“the average human type will rise to the heights of an Aristotle, a Goethe, or a Marx. And above this ridge new peaks will rise.”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Figure timeline
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Trotsky, 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.
culture · Soviet politician and revolutionary (1879–1940) · politician · diplomat · autobiographer · philosopher · revolutionary · military personnel · historian · journalist · writer · communist · also Leon Trotsky, Lev Bronstein, Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, Lev Davidovich Bronstein, Leon Trotski, Trotsky
Born 26 October 1879 · Died 21 August 1940 · Q33391
99 published statements · 0 followers
Updated 1 day agoSee & hear
Photos & media
14 photos · 2 audio
Listen
Leon Trotsky talks about the Red Army
Ru-Leon Trotsky
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Unverified headlines, straight from trusted outlets’ feeds
Checking the wires…
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Connections
Related figures
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
- Quote
- Quote
- Quote
- Quote
20266 items
“was taking a rest from politics”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“To delay negotiations, there must be someone to do the delaying”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“s Jewish heritage, lacking documentary evidence, especially as Yiddish was not spoken by his family. Both North and the historian Walter Laqueur stated that Trotsky”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
La Izquierda Diario México: En Casa Marx. El profeta armado vuelve a las calles: jornadas por León Trotsky a 86 años de su asesinato
- #news
- #headline
World Socialist Web Site: Now available from Mehring Verlag: “My Life” by Leon Trotsky
- #news
- #headline
20182 items
SocialistWorker: Leon Trotsky, the historian
- #news
- #headline
The University College London Professor of Management John Kelly wrote that "almost 80 years after Leon Trotsky founded the Fourth International, there are now Trotskyite organisations in 57 countries, including most of
- #wikipedia
- #event
20153 items
The Nation: August 21, 1940: Leon Trotsky Dies
- #news
- #headline
Artnet: Leon Trotsky’s Historic Istanbul Home for Sale
- #news
- #headline
Architectural Digest: Leon Trotsky’s Istanbul Home Is Up for Sale
- #news
- #headline
20122 items
Digital Journal: Museum of Leon Trotsky in Mexico City (Includes interview and first-hand account)
- #news
- #headline
Foreign Affairs: Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary’s Life
- #news
- #headline
20102 items
World Socialist Web Site: Leon Trotsky’s Analysis of the Emerging Global Role of US Capitalism
- #news
- #headline
SocialistWorker: The legacy of Leon Trotsky
- #news
- #headline
20051 item
Seattle Times: Icepick police say was used to kill Leon Trotsky resurfaces in Mexico
- #news
- #headline
19891 item
Trotsky's books, forbidden until 1987, were published in the Soviet Union
- #wikipedia
- #event
19601 item
And arrival in the USSR in 1961, Leonid Brezhnev signed a decree awarding Mercader the Order of Lenin, the Gold Star, and the title Hero of the Soviet Union "for the special deed"
- #wikipedia
- #event
19461 item
“The Prevention of Literature,”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
19441 item
To boost morale, its historic name Gatchina was restored
- #wikipedia
- #event
194021 items
Died 1940-08-21.
- #wikidata
- #death
“Dla papieża bliźniętami są wolnomularze, darwiniści, marksiści i anarchiści, gdyż wszyscy oni bluźnierczo zaprzeczają niepokalanemu poczęciu. Dla Hitlera bliźniętami są liberalizm i marksizm, bo nie chcą nic słyszeć o „krwi i honorze”. Z kolei dla demokraty bliźniętami są faszyzm i bolszewizm, gdyż nie podporządkowują się powszechnemu prawu wyborczemu itd.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“An ally has to be watched just like an enemy.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“Albo biurokracja, coraz bardziej stająca się organem światowej burżuazji w robotniczym państwie, obali nowe formy własności i odrzuci kraj do kapitalizmu, albo klasa robotnicza rozgromi biurokrację i otworzy drogę do socjalizmu.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“Przygotowując nowe, coraz cięższe represje przeciwko opozycji, stalinowska frakcja miernot, tego Stalina, którego Lenin w „Testamencie” swym nazwał „brutalnym i nielojalnym” wtedy, kiedy te jego cechy nie ujawniły się jeszcze nawet w części setnej, ustawicznie usiłuje za pośrednictwem GPU insynuować opozycji jakiś „związek” z wrogami dyktatury proletariatu.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“The peasantry, having lifted itself up out of its medieval status, cannot politically generate its own rage.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“Jeśli kapitalizm nie jest zdolny do spełnienia żądań, nieuchronnie wypływających ze zrodzonych przezeń plag, niech ginie.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“Gdyby prawdą było, że opozycja, kierowana przez organizatorów rewolucji październikowej, budowniczych sowieckiej republiki i czerwonej armii, przygotowuje orężne obalenie władzy sowieckiej, oznaczałoby to samo przez się katastrofalną sytuację w kraju.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“Klasa robotnicza Rosji, pod kierownictwem bolszewików, uczyniła próbę przebudowania życia tak, aby wykluczyć możliwość periodycznych ataków szału, przeżywanych przez ludzkość i założyć podwaliny wyższej kultury. Na tym polega sens rewolucji październikowej.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“Opis: o wojnie polsko-bolszewickiej”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“In not more than a month's time terror will assume very violent forms, after the example of the great French Revolution; the guillotine... will be ready for our enemies... that remarkable invention of the French Revolution which makes man shorter by a head.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“Dzięki wojnie [I wojnie światowej] ludzkość, z niespotykaną poprzednio wyrazistością, przekonała się również o swej technicznej potędze. Wyglądało to więc tak, jakby człowiek, chcąc przekonać się, czy ma zdrowe drogi oddechowe i przewód pokarmowy, zaczął przed lustrem podcinać sobie gardło brzytwą.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“Rewolucja pożera ludzi i charaktery. Niszczy najmężniejszych, sieje spustoszenie wśród słabszych.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“Rewolucja wydaje się całkowitym szaleństwem tym, których zmiata i obala.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“A nationalized planned economy needs democracy, as the human body needs oxygen. (ang.)”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“Burżuazyjna demokracja stoi pod wieloma względami wyżej od poprzedzających ją form państwowych. Nie jest jednakże wieczna. Musi ustąpić miejsca socjalistycznemu społeczeństwu. Mostem do socjalistycznego społeczeństwa jest dyktatura proletariatu.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“We can only be right with and by the Party, for history has provided no other way of being in the right... And if the Party adopts a decision which one or other of us thinks unjust, he will say, just or unjust, it is my party, and I shall support the consequences of the decision to the end.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“Czwarta Międzynarodówka już powstała z wielkich wydarzeń – największych w historii klęsk proletariatu. Przyczyna tych klęsk to zwyrodnienie i zdrada starego kierownictwa.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“Opis: zarzut przeciwko Stalinowi.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“Polityka opozycji nie ma nic wspólnego z przygotowywaniem walki zbrojnej. Opieramy się całkowicie na przeświadczeniu o głębokiej żywotności i elastyczności sowieckiego reżimu. Nasza droga jest drogą reformy wewnętrznej”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“Dwa lata nieprzerwanej walki. Ileż wysiłków! Ileż ofiar! Ale równocześnie Armia Czerwona ma prawo z wielkim zadowoleniem spoglądać na przebyty szlak: gdyby nie te ofiary, nie te wysiłki, nie ta krew – nasz kraj dawno by stał się zdobyczą imperialistycznych drapieżników, rosyjskich i zagranicznych…”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
19383 items
Trotsky and his supporters founded the Fourth International, intended as a revolutionary and internationalist alternative to the Stalinist Comintern
- #wikipedia
- #event
Though it was short-lived, ending before 1940
- #wikipedia
- #event
Founded the Fourth International as an alternative to the Comintern
- #wikipedia
- #event
19372 items
About industrialisation, he emphasised the need for Soviet democracy:
- #wikipedia
- #event
“s theory of socialism in one country. Trotsky”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
19364 items
Trotsky called for restoring the right of criticism in areas like economic policy, revitalising trade unions, and allowing free elections involving multiple Soviet parties
- #wikipedia
- #event
“Without Stalin there would have been no Hitler, there would have been no Gestapo!”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“Opis: o Józefie Stalinie – słowa z 1936.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #lang:pl
Trotsky was assassinated in 1940 in Mexico City by Ramón Mercader, a Stalinist agent
- #wikipedia
- #event
19351 item
During Stalin's Great Purge and was murdered by Soviet forces in 1938
- #wikipedia
- #event
19331 item
Career landmark: Nazi book burnings.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
19321 item
Entered fascist Italy en route to a socialist conference in Denmark
- #wikipedia
- #event
19281 item
Served as the basis for Soviet modernisation
- #wikipedia
- #event
19271 item
Stalin began using the OGPU (Soviet secret police) to infiltrate and discredit the opposition
- #wikipedia
- #event
19262 items
“Opis: list do Nikołaja Bucharina, 4 marca 1926”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #lang:pl
And from the party in 1927, exiled to Alma Ata in 1928 and deported in 1929
- #wikipedia
- #event
19251 item
Was the American Marxist Max Eastman's book Since Lenin Died (1925), which described the controversy over Lenin's Testament
- #wikipedia
- #event
19243 items
Trotsky emerged as a prominent critic of Joseph Stalin, who soon politically outmanoeuvred him
- #wikipedia
- #event
At Sverdlov University conferences, Stalin critically cited "the Permanentists" as Trotsky's followers of "Permanent revolution"
- #wikipedia
- #event
Trotsky's opponents within the Communist Party publicised the letter to portray him as Lenin's enemy
- #wikipedia
- #event
19235 items
Where Trotsky explained declining the deputy position due to concerns his "Jewish origins" could accentuate antisemitic attitudes towards the Soviet Union
- #wikipedia
- #event
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
- #wikipedia
- #event
The historic town of Gatchina in Petrograd Governorate (now Leningrad Oblast) was renamed Trotsk (Russian: Троцк) by Soviet authorities after Trotsky
- #wikipedia
- #event
Citing Lenin's testament (critical of Stalin and bureaucracy) and their shared positions on foreign trade, party reform, and the Georgian affair
- #wikipedia
- #event
Career landmark: People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs (1923–1925).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
19222 items
Lenin formed a bloc with Trotsky against the growing Soviet bureaucracy and proposed that he should become a deputy premier, but Trotsky declined
- #wikipedia
- #event
And 1923 and was expected to assume responsibility over the Council of National Economy or Gosplan
- #wikipedia
- #event
19212 items
That Trotsky was "in love with organisation", but in working politics, "he has not got a clue"
- #wikipedia
- #event
Supported strengthening Gosplan to guide balanced economic reconstruction after the Civil War
- #wikipedia
- #event
19202 items
The KMT opened relations with Soviet Russia
- #wikipedia
- #event
To mitigate urgent economic problems from war communism, later privately reproaching Lenin for the delayed government response in 1921–1922
- #wikipedia
- #event
19192 items
Career landmark: Member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (1919–1926).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
612 "hardcore" deserters out of 837,000 draft dodgers and deserters were executed under Trotsky's measures
- #wikipedia
- #event
19182 items
Career landmark: People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the RSFSR (1918–1923).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Only for Krasnov to take up arms again shortly thereafter
- #wikipedia
- #event
19177 items
Something they preferred left unmentioned
- #wikipedia
- #event
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
- #wikipedia
- #event
Career landmark: Member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (1917–1919).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: People's Commissar (1917–1918).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (1917–1917).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Allied intervention, and massacres of Reds during the Finnish Civil War (10,000–20,000 workers killed by Finnish Whites)
- #wikipedia
- #event
Career landmark: Member of the Russian Constituent Assembly (1917–1918).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
19101 item
A Bolshevik majority controlled the Central Committee
- #wikipedia
- #event
19052 items
Representing Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and other Soviets
- #wikipedia
- #event
“We wspomnieniach swych Witte pisał, że w roku 1905 „olbrzymia większość Rosji jak gdyby postradała zmysły”. Rewolucja wydaje się konserwatyście obłędem tylko dlatego, że doprowadza „normalne” szaleństwo przeciwieństw społecznych do najwyższego napięcia.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #lang:pl
19021 item
Escaped to London, where he met Lenin
- #wikipedia
- #event
19011 item
“On Optimism and Pessimism, on the Twentieth Century, and on Many Other Things”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
19007 items
Awarded Order of the Red Banner.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Career landmark: Participated in 5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in 12th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Trotsky was sentenced to four years of exile in Siberia
- #wikipedia
- #event
Career landmark: Participated in 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in 11th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in 7th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
18981 item
Being arrested and exiled to Siberia for his activities
- #wikipedia
- #event
18961 item
After moving to the port town of Nikolayev (now Mykolaiv) on the Black Sea
- #wikipedia
- #event
18792 items
Born 1879-10-26.
- #wikidata
- #birth
“s oath of loyalty. Political stature and conflicts with Stalin Trotsky lacked the political acumen to succeed against Stalin”
- #wikipedia
- #quote