Leon Trotsky

• Trotsky was born as Lev Bronstein in 1879.

  • His father was prosperous Jewish farmer from Ukraine.
• He showed an active interest in revolutionary politics in his teenage years.

  • In 1898, he was arrested by the Okhrana for forming a commune of workers and students and was exiled to Siberia.
• In 1902, Trotsky escaped exile by using a false passport in the name of one of his prison guards.

  • The name of the guard was Leon Trotsky and he used the name as an alias from that point onwards.
• Following his escape from exile, he travelled to Europe where he met Lenin, Martov and Plekhanov and wrote for the SD newspaper, Iskra.
• During the 1903 SD split, Trotsky tried not to take sides but to bring the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions together.
• Following the split, Trotsky found more in common with the Mensheviks than the Bolsheviks but described himself as a "non-factional SD".