Trotsky's autobiography, My Life. An Attempt at an Autobiography reveals much about the October revolution from Bolshevik eyes.

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Trotsky’s autobiography, My Life.  An Attempt at an Autobiography reveals much about the October revolution from Bolshevik eyes.  Although written in the year following Trotsky’s expulsion from the party and his exile in Turkey, the sentiments received are of a very pro-revolutionary and pro-Bolshevik nature.  Through Trotsky’s autobiography, we are allowed insight into a personal account of the events of October 1917 in Russia and although his writings are extremely biased, this can be seen as a strength in analysing the Bolshevik revolution.

Trotsky, as a leading figure within the Bolshevik party, is able to provide us with great details of the Bolshevik revolution and the feelings and actions of other party members, including Lenin.  Although Trotsky did play such an imperative role in the revolution, his autobiography was written not long after his opponent Stalin expelled him from the party and Russia.  Due to the power struggle between these two key figures in Russian history, we can see that Trotsky used his autobiography to attempt to discredit Stalin.  He does this not through slanderous comments, but through no mention of the dictator.  Although this may not seem as though Trotsky is continuing the fight, the absence of Stalin in Trotsky’s account of the October revolution and the emphasis on Lenin’s relationship with the author places Trotsky as a greater supporter and a more favourable leader in the eyes of Lenin.  Stalin is therefore seen as having no input or influence in the October revolution and as a result of this, Trotsky would be seen as a more appropriate leader of the Bolsheviks and socialist Russia.  Despite the questionable intentions of Trotsky’s autobiography it can still very much be taken into account as an accurate depiction of the revolution, “after a close and critical examination I still find Trotsky’s My Life as scrupulously truthful as any work of this kind can be”.

Many factors assisted the Bolsheviks in their victory in October and an external factor that played a very important role in this was the growing discontent with the Provisional Government.  With the First World War being fought in Europe and the poor conditions forced upon the Russian soldiers, Kerensky visited the front line, in Trotsky’s description of this event he “clowned it in every possible way, while he failed to answer any of the questions tormenting the soldiers”.  The Provisional Government were losing the support of the populus and Bolshevik support was in turn rising.  Trotsky makes note of the increasing number of Bolsheviks in the Petrograd soviet.  The figures were rising every day.  After the February revolution, the meetings of the soviets were attended in great numbers, but the attendance of parties other than the Bolsheviks decreased dramatically.  The Bolsheviks however kept their attendance in force and its influence in the soviets greatly increased as a result of this. The support for the Bolsheviks was surprising, even for its leaders.  At the re-election of the Petrograd soviet presidium, they expected that success would come at receiving approximately one hundred votes less than half, when in fact they were astounded with the reception of over one hundred votes more than the coalition.  The growth and support for the Bolshevik party alongside the increasing dissatisfaction with the Provisional Government helped greatly in development of the Bolshevik revolution.

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The Provisional Government, in attempts to shut down the threat from the Bolshevik party, ordered to closing of the newspaper of the Petrograd Soviet and sealed the printing-works.  This strategy only backfired on the Provisional Government in that the Military-Revolutionary Committee then ordered the printing-works to be reopened, the staff to continue working and protection from other counter-revolutionary attacks.  Yet other attacks on the revolution occurred.  At the telephone exchange, anti-revolutionary students and telephone operators took control of the exchange and refused to make connections to and from the soviets.  The Military-Revolutionary Committee once again countered this attack by ...

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