Some Interesting Facts About Leon Trotsky

Question by Josh: What are some interesting facts about Leon Trotsky?
I’ve got quite a few facts but I need some really interesting facts as I am studying him.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Volusian
He invented the famous cocktail named after himself.

The Trotsky: one ounce of vodka in 6 ounces of prune juice

Answer by tall boy
Well, his real name was Lev Davidovich Bronstein, Stalin had him wasted in Mexico somewhere during the beginning of the ’40s, paranoid as Stalin was that Trotsky might still pose a threat to his power!

Answer by Spellbound
Trotsky was a maverick, disagreeing with both Menshevik and Bolshevik factions and only joining Lenin and the Bolsheviks in October 1917.

Before and during the October Revolution Trotsky was the chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. It was this organization that, under Lenin’s direction, that staged the takeover of the state known as the October Revolution.

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 organizational skills and was wary that the army may be loyal to him – Stalin). 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.

His birth name was Leiba, not Lev or Leon.
He took the name Trotsky from one of his jailers.
He had four children, two each by his two wives: Nina and Zinaida by Aleksandra
and Lev and Sergei by his second wife – Natalia

Trotsky never escaped from prison, he did, however, escape from internal exile in Siberia, twice.

The first time was in 1902 when he was sent to Verkholensk, near the Arctic Circle.
And the second time in 1907, when he was in transit to exile in Siberia. He fled from the town of Berezov.

Answer by JosF
Trotsky was the number 2 man, right after Lenin. Bringing communism to Russia was not enough for him. He couldn’t wait to export the revolution abroad. That is one of the reasons why Stalin was elected over him. Of course, both Trotsky and Stalin lobbied heavily. But Stalin appeared to be a bureaucrat, not an apostle of the revolution. After the turmoil of WW1, the revolution (2) and a civil war, the Russians wanted some time to recover. Little did they know…

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