How did Trotsky influence the seizure of power in Russia?

Question by About a girl ~ Shell: How did Trotsky influence the seizure of power in Moscow and Petrograd?
Also, he was acting on Lenin’s orders wasn’t he? (Was Lenin in exile in Siberia at this time..?)

Thanks =D

Answers and Views:

Answer by Spellbound
Before and during the October Revolution Trotsky was the chairman of the the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. It was this organisation that, under Lenin’s direction, that staged the takeover of the state known as the October Revolution. So, yes, Trotsky was acting on Lenin’s orders, but he was responsible for the planning and implementation of the takeover.

As the Revolution descended into Civil War, Trotsky was given the task of organising the Bolshevik Red Army to fight the anti-Bolshevik forces, the Whites and other groups hostile to the Bolshevik takeover – including the UK, USA, France and Japanese who took over ports around the country trying to force Russia back into WWI – and later to try to depose the new regime.

After the Civil War he was considered one of the front runners for the role of leading the country after the death of Lenin – but he fell foul of the master manipulator (who hated his popularity, his organisational skills and was wary that the army may be loyal to him – Stalin). He was the leader of the Left Opposition, and because of this Stalin had him exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929.
Trotsky wrote a number of books, articles and pamphlets decrying what had happened to the revolution and proposed alternative policies for the country – leading to the branch of communism known as Trotskyism. Stalin took action against him, and, in 1940, in Mexico, he was stabbed to death.

Trotsky came back to Russia in May 1917, after the February Revolution – he had been exiled and was in New York.
Lenin came back on 3rd April 1917. He had been in exile in Switzerland.

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