Essay 3: Personalities in the Twentieth Century: Leon Trotsky
Main Points
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Explanation
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Q1. Background of the personality
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Family background and education
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“... religious faith is an insult to intelligence.”
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- Not particularly deprived; nor particularly Jewish
- Closer to his father than mother
- Lived his early years in some isolation
- Did not have much Jewish education
- He was a model student
- By his mid teens, some of his life-long ideas were slowly taking shape; atheism was well founded
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Development of political ideas
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“Throw light on the complex content of life by singing out its typical features” -Trotsky
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- Was a populist
- Was not attracted to Marxism
- His future wife brought him around to Marxism
- Studied Marxist classics and held discussions
- Argued that even in revolutionary times ‘art’ should boom
- Politics was his main preoccupation
- 1902 = Arrived in England, met Lenin
- They had a very close relationship
- Disliked Lenin’s “corrections” of his work, kept this silent
- Ideas: the revolutionary party must have strict disciple, it must be highly centralised, it must a tight/hierarchical structure, tight-knit
- Trotsky opposed Lenin’s ideas
- Trotsky attacked Lenin’s position
- Did not want the split in the party to be permanent
- Sep/1904 = formal break w/ the Mensheviks
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Rise to prominence
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Emerging role 1905-1917
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- The 53 days of the Soviet was a hectic time
- Worked behind the scenes to bring B & M together
- Awaited trial and probable exile
- ‘Results and Perspectives’ = permanent revolution
- Trotsky was dismissive to the peasantry; Lenin not
- 1/1907 = sentenced to exile for life
- 5/1905 = fled to Finland
- Spent his time writing and developing his rev. thinking
- Clashed with Lenin’s idea of a tight organisation
- Saw the potential of the Soviet
- Years in exile: spent his time writing, developing his ideas and trying to reunite the RSDP → it was a dispiriting time for a revolution
- Once the news of the March 1917 Revolution reached him, he was eager to return to Russia
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Role in 1917 revolution
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- Joined Bolshevik leaders in attempting to quieten the demonstrations
- Open letter to the PG; beliefs were the same as arrested ppl
- Was the leader of the B for a short time
- Conservatives within the PG set their sights on undermining the Soviets
- A Soviet-lead revolution was inevitable
- The Soviets had no greater enemy than General Kornilov, who emerged as the leader of a new counter-revolution
- Kornilov demanded authority; Kerensky dismissed him, and so he surrounded Petrograd with his troops
- Managed to persuade Lenin to hold off taking power until early November
- Set up MRC = Military Revolutionary Committee
- Planned the actual details of the takeover
- Was largely responsible for the planning of the group
- Bolshevik troops went to the Winter Palace and arrested PG ministers who were hiding
- Red Guards were positioned in key installations
- 8/11/1917 = ARCS met; Bolsheviks announced that power had been seized in its name
- Lenin arrived and declared that a B government was formed
- First moves were to enact decrees calling for peace with Germany and transference of land to peasants
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Q2. Significance and evaluation
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Role as Commissar for Foreign Affairs
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Peace Decree -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk -
Positive:
Negative:
Impact on Russia’s involvement in the War:
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Role as Commissar for War
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Significance:
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Power struggle following the death of Lenin
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Expulsion from the Communist Party
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Life and activities in exile
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Internal exile -
External exile (1): 1929-36 -
External exile (2): 1937-40 -
The murder of Trotsky -
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Evaluation: for example practical revolutionary, naive idealist?
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c. Madison F
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