Leon Trotsky

Trotsky was a socialist and a Marxist. During the 1905 attempt at a revolution in Russia, Trotsky helped organize a committee of workers that was called the "soviet" in the Russian capital, Saint Petersburg. When the leader of the soviet was arrested, Trotsky took his place. Trotsky helped to expand on the idea of permanent revolution, a theory that had been originally thought up by Karl Marx. After the revolution's failure, Trotsky left Russia for his own safety.

In 1917, he returned to Russia because of the Russian Revolution. He successfully helped to bring about communism in Russia and to defend it during the Russian Civil War whiile was in charge of the Red Army. After the death of the leader of the Bolsheviks, Vladimir Lenin, Trotsky became involved in a power struggle with Joseph Stalin for the leadership of the party. Trostsky lost despite being Lenin's preference, and Stalin came to power.

Trotsky had to leave Russia because of Stalin, who was now an enemy of Trotsky and wanted to harm him. In 1938, Trotsky founded the Fourth International. Stalin tried several times to assassinate Trotsky. Stalin had one of his spies, Ramón Mercarder from Spain, stab Trotsky to death in Mexico in 1940 with the help of Lavrentiy Beria .

People who believe in Trotsky's ideas are called Trotskyists and follow Trotskyism. Trotskyism is seen as being a more democratic form of communism than others, such as Stalinism and Maoism. The main Trotskyist organizations are now the Socialist Workers Party in the United Kingdom and the International Socialist Tendency worldwide.

In the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, Trotsky is represented by Snowball, a pig, and Stalin is represented by Napoleon, another pig. The book reflected real-world events.

• Fourth International (post-reunification)
• Story of Trotsky's Murder Archived 2008-07-04 at the Wayback Machine
• Trotsky's Grave