The struggle

of the danger of a split between Trotsky and Stalin, Lenin characterized Trotsky as a man of “exceptional abilities” but “too far-reaching self-confidence and a disposition to be too much attracted by the purely administrative side of affairs.” Just before he was silenced by a final stroke in March 1923, Lenin invited Trotsky to open an attack on Stalin, but Trotsky was in contemplation and what would have been a perfect opportunity, Trotsky missed it.  By Autumn, inroads of the secret police alarmed him and among party members and efforts to weaken his control of the war commissariat, Trotsky decided to strike out against the party leadership. . A massive propaganda counterattack against Trotsky and his supporters on grounds of factionalism and opportunism. Began In October when he addressed the Central Committee, stressing the violation of democracy in the party and the failure to develop adequate economic planning. Trotsky fell ill of an undiagnosed fever and could take no personal part in the struggle. Because of Stalin organized  controls, the party leadership easily won,  They said Trotskyist opposition was Menshevik-like, illegal factional differences. Lenin's death a week later confirmed Trotsky's isolation. Trotsky was deceived about the date of the funeral, failed to return to Moscow, and left the scene to Stalin.Trotsky's role in the Revolution, was denounced. In January 1925 Trotsky's was removed from the war commissariat.Early in 1926, Trotsky joined forces with his old adversaries Zinovyev and Kamenev to resume the political offensive for a year and a half, following the split between the Stalin leadership and Zinovyev–Kamenev group. Again they stressed the themes of party democracy and economic planning, condemned the leadership's concessions to bourgeois elements, and denounced Stalin's theory of “Socialism in one country” as a pretext for abandoning world revolution.The response of the leadership was a rising tide of official denunciation, supplemented by an anti-Semitic whispering campaign. In October 1926 Trotsky was expelled from the Politburo and a year later he and Zinovyev were dropped from the Central Committee. After an attempt at a demonstration on the 10th anniversary of the Revolution, the two were expelled from the party. Exile and assassination In January 1928, Trotsky and his principal followers were exiled to remote parts of the Soviet Union, Trotsky himself being assigned to Alma-Ata, In January 1929 Trotsky was banished from the territory of the Soviet Union. He was initially received by the government of Turkey and domiciled on the island of Prinkipo. He continued literary activity there and completed his autobiography and his history of the Russian Revolution. In 1933 Trotsky secured permission to move to France. After Hitler's victory in Germany, Trotsky gave up the hope of reforming the Communist International In 1935 Trotsky was compelled to move to Norway, but within the next year in 1936, under Soviet pressure, he was forced to seek asylum in Mexico, where he settled at Coyoacán. Trotsky was the object of two assassination attempts, presumably by Stalinist agents. The first, a machine gun attack on his house, failed. The second, by Ramón Mercader, a Spanish Communist who had won the confidence of the Trotsky household, was successful. The Soviet government disclaimed any responsibility, and the axe murderer  Mortally wounded, he lingered for a day but died in hospital on  August 20th  1940.