Who was Leon Trotsky?

On 20 August 1940 Raymond Mercader, under the orders of Stalin, plunged an ice pick into the head of Leon Trotsky. The assassination took place in Mexico, where Trotsky was living in exile, having been forced to leave the USSR after leading the International Left Opposition against the Stalinist betrayal of the 1917 Russian revolution.

In the months leading up to his death, Trotsky had seen his wife, children and comrades murdered by the forces of Stalinism, yet his belief in the struggle for socialism had not once wavered. In the final years of his life, Trotsky was conscious of the fact that his time was running out. He knew that Stalin’s assassins were tracking him.

But he also knew how vital it was to build the fight for a true workers democracy, and understood the sacrifices that this would involve for him. Speaking just three years before his death, he proclaimed: "Be it over our bleaching bones, the truth will triumph!"

As head of the world’s first democratic workers’ council, the Petrograd Soviet, a leader in the Russian revolution, the founder of the Red Army which defended the gains of the revolution, and in his staunch opposition to the Stalinist bureaucracy, Trotsky can honestly stake a claim as one of the greatest human beings of the twentieth century and his life and legacy act as an inspiration to socialists internationally today.

The young Trotsky first encountered politics while studying in Nikolayev, South Russia. After leaving school, Trotsky threw himself completely into revolutionary politics. Working through the South Russian Workers Union (SRWU), Trotsky wrote, edited, illustrated, produced and distributed its newspaper.

After a year of organising, educating and struggling next to workers, Trotsky and a number of other SRWU members were arrested. Trotsky spent two years imprisoned before being exiled to Siberia. In jail, Trotsky’s thirst for knowledge was unquenchable and he emerged a fully fledged Marxist. Trotsky fled Siberia for London, where he met Lenin and other exiled members of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). Back in the thick of the struggle, from here Trotsky partook in preparations for the historic 1903 congress of RSDLP.

The congress resulted in a split of the party into two factions – the Bolsheviks (majority) and the Mensheviks (minority). Trotsky originally sided with the Mensheviks, but broke with them over disagreements in 1904 as to what nature the Russian revolution would take.

Russia at the turn of the century was an economically backward country; it had not experienced the wave of bourgeois revolutions which had swept Western Europe in the 19th century. Russian society was still feudal in its nature. The Mensheviks believed that this bourgeois revolution had to take place first and that the question of socialism was one for future generations.

 But Trotsky understood that the forces of the organised working class were the only ones capable of achieving such a momentous social change and that a bourgeois revolution would not be enough for them. After carrying out this task, the proletariat will proceed straight to the socialist revolution. He also understood that it would be impossible for socialism to be achieved within the one country. Socialism must spread internationally. This was Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution.

Early 1917 saw social upheaval spread throughout Russia and the Tsar overthrown. However, the new government’s refusal to pull out of the war and break from capitalism left them incapable of providing "bread, land and peace" for Russia’s workers. Lenin put forward the slogan of "all power to the soviets" (workers’ councils). This, in effect, saw him drawing the same conclusions as Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution.

Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks and from then on was second only to Lenin as leader of the revolution. A Military Revolutionary Committee was established, headed by Trotsky, and October of 1917 saw the greatest single event in human history: the establishment of the first ever workers’ state. The immediate years following the October revolution saw unprecedented gains for Russia’s working class.

Under a planned economy, the wealth of the nation was employed in the interests of the masses, unlike the anarchy of capitalism where it lays in the sweaty palms of a privileged few. This brought colossal achievements which have no parallel in history. Under the planned economy life expectancy more than doubled, the number in full-time education increased six-fold, hospital beds ten times. This in a country which before the revolution was backwards, largely illiterate and massively under developed.

However, the lack of a developed Bolshevik leadership throughout the countries of Western Europe resulted in the wave of revolutions which Russia was counting on failing to succeed.

Isolated, a true workers’ democracy cannot survive. A treacherous caste of profiteers, careerists and bureaucrats began to dictate affairs. This trend was epitomised by the rise to power of Stalin.

During this period, Trotsky organised and led the Left Opposition who fought to win back the party to a genuine Marxist programme and to destroy the poisonous bureaucracy. But the forces of Stalinism were only interested in their continued rule and protecting national interests; they ejected the vital internationalist nature of socialism.

The utter exhaustion of Russia’s working class and defeat of Europe’s wave of revolutionary struggle gave Stalin the power to demand the removal of the true defenders of Marxism, the Left Opposition. From 1927 onwards, Stalin’s terror machine had the heroes of 1917 exiled, imprisoned and murdered. Indeed, if Lenin had still been alive he too would have faced such treatment. But despite the Stalinist degeneration, the vestiges of the planned economy offered the people of Russia a better life.

Over a fifty year period, Russia went from an underdeveloped feudal society to one of the world’s two biggest super-powers.

In exile Trotsky was forced from one country to another, always aware that Stalin’s agents were only a few steps behind him. The final years of his life were consumed with the building of a new revolutionary international which could overthrow capitalism and defeat Stalinism.

These years were dedicated to the pursuit of a world which Trotsky knew was possible. A world which offered so much more for the oppressed discriminated and exploited of today. His life and work provide insight to all who struggle today, and his vision of the world which could be said to show us that more than ever, socialism is worth fighting for:

"I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."

Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)

 

Further Reading

Throughout his life, Leon Trotsky was a voracious reader and writer. For periods, he supported himself through journalism and in exile he produced reams of material on a wide range of topics. By no means anywhere near a complete bibliography, the following are some of his more famous works which offer a good introduction to the legacy which Trotsky’s work cast for us today;

A classic work, presenting a sweeping panorama of the social, economic and political dynamics of an event that, more than any other, transformed the history of the twentieth century.

Timeline

1879: Born 26 October.

1896: Moved to Nikolayev, South Russia. First encountered ideas of Marxism.

1898: Imprisoned for political activity.

1900: Exiled to Siberia.

1902: Fled Siberia for London to work with Russian political exiles. Met Lenin.

1903: Sided with Mensheviks in Bolshevik/Menshevik split. Later disagreed with Mensheviks over nature of Russian revolution.

1905: Leads revolutionary uprising. Becomes presidents of first Petrograd Soviet. Once again imprisoned and exiled by Tsarist regime.

1914: Criticises Mensheviks for support of imperialist war.

1917: Tsar overthrown. Trotsky returns from exile. Joins Bolsheviks. Leads October Revolution.

1918-1921: Led Red Army against invading imperialist armies. Defended the gains of the revolution.

1923: Establishes Left Opposition against Stalin.

1927: Stalin outlaws Left Opposition and begins their systematic murder. Trotsky goes into exile.

1927-37: Trotsky "roams the earth without a visa", continually exiled and deported. During this period he writes some of his most famous material, including The History of the Russian Revolution and My Life. Continues the struggle for socialism by building the International Left Opposition.

1937-39: Arrives in Mexico where he lives and works until his death. Founded the Fourth International, the organisation which he helped build across the world to fight for true international socialism.

1940: Murdered 20 August.

Greg Maughan - Northumbria Socialist Students