Trotsky's position was between these two Bolshevik factions. Like Lenin, he recognized that the old Russian army, inherited from the monarchy and the Provisional Government and becoming obsolete, was unable to fight:

It was quite clear to me that we could no longer fight, and that the newly formed Red Guard and Red Army units were too small and poorly trained to resist the Germans.

But he agreed with the left communists that a separate peace treaty with the imperialist authorities would be a terrible moral and material blow for the Soviet government, would undo all its military-political successes of 1917 and 1918, and would resurrect the concept that the Bolsheviks were secretly connected with the German government , and will cause a surge in internal resistance. He argued that any German ultimatum should be refused, which might well lead to an uprising in Germany, or at least inspire German soldiers to disobey their officers, since any German advance would be a clear land grab. He wrote in 1925:

We began peace negotiations in the hope of raising the workers' parties of Germany and Austria-Hungary, as well as the parties of the Entente countries. For this reason we were obliged to delay the negotiations as long as possible in order to give European workers time to understand the main fact of the Soviet revolution itself and, in particular, its peace policy. But there was another question: could the Germans still fight? Do they have the ability to launch an attack on the revolution that will explain the end of the war? How can we find out the direction of thoughts of German soldiers, how can we understand it?

During January and February 1918, Lenin's position was supported by 7 members of the Bolshevik Central Committee and 4 supporters of Bukharin. Trotsky had 4 votes (his own, Felix Dzerzhinsky, Nikolai Krestinsky and Adolf Joffe), and since his vote was decisive, he was able to continue his policy in Brest-Litovsk. When he could delay negotiations no longer, he withdrew from the negotiations on February 10, 1918, refusing to sign Germany's harsh terms. After a short break, the Central Powers notified the Soviet government that after February 17 they would cease to observe the armistice. At this stage, Lenin again argued that the Soviet government had done everything possible to explain its position to Western workers and the time had come to accept the terms. Trotsky refused to support Lenin as he was waiting to see whether the Germans would rebel and whether the German soldiers would refuse to follow orders.

Germany resumed military operations on 18 February. As the day progressed, it became clear that the German army was capable of conducting offensive operations and that the Red Army units, which were relatively small, poorly organized and poorly led, were no match for it. On the evening of February 18, 1918, Trotsky and his supporters in the committee abstained and Lenin's proposal was accepted by a 7-4 vote. The Soviet government sent a radiogram to the German side, accepting the final terms of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty.

Germany did not respond for three days and continued to advance with little resistance. The answer came on February 21, but the terms offered were so harsh that even Lenin briefly wondered if the Soviet government had any choice but to fight. But the committee ultimately voted 7-4 again on February 23, 1918; The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3 and ratified on March 15, 1918. Because Trotsky was so closely associated with the policies previously pursued by the Soviet delegation at Brest-Litovsk, he resigned from his position as Commissioner for Foreign Affairs to remove a potential obstacle to the new policy.

The failure of the newly formed Red Army to resist the German advance in February 1918 exposed its weaknesses: insufficient numbers, a lack of trained officers, and an almost complete lack of coordination and subordination. The renowned and feared sailors of the Baltic Fleet, one of the strongholds of the new regime led by Pavel Dybenko, fled the German army in Narva. The belief that the Soviet state could have an effective voluntary or military army was seriously undermined.

Trotsky was one of the first Bolshevik leaders to recognize the problem, and he pushed for the creation of a military council of former Russian generals that would function as an advisory body. Lenin and the Bolshevik Central Committee agreed on March 4 to create a Supreme Military Council headed by the former chief of the imperial general staff, Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich.

The entire Bolshevik leadership of the Red Army, including People's Commissar (Minister of Defense) Nikolai Podvoisky and Commander-in-Chief Nikolai Krylenko, strongly protested and eventually resigned. They believed that the Red Army should consist only of dedicated revolutionaries, rely on propaganda and force, and elected officers. They viewed former imperial officers and generals as potential traitors who should be avoided in the new troops, much less placed at the head of these troops. Their views continued to be popular with many Bolsheviks throughout much of the Russian Civil War, and their supporters, including Podvoisky, who became one of Trotsky's deputies, constantly prevented the implementation of Trotsky's ideas. Dissatisfaction with Trotsky's policies of strict discipline, conscription, and reliance on carefully controlled non-Communist military experts eventually led to the military opposition that was active within the Communist Party in late 1918–1919.

On March 13, 1918, Trotsky's resignation as Commissar for Foreign Affairs was officially accepted and he was appointed People's Commissar for Army and Navy Affairs, instead of Podvoisky, and Chairman of the Supreme Military Council. The position of Commander-in-Chief was abolished and Trotsky was given full control of the Red Army, responsible only for the leadership of the Communist Party, whose left-wing social revolutionary allies had abandoned the government because of Brest-Litovsk. With the help of his deputy, Efrem Sklyansky, Trotsky spent the rest of the civil war transforming the Red Army from a ragtag group of small and fiercely independent units into a large and disciplined military machine, through forced conscription, party-controlled units, mandatory obedience, and officers chosen by the leadership rather than privates. He defended this view throughout his life.

The war situation soon tested Trotsky's managerial and organizational skills. In May-June 1918, Czechoslovak legions on the way from European Russia to Vladivostok rebelled against the Soviet government. This resulted in the Bolsheviks losing most of the country, increasingly organized resistance by Russian anti-communist forces (usually called the White Army after their most prominent component), and widespread desertion of the military experts on whom Trotsky relied.

Trotsky and the government responded with a full-scale mobilization, which increased the size of the Red Army from less than 300,000 troops in May 1918 to 1,000,000 in October, and the introduction of political commissars into the army. The latter had the task of ensuring the loyalty of military experts (mostly former officers of the imperial army) and the joint signing of their orders. Trotsky considered the organization of the Red Army to be built on the ideas of the October Revolution. As he later wrote in his autobiography:

An army cannot be built without repression. Masses of people cannot be led to their death while the army command does not have the death penalty in its arsenal. As long as the evil tailless monkeys called people, proud of their technology, build armies and fight, the command will put soldiers between possible death ahead and inevitable death behind. Yet armies are not built on fear. The Tsarist army did not collapse due to lack of repression. In an attempt to save the army by reinstating the death penalty, Kerensky only destroyed it. From the ashes of the great war, the Bolsheviks created a new army. These facts require no explanation to anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of the language of history. The strongest cement in the new army was the ideas of the October Revolution, and the train delivered this cement to the front.

In response to the failed assassination attempt on Lenin by Fanny Kaplan on August 30, 1918, and the successful assassination of Petrograd Cheka chief Moisei Uritsky on August 17, 1918, the Bolsheviks commissioned Felix Dzerzhinsky to begin the "Red Terror", announced in the September 1, 1918 issue " Red newspaper". Regarding the Red Terror, Trotsky wrote:

The bourgeoisie today is a declining class... We are forced to tear it away in order to cut it off. The Red Terror is a weapon used against a class doomed to destruction that does not want to perish. If white terror can only slow down the historical rise of the proletariat, red terror hastens the destruction of the bourgeoisie.

When working with deserters, Trotsky often interested them politically, awakening in them the ideas of revolution.

In Kaluga, Voronezh and Ryazan provinces, tens of thousands of young peasants did not show up for the first Soviet conscription. The Ryazan military commissariat managed to collect about fifteen thousand such deserters. Driving through Ryazan, I decided to look at them. They tried to dissuade me: “No matter what happens.” But everything turned out just fine. They were called from the barracks: “Comrade deserters, go to the rally, Comrade Trotsky has come to see you.” They ran out excited, noisy, curious, like schoolchildren. I imagined them worse. They imagined me to be worse. In a few minutes, I was surrounded by a huge, unruly, undisciplined, but not at all hostile crowd. “Comrade deserters” looked at me in such a way that it seemed that many of their eyes would pop out. Climbing onto the table right there in the yard, I talked with them for an hour and a half. It was a most appreciative audience. I tried to raise them in their own eyes and in the end I called on them to raise their hands as a sign of loyalty to the revolution. Before my eyes, they were infected with new ideas. They were possessed by true enthusiasm. They accompanied me to the car, looked with all their eyes, but no longer scared, but enthusiastically, screamed at the top of their lungs and never wanted to get away from me. I later learned, not without pride, that an important educational tool towards them was the reminder: “What did you promise Trotsky?” Regiments of Ryazan “deserters” later fought well at the fronts.

Given manpower shortages and 16 opposing foreign armies, Trotsky also insisted on the use of former Tsarist officers as military specialists in the Red Army, combined with Bolshevik political commissars to ensure the revolutionary character of the Red Army. Lenin commented on this:

When Comrade Trotsky recently informed me that the number of officers of the old army in our military department is several tens of thousands, then I received a concrete idea of ​​what the secret of using our enemy is: how to force those who are his opponents to build communism, to build communism from bricks that the capitalists have picked up against us! We have no other bricks! So, we must force the bourgeois experts, under the leadership of the proletariat, to build our building from these bricks. It's complicated; but this is the key to victory.

In September 1918, the Bolshevik government, faced with constant military difficulties, declared what amounted to martial law and a reorganization of the Red Army. The Supreme Military Council was abolished and the position of Commander-in-Chief was restored, occupied by the Latvian Rifles commander Joakim Vacietis (aka Jukums Vacietis), who had previously led the Eastern Front against the Czechoslovak legions. Vatsetis oversaw the day-to-day operations of the army, while Trotsky became chairman of the newly formed Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic and retained overall control over the military. Trotsky and Vatsetis clashed earlier in 1918, while Vatsetis and Trotsky's advisor Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich were also unfriendly towards each other. However, Trotsky eventually established a working relationship with the often irascible Vatsetis.

The reorganization caused another conflict between Trotsky and Stalin at the end of September. Trotsky appointed the former imperial general Pavel Pavlovich Sytin to command the Southern Front, but in early October 1918 Stalin refused to accept him, and so he was recalled from the front. Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov tried to reconcile Trotsky and Stalin, but their meeting was unsuccessful.

Trotsky in power in the early 1919s

Late 1918 and early 1919 saw several attacks on Trotsky's management of the Red Army, including accusations in newspaper articles inspired by Stalin and a direct attack by the military opposition at the Eighth Party Congress in March 1919. On the surface, he successfully withstood them and was elected one of the five full members of the first Politburo after the congress. But later he wrote:

No wonder my military work created so many enemies for me. I didn't look away, I pushed aside those who impeded military success, or in the rush of work, stepped on the toes of careless people, and was too busy even to apologize. Some people remember these things. The dissatisfied and those whose feelings were hurt found their way to Stalin or Zinoviev, because these two also experienced pain.

In mid-1919, the disaffected had the opportunity to pose a serious challenge to Trotsky's leadership: the Red Army had grown from 800,000 to 3,000,000 men and was simultaneously fighting on sixteen fronts. The Red Army had defeated the White Army's spring offensive in the east and was about to cross the Ural Mountains and enter Siberia in pursuit of the forces of Admiral Alexander Kolchak. But the White Russian troops of General Anton Denikin were advancing south and the situation was rapidly deteriorating. On 6 June, Commander-in-Chief Vatsetis ordered the Eastern Front to cease its offensive so that he could use these forces in the south. But the leadership of the Eastern Front, including its commander Sergei Kamenev (former colonel of the Imperial Army) and members of the Eastern Front Revolutionary Military Council Ivar Smilga, Mikhail Lashevich and Sergei Gusev vehemently protested and wanted to focus on the Eastern Front. They insisted that it was important to capture Siberia before winter and that once Kolchak's forces were crushed, even more divisions would be freed up for the Southern Front. Trotsky, who had previously clashed with the leadership of the Eastern Front, including the temporary removal of Kamenev in May 1919, supported Vatsetis.

At the Central Committee meeting on July 3-4, after a heated exchange, the majority supported Kamenev and Smilga against Vatsetis and Trotsky. Trotsky's plan was rejected and he was heavily criticized for various perceived shortcomings in his leadership style, mainly his character. Stalin used this opportunity to put pressure on Lenin to dismiss Trotsky from his post. But when Trotsky resigned on July 5, the Politburo and the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee unanimously refused to resign.

However, some significant changes were made in the leadership of the Red Army. Trotsky was temporarily sent to the Southern Front, and work in Moscow was unofficially coordinated by Smilga. Most members of the Revolutionary Military Council who did not participate in its daily activities were relieved of their duties on July 8 and new members were added, including Smilga. On the same day, while Trotsky was in the south, Vatsetis was suddenly arrested by the Cheka on suspicion of involvement in an anti-Soviet plot and replaced by Sergei Kamenev. After a few weeks in the south, Trotsky returned to Moscow and resumed control of the Red Army. A year later, Smilga and Tukhachevsky were defeated during the Battle of Warsaw, but Trotsky refused the opportunity to repay Smilga, which earned him Smilga's friendship and later support during the intra-party battles of the 1920s.

By October 1919, the government was in the worst crisis of the civil war: Denikin's troops approached Tula and Moscow from the south, and General Nikolai Yudenich's troops approached Petrograd from the west. Lenin decided that since it was more important to protect Moscow, Petrograd had to be abandoned. Trotsky argued that Petrograd needed to be defended, at least in part to prevent interference by Estonia and Finland. In a rare reversal, Trotsky was supported by Stalin and Zinoviev and defeated Lenin in the Central Committee. He immediately went to Petrograd, whose leadership was led by Zinoviev, who was demoralized, and organized its defense, sometimes personally stopping fleeing soldiers. By October 22, the Red Army was on the offensive, and in early November Yudenich's troops were expelled to Estonia, where they were disarmed and detained. Trotsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his actions in Petrograd.

Trotsky in power in the early 1920s

With the defeat of Denikin and Yudenich in late 1919, the Soviet government's focus shifted to the economy. Trotsky spent the winter of 1919-1920 in the Ural region, trying to restart its economy. Based on his experience, he proposed abandoning the policies of War Communism, which included the confiscation of grain from peasants, and partially restoring the grain market. Still committed to War Communism, Lenin rejected his proposal. He made Trotsky responsible for the country's railways (while maintaining overall control of the Red Army), which he believed should be militarized in the spirit of War Communism. It was not until early 1921 that, due to economic collapse and social uprisings, Lenin and the rest of the Bolshevik leadership abandoned War Communism in favor of the New Economic Policy.

In early 1920, Soviet-Polish tensions eventually led to the Polish-Soviet War. In the run-up to and during the war, Trotsky argued that the Red Army had exhausted its strength and the Soviet government should sign a peace treaty with Poland as soon as possible. He did not believe that the Red Army would find much support in Poland. Lenin later wrote that he and other Bolshevik leaders believed that the Red Army's successes in the Russian Civil War and against the Poles meant that: "The defensive period of the war against world imperialism was over, and we could and should use the military situation to begin an offensive war "

The Red Army was defeated by Poland and the offensive was called off during the Battle of Warsaw in August 1920, partly because Stalin disobeyed Trotsky's orders in the lead-up to the decisive battles. Back in Moscow, Trotsky again advocated a peace treaty and this time won.

Trade union discussion

At the end of 1920, when the Bolsheviks won the civil war and before the Eighth and IX Congress of Soviets, the Communist Party had a heated and increasingly bitter debate about the role of trade unions in the Soviet state. The debate divided the party into many "platforms" (factions), including those of Lenin, Trotsky and Bukharin; Bukharin eventually united his faction with Trotsky. Smaller, more radical factions such as the Workers' Opposition (led by Alexander Shlyapnikov) and the Democratic Centralism Group were especially active.

Trotsky's position was formed when he headed a special commission on the Soviet transport system Tsektran. He was appointed to this position to restore the railroad system destroyed by the Civil War. As a military commissar and revolutionary military leader, he saw the need to create a militarized "industrial atmosphere" by incorporating trade unions directly into the state apparatus. His adamant position was that workers in a workers' state should not fear the state, and that the state should have complete control over the trade unions. At the IX Party Congress, he defended “a regime in which every worker feels like a soldier of labor, who cannot freely dispose of himself; if given an order to transfer him, he must fulfill it, if he does not fulfill it, he will be a deserter who is punished. Who's watching this? Trade union. This is the militarization of the working class." Lenin sharply criticized Trotsky and accused him of “bureaucratically picking on the trade unions” and organizing “factional attacks.” He focused less on state control than on the need for a new relationship between the state and ordinary workers. He said: “The introduction of true labor discipline makes sense only if the entire set of participants in production takes a conscious part in carrying out these tasks, which cannot be achieved by bureaucratic methods and orders from above.” This was a discussion that, in Lenin's opinion, the party could not afford. His disappointment with Trotsky was used by Stalin and Zinoviev, with their support for Lenin's position, to improve their position in the Bolshevik leadership at Trotsky's expense.

Disagreements threatened to get out of control and many Bolsheviks, including Lenin, feared that there would be a split in the party. The Central Committee split almost equally between supporters of Lenin and Trotsky, with all three secretaries of the Central Committee (Krestinsky, Evgeniy Preobrazhensky and Leonid Serebryakov) supporting Trotsky.

At a meeting of its faction at the Tenth Party Congress in March 1921, Lenin's faction won a decisive victory, and a number of Trotsky's supporters (including all three secretaries of the Central Committee) lost their leadership positions. Instead of Krestinsky, Zinoviev, who supported Lenin, became a member of the Politburo. Krestinsky's place in the secretariat was taken by Vyacheslav Molotov. The congress also adopted a secret resolution on the Unity Party, which prohibited factions within the party except for the duration of discussions before the congresses. The resolution was later published and used by Stalin against Trotsky and other opponents. At the end of the Tenth Congress, after peace negotiations had failed, Trotsky ordered the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion, the last major uprising against Bolshevik rule.

Years later, anarchist Emma Goldman and others criticized Trotsky's actions as War Commissioner for his role in suppressing the rebellion and argued that he ordered unjustified arrests and executions of political opponents such as anarchists, although Trotsky did not participate in the actual suppression. Some Trotskyists, most notably Abbey Bakan, argued that the claim that the Kronstadt rebels were "counter-revolutionaries" was supported by evidence of support for the White Army and the French government during the March Kronstadt sailors' mutiny. Other historians, most notably Paul Evrich, argued that the evidence did not point to this conclusion and believed that the Kronstadt Rebellion was spontaneous.

Trotsky's contribution to the Russian Revolution

Vladimir Chernyaev, a leading Russian historian, summed up Trotsky's main contribution to the Russian revolution:

Trotsky bears great responsibility both for the victory of the Red Army in the civil war and for the creation of a one-party authoritarian state with its apparatus for the merciless suppression of dissent... He was an ideologist and practitioner of the Red Terror. He despised “bourgeois democracy”; he believed that spinelessness and carelessness would destroy the revolution and that the suppression of the propertied classes and political opponents would clear the historical arena for socialism. He initiated concentration camps, forced labor camps and the militarization of labor, as well as the state takeover of trade unions. Trotsky was involved in many of the practices that became standard during the Stalin era, including summary executions.

Historian Geoffrey Swain states that:

The Bolsheviks won the civil war because of Trotsky's ability to work with military specialists, his style of working in which large-scale consultation was accompanied by swift and decisive action.

In 1921, Lenin said that Trotsky “He is in love with the apparatus, but in politics he is nothing.” Swain explains this paradox by saying that Trotsky did not know how to work in a team; he was a loner who mainly worked as a journalist and not as a professional revolutionary like the others.

Whom did Lenin prepare to be his successor?

At the end of 1921, Lenin's health deteriorated and he was absent from Moscow for longer periods of time. He had three strokes between May 26, 1922 and March 10, 1923, causing paralysis, loss of speech, and finally death on January 21, 1924. As Lenin became increasingly withdrawn from the game during 1922, Stalin was appointed to the newly created position of General Secretary of the Central Committee. Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev became part of the troika (triumvirate) formed by Stalin to ensure that Trotsky, popularly considered number two in the country and a possible heir to Lenin, would not succeed Lenin.

The rest of the newly expanded Politburo (Rykov, Mikhail Tomsky, Bukharin) was not recognized at first, but eventually joined the troika. Stalin's patronage power as General Secretary clearly played a role, but Trotsky and his supporters subsequently came to believe that the more fundamental cause was the process of slow bureaucratization of the Soviet regime after the extreme conditions of the civil war ended. Most of the Bolshevik elite wanted “normality,” while Trotsky personally and politically personified a turbulent revolutionary period that they would rather leave behind.

Although the exact sequence of events is unclear, evidence suggests that the troika initially appointed Trotsky to head second-rate government departments (e.g., Gokhran, State Securities Depository). When Trotsky predictably refused, they tried to use this as justification for his expulsion. At this time, speculation arose about Trotsky's health and whether he had epilepsy.

When, in mid-July 1922, Kamenev wrote a letter to the recovering Lenin that “(the Central Committee) is throwing or is ready to throw a healthy cannon overboard,” Lenin was shocked and replied:

Throwing Trotsky overboard - you are probably hinting at this, it is impossible to interpret it otherwise - this is the height of stupidity. If you don't already think I'm hopelessly stupid, how can you think about this?

From then until his final stroke, Lenin spent much of his time trying to develop a way to prevent a split within the leadership of the Communist Party, which was reflected in the Testament of Lenin. As part of these efforts, on September 11, 1922, Lenin proposed that Trotsky become his deputy on the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom). The Politburo approved this proposal, but Trotsky "categorically refused."

At the end of 1922, Trotsky formed an alliance with Lenin against Stalin and the emerging Soviet bureaucracy. More recently, Stalin orchestrated the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), further centralizing government control. The alliance proved effective in matters of foreign trade, but was hampered by Lenin's progressive illness.

In January 1923, Lenin amended his Testament to propose removing Stalin as party general secretary, while mildly criticizing Trotsky and other Bolshevik leaders. By this time, the relationship between Stalin and Lenin had completely deteriorated, as was demonstrated during an event when Stalin rudely insulted Lenin's wife Nadezhda Krupskaya. In March 1923, a few days before his third stroke, Lenin asked Trotsky to condemn Stalin and his so-called “Great Russian nationalist campaign” at the Twelfth Party Congress.

At the XII Party Congress in April 1923, immediately after Lenin's last stroke, Trotsky did not raise this issue at the congress. Instead, he made a speech about internal party democracy, avoiding direct confrontation with the troika. Stalin prepared for the congress by replacing many local party delegates with those subordinate to him, largely at the expense of Zinoviev and Kamenev. The delegates, most of whom were unaware of the divisions in the Politburo, gave Trotsky a standing ovation. This upset the troika, already enraged by Karl Radek's article "Leon Trotsky - Organizer of Victory", published in Pravda on March 14, 1923. Stalin gave keynote speeches on organizational structure and issues of nationality; and Zinoviev provided a political report to the Central Committee, which was Lenin's traditional prerogative. Among the resolutions of the Twelfth Congress were calls for greater democracy within the party, but these were vague and remained unfulfilled.

In mid-1923, the troika had a friend and supporter of Trotsky, Christian Rakovsky, removed from his post as head of the Ukrainian government (USSR Radnarkom) and sent to London as an ambassador. When regional leaders in Ukraine protested Rakovsky's reassignment, they too were transferred to various positions throughout the Soviet Union.

Beginning in mid-1923, the Soviet economy faced significant difficulties, leading to numerous strikes throughout the country. The Soviet secret police uncovered and suppressed two secret groups within the Communist Party: Workers' Truth and the Workers' Group. On October 8, 1923, Trotsky sent a letter to the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission, attributing these difficulties to the lack of internal party democracy. Trotsky wrote:

During the brutal times of War Communism, the system of appointments within the party was not one tenth the degree it is today. The appointment of secretaries to regional committees is now the rule. This creates a position for the secretary that is effectively independent of the local organization. The bureaucratization of the party apparatus grew to unprecedented proportions due to the methods of selecting secretaries. There was created a very wide layer of party workers included in the apparatus of the party government, who completely abandoned the opinion of their party, at least the open expression of it, as if assuming that the secretarial hierarchy is the apparatus that creates the opinion of the party and party decisions. Beneath this layer, abstaining from their own opinions, lie the broad masses of the party, for whom every decision looks like a challenge or a command.

Other senior communists who had similar problems sent Declaration 46 to the Central Committee on October 15, in which they wrote:

We are observing a constantly progressing, barely disguised division of the party into a secretarial hierarchy and “lay people”, into professional party functionaries selected from above, and other party masses who do not participate in public life. Free discussion within the party virtually disappeared, and party public opinion was suppressed. This is the secretariat hierarchy, the party hierarchy, which largely selects delegates to conferences and congresses, which largely become the executive conventions of this hierarchy.

Although the text of these letters remained secret at the time, they had a huge impact on the party leadership and caused a partial retreat of the troika and its supporters on the issue of internal party democracy, in particular in Zinoviev's article in Pravda, published on November 7. Throughout November the troika tried to come up with a compromise to appease or at least temporarily neutralize Trotsky and his supporters. (Their task was made easier by the fact that Trotsky was ill in November and December.) The first draft of the resolution was rejected by Trotsky, which led to the creation of a special group consisting of Stalin, Trotsky and Kamenev, tasked with drawing up a mutually acceptable compromise. On December 5, the Politburo and the Central Control Commission unanimously adopted the group's final draft as a resolution. On December 8, Trotsky published an open letter in which he outlined the ideas behind the recently adopted resolution. The Troika used his letter as a pretext to launch a campaign against Trotsky, accusing him of factionalism, pitting "youth against the fundamental generation of old revolutionary Bolsheviks" and other sins. Trotsky defended his views in a series of seven letters that were collected into the New Deal in January 1924. The illusion of an “indivisible Bolshevik leadership” was destroyed and a lively intra-party discussion ensued, both in local party organizations and on the pages of Pravda. The discussion lasted most of December and January until the XIII Party Conference on January 16–18, 1924. Those who opposed the Central Committee's position in the debate were subsequently called members of the left opposition.

Since the troika controlled the party apparatus through Stalin's secretariat and Pravda through its editor Bukharin, it could direct the discussion and the process of selecting delegates. Although Trotsky's position prevailed in the Red Army and Moscow universities and received roughly half the votes in the Moscow party organization, it was defeated elsewhere and the conference was filled with pro-troika delegates. In the end, only three delegates voted for Trotsky's position, and the Conference condemned "Trotskyism" as a "petty-bourgeois aberration". After the congress, a number of Trotsky's supporters, especially in the Political Directorate of the Red Army, were removed from leadership positions or reassigned. Nevertheless, Trotsky retained all his posts, and the troika was careful to emphasize that the debate was limited to Trotsky's "mistakes" and that there could be no question of Trotsky's expulsion from the leadership. In fact, Trotsky was already cut off from the decision-making process.

Immediately after the congress, Trotsky went to a Caucasian resort to recover from a long illness. Along the way, he learned of Lenin's death on January 21, 1924. He was about to return when a telegram from Stalin arrived, giving the wrong date for the planned funeral, which would have made it impossible for Trotsky to return on time. Many commentators have speculated that Trotsky's absence from Moscow in the days following Lenin's death contributed to his eventual loss to Stalin, although Trotsky generally underestimated the significance of his absence.

"Troika" against Trotsky

For most of 1924 there were few obvious political divisions within the Soviet leadership. On the surface, Trotsky remained the most prominent and popular Bolshevik leader, although his "mistakes" were often cited by supporters of the troika. Behind the scenes, he was completely cut off from the decision-making process. Politburo meetings were purely formalities, since all key decisions were made in advance by the troika and its supporters. Trotsky's control over the military was undermined by the reassignment of his deputy, Efrem Sklyansky, and the appointment of Mikhail Frunze, who was to take Trotsky's place.

At the Thirteenth Party Congress in May, Trotsky made a conciliatory speech:

None of us is willing or able to challenge the will of the party. It is clear that the party is always right... We can only be right with the party and through the party, for history has not provided any other way to be right. The English have a saying, “Right or wrong, this is my country,” whether right or wrong, this is my country. With much greater historical right, we can say: right or wrong in certain particular specific issues, in certain moments , but this is my party.... And if the party makes a decision that one or another of us considers unfair, he will say: fair or unfair, but this is my party, and I bear the consequences of its decision to the end.

However, the attempt at reconciliation did not stop the troika's supporters from criticizing Trotsky.

At the same time, the left opposition, which had collapsed somewhat unexpectedly at the end of 1923 and had no definite platform other than general dissatisfaction with the internal party “regime,” began to take a definite form. She lost some less dedicated members due to the troika's persecution, but also began to formulate a program. Economically, the leftist opposition and its theorist Yevgeny Preobrazhensky opposed the further development of capitalist elements in the Soviet economy and favored faster industrialization. This put them at odds with Bukharin and Rykov, the “right” group within the party that supported the troika at the time. Regarding the world revolution, Trotsky and Karl Radek saw a period of stability in Europe, and Stalin and Zinoviev confidently predicted an "acceleration" of revolution in Western Europe in 1924. In theoretical terms, Trotsky remained committed to the Bolshevik idea that the Soviet Union could not create a genuine socialist society in the absence of a world revolution, while Stalin gradually developed a policy of building “Socialism in one country.” These ideological differences provided much of the intellectual basis for the political divide between Trotsky and the left opposition on the one hand, and Stalin and his allies on the other.

At the XIII Congress, Kamenev and Zinoviev helped Stalin smooth out Lenin’s Testament, which belatedly came to the surface. But immediately after the congress, the troika, always an alliance of convenience, showed signs of weakness. Stalin began to carry out poorly concealed accusations against Zinoviev and Kamenev. However, in October 1924, Trotsky published Lessons of October, a detailed account of the events of the 1917 revolution. In it, he described Zinoviev's and Kamenev's opposition to the Bolshevik takeover of power in 1917, which they would have preferred to ignore. This marked the beginning of a new round of intra-party struggle, which became known as the Literary Discussion, and Zinoviev and Kamenev again became allies of Stalin against Trotsky. Their criticism of Trotsky focused in three areas:

Disagreements and conflicts with Lenin and Trotsky's Bolsheviks until 1917.

Trotsky's alleged distortion of the events of 1917 to emphasize his role and diminish the roles of other Bolsheviks.

Trotsky's mistreatment of his subordinates and other alleged mistakes during the Russian Civil War.

Trotsky was again ill and unable to respond, while his opponents mobilized all their resources to condemn him. They managed to damage his military reputation so much that he was forced to resign as People's Commissar of the Army and Navy and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council on January 6, 1925. Zinoviev demanded Trotsky's expulsion from the Communist Party, but Stalin refused to go further and played the role of a man of moderate views. Trotsky retained his place in the Politburo, but was effectively placed on probation.

1925 was a difficult year for Trotsky. After a painful literary debate and the loss of his positions in the Red Army, he was virtually unemployed throughout the winter and spring. In May 1925, he was given three positions: chairman of the Concessions Committee, head of the Electrical Engineering Council and chairman of the Scientific and Technical Council of Industry. Trotsky wrote in My Life that he was “taking a break from politics” and “naturally plunged head over heels into a new line of work,” but some contemporary documents paint a picture of a distant and distracted man. Later that year, Trotsky resigned from his two technical positions (supporting Stalin's instigated conflict and sabotage) and focused on his work on the Concessions Committee.

One of the few political events that affected Trotsky in 1925, the circumstances surrounding the Lenin Testament controversy, were described by the American Marxist Max Eastman in his book Since Lenin Died (1925). The Soviet leadership condemned Eastman's account of events and used party discipline to force Trotsky to write an article denying Eastman's version of events.

Meanwhile, the trio finally broke up. Bukharin and Rykov sided with Stalin, while Krupskaya and the Soviet Commissioner of Finance Grigory Sokolnikov joined Zinoviev and Kamenev. The struggle opened at a meeting of the Central Committee in September 1925 and reached a critical stage at the XIV Party Congress in December 1925. With only the Leningrad party organization behind them, Zinoviev and Kamenev, called the “New Opposition,” were completely defeated, and Trotsky refused to participate in the battle and did not speak at the congress.

United opposition

In early 1926, Zinoviev, Kamenev and their supporters in the New Opposition moved closer to Trotsky's supporters, and the two groups soon formed an alliance that also included several smaller opposition groups within the Communist Party. The alliance became known as the United Opposition.

The united opposition was repeatedly threatened with sanctions by the Stalinist leadership of the Communist Party, and Trotsky had to agree to tactical retreats, mainly to preserve his alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev. The opposition remained united against Stalin throughout 1926 and 1927, especially on the issue of the Chinese Revolution. The methods used by the Stalinists against the opposition became increasingly extreme. At the XV Party Congress in October 1926, Trotsky could barely speak due to interruptions and booing, and at the end of the congress he lost his place in the Politburo. In 1927, Stalin began using the GPU (Soviet secret police) to infiltrate and discredit the opposition. Ordinary oppositionists were increasingly harassed, sometimes expelled from the party and even arrested.

Soviet policy towards the Chinese Revolution became the ideological boundary between Stalin and the United Opposition. The Chinese Revolution began on October 10, 1911, resulting in the Chinese Emperor abdicating on February 12, 1912. Sun Yat-sen founded the Republic of China. However, in reality the republic had very little control over the country. Much of China was divided among various regional warlords. The Republican government created a new "nationalist people's army and national people's party - the Kuomintang." In 1920, the Kuomintang began relations with Soviet Russia. With the help of the Soviet Union, the Republic of China built a nationalist people's army. It was planned that with the help of the Nationalist army, the Northern Expedition would defeat the forces of the military leaders of the northern part of the country. This Northern Expedition became the subject of a dispute about the foreign policies of Stalin and Trotsky. Stalin tried to convince the small Chinese Communist Party to unite with the Kuomintang Nationalists (KMT) to provoke a bourgeois revolution before attempting to provoke a Soviet-style working class revolution. Stalin believed that the bourgeoisie of the KMT, together with all the patriotic national liberation forces in the country, would defeat the Western imperialists in China.

Trotsky wanted the Communist Party to complete the orthodox proletarian revolution and oppose the Kuomintang. Stalin financed the Kuomintang during the expedition. Stalin countered the Trotskyist criticism with a secret speech in which he said that Jiang's right-wing Kuomintang were the only ones capable of defeating the imperialists, that Chiang Kai-shek was financed by wealthy merchants, and that his forces were to be used until they were exhausted. before throwing it away. However, Chiang quickly reconsidered the position as a result of the Shanghai Massacre of 1927, cracking down on the Communist Party in Shanghai halfway through the Northern Expedition.

Defeat and expulsion of Trotsky

In October 1927, Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Central Committee. When the United Opposition attempted to organize independent demonstrations to mark the 10th anniversary of the Bolshevik seizure of power in November 1927, the demonstrators were dispersed by force and Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Communist Party on 12 November. Their leading supporters, from Kamenev, were expelled in December 1927 by the XV Party Congress, which prepared the way for the mass expulsions of ordinary oppositionists, as well as the expulsion of opposition leaders in early 1928.

When the XV Party Congress made the views of the United Opposition incompatible with membership in the Communist Party, Zinoviev, Kamenev and their supporters capitulated and abandoned their alliance with the left opposition. Trotsky and most of his followers, on the other hand, refused to give up and did not deviate from their course. Trotsky was exiled to Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan on January 31, 1928. In February 1929, he was deported from the Soviet Union to Turkey, accompanied by his wife Natalya Sedova and his eldest son Lev Sedov.

The fate of the left oppositionists after the expulsion of Trotsky

After Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Union, Trotskyists in the Soviet Union began to waver. Between 1929 and 1932, most leading members of the left opposition surrendered to Stalin, "admitted their mistakes" and were reinstated into the Communist Party. One of the early exceptions was Christian Rakovsky, who inspired Trotsky between 1929 and 1934 with his refusal to capitulate as Stalin's state suppression of any remaining opposition increased over the year. In late 1932, Rakovsky failed in his attempt to escape the Soviet Union and was exiled to Yakutia in March 1933. Responding to Trotsky's request, the French mathematician and Trotskyist Jean Van Heijenoort, along with his fellow activist Pierre Frank, unsuccessfully called on the influential Soviet author Maxim Gorky to intercede on behalf of Christian Rakovsky and boarded the ship he was traveling on near Istanbul. According to Heijenort, they only managed to meet with Gorky's son Maxim Peshkov, who reportedly told them that his father was unwell but promised to convey their request. Rakovsky was the last prominent Trotskyist to capitulate to Stalin in April 1934, when Rakovsky officially "admitted his mistakes" (his letter to Pravda entitled "There Must Be No Mercy" portrayed Trotsky and his supporters as "agents of the German Gestapo") . Rakovsky was appointed to a position in the Commissariat of Health and was allowed to return to Moscow, and he also served as the Soviet ambassador to Japan in 1935. However, Rakovsky was named in charges including the murder of Sergei Kirov, and was arrested and imprisoned in late 1937 during the Great Terror.

Almost all Trotskyists who were still within the borders of the Soviet Union were executed during the Great Terror of 1936-1938, although Rakovsky lived to see the Execution at Orel in September 1941, where he was shot along with 156 other prisoners on Stalin's orders, less than three months before the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Also among the victims of the Execution near Orel was Trotsky’s sister and Kamenev’s first wife Olga Kameneva.

Link of Leon Trotsky

In February 1929, Trotsky was deported from the Soviet Union to a new exile in Turkey. During the first two months of his stay in Turkey, Trotsky lived with his wife and eldest son at the Soviet Union Consulate in Istanbul. In April 1929, Trotsky, his wife and son were transferred to the island of Buyukada (aka Prinkipo) by the Turkish authorities. On Prinkipo they were moved to a house called Yanaros Mansion, where Trotsky and his wife lived until July 1933. During his exile in Turkey. Trotsky was under the surveillance of the Turkish police forces of Mustafa Kemal Pasha. Trotsky was also at risk of attack by many former White Army officers who lived on Prinkipo, officers who opposed the October Revolution and were defeated by Trotsky and the Red Army in the Russian Civil War. However, European supporters volunteered to defend Trotsky and ensured his safety.

In July 1933, Trotsky was offered asylum in France by Prime Minister Edouard Daladier. Trotsky accepted this offer, but he was banned from living in Paris and soon found himself under the supervision of the French police. From July 1933 to February 1934, Trotsky and his wife lived in Royan. Philosopher and activist Simone Weil also agreed that Trotsky and his bodyguards would stay at her parents' house for a few days. After the crisis in France on February 6, 1934, French Interior Minister Albert Sarrou signed a decree deporting Trotsky from France. However, no foreign government was ready to accept Trotsky. As a result, the French authorities instructed Trotsky to move to a residence in the tiny village of Barbizon under the strict supervision of the French police, where Trotsky discovered that his contact with the outside world was even worse than that of his exile in Turkey.

In May 1935, shortly after the French government agreed to the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance with the government of the Soviet Union, Trotsky was officially informed that he was no longer welcome in France. After weighing his options, Trotsky applied to move to Norway. Having received permission from then Justice Minister Trygve Lie to enter the country, Trotsky and his wife became guests of Konrad Knudsen in Norderhove, near Honefoss, and spent a year living in Knudsen's house from 18 June 1935 to 2 September 1936, although Trotsky was hospitalized for several weeks in a nearby Oslo hospital from 19 September 1935.

After the French media complained about Trotsky's role in encouraging mass strikes in France in May and June 1936 in his articles, Johan Nygaardsvold, head of the Norwegian government, began to show concern about Trotsky's actions. In the summer of 1936, Trotsky's asylum increasingly became a political issue due to the fascist National Unity led by Vidkun Quisling, along with a large increase in pressure from the Joseph Stalin-led Soviet government on the Norwegian authorities. On August 5, 1936, Knudsen's house was robbed by National Rally fascists while Trotsky and his wife were on a boat trip with Knudsen and his wife. Fascist looters targeted Trotsky's works and archives for vandalism. The raid was largely foiled by Knudsen's daughter, Hjordis, although the robbers took several papers from a nearby desk before leaving. Although the fascist intruders were caught and tried, the "evidence" obtained from the hack was used by the government to file claims against Trotsky.

On August 14, 1936, the Soviet press agency TASS announced the discovery of a “Trotskyist-Zinovievist” conspiracy and that the trial of the sixteen accused would soon begin. Trotsky demanded a full and open investigation into Moscow's accusations. The accused were sentenced to death, including Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, who were executed on August 25, 1936. On August 26, 1936, eight police officers arrived at Knudsen's house demanding that Trotsky sign new conditions for living in Norway. These terms included agreeing not to write any more about current political issues or give interviews, and to have all his correspondence (incoming and outgoing) checked by the police. Trotsky categorically refused the terms, and Trotsky was told that he and his wife would soon move to another place of residence. The next day, Trotsky was questioned by the police about his political activities, and the police officially cite Trotsky as a "witness" to the fascist raid of August 5, 1936.

On September 2, 1936, four weeks after the Nazi break-in at Knudsen's house, Trygve Lie ordered Trotsky and his wife transferred to a farm in Hurum, where they were under house arrest. The detention of Trotsky and his wife in Hurum was harsh, as they were forced to remain indoors for 22 hours a day under constant guard by thirteen police officers, with the walk around the farm lasting only one hour twice a day. Trotsky was not allowed to publish any letters and was not allowed to speak out against his critics in Norway or abroad. Only visits from Trotsky's lawyers and the parliamentary leader of the Norwegian Workers' Party, Olav Sheflo, were allowed. Since October 1936, Trotsky and his wife were prohibited from walking in the open air. Eventually, Trotsky managed to secretly send one letter on December 18, 1936, entitled “Confession,” to Moscow. On December 19, 1936, Trotsky and his wife were deported from Norway after he was put on the Norwegian oil tanker Ruth under the guard of Jonas Lie. Later, while living in Mexico, Trotsky was extremely upset about being held for 108 days in Hurum, and accused the Norwegian government of trying to prevent him from publicly voicing his strong opposition to the Trial of Sixteen and other show trials, saying:

When I look back on this period of internment, I must say that never, anywhere, in my entire life - and I have lived through many things - was I persecuted with the same pathetic cynicism with which I was persecuted by the Norwegian "Socialist" government . For four months these ministers, dripping with democratic hypocrisy, held me with an iron grip so that I could not protest against the greatest crime that history will ever know.

The oil tanker Ruth, on which Trotsky and his wife were put, arrived in Mexico on January 9, 1937. Upon Trotsky's arrival, Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas welcomed him to Mexico and prepared his special train, the Hidalgo, to transport Trotsky to Mexico City from the port of Tampico.

From January 1937 to April 1939, Trotsky and his wife lived in the Coyoacán neighborhood of Mexico City at La Casa Azul ("The Blue House"), the home of the artist Diego Rivera and his wife and associate Frida Kahlo, with whom Trotsky had an affair. His last move was made a few blocks from his residence on Avenida Viena in April 1939 after his break with Rivera.

He wrote extensively in exile, producing several key works, including his History of the Russian Revolution (1930) and The Revolution Betrayed (1936), a critique of the Soviet Union under Stalinism. Trotsky argued that the Soviet state had become a "degenerate workers' state" controlled by an undemocratic bureaucracy that would eventually either be overthrown through political revolution, creating a workers' democracy, or degenerate into a capitalist class.

While in Mexico, Trotsky also worked closely with James P. Cannon, Joseph Hansen and Farrell Dobbs of the Socialist Workers Party of the United States and other supporters.

Cannon, a longtime leading member of the American communist movement, had supported Trotsky in the fight against Stalinism since he first read Trotsky's criticism of the Soviet Union in 1928. Criticism of Trotsky's Stalinist regime, although prohibited, was common among the leaders of the Comintern. Among his other supporters was Chen Duxiu, founder of the Chinese Communist Party.

Trial of Bolshevik deputies

In August 1936, the first Moscow demonstration trial of the so-called “Trotskyist-Zinovievite terrorist center” was organized in front of an international audience. During the trial, Zinoviev, Kamenev and 14 other defendants, most of them prominent old Bolsheviks, admitted that they had plotted with Trotsky to kill Stalin and other members of the Soviet leadership. The court found everyone guilty and sentenced the defendants to death, Trotsky in absentia. The second demonstration trial of Karl Radek, Grigory Sokolnikov, Yuri Pyatakov and 14 other participants took place in January 1937, during which more suspicious plots and crimes were linked to Trotsky. In April 1937, an independent "Commission of Inquiry" into the charges against Trotsky and others in the "Moscow Trials" was held in Coyoacan, with John Dewey as chairman. The findings were published in the book Not Guilty.

"The Moscow trials are perpetuated under the banner of socialism. We will not yield this banner to the masters of lies! If our generation is too weak to establish socialism on earth, we will pass on the untarnished banner to our children. The struggle that is in power far exceeds the importance of individual people, factions and parties. This is a struggle for the future of all mankind. It will be difficult, it will be long. Let those who seek physical comfort and spiritual peace retreat. During opposition, it is more convenient to rely on bureaucracy than on the truth, but all those for whom the word "socialism" is not an empty phrase, but the content of their moral life - forward! Neither threats, nor persecution, nor violence can stop us! Even over our bones, the future will triumph! We will pave the way for it. It will win! With all the strong "In the face of fate, I will be happy, as in the best days of my youth; because, my friends, the highest human happiness is not the exploitation of the present, but the preparation of the future."

Reunited Fourth International

Due to fear of a split in the communist movement, Trotsky initially opposed the idea of ​​creating parallel communist parties or a parallel international communist organization that would compete with the Third International. In mid-1933, he changed his mind after the Nazi takeover of Germany and the Comintern's response to it. He said that:

An organization which has not been awakened by the thunder of fascism and which obediently submits to such outrageous acts of bureaucracy demonstrates that it is dead and that nothing can revive it... In all our subsequent work it is necessary to take as our starting point the historical collapse of the official Communist International.

In 1938, Trotsky and his supporters founded the Fourth International, which was intended to be a revolutionary and international alternative to Stalin's Comintern.

Towards the end of 1939, Trotsky agreed to travel to the United States to appear as a witness before the House Dees Committee, the forerunner of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Representative Martin Dees, chairman of the committee, demanded the closure of the American Communist Party. Trotsky intended to use the forum to expose the NKVD's actions against him and his followers.

He made it clear that he also intended to oppose the suppression of the American Communist Party and to use the committee as a platform to call for turning World War II into a world revolution. Many of his supporters opposed his appearance. When the committee learned of the nature of the evidence Trotsky intended to present, they refused to hear him, and he was denied a visa to enter the United States. Upon learning of this, the CPSU immediately accused Trotsky of being paid by oil magnates and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"Testament of Trotsky"

After a quarrel with Diego Rivera, Trotsky moved to his final residence on Avenida Viena in April 1939.

On February 27, 1940, Trotsky wrote a document known as Trotsky's Testament, in which he expressed his final thoughts and feelings for posterity. He suffered from high blood pressure and was afraid he would suffer a cerebral hemorrhage. After vigorously denying Stalin's accusations that he had betrayed the working class, he thanked his friends and, above all, his wife and dear interlocutor Natalya Sedova for their faithful support:

In addition to the happiness of being a fighter for the cause of socialism, fate gave me the happiness of being her husband. During almost forty years of marriage, she remained an inexhaustible source of love, generosity and tenderness. She endured great suffering, especially in the last period of our lives. But I take solace in the fact that she also knew days of happiness.

For forty-three years of my adult life I remained a revolutionary; during forty-two of them I fought under the banner of Marxism. If I had to start all over again, I would, of course, try to avoid this or that mistake, but the basic course of my life would remain unchanged. I will die a proletarian revolutionary, a Marxist, a dialectical materialist and, therefore, an unapologetic atheist. My faith in the communist future of humanity is no less fierce, and it is more stable today than in the days of my youth.

Natasha just went to the window from the yard and opened it wider so that air could freely enter my room. I see a bright green strip of grass under the wall and a clear blue sky above the wall and sunlight everywhere. Life is Beautiful. May future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence and enjoy it to the fullest.

L. Trotsky

Coyoacan.

Assassination of Leon Trotsky

After a failed attempt to assassinate Trotsky in March 1939, Stalin assigned the entire organization of this task to NKVD officer Pavel Sudoplatov, who in turn brought in Nachum Eiting. According to Sudoplatov's "Special Operations", the NKVD began to create three NKVD agent networks to commit murder, one of which relied on Ramon Mercader. According to Sudoplatov, all three networks were designed to operate autonomously from the pre-existing NKVD spy networks in the United States and Mexico.

On May 24, 1940, Trotsky survived an attack by armed assassins at his villa led by NKVD agent Joseph Grigulevich and Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros. Trotsky's 14-year-old grandson, Vsevolod Platonovich "Esteban" Volkov (born March 7, 1926) was wounded in the leg, and Trotsky's young assistant and bodyguard Robert Sheldon Hart was kidnapped and then killed. After the failed assassination attempt, Trotsky wrote an article entitled "Stalin Seeks My Death" on June 8, 1940, where Trotsky states that another assassination attempt is certain.

On August 20, 1940, in his research, Trotsky was attacked by Ramon Mercader, who used an ice pick as a weapon. The blow to the head was clumsy and failed to kill Trotsky instantly, as Mercader had intended. Witnesses stated that Trotsky let out a terrible scream and began to fight fiercely with Mercader. Hearing the commotion, Trotsky's bodyguards rushed into the room and nearly killed Mercader, but Trotsky stopped them, barely stating that the killer needed to be asked questions. Trotsky was taken to the hospital, operated on and, after living one more day, he died at the age of 60 on August 21, 1940 as a result of blood loss and shock. Mercader later testified at the trial:

I placed the raincoat on the table in such a way that I could take the ice ax that was in my pocket. I decided not to miss the wonderful opportunity that presented itself. When Trotsky started reading the article, he gave me a chance; I took the ice ax out of my cloak, grabbed it in my hand and, closing my eyes, dealt him a terrible blow to the head.

According to James P. Cannon, secretary of the Socialist Workers Party (USA), Trotsky's last words were: “I will not survive this attack. Stalin finally accomplished the task that he had unsuccessfully tried to accomplish before.”

Maxim Lieber was Trotsky's literary agent towards the end of his life.

Trotsky's legacy

Trotsky's house in Coyoacán has been preserved in the same condition as on the day of the assassination, and is now a museum run by a council that includes his grandson Esteban Volkov. The current director of the museum is Carlos Ramirez Sandoval. Trotsky's grave is located on its territory. A new fund (International Friends of the Leon Trotsky Museum) was created to raise funds for further improvements to the museum.

Trotsky was not officially rehabilitated during the Soviet government, despite the Glasnost era rehabilitation of most other Old Bolsheviks killed during the Great Terror. His son Sergei Sedov, killed in 1937, was rehabilitated in 1988, as was Nikolai Bukharin. Most importantly, starting in 1989, Trotsky's books, banned until 1987, were finally published in the Soviet Union.

On June 16, 2001, Trotsky was rehabilitated by a decision of the Prosecutor General's Office (Certificate of Rehabilitation No. 13/2182-90, No. 13-2200-99 in the Archives of the Memorial Research Center).

Trotsky's grandson, Esteban Volkov, who lives in Mexico, is an active supporter of his grandfather. Trotsky's Mexican-born great-granddaughter Nora Volkova (Volkov's daughter) is currently the head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the United States.

Trotsky considered himself a “Bolshevik-Leninist” who advocated the creation of a vanguard party. He considered himself a supporter of orthodox Marxism. His policies differed in many ways from those of Stalin or Mao Zedong, most notably in his rejection of the theory of socialism in one country and in his declaration of the need for an international "permanent revolution". Numerous Fourth Internationalist groups around the world continue to call themselves Trotskyists and consider themselves followers of this tradition, although they interpret the implications of this theory differently. Supporters of the Fourth International emulate Trotsky's opposition to Stalinist totalitarianism by advocating political revolution, arguing that socialism cannot sustain itself without democracy.

Permanent revolution is the theory that bourgeois democratic objectives in countries with slow bourgeois-democratic development can only be achieved through the creation of a workers' state, and also that the creation of a workers' state will inevitably entail an encroachment on capitalist property. Thus, the achievement of bourgeois-democratic tasks turns into the achievement of proletarian tasks. Although most closely associated with Trotsky, the call for permanent revolution first appears in the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in March 1850, in the aftermath of the 1848 Revolution, in the Central Committee Address to the Communist League:

Our interests and our tasks are to make the revolution continuous until all more or less propertied classes are eliminated from domination, until the proletariat conquers state power, until associations of proletarians not only in one country, but in all The dominant countries of the world will not develop to such an extent that competition between the proletarians of these countries will cease, and until, at least, the decisive productive forces are concentrated in the hands of the proletarians. ... Their slogan should be: "Permanent revolution."

Trotsky's concept of Permanent Revolution is based on his understanding, based on the work of the founder of Russian Marxism Georgiy Plekhanov, that in "underdeveloped" countries a bourgeois-democratic revolution cannot be achieved by the bourgeoisie itself. This concept was first developed by Trotsky in collaboration with Alexander Parvus in late 1904-1905. The relevant articles were later collected in Trotsky's 1905 books and in The Permanent Revolution, which also contained his essay "Results and Prospects".

According to Trotskyists, the October Revolution (which Trotsky directed) was the first example of a successful Permanent Revolution. The proletarian, socialist October Revolution took place precisely because the bourgeoisie, which seized power in February, was unable to solve any of the problems of the bourgeois-democratic revolution. It did not give land to the peasants (which the Bolsheviks did on October 25), did not give freedom to oppressed minorities, and did not free Russia from foreign domination by ending the war, which at this point was being fought mainly to please British and French creditors. Trotskyists today argue that the condition of the Third World shows that capitalism does not offer a path for underdeveloped countries, thereby reaffirming the central principle of the theory. In contrast, Stalin's policies in the former colonial countries were characterized by the so-called two-stage theory, which argues that the working class must fight for "progressive capitalism" together with a "progressive national bourgeoisie" before any attempt at socialism could be made.

Trotsky - an outstanding figure

Trotsky was the central figure in the Comintern at its first four congresses. During this time, he helped summarize Bolshevik strategy and tactics for newly created communist parties throughout Europe and beyond. From 1921 onwards, the United Front, a method of uniting revolutionaries and reformists in a common struggle to sway some workers towards revolution, was the central tactic put forward by the Comintern after the defeat of the German Revolution.

After he was exiled and politically marginalized by Stalinism, Trotsky continued to argue for a united front against fascism in Germany and Spain. According to Joseph Chunar of the British Socialist Labor Party in International Socialism, his United Front writings represent an important part of his political legacy.

1. Leiba Bronstein, was born as the fifth child in a wealthy family of Jewish colonists David and Annette Bronstein, in the Ukrainian farmstead of the Kherson province, now the Kirovograd region in 1879. Leiba early began to stand out among his peers with his eloquence, intelligence and love of fame.
2. The boy’s parents did not believe in God, as was customary then, and spoke openly about this, but the father still organized private lessons for his son in reading the authentic Bible, which did not bring results in spiritual education.
3. But the boy was actively interested in school sciences, especially history, social sciences, literature and foreign languages. In a few decades, the whole world will be talking about this boy.

The beginning of revolutionary activity

• After high school, in 1889, Leiba began studying at a real school in Odessa, lived and was raised by her maternal uncle, and six years later graduated with honors. After training, abandoning the idea of ​​​​entering the university, the young man goes to Nikolaev, where he already shows interest in socialism and visits a secret Marxist circle;
• Already at the age of 17, he organized the South Russian Workers' Union and carried out agitation among the workers. A year later, Bronstein was arrested by the tsarist authorities, and he spent several years in prison. In 1900, he was sentenced to exile and sent to the Irkutsk province along with his comrades - the Marxist Alexandra Sokolovskaya and her brothers;
• While imprisoned and exiled, Leiba Davidovich is engaged in self-education, studying religious magazines and actively writing articles for the weekly newspaper “Eastern Review” under the pseudonym Antid Oto, his articles are popular with workers. There, in exile, he marries Sokolovskaya and within two years they have two daughters born one after another.

The nickname that brought fame

• here in Siberia, activist Bronstein comes into contact with future revolutionaries F. Dzerzhinsky and M. Uritsky. Thanks to his publications abroad, the leaders of the RSDLP became interested in Lev, and they helped him escape using a fake passport with a new name, Lev Trotsky. So, for good luck, Leiba borrowed his surname from an Odessa prison guard;
• By agreement with his wife, Trotsky fled alone from Siberia in the summer of 1902. By the fall, having reached London, he meets Vladimir Lenin, who likes the thinking and energy of Leon Trotsky, he recommends him as an employee of the Iskra newspaper, and Lev, in turn, quickly gains popularity with his eloquent speeches before the emigrant public.

The paths of the revolutionaries diverged

Trotsky ardently supported Lenin at the Second Congress of the RSDLP in 1903, but there were disagreements in the editorial office of the newspaper and, soon after Lenin’s proposed reorganization of the newspaper’s editorial board, Lev Davidovich went over to the opposite side of the minority and spoke critically about Lenin’s plans. There is no trace of mutual sympathy, although quite recently they walked together along the streets of London and played chess. Thus, Trotsky and Lenin’s paths diverged in different directions.

In the same year, in Paris, Leon Trotsky married Natalya Sedova, without divorcing his previous wife. Natalya will give birth to two sons and will be Trotsky’s reliable wife until the end of his life, which ended in Mexico.

Gave my whole soul to October

• at the time of the outbreak of revolutionary actions, Leon Trotsky lives in Switzerland, but he was one of the first to return, bursting into the thick of revolutionary events. Organizational skills, oratory, resourcefulness - at the age of 25 he became the head of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' Deputies. In December 1905 he was arrested and in prison he wrote his famous work “Results and Prospects” about a continuous revolution, where the power of the workers should replace tsarism;
• in 1907, the revolutionary Trotsky was sentenced to lifelong settlement in Siberia with deprivation of all civil rights, but on the way he again escaped, facilitated by Lenin. During ten years of emigration, he vigorously advocates and promotes Marxism, trying to smooth out the split with Lenin. Leon Trotsky returns to his homeland in 1917;
• his name stands on par with the name of Lenin. The authority of Trotsky, the second person after Lenin, is not in doubt. He created the Red Army and led it during the Civil War, winning a number of victories as a military leader. But during this period, he was known for his cruelty both to the White Guards and to his guilty soldiers of the Red Army;

• the leader of the Revolution, Vladimir Lenin, offers Trotsky the highest leadership position - Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, but he refuses. Trotsky was part of the top military and political leadership in the first years of Soviet power, headed the People's Commissariat for Foreign, Naval and Military Affairs;
• but for all his talents and genius, Leiba Davidovich was ambitious and quarrelsome, arrogant and self-satisfied, did not hide his superiority over others, which aroused the irritation and hostility of his comrades. He liked to call himself “a revolutionary in everything”;
• Before the revolution, Leon Trotsky rushed for a long time between the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks and joined the latter only in 1917; he was considered an upstart, although, according to the old Bolsheviks, he did a lot for the party. While ruling the army, Trotsky used brutal styles of government, which created enemies around him in the form of Stalin and Zinoviev;
• after Lenin's death, contenders for the Bolshevik throne were found, in a bitter struggle it was taken by I. Stalin, Trotsky and his associates were removed from their positions, and Lev Davidovich was expelled from the party and exiled to Kazakhstan, and then from the USSR, to Turkey. After some movements abroad, Trotsky stopped with his wife in Mexico, where he did not stop his publications, and there he found his final refuge.

Facts from the personal life of Leon Trotsky

• was married twice. He married the first, Alexandra Sokolovskaya, against the will of his parents, did not divorce, throughout their lives they remained friends and corresponded. Leiba Trotsky lived in a civil marriage with his second wife, Natalya Sedova, both sons bore his wife’s surname;
• During the struggle for power, all four children, his first wife, and Trotsky’s sister died;
• descendants of Lev Bronstein - great-grandchildren, live in Mexico City, great-great-grandchildren live in three countries: Russia, Mexico and Israel;
• Trotsky loved to visit Sigmund Freud and was interested in psychoanalysis;
• shortly before his death, Trotsky, no longer young, fell in love with the talented Spanish artist Frida Kahlo, a bisexual, a drinker, a lame, but energetic and temperamental girl.

Films about Leon Trotsky:

1. "Trotsky", 1993, Russia.
2. "Trotsky", 2009, comedy, Canada.
3. “Leon Trotsky - the secret of the world revolution”, 2007, Russia.
4. “Trotsky”, 2017, mini-series, Russia.

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