Leon Trotsky — Profile, Rankings & Fame Trend

Summary

Updated 2026-07-17

He built the Red Army, stood second only to Lenin in the early Soviet state, then lost a brutal power struggle to Stalin — who had him hunted across three continents and killed with an ice axe in Mexico City.

Biography

About

Lev Davidovich Bronstein joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898, was arrested, exiled to Siberia, escaped to London in 1902 and met Lenin. He sided with the Mensheviks in the 1903 split but declared himself non-factional a year later. Chairman of the Saint Petersburg Soviet during the 1905 Revolution, he was exiled again, escaped in 1907, and lived abroad until the February Revolution brought him back. He joined the Bolsheviks, helped lead the October Revolution, negotiated Russia's exit from World War I as Commissar for Foreign Affairs, then served as Commissar for Military…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

said1 Jul 1925

During his illness, Lenin repeatedly addressed letters and proposals to the leading bodies and congresses of the party.

— Letter on Max Eastman's Book (1 July 1925)

Leon Trotsky

saidMay 1924

We can only be right with and by the Party, for history has provided no other way of being in the right...

— Speech at the XIIIth Party Congress (May 1924)

Leon Trotsky

said1924

Learning carries within itself certain dangers because out of necessity one has to learn from one's enemies.

— Literature and Revolution (1924)

Leon Trotsky

said1924

Leninism is warlike from head to foot. War is impossible without cunning, without subterfuge. without deception of the enemy.

— The New Course (1924)

Leon Trotsky

said1924

Leninism is orthodox, obdurate, irreducible, but it does not contain so much as a hint of formalism, canon, not bureaucratism. In the struggle, it takes the bull by the horns.

— The New Course (1924).

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