Lev Davidovich Trotsky (; – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky, was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician and political theorist. He was a key figure in the 1905 Revolution, the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian Civil War, and the establishment of the Soviet Union, from which he was exiled in 1929 before his assassination in 1940. Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin were widely considered the two most prominent figures in the Soviet state from 1917 until Lenin's death in 1924. Ideologically a Marxist and a Leninist, Trotsky's ideas and beliefs inspired a school of Marxism known as Trotskyism.
Trotsky joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898, being arrested and exiled to Siberia for his activities. In 1902 he escaped to London, where he met Lenin. Trotsky initially sided with the Mensheviks against Lenin's Bolsheviks in the party's 1903 schism, but declared himself non-factional in 1904. During the 1905 Revolution, Trotsky was elected chairman of the Saint Petersburg Soviet. He was again exiled to Siberia, but escaped in 1907 and lived abroad. After the February Revolution of 1917, Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks and was elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. He helped to lead the October Revolution, and as the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs negotiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, by which Russia withdrew from World War I. He served as People's Commissar for Military Affairs from 1918 to 1925, during which he built the Red Army and led it to victory in the civil war. In 1922 Lenin formed a bloc with Trotsky against the growing Soviet bureaucracy and proposed that he should become a deputy premier, but Trotsky declined. Beginning in 1923, Trotsky led the party's Left Opposition faction, which supported greater levels of industrialisation, voluntary collectivisation and party democratisation in a shared framework with the New Economic Policy.
After Lenin's death in 1924, Trotsky emerged as a prominent critic of Joseph Stalin, who soon politically outmanoeuvred him. Trotsky was expelled from the Politburo in 1926 and from the party in 1927, exiled to Alma Ata in 1928 and deported in 1929. He lived in Turkey, France, and Norway before settling in Mexico in 1937. In exile, Trotsky wrote polemics against Stalinism, advocating proletarian internationalism against Stalin's theory of socialism in one country. Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution held that the revolution could survive only if it spread to more advanced capitalist countries. In The Revolution Betrayed (1936), he argued that the Soviet Union had become a "degenerated workers' state", and in 1938 founded the Fourth International as an alternative to the Comintern. After being sentenced to death in absentia at the Moscow show trials in 1936, Trotsky was assassinated in 1940 in Mexico City by Ramón Mercader, a Stalinist agent.
Written out of official history under Stalin, Trotsky was one of the few of his rivals who were never politically rehabilitated by later Soviet leaders. In the Western world Trotsky emerged as a hero of the anti-Stalinist left for his defence of a more democratic, internationalist form of socialism against Stalinist totalitarianism, and for his intellectual contributions to Marxism. While some of his wartime actions are controversial, such as his ideological defence of the Red Terror and violent suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion, scholarship ranks Trotsky's leadership of the Red Army highly among historical figures, and he is credited for his major involvement with the military, economic, cultural and political development of the Soviet Union.
Childhood and family (1879–1895)
thumb|upright=.8|left|Trotsky in 1888
Lev Davidovich Bronstein was born on 7 November 1879 into a wealthy but illiterate Jewish farming family in Yanovka, a village then in the Kherson Governorate of the Russian Empire and now in the Kirovohrad Oblast of Ukraine. Although he acquired good proficiency in French, English, and German, Trotsky stated in his autobiography My Life that he was truly fluent in only Russian and Ukrainian. Raymond Molinier has noted that Trotsky spoke fluent French.
David sent Trotsky to Odessa for education when the latter was eight years old. Trotsky enrolled at , a Lutheran German-language school, which admitted students of various faiths and became increasingly Russified during his time there due to the Imperial government's Russification policy. Trotsky and his wife Natalia later registered their children as Lutheran, as Austrian law then required children to receive religious education "in the faith of their parents". Odessa, a bustling cosmopolitan port city, differed greatly from typical Russian cities and contributed to the development of young Trotsky's international outlook. He excelled academically, particularly in science and mathematics, and was a voracious reader, often disciplined for reading non-curriculum books during class.
Early political activities and life (1896–1917)
Revolutionary activity and imprisonment (1896–1898)
thumb|upright=.7|Trotsky in 1897
Trotsky became involved in revolutionary activities in 1896 after moving to the port town of Nikolayev (now Mykolaiv) on the Black Sea. Initially a narodnik (revolutionary agrarian socialist populist), he opposed Marxism but was converted by his future first wife, Aleksandra Sokolovskaya. He graduated from high school with first-class honours the same year. His father had intended him to become a mechanical engineer.
Trotsky briefly attended Odessa University, studying engineering and mathematics. A university colleague noted his exceptional mathematical talent. However, bored with his studies, he increasingly focused on political philosophy and underground revolutionary activities. He dropped out in early 1897 to help to organise the South Russian Workers' Union in Nikolayev. Using the name "Lvov", he wrote and printed leaflets, distributed revolutionary pamphlets, and popularised socialist ideas among industrial workers and students.
In January 1898 over 200 union members, including Trotsky, were arrested. He spent the next two years in prison awaiting trial, first in Nikolayev, then Kherson, Odessa, and finally Moscow. In Moscow, he encountered other revolutionaries, learnt of Lenin, and read Lenin's The Development of Capitalism in Russia. Two months into his imprisonment, the first Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) was held (1–3 March 1898). From then on, Trotsky identified as an RSDLP member.
First marriage and Siberian exile (1899–1902)
thumb|upright=.8|Trotsky's first wife Aleksandra Sokolovskaya (centre) with her brother (left), Trotsky (right), and Dr G. A. Ziv (bottom) in 1897
While imprisoned in Moscow in the summer of 1900, Trotsky married his fellow-Marxist Aleksandra Sokolovskaya (1872–1938) in a ceremony performed by a Jewish chaplain. In 1900 Trotsky was sentenced to four years of exile in Siberia. Due to their marriage, Trotsky and his wife were exiled together to Ust-Kut and Verkholensk in the Baikal region. They had two daughters, Zinaida (1901–1933) and Nina (1902–1928), both born in Siberia.
In Siberia, Trotsky studied history, philosophy, economics, sociology, and the works of Karl Marx to solidify his political stance. He became aware of internal party differences, particularly the debate between "economists", who focused on workers' economic improvements, and those who prioritised overthrowing the monarchy through a disciplined revolutionary party. The latter position was advocated by the London-based newspaper Iskra (The Spark), founded in 1900. Trotsky quickly sided with Iskra and began writing for it.
In the summer of 1902, urged by his wife, Trotsky escaped from Siberia hidden in a load of hay. Aleksandra later escaped with their daughters. Both daughters married and had children but died before their parents. Nina Nevelson died of tuberculosis in 1928. Zinaida Volkova, also suffering from tuberculosis and depression, followed her father into exile but committed suicide in Berlin in 1933. Aleksandra disappeared in 1935 during Stalin's Great Purge and was murdered by Soviet forces in 1938.
First emigration and second marriage (1902–1903)
Until this point, Trotsky had used his birth name, Lev (Leon) Bronstein. He adopted the surname "Trotsky"—reportedly the name of a jailer in the Odessa prison where he had been held—which he used for the rest of his life. This became his primary revolutionary pseudonym. After escaping Siberia, Trotsky moved to London, joining Georgi Plekhanov, Lenin, Julius Martov and other editors of Iskra. Writing under the pen name Pero ("quill" or "pen"), Trotsky soon became one of the paper's leading writers.
thumb|upright=.8|Trotsky in 1902
The six editors of Iskra were split between an "old guard" led by Plekhanov and a "new guard" led by Lenin and Martov. Lenin, seeking a majority against Plekhanov, expected the 23-year-old Trotsky to side with the new guard. In March 1903 Lenin proposed Trotsky's co-option to the editorial board:
Due to Plekhanov's opposition, Trotsky did not become a full board member but participated in an advisory capacity, earning Plekhanov's animosity.
In late 1902 Trotsky met Natalia Sedova (1882–1962), who soon became his companion. They married in 1903 and remained together until his death. They had two sons, Lev Sedov (1906–1938) and Sergei Sedov (1908–1937), both of whom predeceased their parents. Trotsky later explained that, for "citizenship" requirements after the 1917 revolution, he "took on the name of my wife" so his sons would not have to change their name. However, he never publicly or privately used the name "Sedov". Natalia Sedova sometimes signed her name "Sedova-Trotskaya".
Split with Lenin (1903–1904)
In August 1903 Iskra convened the RSDLP's Second Congress in London. Trotsky attended with other Iskra editors. After defeating the "economist" delegates, the congress addressed the Bund's desire for autonomy within the party.
Subsequently, the pro-Iskra delegates unexpectedly split. The initial dispute was organisational: Lenin and his supporters (the Bolsheviks) advocated for a smaller, highly organised party of committed members, while Martov and his supporters (the Mensheviks) favoured a larger, less disciplined party that included sympathisers. Trotsky and most Iskra editors supported Martov, while Plekhanov backed Lenin. During 1903–1904, allegiances shifted; Trotsky left the Mensheviks in September 1904, disagreeing with their insistence on an alliance with Russian liberals and their opposition to reconciliation with Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
From 1904 to 1917 Trotsky described himself as a "non-factional social democrat". He attempted to reconcile party factions, leading to clashes with Lenin and others. Trotsky later admitted he was wrong to oppose Lenin on party organisation. During this period, he developed his theory of permanent revolution and worked closely with Alexander Parvus (1904–1907). During their split Lenin referred to Trotsky as "Judas" (Iudushka, after a character in Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin's novel The Golovlyov Family), a "scoundrel", and a "swine".
1905 revolution and trial (1905–1906)
Anti-government unrest culminated in Saint Petersburg on 3 January 1905 (O.S.), when a strike began at the Putilov Works. This escalated into a general strike, with 140,000 strikers in Saint Petersburg by 7 January 1905.
On Sunday, 9 January 1905 Father Georgi Gapon led a procession to the Winter Palace, ostensibly to petition Tsar Nicholas II. Accounts differ, but the Palace Guard fired on the demonstration, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries. This event, known as Bloody Sunday, intensified revolutionary fervour. Gapon's own biography suggests a degree of provocation by radicals within the crowd, a claim later echoed by some police records.
thumb|upright=1.3|left|Police mugshots of Trotsky in 1905 after his arrest as a leader of the Saint Petersburg Soviet
Following Bloody Sunday, Trotsky secretly returned to Russia in February 1905 via Kiev. He wrote for an underground press in Kiev before moving to Saint Petersburg. There he worked with Bolsheviks like Leonid Krasin and the local Menshevik committee, pushing the latter in a more radical direction. A police raid in May forced him to flee to rural Finland, where he further developed his theory of permanent revolution.
On 19 September 1905, typesetters at Ivan Sytin's Moscow printing house struck for shorter hours and higher pay. By 24 September, 50 other Moscow printing shops joined. On 2 October, Saint Petersburg typesetters struck in solidarity. On 7 October railway workers of the Moscow–Kazan Railway also struck. Amidst this turmoil, Trotsky returned to Saint Petersburg on 15 October. He addressed the Saint Petersburg Soviet (Council) of Workers' Deputies at the Technological Institute, with an estimated 200,000 people gathered outside—about half the city's workers.
thumb|upright=.8|Trotsky in prison, awaiting trial, 1906
After his return, Trotsky and Parvus took over the newspaper Russian Gazette, increasing its circulation to 500,000. Trotsky also co-founded "Nachalo" ("The Beginning") with Parvus, Julius Martov, and other Mensheviks, which became a successful newspaper during the 1905 revolutionary climate in Saint Petersburg.
Before Trotsky's return, Mensheviks had independently conceived of an elected, non-party revolutionary body representing the capital's workers: the first Soviet. By Trotsky's arrival, the Saint Petersburg Soviet was functioning, headed by Khrustalyev-Nosar (Georgy Nosar, alias Pyotr Khrustalyov), a lawyer chosen as a compromise figure. Khrustalyev-Nosar became popular and was the Soviet's public face. Trotsky joined the Soviet as "Yanovsky" (after his birthplace) and was elected vice-chairman. He performed much of the practical work and, after Khrustalyev-Nosar's arrest on 26 November 1905, became its chairman. On 2 December, the Soviet issued a proclamation on Tsarist government debts:
The following day, 3 December 1905, government troops surrounded the Soviet, and its deputies were arrested. Trotsky and other leaders were tried in 1906 for supporting an armed rebellion. On 4 October 1906 he was convicted and sentenced to internal exile in Siberia.
Second emigration (1907–1914)
thumb|Trotsky (centre) with [[Alexander Parvus (left) and Leo Deutsch (right) in the Peter and Paul Fortress prison, Saint Petersburg, 1906]]
En route to exile in Obdorsk, Siberia, in January 1907, Trotsky escaped at Berezov and made his way to London. He attended the 5th Congress of the RSDLP. In October he moved to Vienna in Austria-Hungary. For the next seven years, he participated in the activities of the Austrian Social Democratic Party and occasionally the German Social Democratic Party.
thumb|left|upright=.7|Trotsky reading Pravda in Vienna, c. 1910
In October 1908 Trotsky joined the editorial staff of Pravda ("Truth"), a bi-weekly, Russian-language social democratic paper for Russian workers, co-editing it with Joffe and Matvey Skobelev. It was smuggled into Russia. The paper appeared irregularly, with only five issues in its first year. Avoiding factional politics, it proved popular with Russian industrial workers. After the 1905–1907 revolution's failure, both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks experienced multiple splits. Funding for Pravda was scarce. Trotsky sought financial backing from the RSDLP Central Committee throughout 1909.
In 1910 a Bolshevik majority controlled the Central Committee. Lenin agreed to finance Pravda but required a Bolshevik co-editor. When various factions tried to reunite at the January 1910 RSDLP Central Committee meeting in Paris (over Lenin's objections), Trotsky's Pravda was made a party-financed 'central organ'. Lev Kamenev, Trotsky's brother-in-law, joined the editorial board from the Bolsheviks. However, unification attempts failed by August 1910. Kamenev resigned amid mutual recriminations. Trotsky continued publishing Pravda for another two years until it folded in April 1912.
The Bolsheviks launched a new workers' newspaper in Saint Petersburg on 22 April 1912, also named Pravda. Trotsky, upset by what he saw as the usurpation of his newspaper's name, wrote a bitter letter to Nikolay Chkheidze, a Menshevik leader, in April 1913, denouncing Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Though he quickly moved past the disagreement, the letter was intercepted by the Okhrana (secret police) and archived. After Lenin's death in 1924, Trotsky's opponents within the Communist Party publicised the letter to portray him as Lenin's enemy.
The 1910s were a period of heightened tension within the RSDLP. A major disagreement between Trotsky and the Mensheviks on one side, and Lenin on the other, concerned "expropriations"—armed robberies of banks and businesses by Bolshevik groups to fund the Party. These actions, banned by the 5th Congress, were continued by Bolsheviks.
thumb|left|Trotsky in Vienna, c. 1907–1914
In January 1912 most of the Bolshevik faction, led by Lenin, held a conference in Prague, broke away from the RSDLP, and formed the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks). In response, Trotsky organised a "unification" conference of social democratic factions in Vienna in August 1912 (the "August Bloc") to reunite Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, but this attempt was largely unsuccessful. In September 1912 Kievskaya Mysl sent him to the Balkans as its war correspondent, where he covered the two Balkan Wars for the next year. There, Trotsky chronicled ethnic cleansing carried out by the Serbian army against Albanian civilians. He became a close friend of Christian Rakovsky, later a leading Soviet politician and Trotsky's ally. On 3 August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, with Austria-Hungary fighting the Russian Empire, Trotsky was forced to flee Vienna for neutral Switzerland to avoid arrest as a Russian émigré. opposing the war and the pro-war stance of European social democratic parties, especially the German party.
thumb|upright|Trotsky with his daughter Nina in 1915
As a war correspondent for Kievskaya Mysl, Trotsky moved to France on 19 November 1914. In January 1915 in Paris he began editing Nashe Slovo ("Our Word"), an internationalist socialist newspaper, initially with Martov (who soon resigned as the paper moved left). He adopted the slogan "peace without indemnities or annexations, peace without conquerors or conquered". Lenin advocated Russia's defeat and demanded a complete break with the Second International.
Trotsky attended the Zimmerwald Conference of anti-war socialists in September 1915, advocating a middle course between those like Martov, who would stay in the Second International, and those like Lenin, who would break from it and form a Third International. The conference adopted Trotsky's proposed middle line. Lenin, initially opposed, eventually voted for Trotsky's resolution to avoid a split among anti-war socialists.
In September 1916 Trotsky was deported from France to Spain for his anti-war activities. Spanish authorities, not wanting him, deported him to the United States on 25 December 1916. He arrived in New York City on 13 January 1917, staying for over two months at 1522 Vyse Avenue in the Bronx. In New York he wrote articles for the local Russian-language socialist newspaper Novy Mir and, in translation, for the Yiddish-language daily Der Forverts ("Forward"). He also gave speeches to Russian émigrés. His speeches and agitation angered German inmates, who complained to the camp commander, Colonel Morris, about Trotsky's "anti-patriotic" attitude.
After an unsuccessful pro-Bolshevik uprising in Petrograd in July (the July Days), Trotsky was arrested on 7 August 1917. He was released 40 days later following the failed counter-revolutionary uprising by Lavr Kornilov. After the Bolsheviks gained a majority in the Petrograd Soviet, Trotsky was elected its chairman on . He sided with Lenin against Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev when the Bolshevik Central Committee discussed staging an armed uprising, and he led the efforts to overthrow the Russian Provisional Government headed by the socialist Alexander Kerensky.
Joseph Stalin wrote the following summary of Trotsky's role in 1917 in Pravda on 6 November 1918:
Although this passage was quoted in Stalin's book The October Revolution (1934),
After the success of the October Revolution on 7–8 November 1917, Trotsky led efforts to repel a counter-attack by Cossacks under General Pyotr Krasnov and other troops loyal to the overthrown Provisional Government at Gatchina. Allied with Lenin, he defeated attempts by other Bolshevik Central Committee members (Zinoviev, Kamenev, Rykov, etc.) to share power with other moderate socialist parties. Trotsky advocated for a predominantly Bolshevik government and was reluctant to recall Mensheviks as partners after their voluntary withdrawal from the Congress of Soviets. However, he released several socialist ministers from prison. Neither Trotsky nor his colleagues in 1917 initially wished to suppress these parties entirely; the Bolsheviks reserved vacant seats in the Soviets and the Central Executive Committee for these parties in proportion to their vote share at the Congress. Concurrently, prominent Left Socialist Revolutionaries assumed positions in Lenin's government, leading commissariats such as agriculture (Andrei Kolegayev), property (Vladimir Karelin), justice (Isaac Steinberg), posts and telegraphs (Prosh Proshian), and local government (Vladimir Trutovsky). According to Deutscher, Menshevik and Social Revolutionary demands for a coalition government included disarming Bolshevik detachments and excluding Lenin and Trotsky, which was unacceptable even to moderate Bolshevik negotiators like Kamenev and Sokolnikov. By the end of 1917 Trotsky was unquestionably the second-most-powerful man in the Bolshevik Party after Lenin, overshadowing Zinoviev, who had been Lenin's top lieutenant for the previous decade.
Russian Revolution and aftermath
Commissar for Foreign Affairs and Brest-Litovsk (1917–1918)
thumb|The [[Tauride Palace locked and guarded by Trotsky, Sverdlov, Zinoviev, and Lashevich during the dissolution of the Russian Constituent Assembly on 19 January 1918 (N.S.)]]
After the Bolsheviks seized power, Trotsky became People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. He published the secret treaties previously signed by the Triple Entente, which detailed plans for post-war reallocation of colonies and redrawing state borders, including the Sykes–Picot Agreement. This revelation on 23 November 1917 caused considerable embarrassment to Britain and France.
Brest-Litovsk
thumb|Trotsky and [[Lev Kamenev at the Brest-Litovsk negotiations, c. 1917–1918]]
In preparation for peace talks with the Central Powers, Trotsky appointed his old friend Adolph Joffe to represent the Bolsheviks. When the Soviet delegation learned that Germany and Austria-Hungary planned to annex Polish territory, establish a rump Polish state, and turn the Baltic provinces into client states ruled by German princes, the talks were recessed for 12 days. The Soviets hoped that, given time, their allies would join the negotiations or that the Western European proletariat would revolt; thus, prolonging negotiations was their best strategy. As Trotsky wrote, "To delay negotiations, there must be someone to do the delaying". Consequently, Trotsky replaced Joffe as head of the Soviet delegation at Brest-Litovsk from 22 December 1917 to 10 February 1918.
The Soviet government was divided. Left Communists, led by Nikolai Bukharin, believed no peace was possible between a Soviet republic and a capitalist empire, advocating a revolutionary war for a pan-European Soviet republic. They cited early Red Army successes against Polish forces, White forces, and Ukrainian forces as proof of its capability, especially with propaganda and asymmetrical warfare.
thumb|right|upright|Territory lost by Russia under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Lenin, initially hopeful for a swift European revolution, concluded that the German Imperial government remained strong and that, without a robust Russian military, armed conflict would lead to the Soviet government's collapse. He agreed a pan-European revolution was the ultimate solution but prioritised Bolshevik survival. From January 1918, he advocated signing a separate peace treaty if faced with a German ultimatum. Trotsky's position was between these factions. He acknowledged the old Russian army's inability to fight:
However, he agreed with the Left Communists that a separate peace treaty would be a severe morale and material blow, negating recent successes, reviving suspicions of Bolshevik-German collusion, and fuelling internal resistance. He argued that a German ultimatum should be refused, which might trigger an uprising in Germany or inspire German soldiers to disobey orders if an offensive was a naked land grab. Trotsky wrote in 1925:
In a letter to Lenin before 18 January 1918, Trotsky outlined his "no war, no peace" policy: announce war termination and demobilisation without signing a treaty, placing the fate of Poland, Lithuania, and Courland on the German working people. He believed Germany would find it difficult to attack due to internal conditions and opposition from various German political factions. Lenin initially responded on 18 January: "Stalin has just arrived; we will look into the matter with him and let you have a joint answer right away" and "please adjourn proceedings and leave for Petrograd. Send a reply; I will wait. Lenin, Stalin". Trotsky, sensing disagreement, returned to Petrograd. During their debate, Lenin concluded: "In any case, I stand for the immediate signing of peace; it is safer."
On 10 February 1918 Trotsky and the Russian delegation withdrew from peace talks, declaring an end to the war on Russia's side without signing a peace treaty. Privately, Trotsky had expressed willingness to relent to peace terms if Germany resumed its offensive, albeit with moral dissent. Germany resumed military operations on 18 February. The Red Army detachments proved no match for the German army. On the evening of 18 February, Trotsky and his supporters abstained in a Central Committee vote, and Lenin's proposal to accept German terms was approved 7–4. The Soviet government sent a radiogram accepting the final Brest-Litovsk terms.
Germany did not respond for three days, continuing its offensive. The response on 21 February contained such harsh terms that even Lenin briefly considered fighting. However, the Central Committee again voted 7–4 on 23 February to accept. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on 3 March and ratified on 15 March 1918. Closely associated with the previous "no war, no peace" policy, Trotsky resigned as Commissar for Foreign Affairs.
Head of the Red Army (Spring 1918)
thumb|upright=.7|Trotsky speaks from [[Trotsky's train|his armoured train during the civil war in 1920.]]
On 13 March 1918, Trotsky's resignation as Foreign Affairs Commissar was accepted. He was appointed People's Commissar of Army and Navy Affairs, replacing Podvoisky, and chairman of the Supreme Military Council. The post of commander-in-chief was abolished, giving Trotsky full control of the Red Army, responsible only to the Communist Party leadership, whose Left Socialist Revolutionary allies had left the government over the treaty. The entire Bolshevik Red Army leadership, including the former Defence Commissar Nikolai Podvoisky and commander-in-chief Nikolai Krylenko, vigorously protested against Trotsky's appointment and eventually resigned. They believed the Red Army should consist only of dedicated revolutionaries, rely on propaganda and force, and have elected officers. They viewed former imperial officers as potential traitors. Their views remained popular, and their supporters, including Podvoisky (who became one of Trotsky's deputies), were a constant source of opposition. Discontent with Trotsky's policies of strict discipline, conscription, and reliance on supervised non-Communist military experts led to the Military Opposition, active within the Party in late 1918–1919.
Trotsky also expressed support for the Support for the Committee for Aid and Wounded Red Army Men (1920). He endorsed a number of measures to improve medical oversight and the living conditions of Red Army soldiers. This included his support for establishing joint workers-peasants committees for fraternal aid and facilitating a large participation of women in medical work during the Civil War.
Civil War (1918–1920)
1918
thumb|upright|An [[Antisemitism|antisemitic 1919 White Army propaganda poster depicting Trotsky as a demonic figure with a pentagram, alongside stereotyped Chinese Bolshevik supporters portrayed as executioners. The caption reads, "Peace and Liberty in Sovdepiya" (a derogatory term for Soviet Russia).]]
The military situation tested Trotsky's organisational skills. In May–June 1918, the Czechoslovak Legions revolted, leading to the loss of most of Russia's territory, increasingly organised resistance from anti-Communist forces (the White Army), and widespread defections by military experts Trotsky relied on.
Trotsky and the government responded with a full mobilisation, increasing the Red Army from under 300,000 in May 1918 to one million by October, and introducing political commissars to ensure loyalty of military experts (mostly former Imperial officers) and co-sign their orders. Trotsky viewed the Red Army's organisation as built on October Revolution ideals. He later wrote:
A controversial measure was hostage-taking of relatives of ex-Tsarist officials in the Red Army to prevent defection or betrayal. Service noted this practice was used by both Red and White armies. Trotsky later defended this, arguing no families of betraying ex-officials were executed and that such measures, if adopted earlier, would have reduced overall casualties. Deutscher highlights Trotsky's preference for exchanging hostages over execution, recounting General Pyotr Krasnov's release on parole in 1918, only for Krasnov to take up arms again shortly thereafter.
Red Terror
thumb|European theatre of the Russian Civil War in 1918–1919
The Red Terror was enacted following assassination attempts on Lenin and Trotsky, and the assassinations of Petrograd Cheka leader Moisei Uritsky and the party editor V. Volodarsky. The French Reign of Terror is seen as an influence. The decision was also driven by early White Army massacres of "Red" prisoners in 1917, Allied intervention, and massacres of Reds during the Finnish Civil War (10,000–20,000 workers killed by Finnish Whites).
Felix Dzerzhinsky, director of the Cheka (predecessor to the KGB), was tasked with rooting out counter-revolutionary threats. From early 1918, Bolsheviks began eliminating opposition, including anarchists. On 11 August 1918 Lenin telegraphed orders "to introduce mass terror" in Nizhny Novgorod and to "crush" landowners resisting grain requisitioning.
On 30 August Fanny Kaplan, a Socialist Revolutionary, unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Lenin. Kaplan cited growing Bolshevik authoritarianism. These events persuaded the government to heed Dzerzhinsky's calls for greater terror. The Red Terror officially began thereafter, between 17 and 30 August 1918.
Desertions
Trotsky appealed politically to deserters, arousing them with revolutionary ideas.
The Red Army first used punitive barrier troops in summer/autumn 1918 on the Eastern Front. Trotsky authorised Mikhail Tukhachevsky, commander of the 1st Army, to station blocking detachments behind unreliable infantry regiments, with orders to shoot if front-line troops deserted or retreated without permission. These troops comprised personnel from Cheka punitive detachments or regular infantry regiments. In December 1918 Trotsky ordered more barrier troops raised for each infantry formation. Barrier troops were also used to enforce Bolshevik control over food supplies, earning civilian hatred.
thumb|Trotsky with poet [[Demyan Bedny near Kazan, 1918]]
Given manpower shortages and 16 opposing foreign armies, Trotsky insisted on using former Tsarist officers as military specialists, combined with Bolshevik political commissars. Lenin commented:
thumb|Trotsky (left), with Lenin (centre) and [[Lev Kamenev|Kamenev (right), in discussion during the Russian Civil War]]
In September 1918, facing military difficulties, the Bolshevik government declared martial law and reorganised the Red Army. The Supreme Military Council was abolished, and the position of commander-in-chief restored, filled by Jukums Vācietis, commander of the Latvian Riflemen. Vācietis handled day-to-day operations. Trotsky became chairman of the new Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, retaining overall military control. Despite earlier clashes with Vācietis, Trotsky established a working relationship. This reorganisation caused another conflict between Trotsky and Stalin in late September. Trotsky appointed the former imperial general Pavel Sytin to command the Southern Front, but Stalin refused to accept him in early October, and Sytin was recalled. Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov tried to reconcile Trotsky and Stalin, but their meeting failed.
In 1919, 612 "hardcore" deserters out of 837,000 draft dodgers and deserters were executed under Trotsky's measures. According to Orlando Figes, most "deserters...were handed back to the military authorities, and formed into units for transfer to one of the rear armies or directly to the front". Even "malicious" deserters were returned to the ranks when reinforcements were desperate. Figes noted the Red Army instituted amnesty weeks, prohibiting punitive measures against desertion, which encouraged the voluntary return of 98,000–132,000 deserters.
1919
thumb|Trotsky addressing soldiers during the Polish–Soviet War
Throughout late 1918 and early 1919, Trotsky's leadership faced attacks, including veiled accusations in Stalin-inspired newspaper articles and a direct attack by the Military Opposition at the VIIIth Party Congress in March 1919. He weathered them, being elected one of five full members of the first Politburo after the Congress. But he later wrote: At the 3–4 July Central Committee meeting, after a heated exchange, the majority supported Kamenev and Smilga against Vācietis and Trotsky. Trotsky's plan was rejected, and he was criticised for alleged leadership shortcomings, many personal. Stalin used this to pressure Lenin to dismiss Trotsky.
Significant changes were made to Red Army leadership. Trotsky was temporarily sent to the Southern Front, while Smilga informally coordinated work in Moscow. Most non-day-to-day Revolutionary Military Council members were relieved of duties on 8 July, and new members, including Smilga, were added. The same day, Vācietis was arrested by the Cheka on suspicion of an anti-Soviet plot and replaced by Sergey Kamenev. After weeks in the south, Trotsky returned to Moscow and resumed control. A year later, Smilga and Tukhachevsky were defeated at the Battle of Warsaw, but Trotsky's refusal to retaliate against Smilga earned his friendship and later support during 1920s intra-Party battles.
By October 1919 the government faced its worst crisis: Denikin's troops approached Tula and Moscow from the south, and General Nikolay Yudenich's troops approached Petrograd from the west. Lenin decided Petrograd had to be abandoned to defend Moscow. Trotsky argued Petrograd needed to be defended, partly to prevent Estonia and Finland from intervening. In a rare reversal, Trotsky, supported by Stalin and Zinoviev, prevailed against Lenin in the Central Committee.
1920
With Denikin and Yudenich defeated in late 1919, government emphasis shifted to the economy. Trotsky spent winter 1919–1920 in the Urals region restarting its economy. A false rumour of his assassination circulated internationally on New Year's Day 1920. Based on his experiences, he proposed abandoning War Communism policies, including grain confiscation, and partially restoring the grain market. Lenin, still committed to War Communism, rejected his proposal.
thumb|Trotsky on an [[Anti-Sovietism|anti-Soviet Polish poster titled Bolshevik freedom, depicting him atop a pile of skulls, holding a bloody knife, during the Polish–Soviet War]]
In early 1920, Soviet–Polish tensions led to the Polish–Soviet War. Trotsky argued
This position was sharply criticised by Lenin, who argued unions should retain some independence and act as "schools of communism" rather than state instruments. Lenin's view prevailed at the 10th Congress in 1921. Several of Trotsky's supporters, including Nikolay Krestinsky, lost leadership positions.
Kronstadt rebellion
thumb|[[Red Army troops attack Kronstadt sailors in March 1921.]]
In March 1921, during the Kronstadt Rebellion, sailors and soldiers at the Kronstadt naval base revolted against the Bolshevik government, demanding greater freedom for workers and peasants, an end to one-party rule, and restoration of civil rights. The rebellion, occurring simultaneously with the 10th Party Congress, further destabilised the fragile political situation.
Trotsky, as Commissar of War, was instrumental in ordering the rebellion's suppression. On 18 March 1921, after failed negotiations, the Red Army stormed the island, resulting in thousands of Kronstadt sailors' deaths. Trotsky justified the action by presenting evidence of foreign backing, a claim contested by several historians. His role has been criticised, with anarchists like Emma Goldman accusing him of betraying the revolution's democratic ideals.
Contribution to the Russian Revolution
thumb|upright=.7|Trotsky, the [[People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, as the Guard of the October Revolution, 14 May 1923]]
The historian Vladimir Cherniaev sums up Trotsky's main contributions:
The historian Geoffrey Swain argues:
Lenin said in 1921 that Trotsky was "in love with organisation", but in working politics, "he has not got a clue". Swain explains this by arguing Trotsky was not good at teamwork, being a loner who had mostly worked as a journalist, not a professional revolutionary like others.
Lenin's illness (1922–1923)
thumb|left|upright=.8|Trotsky with Red Army soldiers in Moscow, 1922
In late 1921 Lenin's health deteriorated. He suffered three strokes between 25 May 1922 and 9 March 1923, causing paralysis, loss of speech, and his eventual death on 21 January 1924. With Lenin increasingly sidelined, Stalin was elevated to the new position of Central Committee General Secretary in April 1922. Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev formed a triumvirate (troika) with Stalin to prevent Trotsky, publicly number two and Lenin's heir presumptive, from succeeding Lenin.
The rest of the expanded Politburo (Rykov, Mikhail Tomsky, Bukharin) initially remained uncommitted but eventually joined the troika. Stalin's patronage power as General Secretary played a role, but Trotsky and his supporters later concluded a more fundamental reason was the slow bureaucratisation of the Soviet regime after the Civil War. Much of the Bolshevik elite desired "normality", while Trotsky personified a turbulent revolutionary period they wished to leave behind.
Evidence suggests the troika initially nominated Trotsky for minor government departments (e.g., Gokhran, the State Depository for Valuables). In mid-July 1922 Kamenev wrote to the recovering Lenin that "[the Central Committee] is throwing or is ready to throw a good cannon overboard". Lenin, shocked, responded:
Until his final stroke, Lenin tried to prevent a split in the leadership, reflected in Lenin's Testament. On 11 September 1922 Lenin proposed Trotsky should become his deputy at the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom). The Politburo approved, but Trotsky "categorically refused". This proposal is interpreted by some scholars as Lenin designating Trotsky his successor as head of government.
thumb|upright=.7|Trotsky with Christian Rakovsky, c. 1924
In late 1922 Trotsky allied with Lenin against Stalin and the emerging Soviet bureaucracy. Stalin had recently engineered the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), further centralising state control. The alliance was effective on foreign trade but was hindered by Lenin's progressing illness.
In January 1923 Lenin amended his Testament to suggest Stalin's removal as General Secretary, while also mildly criticizing Trotsky and other Bolsheviks. The Stalin–Lenin relationship had completely broken down, demonstrated when Stalin crudely insulted Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya. In March 1923, days before his third stroke, Lenin asked Trotsky to denounce Stalin and his "Great-Russian nationalistic campaign" at the XIIth Party Congress.
At the XIIth Party Congress in April 1923, after Lenin's final stroke, Trotsky did not raise the issue. Instead, he spoke about intra-party democracy, avoiding direct confrontation with the troika. Stalin had prepared by replacing many local delegates with his loyalists, mostly at the expense of Zinoviev and Kamenev's backers. Delegates, mostly unaware of Politburo divisions, gave Trotsky a standing ovation. This upset the troika, already infuriated by Karl Radek's article "Leon Trotsky – Organiser of Victory", published in Pravda on 14 March 1923. Stalin delivered key reports on organisational structure and nationalities; Zinoviev delivered the Central Committee political report, traditionally Lenin's prerogative. Resolutions calling for greater party democracy were adopted but remained vague and unimplemented.
The power struggle also impacted prospects for world revolution. The German Communist Party leadership requested Trotsky be sent to Germany to direct the 1923 insurrection. The Politburo, controlled by Stalin, Zinoviev, and Kamenev, rejected this, sending a commission of lower-ranking Russian Communist party members instead.
Left Opposition (1923–1924)
thumb|upright=.8|A 1922 [[Cubism|cubist portrait by Yury Annenkov. A version appeared on an early cover of Time.]]
From mid-1923 the Soviet economy faced significant difficulties, leading to widespread strikes. Two secret groups within the Communist Party, "Workers' Truth" and "Workers' Group", were suppressed by the secret police. On 8 October 1923, Trotsky wrote to the Central Committee and Central Control Commission, attributing these problems to a lack of intra-Party democracy:
Other senior communists with similar concerns sent The Declaration of 46 to the Central Committee on 15 October, stating:
Though secret at the time, these letters significantly impacted the Party leadership, prompting a partial retreat by the troika and its supporters, notably in Zinoviev's Pravda article of 7 November. Throughout November, the troika sought a compromise to placate Trotsky and his supporters (made easier by Trotsky's illness in November–December). Trotsky rejected the first draft resolution, leading to a special group (Stalin, Trotsky, Kamenev) to draft a mutually acceptable compromise. On 5 December the Politburo and Central Control Commission unanimously adopted this final draft. On 8 December, Trotsky published an open letter expounding on the resolution's ideas. The troika used this letter to launch a campaign against Trotsky, accusing him of factionalism, setting "the youth against the fundamental generation of old revolutionary Bolsheviks", and other "sins".
Trotsky defended his position in seven letters collected as The New Course in January 1924. The illusion of a "monolithic Bolshevik leadership" shattered, and a lively intra-Party discussion ensued in local organisations and Pravda pages through December and January, until the XIIIth Party Conference (16–18 January 1924). Opponents of the Central Committee's position became known as the Left Opposition. In 1924, at Sverdlov University conferences, Stalin critically cited "the Permanentists" as Trotsky's followers of "Permanent revolution".
left|thumb|Leon Trotsky (centre right) with Soviet leaders writing a letter of defiance to British Foreign Secretary [[George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|Lord Curzon in 1923. Painting by an unknown artist, parodying Ilya Repin's Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks]]
Since the troika controlled the Party apparatus via Stalin's Secretariat and Pravda via editor Bukharin, it directed the discussion and delegate selection. Though Trotsky's position prevailed within the Red Army, Moscow universities, and received about half the votes in the Moscow Party organisation, it was defeated elsewhere. The Conference was packed with pro-troika delegates. Only three delegates voted for Trotsky's position, and the Conference denounced "Trotskyism" as a "petty bourgeois deviation".
Left Opposition members, representing many international elements, held high-ranking posts, with Christian Rakovsky, Adolph Joffe, and Nikolay Krestinsky serving as ambassadors in London, Paris, Tokyo, and Berlin. Internationally, Trotsky's opposition received support from several Central Committee members of foreign communist parties, including Rakovsky (Chairman of the Ukrainian Sovnarkom), Boris Souvarine of the French Communist Party, and the Central Committee of the Polish Communist Party (led by Maksymilian Horwitz, Maria Koszutska, and Adolf Warski).
After Lenin's death (1924)
thumb|Trotsky in his Moscow office, 1920s
Throughout most of 1924, there was little overt political disagreement within the Soviet leadership. Publicly, Trotsky remained a prominent Bolshevik leader, though his "mistakes" were often alluded to by troika partisans. Behind the scenes, he was cut off from decision-making. Politburo meetings were formalities; key decisions were made beforehand by the troika and its supporters. Trotsky's control over the military was undermined by reassigning his deputy, Ephraim Sklyansky, and appointing Mikhail Frunze, groomed to replace him.
At the XIIIth Party Congress in May, Trotsky delivered a conciliatory speech:
thumb|[[Andrei Bubnov, Kliment Voroshilov, Leon Trotsky, Mikhail Kalinin, and Mikhail Frunze attend the October Revolution parade in Red Square, 7 November 1924]]
Meanwhile, the Left Opposition, which had formed somewhat unexpectedly in late 1923 and lacked a definite platform beyond general dissatisfaction with the intra-Party "regime", began to crystallise. It lost some less dedicated members due to troika harassment but started formulating a program. Economically, the Left Opposition opposed capitalist elements in the Soviet economy and advocated accelerated industrialisation through state-led policies, putting them at odds with Bukharin and Rykov (the "Right" wing) who supported the troika. On world revolution, Trotsky and Karl Radek saw stability in Europe, while Stalin and Zinoviev predicted an "acceleration" of revolution in Western Europe in 1924. Theoretically, Trotsky remained committed to the idea that the Soviet Union could not create a true socialist society without world revolution, while Stalin gradually developed the policy of "socialism in one country". These ideological divisions formed the basis of the political divide.
At the XIIIth Congress, Kamenev and Zinoviev helped Stalin defuse Lenin's Testament, which had belatedly surfaced. Shortly after, the troika, an alliance of convenience, showed signs of weakness. Stalin began making veiled accusations against Zinoviev and Kamenev. In October 1924, Trotsky published Lessons of October, a summary of the 1917 revolution. He described Zinoviev and Kamenev's opposition to the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, something they preferred left unmentioned. This started a new intra-party struggle, the Literary Discussion, with Zinoviev and Kamenev again allied with Stalin against Trotsky. Their criticism of Trotsky focused on:
- Trotsky's pre-1917 disagreements with Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
- Trotsky's alleged distortion of 1917 events to emphasise his role and diminish others'.
- Trotsky's harsh treatment of subordinates and other alleged Civil War mistakes.
Trotsky, ill again, was unable to respond while his opponents mobilised to denounce him. They damaged his military reputation enough to force his resignation as People's Commissar of Army and Fleet Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council on 6 January 1925. Zinoviev demanded Trotsky's expulsion from the Party, but Stalin, playing the moderate, refused. Trotsky kept his Politburo seat but was effectively on probation.
A year in the wilderness (1925)
left|thumb|Trotsky and [[Leonid Serebryakov attend the Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union in May 1925.]]
1925 was a difficult year for Trotsky. After the Literary Discussion and losing his Red Army posts, he was effectively unemployed through winter and spring. In May 1925 he received three posts: chairman of the Concessions Committee, head of the electro-technical board, and chairman of the scientific-technical board of industry. Trotsky wrote in My Life that he "was taking a rest from politics" and "naturally plunged into the new line of work up to my ears". He also delivered a tribute to Lenin in his 1925 short book, Lenin.
Some contemporary accounts depict a remote and distracted man. Later in the year, Trotsky resigned his two technical positions, citing Stalin-instigated interference and sabotage, and concentrated on the Concessions Committee.
One of the few political developments affecting Trotsky in 1925 was the American Marxist Max Eastman's book Since Lenin Died (1925), which described the controversy over Lenin's Testament. Trotsky publicly denied Eastman's statements in an article.
Meanwhile, the troika finally broke up. Bukharin and Rykov sided with Stalin, while Krupskaya and Soviet Commissar of Finance Grigory Sokolnikov aligned with Zinoviev and Kamenev. The struggle became open at the September 1925 Central Committee meeting and peaked at the XIVth Party Congress in December 1925. Zinoviev and Kamenev, dubbed The New Opposition, with only the Leningrad Party organisation behind them, were thoroughly defeated. Trotsky refused to get involved and did not speak at the Congress.
United Opposition (1926–1927)
thumb|upright=.8|Trotsky addresses a meeting in the [[House of the Unions, Moscow, March 1926.]]
In early 1926, Zinoviev, Kamenev, and their "New Opposition" supporters gravitated towards Trotsky's supporters. The two groups soon formed an alliance, incorporating some smaller opposition groups, known as the United Opposition.
The United Opposition faced repeated threats of sanctions from the Stalinist leadership. Trotsky had to agree to tactical retreats, mainly to preserve his alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev. The opposition remained united against Stalin throughout 1926 and 1927, especially regarding the Shanghai massacre. Stalinist methods against the Opposition became increasingly extreme. At the XVth Party Conference in October 1926, Trotsky could barely speak due to interruptions and catcalls; at its end, he lost his Politburo seat. In 1927, Stalin began using the OGPU (Soviet secret police) to infiltrate and discredit the opposition. Rank-and-file oppositionists were increasingly harassed, sometimes expelled from the Party, and even arrested.
Soviet policy toward the revolution in China became the ideological demarcation line. The 1911 Revolution began on 10 October 1911, leading to Emperor Puyi's abdication on 12 February 1912. Sun Yat-sen established the Republic of China, but it controlled little of the country, much of which was divided among warlords. The Republican government formed the Kuomintang (KMT). In 1920, the KMT opened relations with Soviet Russia. With Soviet help, the KMT built up its army. The planned Northern Expedition to crush northern warlords became a point of contention. Stalin urged the small Chinese Communist Party to merge with the KMT for a bourgeois revolution before attempting a Soviet-style workers' revolution.
thumb|[[Mikhail Kalinin and Stalin bearing Felix Dzerzhinsky's coffin, 22 July 1926. Trotsky is visible over Kalinin's left shoulder.|alt=Mikhail Kalinin and Joseph Stalin carry a coffin. Leon Trotsky stands behind Kalinin.]]
Trotsky wanted the Communist Party to complete an orthodox proletarian revolution and maintain clear class independence from the KMT. Stalin funded the KMT during the expedition. He countered Trotskyist criticism in a secret speech, saying Chiang Kai-shek's right-wing KMT were the only ones capable of defeating imperialists, that Chiang had funding from rich merchants, and his forces should be used until "squeezed for all usefulness like a lemon before being discarded". However, Chiang reversed the tables in the Shanghai massacre of 12 April 1927, massacring the Communists in Shanghai midway through the Northern Expedition.
Defeat and exile (1927–1928)
thumb|left|Trotsky with his wife Natalia Sedova and son Lev Sedov in Alma Ata (now Almaty), 1928
On the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution in November 1927, the Opposition held a street demonstration in Moscow against Stalin's government. It was dispersed by Soviet authorities, and Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party shortly thereafter. Trotsky delivered the eulogy at his friend Adolph Joffe's funeral in November 1927; it was his last public speech in the Soviet Union. When the XVth Party Congress made United Opposition views incompatible with Communist Party membership, Zinoviev, Kamenev, and their supporters capitulated and renounced their alliance with the Left Opposition. Trotsky and most of his followers refused to surrender. Trotsky was exiled to Alma Ata (now Almaty), Kazakhstan, on 31 January 1928. He was expelled from the Soviet Union to Turkey in February 1929, accompanied by his wife Natalia Sedova and their eldest son, Lev.
Fate of Left Oppositionists after Trotsky's exile (1929–1941)
thumb|The publication of Trotsky's autobiography [[My Life (Leon Trotsky autobiography)|My Life as reported in the Soviet Union, August 1929. The editors of Projector magazine titled the item "In the service of bourgeoisie".]]
After Trotsky's expulsion, Trotskyists within the Soviet Union began to waver. Between 1929 and 1932, most leading Left Opposition members surrendered to Stalin, "admitted their mistakes", and were reinstated in the Communist Party. An initial exception was Christian Rakovsky, who inspired Trotsky from 1929 to 1934 with his refusal to capitulate as state suppression increased. In late 1932, Rakovsky failed to flee the Soviet Union and was exiled to Yakutia in March 1933. At Trotsky's request, the French mathematician and Trotskyist Jean Van Heijenoort, with Pierre Frank, unsuccessfully appealed to the influential Soviet author Maxim Gorky to intervene for Rakovsky, boarding Gorky's ship near Constantinople. According to Heijenoort, they only met Gorky's son, Maxim Peshkov, who promised to pass on their request.
Almost all Trotskyists remaining in the Soviet Union were executed in the Great Purges of 1936–1938. Rakovsky survived until the Medvedev Forest massacre of September 1941, where he was shot with 156 other prisoners on Stalin's orders, less than three months into the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. Trotsky's sister and Kamenev's first wife, Olga Kameneva, was also among the Medvedev Forest victims.
Exile (1929–1940)
Turkey
Deported from the Soviet Union in February 1929, Trotsky arrived in Turkey. For his first two months, he lived with his wife and eldest son at the Soviet Consulate in Istanbul and then a nearby hotel. In April 1929, Turkish authorities moved them to the island of Büyükada (Prinkipo), into a house called the Yanaros mansion. During his Turkish exile, Trotsky was under surveillance by Mustafa Kemal Pasha's police. He was also at risk from former White Army officers on Prinkipo. However, his European supporters volunteered as bodyguards, ensuring his safety. He requested entry to Belgium, France, Norway, Germany, and the United Kingdom, but all refused.
thumb|left|Trotsky's house, the Yanaros mansion on [[Büyükada, Turkey, pictured in 2006. He lived there from April 1929 to July 1933.]]
On 20 February 1932 Trotsky and his family lost their Soviet citizenship and were forbidden to enter the Soviet Union. In 1932 he entered fascist Italy en route to a socialist conference in Denmark. By late 1932, Trotsky contacted the anti-Stalin opposition inside the USSR to discuss forming a bloc. There was no evidence of any alliance with Nazi Germany or the Empire of Japan, as the Soviet government claimed. Alleged bloc members included Zinovievites, rightists, and "capitulated" Trotskyists like Kamenev and Zinoviev. Trotsky feared the right gaining too much power within the bloc. The historian Pierre Broué concluded the bloc dissolved in early 1933, as some members like Zinoviev and Kamenev rejoined Stalin, and Trotsky's Harvard archive letters do not mention the bloc after 1932.
France
In July 1933 Prime Minister Édouard Daladier offered Trotsky asylum; he accepted, but was forbidden to live in Paris and was soon under French police surveillance. From July 1933 to February 1934 Trotsky and his wife lived in Royan. The philosopher and activist Simone Weil arranged for them and their bodyguards to stay briefly at her parents' house.
Following French media complaints about Trotsky's role in encouraging the May–June 1936 mass strikes in France with his articles, the Norwegian government, led by Johan Nygaardsvold, grew uneasy. In summer 1936, Trotsky's asylum became a political issue for the fascist Nasjonal Samling, led by Vidkun Quisling, alongside increased Soviet pressure. On 5 August 1936 Nasjonal Samling fascists burgled Knudsen's house while Trotsky and his wife were out. The burglars targeted Trotsky's works and archives. The raid was largely thwarted by Knudsen's daughter, Hjørdis, though some papers were taken. "Evidence" from the burglary was used by the government against Trotsky.
On 2 September 1936 Trygve Lie ordered Trotsky and his wife transferred to a farm in Hurum, where they were under house arrest. On 19 December 1936 they were deported on the Norwegian oil tanker Ruth, guarded by Jonas Lie. Later, in Mexico, Trotsky scathingly criticised his treatment, accusing the Norwegian government of trying to silence his opposition to the Moscow Trials: