Leon Trotsky

For a few hundred years, Russia was ruled by Tsars, however, by the early 1900’s a group of Socialists started to take action. One of the leaders of these Socialists was Leon Trotsky. Trotsky is not the most famous Revolutionist. Most people will think of Joseph Stalin or Vladimir Lenin, but Trotsky’s role was as important as theirs even though he was not an elected leader. Leon Trotsky was a leader of the Russian Revolution who looked out for the people and contributed to make a major political change in Russia.

Leon Trotsky was born on November 7, 1879 in the town of Yanovka, Ukraine and was named Lev Davidovich Bronstein. Trotsky was born into a middle class type family that owned a farm so he was somewhat privileged. Trotsky was well educated at Jewish primary school in his home town, State school near his home town, and high school in Odessa. He excelled in all his subjects and was always top of the class (Knight). Even though Trotsky excelled and was smart he still had a rebellious side to him. As a young boy, Trotsky was disturbed by how harshly the peasants were treated and how they lived since he saw his father mistreat them (Howe 3). When Trotsky was in Odessa, he developed a love for the arts which made him different than all the other Revolutionists since he was one of the few people who was exposed to this type of life style (Howe 4). Leon Trotsky’s early life impacted how he thought about the Russian Revolution.

Trotsky rose to power because of his ideas. Leon Trotsky’s first true political experience was when he was in high school and he joined an illegal organization that was concerned with people’s rights under the Russian Imperial government, thus sparking an interest in Marxism (Knight).  Since Trotsky was smart and well educated he started to lead these socialist discussions (Howe 5).  Trotsky started to lead strikes while in and out of high school and since the Tsar didn’t like what Trotsky was doing he put him in jail for two years then in exile for five years (Knight). Trotsky stole the passport of the jailor in the Odessa prison whose name was Trotsky (Liukkonen, Pesonen, and Kirjasto). Once Trotsky escaped from exile he went to Vladimir Lenin (Howe 8-9). Trotsky got the reputation as a theoretician and journalist and contributed ideas about Communism to many newspapers. In 1902 Trotsky went to London for the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Knight). These events in Leon Trotsky’s life this was part of the groundwork for his governmental life in Russia.