How Did Trotsky Contribute To

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How Did Trotsky Contribute To

The Success Of The Bolsheviks Up To 1922?

a) Leon Trotsky was an important figure in the construction of the soviet union, he was born in Ukraine in the city of Yanovka. He went to a German secondary school and had Jewish parents. It was clear he was destined for success in his chosen goal in life, he was a top student in secondary school in Odessa. He was friends with the leader to be of the Bolshevik party, Vladimir Lennin. He was a follower of Karl Marx and also became a populist. As an adult he spent most of his life in either foreign exile or prison due to his mad passion for publishing communist newspapers and journals. He escaped from exile in Siberia in 1902 using a fake passport with the name 'Trotsky', his real name being Lev Davidovich Bronstein. He then proceeded to stay with this name which he has been known as ever since and still is now. After this he went to London and met up with his old friend Lenin, then in 1903 the Russian social democratic party split and Trotsky took over as Menshevik spokesman.

In 1905, Trotsky returned to his birth land, Yanovka. At this time there was a revolution of workers involving many strikes around a lot of workplaces. By this time he was a very influential figure and part of the St Petersburg soviet, in fact he was elected as chairman of the soviet. There was then many soviets set up across Russia, these were basically the workers government or union, thus, there main goals included keeping the workers happy, getting them what they wanted and also what they believed in. This enhanced his reputation as a leading revolutionary, but he was unsuccessful in his attempts to overthrow the Tsar and was once again arrested and imprisoned again.

He used his time in prison to develop his ideas about a permanent resolution, he had two years to do so and then managed to escape, plugging his proposed revolution straight away. His friend Lenin tried to persuade him to join the Bolshevik party due to the fact that he was a big figure in the revolution. He wanted him to join his Bolshevik party as he believed he had the perfect credentials to become a great leader and could assemble and lead an army of soldiers.

Trotsky the moved to Zurich, Switzerland where he made it publicly known just how much he was against the first world war... A lot! He objected so much that he went to France to become a member of The Social Democratic Party and wrote articles expressing his negative views, he went so far that he tried to tell workers not to enlist for their country. His public feelings and expressions got him in trouble once again, this time getting him arrested and deported to Spain. His views influenced the Bolshevik party into feeling opposition to the war, just as he did. This helped towards the success of the Bolsheviks. This also contributed towards enhancing his reputation and of the communists by being anti-war. In 1917 he moved from Spain To New York and again moved, this time to Russia where The Tsar was overthrown and became a member of the Bolshevik party.

In Russia he once again found trouble and was arrested for his involvement in the attempt to overthrow the provisional government in place. This Plot was called 'The July Day's'. He was imprisoned for a short period, He then became the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. This was abnormal because of the fact he had only just returned to the country but his popularity became obvious because of this. In the month of his appointment as chairman of The Petrograd Soviet he was also planning a coup on the provisional government with a Bolshevik attack. The October Revolution was organised by him and Stalin, they also worked together in overthrowing the provisional government and the power being taken by the Bolshevik party. Stalin was a big figure but without Trotsky the perfect planning and arrangement of the twenty thousand man strong army put in place to guard Petrograd couldn't have been set up. Trotsky's influence in the Bolsheviks successful take over of the provisional government was obvious and there for all to see.
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Upon his success in the overthrow of the provisional government, he was also promoted by Lenin and as a result played a part in the Russo-German negotiations at Brest-Litovsk. The aims of these negotiations were to put an end to Russia's part in World War 1, but the only way to put a stop to their involvement was to give up some land to Austria and Germany, thus hoping to avoid their interest in entering Russia. Unfortunately, these negotiations stalled and eventually failed and Germany and Austria advanced further through Russia. As a result he had to surrender ...

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