(Lev Davidovich Bronstein, called Leon Trotsky or Trotsky; Yanovka, Ukraine, 1877 - Coyoacán, Mexico, 1940) Russian revolutionary. He was born into a Jewish family of tenant farmers and studied law at the University of Odessa. He participated from a young age in the clandestine opposition against the autocratic regime of the Tsars, organizing a Workers' League of the South of Russia (1897).

He was arrested several times and exiled to Siberia; but he managed to flee from there in 1902 and joined in London the one who already appeared as head of the Social Democratic opposition in exile: Lenin. Although he disagreed with his ideological conception of the party, he collaborated with him and tried in vain to reconcile the faction he led (the Bolsheviks) with the rival faction of the Russian Social Democracy (the Mensheviks).

He returned to Russia to participate in the 1905 Revolution (in which he organized the first Soviet or revolutionary council). When the revolution failed, he was deported again to Siberia and again escaped (1906). After traveling half the world coming into contact with the centers of revolutionary conspirators, he moved to Russia as soon as the February 1917 Revolution broke out, which overthrew Nicholas II.

Abandoning his previous career as an independent socialist (in relation to the Mensheviks), he put his talents as an organizer and agitator at the service of the Bolshevik Party and was elected president of the Petrograd Soviet. He played a central role in the victory of the bolsheviks: he was the main responsible for the taking of the Winter Palace by the Bolsheviks, which established the communist regime in Russia (October Revolution of 1917).

Although Lenin held the top of power, Trotsky played a crucial role in the Soviet government until its death. As the first Foreign Commissioner of Bolshevik Russia (1917-18), he negotiated with the Germans the Peace of Brest-Litovsk, which withdrew the country from the First World War to respond to the wishes of peace of the masses and concentrate on the consolidation of the Revolution.

Then he was commissioner of war (1918-25), a position from which he organized the Red Army under very difficult conditions and defeated in a long civil war the so-called white movement armies (counterrevolutionaries) and their western allies (1918-20). His work was therefore crucial to the survival of Early USSR.

After the rise of Joseph Stalin thanks to victory of the Centre faction over the Right and Left oppositions in the Communist Party of the USSR over what to do with the New Economic Policy and Foreign Policy (Permanent Revolution vs Socialism in One Country) , Trotsky was removed from his positions and eventually expelled from the Soviet Union in February 1929.

He resided in Turkey, France, Norway and finally in Mexico, invited by General Lázaro Cárdenas, president of the country, in 1937. He initially lived in the home of the Mexican painter Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo.

Trotsky did not give up in his revolutionary struggle, which he channeled from exile writing in defense of his ideas (works such as The Permanent Revolution, 1930; or the History of the Russian Revolution, 1932) and leading a dissident communist current (grouped in the Fourth International since 1938). He was assassinated by a Soviet agent Ramón Mercader :pika-pickaxe:

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i tried my best trying to make this one seem neutral

    • Brak [they/them, e/em/eir]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      @7DeadlyFetishes want to articulate what ya meant here? I don’t want to misrepresent:

      https://hexbear.net/post/152749/comment/1855819

      :brak: Maybe ole Brak here just drank too much gin again, but sure smells like apologism.

      • wtypstanaccount04 [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Serious :bruh: moment right here:

        The people who were drafted to work the concentration camps during WWII knew what they did was fucked up, why do you think most concentration camp workers after being caught apoligize for their crimes and ask for forgivness? You don’t do that if you were proud of your work or believed the fascist project. Once again, not all Germans were Heinrich fucking Himmler, they were coerced through the violence of the state and had their literal livelyhoods on the line to run the german war machine, and though they have been victims to this system, we still activly pursue these individuals to seek justice years after the fact.

        What

        • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          People weren't drafted to work in concentration camps, they did it for a bigger pay check.

          Fucking wehraboo myths here.

          Edit: this whole deal has taught me one super important thing. You fuckers ALL gotta learn more history.

            • Brak [they/them, e/em/eir]
              ·
              edit-2
              3 years ago

              "the nazis didn't want to run death camps but they were bullied and had to gas minorities for their famwies uwu"

              :BibleThump:

            • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
              ·
              3 years ago

              Yeah, if you worked at a concentration camp you usually had a solid background check about your loyalties. They did know what they were doing would horrify people and did try to keep the holocaust as on the DL as they could.

              • Brak [they/them, e/em/eir]
                ·
                3 years ago

                I don't understand how you could even wind up thinking death camp guards were also victims. What the fuck.

                • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
                  ·
                  3 years ago

                  It doesn't even make sense on its face. You don't run a death camp with people that don't want to kill. It won't work. Unless you have people who want to kill forcing your people that don't want to kill to do so which is a massive waste of manpower. Even by nazi logic it doesn't work.

            • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
              ·
              3 years ago

              I was still willing to give some leeway to their point just cause, yeah, some people did get coerced into a shitty war and some did get pungie pitted without having fired or intended to fire a shot and while them's the breaks I'm not down to celebrate it and don't think anyone else should. This clean wermecht shit offends me to my core though.

              Fuck nazi sympathy

              • Brak [they/them, e/em/eir]
                ·
                edit-2
                3 years ago

                what imperialism does to a liberal. Nazis deserve no sympathy and neither do other fascists.

                • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
                  ·
                  3 years ago

                  That link is some thorough accounts, by someone who is clearly not a communist from his content but that just means it's less biased in this case, that when it comes to nazis you do not in any way shape or form ever gotta hand it to em.

      • fed [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        there is a difference between being a conscript and committing a massacre lmao

        • Brak [they/them, e/em/eir]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          When it comes to Imperialism, only barely. Mai Lai just wound up being leaked because a soldier from another group showed up, there were many more events like it. It's a very clear example of imperialism and the evil it requires and causes.

          I doubt any of those soldiers arrived in vietnam planning to murder an entire village. Participating in the machine can dehumanize you, especially if you don't have a clear ideology of your own going in.

          • fed [none/use name]
            ·
            3 years ago

            participating in the machine can dehumanize you

            yes, you can not rationally expect people born in the 50s and 60s, subjected to American exceptionalism and anti-communist propaganda, to willingly go to jail for 5 years and be ostracized from the society around them for a country they have been told is great. you can expect them to realize how fucked the war was once they got there. but boot camp is made to dehumanize the enemy and yourself. conscripts are victims of American imperialism as well. obviously not to the degree of it's foreign victims though.

            • Brak [they/them, e/em/eir]
              ·
              edit-2
              3 years ago

              A number of my relatives did (or escaped to Mexico/Canada) so I know it was possible. I understand why more didn't do it, even though they morally should have.

              Drafted soldiers still shoot innocent people in the countries they invade. That's a hard thing for me to reconcile or have any empathy for.

              A drafted soldier is a victim if they renounce what they've done and work to better things. Anyone proud to have fought in Korea or Vietnam has extreme chauvinism, though.

            • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
              ·
              3 years ago

              So if Iraq and Af had a draft then 9/11 and Bush era jingoism would then be an excuse?

        • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Dude excused concentration camp guards as victims as a double down, so while there is subtlety, nazis were excused so fuck that guy regardless.