Leon Trotsky

Lev Bronstein, more commonly known by his pseudonym Leon Trotsky, was one of the  Russian  communists responsible for overthrowing the Tsarist regime in the Russian October Revolution of 1917.

Life and Death
Trotsky was born Lev Bronstein on November 7, 1879, to a Jewish farmer. He first became involved with revolutionary activities in the later half of the 1890s.

He was attacked with an icepick on August 20th, 1940, by an Russian NKVD (Secret Police) agent on Stalin's orders. He died the next day. Nasty way to go.

The October Revolution
Following Lenin's exile in mid-1917 between the  February Revolution, and October, Trotsky was the main leader of the Bolshevik Party, acting on Lenin's behalf. He is widely acredited with the coup of October due to his leadership of the Red Army.

Civil War
After the Bolsheviks had seized power in 1917, they were immediately thrust into a civil war against the rest of anti-Communist Russia. Once again, Trotsky's highly organised leadership of the Red Army secured the Communists victory by 1921.

Lenin's Last Will and Testament
Darth Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks, suffered a series of debilitating strokes between 1922 and 1924 which left him bedridden and unable to effectively control his Party.

In the last months of his life, Lenin dictated a Testament to his wife which basically slagged off all the Bolshevik leaders, giving no clear idea who was to take over after he was dead. While it was noncomplimentary about any of the leaders, Trotsky was probably the one Lenin meant to take over. Look it up on a REAL website for details.

Power Struggle and expulsion from the USSR
See Also: Russian Power Struggle of the 1920s Lenin died on January 21, 1924. His Testament was given to the Communist Central Committee who obviously suppressed it, as it was favourable of none of them. Consequently, a power vaccuum was left which one of the revolutionaries had to fill.

To cut a long story short, Joseph Stalin won the leadership of the Soviet Union through a combination of propaganda, political backstabbing and alliances with certain Bolsheviks. Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party in November 1927, and later expelled from the Soviet Union in February 1928.