145-493: Lev Davidovich Bronstein (7 November [ O.S. 26 October] 1879 – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky , was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He was a central figure in the 1905 Revolution , October Revolution , Russian Civil War , and establishment of the Soviet Union . Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin were widely considered the two most prominent Soviet figures, and Trotsky
290-521: A narodnik (revolutionary agrarian socialist populist ), he initially opposed Marxism but was won over by his future first wife, Aleksandra Sokolovskaya . That same year, he graduated from his high school with a first class honours. According to his relative, Valery Bronstein, his father had intended for Trotsky to become a mechanical engineer after leaving modern school. Trotsky briefly attended Odessa University studying engineering and mathematics . He dropped out in early 1897 to help organize
435-621: A workers' state would not be able to hold out against the pressures of a hostile capitalist world unless socialist revolutions quickly took hold in other countries as well. This theory was advanced in opposition to the view held by the Stalinists that " Socialism in One Country " could be built in the Soviet Union alone. Furthermore, Trotsky and his supporters harshly criticized the increasingly totalitarian nature of Joseph Stalin 's rule . They argued that socialism without democracy
580-656: A "unification" conference of social democratic factions in Vienna in August 1912 (a.k.a. "The August Bloc") and tried to re-unite the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks into one party. The attempt was generally unsuccessful. In Vienna, Trotsky continuously published articles in radical Russian and Ukrainian newspapers, such as Kievskaya Mysl, under a variety of pseudonyms, often using "Antid Oto", a name chosen at random from an Italian dictionary, with Trotsky joking that "wanted to inject
725-642: A calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 1582 and 1923. In England , Wales , Ireland and Britain's American colonies , there were two calendar changes, both in 1752. The first adjusted the start of a new year from 25 March ( Lady Day , the Feast of the Annunciation ) to 1 January,
870-544: A change which Scotland had made in 1600. The second discarded the Julian calendar in favour of the Gregorian calendar, skipping 11 days in the month of September to do so. To accommodate the two calendar changes, writers used dual dating to identify a given day by giving its date according to both styles of dating. For countries such as Russia where no start-of-year adjustment took place, O.S. and N.S. simply indicate
1015-522: A close working relationship with Alexander Parvus in 1904–07. During their split, Lenin referred to Trotsky as "Little Judas" ( Iudushka , based on the character from Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin 's novel The Golovlyov Family ), a "scoundrel" and a "swine". The unrest and agitation against the Russian government came to a head in Saint Petersburg on 3 January 1905 ( Julian Calendar ), when
1160-560: A compromise figure when elected as the head of the Saint Petersburg Soviet. He was a lawyer that stood above the political factions contained in the Soviet. However, since his election, he proved to be very popular with the workers in spite of the Bolsheviks' original opposition to him. Khrustalev-Nosar became famous in his position as spokesman for the Saint Petersburg Soviet. Indeed, to the outside world, Khrustalev-Nosar
1305-763: A conference of the London Bureau of socialist parties outside both the Socialist International and the Comintern. Three of those parties joined the Left Opposition in signing a document written by Trotsky calling for a Fourth International, which became known as the "Declaration of Four". Of those, two soon distanced themselves from the agreement, but the Dutch Revolutionary Socialist Party worked with
1450-565: A conspiracy. This was later confirmed by Russian police records listing the number of known militant radicals found among the dead. Following the events of Bloody Sunday, Trotsky secretly returned to Russia in February 1905, by way of Kiev . At first he wrote leaflets for an underground printing press in Kiev, but soon moved to the capital, Saint Petersburg. There he worked with both Bolsheviks, such as Central Committee member Leonid Krasin , and
1595-525: A daughter in Russia. Suffering also from tuberculosis and depression , Zinaida committed suicide in 1933. Aleksandra disappeared in 1935 during the Great Purges under Stalin and was murdered by Soviet forces three years later. Until this point, Trotsky had used his birth name: Lev (Leon) Bronstein. He changed his surname to "Trotsky", the name he would use for the rest of his life. It is said he adopted
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#17327731264201740-671: A founding conference, held in September 1938, in the home of Alfred Rosmer just outside Paris. Present at the meeting were delegates from all the major countries of Europe, and from North America (including three from the United States), although for reasons of cost and distance, few delegates attended from Asia or Latin America. An International Secretariat was established, with many of the day's leading Trotskyists and most countries in which Trotskyists were active represented. Among
1885-734: A fusion with the Revolutionary Socialist League , a union that had been requested by the Emergency Conference. In 1942, a debate on the national question in Europe opened up between the majority of the SWP and a movement led by Van Heijenoort, Albert Goldman and Felix Morrow . This minority anticipated that the Nazi dictatorship would be replaced with capitalism rather than by a socialist revolution, leading to
2030-712: A left split from the Social Democratic Party of Germany founded in 1931, co-operated with the International Left Opposition briefly in 1933 but soon abandoned the call for a new International. In 1935, Trotsky wrote an Open Letter for the Fourth International , reaffirming the Declaration of Four , while documenting the recent course of the Comintern and the Socialist International. In the letter, he called for
2175-459: A letter dated "12/22 Dec. 1635". In his biography of John Dee , The Queen's Conjurer , Benjamin Woolley surmises that because Dee fought unsuccessfully for England to embrace the 1583/84 date set for the change, "England remained outside the Gregorian system for a further 170 years, communications during that period customarily carrying two dates". In contrast, Thomas Jefferson , who lived while
2320-620: A majority of the former International. Sri Lanka's Lanka Sama Samaja Party, then the country's leading workers' party, took a middle position during this dispute. It continued to participate in the ISFI but argued for a joint congress, for reunification with the ICFI. An excerpt from the Open Letter explains the split as follows: To sum up: The lines of cleavage between Pablo's revisionism and orthodox Trotskyism are so deep that no compromise
2465-629: A petition against Morris' order. Back in Russia, after initial hesitation and facing pressure from the workers' and peasants' Soviets, the Russian foreign minister Pavel Milyukov was compelled to demand the release of Trotsky as a Russian citizen, and the British government freed him on 29 April 1917. He reached Russia on 17 May 1917. After his return, Trotsky substantially agreed with the Bolshevik position, but did not join them right away. Russian social democrats were split into at least six groups, and
2610-836: A public faction which initially included, in addition to the SWP, Gerry Healy 's British section The Club , the Internationalist Communist Party in France (then led by Lambert who had expelled Bleibtreu and his grouping), Nahuel Moreno 's party in Argentina and the Austrian and Chinese sections of the FI. The sections of the ICFI withdrew from the International Secretariat, which suspended their voting rights. Both sides claimed they constituted
2755-438: A reconciliation with Lenin and the Bolsheviks. From 1904 until 1917, Trotsky described himself as a "non-factional social democrat". He tried to reconcile different groups within the party, which resulted in many clashes with Lenin and other prominent party members. Trotsky later maintained that he had been wrong in opposing Lenin on the issue of the party. Trotsky began developing his theory of permanent revolution and developed
2900-600: A regroupment which eventually led to the formation of the International Bureau for Revolutionary Socialist Unity . Trotsky considered those organisations to be centrist . Despite Trotsky, the Spanish section merged with the Spanish section of ICO, forming the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( POUM ). Trotsky claimed the merger was to be a capitulation to centrism. The Socialist Workers' Party of Germany ,
3045-507: A single transnational grouping. The response of Trotskyists to such a situation has been in the form of forming multiple Internationals across the world, with some divided over which particular organization represents the true legacy and political continuity of the historical Fourth International. Trotskyists regard themselves as working in opposition to both capitalism and Stalinism. Trotsky advocated proletarian revolution as set out in his theory of " permanent revolution ", and believed that
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#17327731264203190-856: A start-of-year adjustment works well with little confusion for events before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar. For example, the Battle of Agincourt is well known to have been fought on 25 October 1415, which is Saint Crispin's Day . However, for the period between the first introduction of the Gregorian calendar on 15 October 1582 and its introduction in Britain on 14 September 1752, there can be considerable confusion between events in Continental Western Europe and in British domains. Events in Continental Western Europe are usually reported in English-language histories by using
3335-660: A strike broke out at the Putilov Works in the city. This single strike grew into a general strike, and by 7 January 1905, there were 140,000 strikers in Saint Petersburg. On Sunday, 9 January 1905, Father Georgi Gapon knowingly led a procession of radicals mixed within larger groups of ordinary working citizens through the streets to the Winter Palace to supposedly beseech the Tsar for food and relief from
3480-542: A struggle in the U.S. Socialist Workers Party (SWP) between Trotsky's supporters and the tendency of Max Shachtman , Martin Abern and James Burnham . The secretariat was composed of those committee members who happened to be in the city, most of whom were co-thinkers of Shachtman. The disagreement centred on the Shachtmanites ' disagreements with the SWP's internal policy, and over the FI's unconditional defence of
3625-518: A usurpation of his newspaper's name that in April 1913, he wrote a letter to Nikolay Chkheidze , a Menshevik leader, bitterly denouncing Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Though he quickly got over the disagreement, the message was intercepted by the Russian secret police , and a copy was put into their archives. Shortly after Lenin's death in 1924, the letter was found and publicized by Trotsky's opponents within
3770-646: A very successful newspaper in the revolutionary atmosphere of Saint Petersburg in 1905. Just before Trotsky's return, the Mensheviks had independently come up with the same idea that Trotsky had: an elected non-party revolutionary organization representing the capital's workers, the first Soviet ("Council") of Workers. By the time of Trotsky's arrival, the Saint Petersburg Soviet was already functioning, headed by Khrustalyev-Nosar (Georgy Nosar, alias Pyotr Khrustalyov). Khrustalyev-Nosar had been
3915-536: Is 9 February 1649, the date by which his contemporaries in some parts of continental Europe would have recorded his execution. The O.S./N.S. designation is particularly relevant for dates which fall between the start of the "historical year" (1 January) and the legal start date, where different. This was 25 March in England, Wales, Ireland and the colonies until 1752, and until 1600 in Scotland. In Britain, 1 January
4060-631: Is happening and raise objections. Over the following decade, the IC referred to the rest of the International as the "International Secretariat of the Fourth International", emphasising its view that the Secretariat did not speak for the International as a whole. The Secretariat continued to view itself as the leadership of the International. It held a Fourth World Congress in 1954 to regroup and to recognise reorganised sections in Britain, France and
4205-642: Is impossible. Thus, faced with the increasing lack of democracy in the Soviet Union, they concluded that it was no longer a socialist workers' state, but a degenerated workers' state . In the Transitional Program , which was drafted during the founding congress of the Fourth International, Trotsky called for the legalization of the Soviet parties and worker's control of production . Trotsky and his supporters had been organised since 1923 as
4350-411: Is often suggested – but instead contains a summation of the conjunctural understanding of the movement at that date and a series of transitional policies designed to develop the struggle for workers' power. At the outbreak of World War II , in 1939, the International Secretariat was moved to New York City. The resident International Executive Committee failed to meet, largely because of
4495-505: Is possible either politically or organizationally. The Pablo faction has demonstrated that it will not permit democratic decisions truly reflecting majority opinion to be reached. They demand complete submission to their criminal policy. They are determined to drive all orthodox Trotskyists out of the Fourth International or to muzzle and handcuff them. Their scheme has been to inject their Stalinist conciliationism piecemeal and likewise in piecemeal fashion, get rid of those who come to see what
Leon Trotsky - Misplaced Pages Continue
4640-540: The Bolsheviks ' international perspective had been guided by Trotsky's position. Trotsky argued that Stalin's theory represented the interests of bureaucratic elements in direct opposition to the working class. Eventually, Trotsky was sent into internal exile and his supporters were jailed. However, the Left Opposition continued to work in secret within the Soviet Union. Trotsky was exiled to Turkey in 1928. He moved from there to France, Norway and finally to Mexico. He
4785-885: The February Revolution of 1917 overthrew the tsar , Trotsky returned to Russia and joined the Bolsheviks. As chairman of the Petrograd Soviet , he played an important role in the October Revolution that overthrew the Provisional Government . In Lenin's first government , Trotsky was appointed as the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs (Foreign Minister) and led negotiations for the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk , by which Russia withdrew from World War I . From 1918 to 1925, he served as
4930-499: The Left Opposition . They opposed the bureaucratization of the Soviet Union, which they analysed as being partly caused by the poverty and isolation of the Soviet economy . Stalin's theory of socialism in one country was developed in 1924 as an opposition to Trotsky's Theory of Permanent revolution , which argued that capitalism was a world system and required a world revolution to replace it with socialism. Prior to 1924,
5075-582: The Mensheviks , argued for a bigger and less disciplined party where people who assisted would also be seen as members. In a surprise development, Trotsky and most of the Iskra editors supported Martov and the Mensheviks, while Plekhanov supported Lenin and the Bolsheviks . During 1903 and 1904, many members changed sides in the factions. Trotsky left the Mensheviks in September 1904 over their insistence on an alliance with Russian liberals and their opposition to
5220-616: The People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs (Defence Minister); he founded the Red Army and led it to victory in the Russian Civil War. He was an honorary president of the Third International . In 1922, Trotsky and Lenin formed an alliance against the growing Soviet bureaucracy ; Lenin proposed that Trotsky become his Deputy Chairman and preside over economic management , but he declined. Trotsky led
5365-617: The Red Terror and suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion , scholarship ranks Trotsky's leadership of the Red Army highly among historical figures, and he is credited for his major involvement with the military , economic , cultural and political development of the Soviet Union. Leon Trotsky was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein to David Leontyevich Bronstein (1847–1922) and Anna Lvovna (née Zhivotovskaya, 1850–1910) on 7 November 1879,
5510-609: The Russian Empire and the very beginning of Soviet Russia . For example, in the article "The October (November) Revolution", the Encyclopædia Britannica uses the format of "25 October (7 November, New Style)" to describe the date of the start of the revolution. The Latin equivalents, which are used in many languages, are, on the one hand, stili veteris (genitive) or stilo vetere (ablative), abbreviated st.v. , and meaning "(of/in) old style" ; and, on
5655-509: The "old guard" led by Plekhanov and the "new guard" led by Lenin and Martov. Plekhanov's supporters were older, and had spent the previous 20 years together in exile in Europe. Members of the new guard were in their early 30s and only recently emigrated from Russia. Lenin, who was trying to establish a permanent majority against Plekhanov within Iskra, expected Trotsky, then 23, to side with the new guard. In March 1903 Lenin wrote: I suggest to all
5800-508: The 19th century, a practice that the author Karen Bellenir considered to reveal a deep emotional resistance to calendar reform. Fourth International Historical Historical The Fourth International ( FI ) was a political international established in France in 1938 by Leon Trotsky and his supporters, having been expelled from the Soviet Union and the Communist International (also known as Comintern or
5945-539: The 4th century , had drifted from reality . The Gregorian calendar reform also dealt with the accumulated difference between these figures, between the years 325 and 1582, by skipping 10 days to set the ecclesiastical date of the equinox to be 21 March, the median date of its occurrence at the time of the First Council of Nicea in 325. Countries that adopted the Gregorian calendar after 1699 needed to skip an additional day for each subsequent new century that
Leon Trotsky - Misplaced Pages Continue
6090-555: The Bolsheviks had already set up the Communist International (Comintern), which they regarded as the Third International. This was organised on a democratic centralist basis, with component parties required to fight for policies adopted by the body as a whole. By declaring themselves the Fourth International, the "World Party of Socialist Revolution", the Trotskyists were publicly asserting their continuity with
6235-819: The Bolsheviks were waiting for the next party Congress to determine which factions to merge with. Trotsky temporarily joined the Mezhraiontsy , a regional social democratic organization in Petrograd , and became one of its leaders. At the First Congress of Soviets in June, he was elected a member of the first All-Russian Central Executive Committee ("VTsIK") from the Mezhraiontsy faction. Old Style and New Style dates Old Style ( O.S. ) and New Style ( N.S. ) indicate dating systems before and after
6380-531: The Boyne was commemorated with smaller parades on 1 July. However, both events were combined in the late 18th century, and continue to be celebrated as " The Twelfth ". Because of the differences, British writers and their correspondents often employed two dates, a practice called dual dating , more or less automatically. Letters concerning diplomacy and international trade thus sometimes bore both Julian and Gregorian dates to prevent confusion. For example, Sir William Boswell wrote to Sir John Coke from The Hague
6525-399: The British Isles and colonies converted to the Gregorian calendar, instructed that his tombstone bear his date of birth by using the Julian calendar (notated O.S. for Old Style) and his date of death by using the Gregorian calendar. At Jefferson's birth, the difference was eleven days between the Julian and Gregorian calendars and so his birthday of 2 April in the Julian calendar is 13 April in
6670-410: The British colonies, changed the start of the year from 25 March to 1 January, with effect from "the day after 31 December 1751". (Scotland had already made this aspect of the changes, on 1 January 1600.) The second (in effect ) adopted the Gregorian calendar in place of the Julian calendar. Thus "New Style" can refer to the start-of-year adjustment , to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar , or to
6815-406: The Comintern's destruction. The current incarnation of the Fourth International does not operate as a cohesive entity in the manner of its predecessors. The Fourth International suffered a major split in 1940 and an even more significant schism in 1953. A partial reunification of the schismatic factions occurred in 1963, but the organization never recovered sufficiently, and it failed to re-emerge as
6960-418: The Comintern, and with its predecessors. Their recognition of the importance of these earlier Internationals was coupled with a belief that they eventually degenerated. Although the Socialist International and Comintern were still in existence, the Trotskyists did not believe those organisations were capable of supporting revolutionary socialism and internationalism . The foundation of the Fourth International
7105-419: The Communist Party to portray him as Lenin's enemy. The 1910s were a period of heightened tension within the RSDLP, leading to numerous frictions between Trotsky, the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. The most serious disagreement that Trotsky and the Mensheviks had with Lenin at the time was over the issue of "expropriations", i.e., armed robbery of banks and other companies by Bolshevik groups to procure money for
7250-493: The European social democratic parties, primarily the German party. As a war correspondent for the Kievskaya Mysl , Trotsky moved to France on 19 November 1914. In January 1915 in Paris, he began editing (at first with Martov, who soon resigned as the paper moved to the left) Nashe Slovo ("Our Word"), an internationalist socialist newspaper. He adopted the slogan of "peace without indemnities or annexations, peace without conquerors or conquered." Lenin advocated Russia's defeat in
7395-457: The FI's European affiliates were destroyed by the Nazis and several of its Asian affiliates were destroyed by the Empire of Japan . The survivors, in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, were largely cut off from each other and from the International Secretariat. The new secretary, Jean Van Heijenoort (also known as Gerland), was able to do little more than publish articles in the SWP's theoretical journal Fourth International . Despite this dislocation,
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#17327731264207540-434: The French section), and Murray Dowson (a leader of the Canadian group). The Secretariat organised a Fifth World Congress in October 1957. Mandel and Pierre Frank appraised the Algerian revolution and surmised that it was essential to reorient in the colonial states and neocolonies towards the emerging guerrilla -led revolutions. According to Robert Alexander, Ernest Mandel has written that an organisation in Indonesia,
7685-508: The Gregorian calendar. For example, the Battle of Blenheim is always given as 13 August 1704. However, confusion occurs when an event involves both. For example, William III of England arrived at Brixham in England on 5 November (Julian calendar), after he had set sail from the Netherlands on 11 November (Gregorian calendar) 1688. The Battle of the Boyne in Ireland took place a few months later on 1 July 1690 (Julian calendar). That maps to 11 July (Gregorian calendar), conveniently close to
7830-466: The Gregorian calendar. Similarly, George Washington is now officially reported as having been born on 22 February 1732, rather than on 11 February 1731/32 (Julian calendar). The philosopher Jeremy Bentham , born on 4 February 1747/8 (Julian calendar), in later life celebrated his birthday on 15 February. There is some evidence that the calendar change was not easily accepted. Many British people continued to celebrate their holidays "Old Style" well into
7975-401: The International Left Opposition in 1930, which was intended to be a group of anti-Stalinist dissenters within the Third International. Stalin's supporters, who dominated the International, would no longer tolerate dissent. All Trotskyists, and those suspected of being influenced by Trotskyism, were expelled. Trotsky claimed that the Third Period policies of the Comintern had contributed to
8120-401: The International Left Opposition to declare the International Communist League. This position was contested by Andrés Nin and some other members of the League who did not support the call for a new International. This group prioritised regroupment with other communist oppositions, principally the International Communist Opposition (ICO), linked to the Right Opposition in the Soviet Party,
8265-431: The International Secretariat of the Fourth International with Michel Raptis appointed Secretary and Ernest Mandel , a Belgian, taking a leading role. Pablo and Mandel aimed to counter the opposition of the majorities inside the British Revolutionary Communist Party and French Internationalist Communist Party. Initially, they encouraged party members to vote out their leaderships. They supported Gerry Healy 's opposition in
8410-412: The International Workingmen's Association disbanded in 1876, several attempts were made to revive the organisation, culminating in the formation of the Socialist International ( Second International ) in 1889. This was disbanded in 1916 following disagreements over World War I . Although the organisation reformed in 1923 as the Labour and Socialist International , supporters of the October Revolution and
8555-413: The International met at a secret location "somewhere in the Western Hemisphere". It adopted a manifesto drafted by Trotsky shortly before his murder and a range of policies on the work of the International, including one calling for the reunification of the then-divided Fourth Internationalist groups in Britain. Secretariat members who had supported Shachtman were expelled by the emergency conference, with
8700-430: The Julian and Gregorian dating systems respectively. The need to correct the calendar arose from the realisation that the correct figure for the number of days in a year is not 365.25 (365 days 6 hours) as assumed by the Julian calendar but slightly less (c. 365.242 days). The Julian calendar therefore has too many leap years . The consequence was that the basis for the calculation of the date of Easter , as decided in
8845-408: The Julian calendar had added since then. When the British Empire did so in 1752, the gap had grown to eleven days; when Russia did so (as its civil calendar ) in 1918, thirteen days needed to be skipped. In the Kingdom of Great Britain and its possessions, the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 introduced two concurrent changes to the calendar. The first, which applied to England, Wales, Ireland and
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#17327731264208990-454: The Julian date of the subsequent (and more decisive) Battle of Aughrim on 12 July 1691 (Julian). The latter battle was commemorated annually throughout the 18th century on 12 July, following the usual historical convention of commemorating events of that period within Great Britain and Ireland by mapping the Julian date directly onto the modern Gregorian calendar date (as happens, for example, with Guy Fawkes Night on 5 November). The Battle of
9135-430: The Marxist antidote into the legitimate newspapers". In September 1912, Kievskaya Mysl sent him to the Balkans as its war correspondent, where he covered the two Balkan Wars for the next year. While there, Trotsky chronicled the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Serbian army against the Albanian civilian population. He became a close friend of Christian Rakovsky , later a leading Soviet politician and Trotsky's ally in
9280-431: The Party. These actions had been banned by the 5th Congress, but were continued by the Bolsheviks. In January 1912, the majority of the Bolshevik faction, led by Lenin, as well as a few defecting Mensheviks, held a conference in Prague and decided to break away from the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party , and formed a new party, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) . In response, Trotsky organized
9425-502: The RCP. In France, they backed elements, including Pierre Frank and Marcel Bleibtreu , opposed to the new leadership of the PCI – albeit for differing reasons. The Stalinist occupation of Eastern Europe was the issue of prime concern, and it raised many problems of interpretation. At first, the International held that, while the USSR was a degenerated workers' state , the post-World War II East European states were still bourgeois entities, because revolution from above
9570-425: The Russian government to some extent and wanted them to win the war, while Trotsky's ex-colleague Parvus, now a defencist, sided against Russia so strongly that he wanted Germany to win the war. In Switzerland, Trotsky briefly worked within the Swiss Socialist Party , prompting it to adopt an internationalist resolution. He wrote a book opposing the war, The War and the International, and the pro-war position taken by
9715-504: The Saint Petersburg Soviet Council of Workers Deputies, which was meeting at the Technological Institute in the city. Also attending were some 200,000 people crowded outside to hear the speeches—about half of all workers in Saint Petersburg. After his return, Trotsky and Parvus took over the newspaper Russian Gazette, increasing its circulation to 500,000. Trotsky also co-founded, together with Parvus and Julius Martov and other Mensheviks, "Nachalo" ("The Beginning"), which also proved to be
9860-467: The South Russian Workers' Union in Nikolayev. Trotsky's university colleague and a prominent engineer who served as the Technical Director of the Baltic Shipyard had noted that he displayed an exceptional gift for mathematics. Using the name "Lvov", he wrote and printed leaflets and proclamations, distributed revolutionary pamphlets, and popularized socialist ideas among industrial workers and revolutionary students. In January 1898, more than 200 members of
10005-434: The Soviet Communist Party. On 3 August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, in which Austria-Hungary fought against the Russian Empire, Trotsky was forced to flee Vienna for neutral Switzerland to avoid arrest as a Russian émigré . The outbreak of World War I caused a sudden realignment within the RSDLP and other European social democratic parties over the issues of war, revolution, pacifism and internationalism, redividing
10150-469: The Third International). There is no longer a single, centralized cohesive Fourth International. Throughout most of its existence and history, the Fourth International was hunted by agents of the NKVD , subjected to political repression by countries such as France and the United States, and by supporters of the Soviet Union. The Fourth International struggled to maintain contact under these conditions of crackdowns and repression during World War II due to
10295-407: The Tsarist government and its foreign debts: The autocracy never enjoyed the confidence of the people and was never granted any authority by the people. We have therefore decided not to allow the repayment of such loans as have been made by the Tsarist government when openly engaged in a war with the entire people. The following day, on 3 December 1905, the Soviet was surrounded by troops loyal to
10440-558: The U.S. Parts of the International Committee were divided over whether the split with "Pabloism" was permanent or temporary, and it was perhaps as a result of this that it did not declare itself to be the Fourth International. Those sections that considered the split permanent embarked on a discussion about the history of the split and its meanings. The sections of the International that recognised
10585-526: The U.S. by Bert Cochran , to support entryism " sui generis " hinted that Pablo's support for their views indicated that the International might also demand Trotskyists in those countries adopt that tactic. In 1953, the SWP's national committee issued an Open Letter to Trotskyists Throughout the World and organised the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). This was
10730-590: The USSR. Trotsky opened a public debate with Shachtman and Burnham and developed his positions in a series of polemics written in 1939–1940 and later collected in In Defense of Marxism . Shachtman and Burnham's tendency resigned from the International in early 1940, alongside almost 40% of the SWP's members, many of whom became founder members of the Workers Party . In May 1940, an emergency conference of
10875-492: The combination of the two. It was through their use in the Calendar Act that the notations "Old Style" and "New Style" came into common usage. When recording British history, it is usual to quote the date as originally recorded at the time of the event, but with the year number adjusted to start on 1 January. The latter adjustment may be needed because the start of the civil calendar year had not always been 1 January and
11020-655: The congress discussed the position of the Jewish Bund , which had co-founded the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1898 but wanted to remain autonomous within the party. Shortly afterwards, the pro-Iskra delegates unexpectedly split into two factions. The split was initially over an organisational issue. Lenin and his supporters, the Bolsheviks, argued for a smaller but highly organized party where only party members would be seen as members, while Martov and his supporters,
11165-475: The economies of the East European states and their political regimes had come to resemble that of the USSR more and more. These states were then described as deformed workers states in an analogy with the degenerated workers state in Russia. The term deformed was used rather than degenerated , because no workers' revolution had led to the foundation of these states. The Third World Congress envisaged
11310-543: The end of the following December, 1661/62 , a form of dual dating to indicate that in the following twelve weeks or so, the year was 1661 Old Style but 1662 New Style. Some more modern sources, often more academic ones (e.g. the History of Parliament ) also use the 1661/62 style for the period between 1 January and 24 March for years before the introduction of the New Style calendar in England. The Gregorian calendar
11455-542: The fact that subsequent proletarian uprisings were often under the influence of Soviet-aligned pro-Stalin parties and militant nationalist groups, leading to defeats for the Fourth International and the Trotskyists, who subsequently never managed to obtain meaningful influence. Despite this, many parts of the world, including Latin America, Europe and Asia, continue to have large Trotskyist groupings who are attracted to its anti-Stalinist positions and its defense of proletarian internationalism. Several of these groups carry
11600-587: The fifth child of a wealthy Jewish family in Yanovka, Kherson governorate , Russian Empire (now Bereslavka , Ukraine). His father, David Leontyevich, had lived in Poltava and later moved to Bereslavka, as it had a large Jewish community. Trotsky's younger sister, Olga , who also grew up to be a Bolshevik and a Soviet politician, married the prominent Bolshevik Lev Kamenev . Some authors, notably Robert Service , have claimed that Trotsky's childhood first name
11745-782: The first of the Moscow show trials , and in 1940, was assassinated at his home in Mexico City by Stalinist agent Ramón Mercader . Written out of Soviet history under Stalin, Trotsky was one of the few of Stalin's rivals who was never politically rehabilitated by later leaders. In the West, Trotsky emerged as a hero of the anti-Stalinist left for his defense of a more democratic , internationalist form of socialism against Stalinist totalitarianism , and for his intellectual contributions to Marxism. While some of his wartime actions have proved controversial, such as his ideological defence of
11890-526: The future viability and prospects of capitalism, not just among all Trotskyist groups, but also among leading economists. Paul Samuelson had envisaged in 1943 the probability of a "nightmarish combination of the worst features of inflation and deflation ", worrying that "there would be ushered in the greatest period of unemployment and industrial dislocation which any economy has ever faced". Joseph Schumpeter for his part claimed that "[t]he general opinion seems to be that capitalist methods will be unequal to
12035-617: The government and the deputies were arrested. Trotsky and other Soviet leaders were tried in 1906 on charges of supporting an armed rebellion. On 4 October 1906 he was convicted and sentenced to internal exile to Siberia. While en route to exile in Obdorsk , Siberia, in January 1907, Trotsky escaped at Berezov and once again made his way to London. He attended the 5th Congress of the RSDLP . In October, he moved to Vienna , Austria-Hungary. For
12180-425: The government. According to Gapon himself, he led the people into a Palace Guard already on the defensive due to the crowd instigating violence against them. They eventually fired on the demonstration, resulting in the deaths of an unknown number of violent radicals, peaceful demonstrators and police caught within the melee. Although Sunday, 9 January 1905, became known as Bloody Sunday , Gapon's own biography points to
12325-433: The growing strength of Trotsky's supporters with a major political massacre of people within the Soviet Union, and the assassination of Trotsky's supporters and family abroad. He had agents go through historical documents and photos to attempt to erase Trotsky's memory from the history books. According to the historian Mario Keßler , Stalin's supporters turned to antisemitism to whip up sentiment against Trotsky (as Trotsky
12470-399: The label "Fourth Internationalist" either in their organization's name, important political position documents, or both. In line with Trotskyist theory and thought, the Fourth International tended to view the Comintern as a degenerated workers' state . However, although it regarded its own ideas as more advanced and thus superior to those of the Third International, it did not actively push for
12615-428: The leadership of the International Secretariat remained optimistic about the possibilities for increasing the International's political influence and extended the entryism into social democratic parties which was already underway in Britain, Austria and elsewhere. The 1954 congress emphasised entryism into communist parties and nationalist parties in the colonies, pressing for democratic reforms, ostensibly to encourage
12760-526: The left-wing they perceived to exist in the communist parties to join with them in a revolution. Tensions developed between those who subscribed to the mainstream views of Pablo and a minority that argued unsuccessfully against open work. A number of these delegates walked out of the World Congress, and would eventually leave the International, including the leader of the new British section, John Lawrence , George Clarke , Michele Mestre (a leader of
12905-551: The line of the International. The International leadership had them replaced by a minority, leading to a permanent split in the French section. In the wake of the World Congress, the line of the International Leadership was generally accepted by groups around the world, including the U.S. SWP whose leader, James P. Cannon, corresponded with the French majority to support the tactic of entryism sui generis . At
13050-717: The local Russian language socialist newspaper, Novy Mir , and the Yiddish-language daily, Der Forverts ("Forward"), in translation. He also made speeches to Russian émigrés. Trotsky was living in New York City when the February Revolution of 1917 led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II . He left New York on 27 March 1917, but his ship, the SS Kristianiafjord , was intercepted by British naval officials in Canada at Halifax, Nova Scotia . He
13195-587: The local Menshevik committee, which he pushed in a more radical direction. The latter, however, were betrayed by a secret police agent in May, and Trotsky had to flee to rural Finland . There he worked on fleshing out his theory of permanent revolution. On 19 September 1905, the typesetters at the Ivan Sytin 's printing house in Moscow went out on strike for shorter hours and higher pay. By the evening of 24 September,
13340-626: The meantime, after a period of secret police repression and internal confusion that followed the First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898, Iskra succeeded in convening the party's Second Congress in London in August 1903. Trotsky and other Iskra editors attended. The first congress went as planned, with Iskra supporters handily defeating the few "economist" delegates. Then
13485-439: The members of the editorial board that they co-opt 'Pero' as a member of the board on the same basis as other members. [...] We very much need a seventh member, both as a convenience in voting (six being an even number) and as an addition to our forces. 'Pero' has been contributing to every issue for several months now; he works, in general, most energetically for the Iskra; he gives lectures (in which he has been very successful). In
13630-601: The middle line proposed by Trotsky. At first opposed, in the end Lenin voted for Trotsky's resolution to avoid a split among anti-war socialists. In September 1916, Trotsky was deported from France to Spain for his anti-war activities. Spanish authorities did not want him and deported him to the United States on 25 December 1916. He arrived in New York City on 13 January 1917. He stayed for over two months at 1522 Vyse Avenue in The Bronx . In New York he wrote articles for
13775-482: The name Lev . North has compared the speculation on Trotsky's given name to the undue emphasis given to his having a Jewish surname. The language spoken at home was not Yiddish but a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian , known as Surzhyk . Although Trotsky spoke French, English, and German to a good standard, he said in his autobiography My Life that he was never fluent in any language but Russian. Raymond Molinier wrote that Trotsky spoke French fluently. When Trotsky
13920-498: The name of a jailer of the Odessa prison in which he had earlier been held. This became his primary revolutionary pseudonym. After escape from Siberia, Trotsky moved to London, joining Georgi Plekhanov , Vladimir Lenin, Julius Martov , and other editors of Iskra . Under the pen name Pero ("quill" or "pen"), Trotsky soon became one of the paper's leading writers. Unknown to Trotsky, the six editors of Iskra were evenly split between
14065-401: The need for building the Fourth International, and adhered rigidly to their interpretation of Trotsky's works. The wartime debate about post-war perspectives was accelerated by the resolution of the February 1944 European Conference of the Fourth International. The conference appointed a new European Secretariat and elected Michel Raptis , a Greek resident in France also known as Michel Pablo,
14210-498: The newly formed Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) was held. From then on Trotsky identified as a member of the party. While imprisoned in Moscow, in the summer of 1899, Trotsky married Aleksandra Sokolovskaya (1872–1938), a fellow Marxist. The ceremony was performed by a Jewish chaplain. In 1900, he was sentenced to four years exile in Siberia . Because of their marriage, Trotsky and his wife were allowed to be exiled to
14355-581: The newspaper throughout 1909. A majority of Bolsheviks controlled the Central Committee in 1910. Lenin agreed to the financing of "Pravda", but required a Bolshevik to be appointed as co-editor of the paper. When various Bolshevik and Menshevik factions tried to re-unite at the January 1910 RSDLP Central Committee meeting in Paris over Lenin's objections, Trotsky's Pravda was made a party-financed 'central organ'. Lev Kamenev, Trotsky's brother-in-law,
14500-680: The next seven years, he often took part in the activities of the Austrian Social Democratic Party and, occasionally, of the German Social Democratic Party . In Vienna, Trotsky became close to Adolph Joffe , his friend for the next 20 years, who introduced him to psychoanalysis . In October 1908 he was asked to join the editorial staff of Pravda ("Truth"), a bi-weekly, Russian-language social democratic paper for Russian workers, which he co-edited with Adolph Joffe and Matvey Skobelev . It
14645-535: The organisational secretary of its European Bureau. Raptis and other bureau members re-established contact between the Trotskyist parties. The European conference extended the lessons of a revolution then unfolding in Italy, and concluded that a revolutionary wave would cross Europe as the war ended. The SWP had a similar perspective. The British Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) disagreed and held that capitalism
14790-456: The other, stili novi or stilo novo , abbreviated st.n. and meaning "(of/in) new style". The Latin abbreviations may be capitalised differently by different users, e.g., St.n. or St.N. for stili novi . There are equivalents for these terms in other languages as well, such as the German a.St. (" alter Stil " for O.S.). Usually, the mapping of New Style dates onto Old Style dates with
14935-528: The party into defeatists and defencists. Within the RSDLP, Lenin, Trotsky and Martov advocated various internationalist anti-war positions that saw defeat for your own country's ruling class imperialists as the "lesser evil" in the war, while they opposed all imperialists in the imperialist war. These anti-war believers were known as "defeatists". Those who supported one side over the other in the war were known as "defencists". Plekhanov and many other defencist social democrats (both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks) supported
15080-407: The party should focus on helping industrial workers improve their lot and were less concerned with changing the government. They believed that societal reforms would grow out of the worker's struggle for higher pay and better working conditions. Others argued that overthrowing the monarchy was more important and that a well-organized and disciplined revolutionary party was essential. The latter position
15225-885: The party's Left Opposition , which opposed the concessions of the New Economic Policy . After Lenin's death in 1924, Trotsky was the most prominent critic of Joseph Stalin , but was outmaneuvered by him and lost his positions: he was expelled from the Politburo in 1926 and the party in 1927, internally exiled to Alma Ata in 1928, and deported in 1929. He lived in Turkey, France, and Norway before settling in Mexico in 1937. In exile, Trotsky wrote polemically against Stalinism , supporting proletarian internationalism against Stalin's theory of " socialism in one country ". Trotsky's theory of " permanent revolution " posited that
15370-433: The party's newspaper Iskra . Trotsky sided with Julius Martov 's Mensheviks against Lenin's Bolsheviks after the party's 1903 schism, but declared himself non-factional in 1904. During the failed 1905 Revolution, Trotsky returned to Russia and was elected chairman of the Saint Petersburg Soviet . He was again exiled to Siberia, but escaped in 1907 and spent time in London, Vienna, Switzerland, Paris, and New York. After
15515-489: The real possibility of an "international civil war" in the near future. It argued that the mass Communist parties "may, under certain favourable conditions, go beyond the aims set for them by the Soviet bureaucracy and project a revolutionary orientation". Given the supposed closeness of war, the FI thought that the Communist Parties and social democratic parties would be the only significant force that could defend
15660-587: The resolutions adopted by the conference was the Transitional Programme . The Transitional Programme was the central programmatic statement of the congress, summarising its strategic and tactical conceptions for the revolutionary period that it saw opening up as a result of the war which Trotsky had been predicting for some years. It is not, however, the definitive programme of the Fourth International ;– as
15805-427: The revival of Stalinism and social democracy . In December 1943, they criticised the SWP's view as underestimating the rising prestige of Stalinism and the opportunities for the capitalists to use democratic concessions. The SWP's central committee argued that democratic capitalism could not revive, resulting in either military dictatorship by the capitalists or a workers' revolution. It held that this would reinforce
15950-532: The rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany, and that its turn to a popular front policy (aiming to unite all ostensibly anti-fascist forces) sowed illusions in reformism and pacifism and "clear[ed] the road for a fascist overturn". By 1935 he claimed that the Comintern had fallen irredeemably into the hands of the Stalinist bureaucracy. He and his supporters, expelled from the Third International, participated in
16095-697: The same location in Siberia: Ust-Kut and the Verkholensk in the Baikal Lake region. They had two daughters, Zinaida (1901–1933) and Nina (1902–1928), born in Siberia. In Siberia, Trotsky studied philosophy. He became aware of the differences within the party, which had been decimated by arrests in 1898 and 1899. Some social democrats known in Leninist phraseology as " economists " argued
16240-484: The same time, however, Cannon, Healy and Mandel were deeply concerned by Pablo's political evolution. Cannon and Healy were also alarmed by Pablo's intervention into the French section, and by suggestions that Pablo might use the International's authority in this way in other sections of the Fourth International that felt entryism " sui generis " was not a suitable tactic in their own countries. In particular, minority tendencies, exemplified in Britain by John Lawrence and in
16385-519: The section of articles and notes on the events of the day, he will not only be very useful, but absolutely necessary. Unquestionably a man of rare abilities, he has conviction and energy, and he will go much farther. Because of Plekhanov's opposition, Trotsky did not become a full member of the board. But participated in its meetings in an advisory capacity, which earned him Plekhanov's enmity. In late 1902, Trotsky met Natalia Sedova (1882–1962), who soon became his companion. They married in 1903, and she
16530-400: The sections agreed with the perspective of an international civil war. The French section disagreed with the associated tactic of entryism sui generis , and held that Pablo was underestimating the independent role of the working class parties in the Fourth International. The leaders of the majority of the Trotskyist organisation in France, Marcel Bleibtreu and Pierre Lambert , refused to follow
16675-558: The short-term entry tactic employed before World War II. For example, it meant that the project of building an open and independent Trotskyist party was shelved in France, because it was regarded as not politically feasible alongside entry into the French Communist Party. This perspective was accepted within the Fourth International, yet sowed the seeds for the split in 1953. At the Third World Congress,
16820-476: The socialist revolution could only survive if spread to advanced capitalist countries. In The Revolution Betrayed (1936), Trotsky argued that the Soviet Union had become a " degenerated workers' state " due to its isolation, and called for an end to Stalin's dictatorship. He founded the Fourth International in 1938 as an alternative to the Comintern . In 1936, Trotsky was sentenced to death in absentia at
16965-539: The support of Trotsky himself. While leader of the SWP James P. Cannon later said that he did not believe the split to be definitive and final, the two groups did not reunite. A new International Executive Committee was appointed, which came under the increasing influence of the Socialist Workers Party . The Fourth International was hit hard during World War II. Trotsky was assassinated, many of
17110-745: The supporters of Ho Chi Minh . After the Second World Congress in 1948, the International Secretariat attempted to open communications with Josip Broz Tito 's regime in Yugoslavia . In their analysis, it differed from the rest of the Eastern Bloc because it was established by the partisans of World War II who had fought against Nazi occupation, as opposed to by Stalin's invading armies. The British RCP, led by Jock Haston and supported by Ted Grant , were highly critical of this move. The Third World Congress in 1951 resolved that
17255-476: The task of reconstruction". He regarded it as "not open to doubt that the decay of capitalist society is very far advanced". The Second World Congress in April 1948 was attended by delegates from 22 sections. It debated a range of resolutions on the Jewish Question , Stalinism, the colonial countries and the specific situations facing sections in certain countries. By this point the FI was united around
17400-476: The time required children to be given religious education "in the faith of their parents". Odessa was then a bustling cosmopolitan port city, very unlike the typical Russian city of the time. This environment contributed to the development of the young man's international outlook. Trotsky became involved in revolutionary activities in 1896 after moving to the harbor town of Nikolayev on the Black Sea . At first
17545-466: The union, including Trotsky, were arrested. He was held for the next two years in prison awaiting trial, first in Nikolayev, then Kherson , then Odessa, and finally in Moscow. In the Moscow prison, he came into contact with other revolutionaries, heard about Lenin and read Lenin's book, The Development of Capitalism in Russia . Two months into his imprisonment, on 1–3 March 1898, the first Congress of
17690-546: The urgent formation of a Fourth International. The "First International Conference for the Fourth International" was held in Paris in June 1936, reports giving its location as Geneva for security reasons. This meeting dissolved the International Communist League, founding in its place the Movement for the Fourth International on Trotsky's perspectives. The foundation of the Fourth International
17835-599: The various groups sought to maintain links and some connections were kept up throughout the early part of the war by sailors enlisted in the U.S. Navy who had cause to visit Marseilles . Contact was steady, if irregular, between the SWP and the British Trotskyists, with the result that the Americans exerted what influence they had to encourage the Workers' International League into the International through
17980-688: The view that the Eastern European " buffer states " were still capitalist countries. The Congress was especially notable for bringing the International into much closer contact with Trotskyist groups from across the globe. These included such significant groups as the Revolutionary Workers' Party of Bolivia and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party in what was then Ceylon , but the previously large Vietnamese Trotskyist groups had mostly been eliminated or absorbed by
18125-616: The war and demanded a complete break with the Second International . Trotsky attended the Zimmerwald Conference of anti-war socialists in September 1915 and advocated a middle course between those who, like Martov, would stay within the Second International at any cost and those who, like Lenin, would break with the Second International and form a Third International . The conference adopted
18270-480: The workers at 50 other printing shops in Moscow were also on strike. On 2 October 1905, the typesetters in printing shops in Saint Petersburg decided to strike in support of the Moscow strikers. On 7 October 1905, the railway workers of the Moscow–Kazan Railway went out on strike. Amid the resulting confusion, Trotsky returned from Finland to Saint Petersburg on 15 October 1905. On that day, Trotsky spoke before
18415-436: The workers of the world against the imperialist camp in those countries where there were mass forces. In line with this geopolitical perspective, Pablo argued that the only way the Trotskyists could avoid isolation was for various sections of the Fourth International to undertake long-term entryism in the mass Communist or Social Democratic parties. This tactic was known as entryism sui generis , to distinguish it from
18560-418: Was Yiddish Leiba . The American Trotskyist David North said that this was an assumption based on Trotsky's Jewish birth, but, contrary to Service's claims, there is no documentary evidence to support his using a Yiddish name, when that language was not spoken by his family. Both North and political historian Walter Laqueur wrote that Trotsky's childhood name was Lyova , a standard Russian diminutive of
18705-632: Was " de facto " second-in-command during the early years of the Russian Soviet Republic . Ideologically a Marxist and Leninist , his thought and writings inspired a school of Marxism known as Trotskyism . Born into a wealthy Jewish family in Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire , Trotsky joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898. He was arrested for revolutionary activities and exiled to Siberia , but in 1902 escaped to London, where he met Lenin and wrote for
18850-401: Was a Jew). Stalin's daughter later claimed that his fight with Trotsky laid the foundations for his later antisemitic campaigns. The International's rationale was to construct new mass revolutionary parties able to lead successful workers' revolutions. It saw these arising from a revolutionary wave which would develop alongside and as a result of the coming World War. Thirty delegates attended
18995-427: Was added to the editorial board from the Bolsheviks, but the unification attempts failed in August 1910. Kamenev resigned from the board amid mutual recriminations. Trotsky continued publishing Pravda for another two years until it finally folded in April 1912. The Bolsheviks started a new workers-oriented newspaper in Saint Petersburg on 22 April 1912 and also called it Pravda . Trotsky was so upset by what he saw as
19140-480: Was altered at different times in different countries. From 1155 to 1752, the civil or legal year in England began on 25 March ( Lady Day ); so for example, the execution of Charles I was recorded at the time in Parliament as happening on 30 January 164 8 (Old Style). In newer English-language texts, this date is usually shown as "30 January 164 9 " (New Style). The corresponding date in the Gregorian calendar
19285-506: Was assassinated on Stalin's orders in Mexico in August 1940. A political international is an organisation of political parties or activists with the aim of co-ordinating their activity for a common purpose. There had been a long tradition of socialists organising on an international basis, and Karl Marx had led the International Workingmen's Association , which later became known as the "first international". After
19430-596: Was celebrated as the New Year festival from as early as the 13th century, despite the recorded (civil) year not incrementing until 25 March, but the "year starting 25th March was called the Civil or Legal Year, although the phrase Old Style was more commonly used". To reduce misunderstandings about the date, it was normal even in semi-official documents such as parish registers to place a statutory new-year heading after 24 March (for example "1661") and another heading from
19575-623: Was detained for a month at Amherst Internment Camp in Nova Scotia . While imprisoned in the camp, Trotsky established an increasing friendship with the workers and sailors amongst his fellow inmates, describing his month at the camp as "one continual mass meeting". Trotsky's speeches and agitation incurred the wrath of German officer inmates who complained to the British camp commander, Colonel Morris, about Trotsky's "anti-patriotic" attitude. Morris then forbade Trotsky to make any more public speeches, leading to 530 prisoners protesting and signing
19720-568: Was eight, his father sent him to Odessa to be educated. He was enrolled in a Lutheran German-language school (School of the Lutheran St. Pauls Cathedral, of Black Sea Germans , which admitted students of other faiths and backgrounds,) which became Russified during his years in Odessa as a result of the Imperial government's policy of Russification . Trotsky and his wife Natalia later registered their children as Lutheran, since Austrian law at
19865-744: Was expressed by the London-based newspaper Iskra ( The Spark ), founded in 1900. Trotsky quickly sided with the Iskra position and began writing for the paper. In the summer of 1902, at the urging of his wife, Aleksandra, Trotsky escaped from Siberia hidden in hay. Aleksandra later escaped with their daughters. Both daughters married, and Zinaida had children, but the daughters died before their parents. Nina Nevelson died from tuberculosis in 1928, cared for in her last months by her older sister. Zinaida Volkova followed her father into exile in Berlin , taking her son by her second marriage but leaving behind
20010-496: Was implemented in Russia on 14 February 1918 by dropping the Julian dates of 1–13 February 1918 , pursuant to a Sovnarkom decree signed 24 January 1918 (Julian) by Vladimir Lenin . The decree required that the Julian date was to be written in parentheses after the Gregorian date, until 1 July 1918. It is common in English-language publications to use the familiar Old Style or New Style terms to discuss events and personalities in other countries, especially with reference to
20155-581: Was not about to plunge into massive crisis but rather that an upturn in the economy was already underway. A group of leaders of the French Internationalist Communist Party (PCI) around Yvan Craipeau argued a similar position until they were expelled from the PCI in 1948. In April 1946 delegates from the principal European sections and a number of others attended a "Second International Congress". This set about rebuilding
20300-410: Was not possible, and capitalism persisted. Another issue that needed to be dealt with was the possibility that the economy would revive. This was initially denied by Mandel (who was quickly forced to revise his opinion, and later devoted his PhD dissertation to late capitalism , analysing the unexpected "third age" of capitalist development). Mandel's perspective mirrored uncertainty at that time about
20445-469: Was seen as more than just the simple renaming of an international tendency that was already in existence. It was argued that the Third International had now degenerated completely and was therefore to be seen as a counter-revolutionary organisation that would in time of crisis defend capitalism. Trotsky believed that the coming World War would produce a revolutionary wave of class and national struggles, rather as World War I had done. Stalin reacted to
20590-523: Was smuggled into Russia. The paper appeared very irregularly; only five issues were published in its first year. Avoiding factional politics, the paper proved popular with Russian industrial workers. Both the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks split multiple times after the failure of the 1905–1907 revolution. Money was very scarce for the publication of Pravda . Trotsky approached the Russian Central Committee to seek financial backing for
20735-399: Was the embodiment of the Saint Petersburg Soviet. Trotsky joined the Soviet under the name "Yanovsky" (after the village he was born in, Yanovka) and was elected vice-chairman. He did much of the actual work at the Soviet and, after Khrustalev-Nosar's arrest on 26 November 1905, was elected its chairman. On 2 December, the Soviet issued a proclamation which included the following statement about
20880-491: Was therefore spurred in part by a desire to form a stronger political current, rather than being seen as the communist opposition to the Comintern and the Soviet Union. Trotsky believed that its formation was all the more urgent for the role he saw it playing in the impending World War . In the early 1930s, Trotsky and his supporters believed that Stalin's influence over the Third International could still be fought from within and slowly rolled back. They organised themselves into
21025-500: Was with him until his death. They had two children together, Lev Sedov (1906–1938) and Sergei Sedov (1908–1937), both of whom would predecease their parents. Regarding his sons' surnames, Trotsky later explained that after the 1917 revolution: In order not to oblige my sons to change their name, I, for "citizenship" requirements, took on the name of my wife. Trotsky never used the name "Sedov" either privately or publicly. Natalia Sedova sometimes signed her name "Sedova-Trotskaya". In
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