While Lenin assumed leadership of the 'Bolshevik' majority faction, Trotsky became a member of the 'Menshevik' minority faction and developed his theory of 'permanent revolution'. After the outbreak of revolution in Petrograd in February , he made his way back to Russia.
Despite previous disagreements with Lenin, Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks and played a decisive role in the communist take-over of power in the same year. His first post in the new government was as foreign commissar, where he found himself negotiating peace terms with Germany. He was then made war commissar and in this capacity, built up the Red Army which prevailed against the White Russian forces in the civil war. Thus Trotsky played a crucial role in keeping the Bolshevik regime alive.
He saw himself as Lenin's heir-apparent, but his intellectual arrogance made him few friends, and his Jewish heritage may also have worked against him. When Lenin fell ill and died, Trotsky was easily outmanoeuvred by Stalin.
In , he was thrown out of the party. Many of the Social Democrats, including the ambitious Stalin, sided with Lenin. Trotsky's neutrality was seen as disloyal. On January 22, , unarmed demonstrators marching against the Russian Tsar were killed by the Imperial Guard. When word reached Leon Trotsky, he returned to Russia to support the uprisings.
By the end of , he had become a leader of the movement. In December, the rebellion was crushed, and Trotsky was arrested and once again sent to Siberia. At his trial, he put on a spirited defense and increased his popularity among the party's elite.
In January , Trotsky escaped prison and traveled to Europe, where he spent 10 years in exile in various cities, including Vienna, Zurich, Paris and New York, spending much of the time writing for Russian revolutionary journals, including Pravda , and advocating an anti-war policy. However, Okhrana the Tsar's secret police persuaded British authorities to have him detained at Halifax, Canada.
He was held there for a month, before the Russian provisional government demanded his release. After he arrived in Russia in May , he quickly addressed some of the problems forming in post-revolutionary Russia.
He disapproved of the provisional government because he felt it was ineffectual. The new prime minister, Alexander Kerensky, saw Trotsky as a major threat and had him arrested. While in jail, Trotsky was admitted to the Bolshevik Party and released soon after.
He was elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, a strong hold of dissent against the provisional government. In November , the provisional government was overthrown and the Soviet Council of People's Commissars was formed, with Vladimir Lenin elected chairman. Talks began in January , and Germany had a long list of demands for territory and reparations. Trotsky wanted to wait out the German government, in hopes that it would be defeated by the Allies or suffer internal insurrection.
However, Lenin felt that peace with Germany needed to be made so they could concentrate on building a communist government in Russia. Trotsky disagreed and resigned from this post. After the Bolsheviks took control of the Soviet government, Lenin ordered the formation of the Red Army and appointed Leon Trotsky its leader. The army's first orders were to neutralize the White Army Socialist revolutionaries opposed to Bolshevik control during the Russian Civil War.
Trotsky proved to be an outstanding military leader, as he led the army of 3 million to victory. The task was difficult, as Trotsky directed a war effort that was at times on 16 different fronts. It also didn't help that some members of the Soviet leadership, including Lenin, became involved in military strategy, redirecting the Red Army's efforts and countermanding some of Trotsky's orders.
In late , the Bolsheviks finally won the Civil War, ensuring Bolshevik control of the Soviet government. After the White Army surrendered, Trotsky was elected a member of the Communist Party central committee. He was clearly positioned as the Soviet Union's number-two man, next to Lenin. During the winter of , as the Soviet government moved from war to peace-time operations, an increasingly acrimonious debate grew over the role of trade unions.
Believing that the workers should have nothing to fear from the government, Trotsky advocated the state control the trade unions. He reasoned that this would give officials a tighter control over labor and facilitate a greater integration between government and the proletariat. Lenin criticized Trotsky, accusing him of harassing the unions and abandoning his support for the proletariat.
A breach between the two developed and other officials, including Joseph Stalin, took advantage, siding with Lenin to gain favor. View all related items in Oxford Reference ». Search for: 'Leon Trotsky' in Oxford Reference ». All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice.
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