Stalin And Trotsky Patrons Of World Domination

Stalin And Trotsky: Patrons Of World Domination Essay, Research Paper

Stalin and Trotsky: Patrons of world domination

One of the most well known countries in the world is Russia. Since the Paleolithic Period, Russia has faced misfortune and difficulties through its brutal leaders. Every change that has made this country more inclusive has been won with toil, tears, and blood. The year of 1879 was the beginning of another “great new chapter” (Flachmann p. 357) in Russia’s history. It was the year two patrons of world domination were born. These patrons were Joseph Stalin, born Dzhugashvili, and Leon Trotsky, born Bronstein. They would soon become two of Russia’s most important leaders who altered the world in many ways. Stalin and Trotsky were the same age, and both had once been members of the Russian Social Democratic Party. These two dedicated Communists shared similar viewpoints such as their commitment to the “unity of theory and practice” (McClellan p. 62) and both prospered on spreading Communism throughout the world. However, each had a unique childhood that gave them both special qualities, which influenced them to live different lives. The tension between Trotsky and Stalin worsened into a life-and-death fight as Lenin got sick and died. Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky were two committed communists who represented the strength of the Soviet Union during the early 20th Century.

Leon Trotsky was born on October 26, 1879 in the Southern Ulkaine. His real name was Lev Davidovich Bronstein. Leon’s parents were simple Jewish farmers who lived better than most peasants at the time. At the age of 9, Leon moved to Odessa to live with some relatives and attend a prestigious private school. His father hoped that Leon would return home as an engineer, but instead he became attracted to radical politics. At 17, Trotsky began a path of success and failure after becoming a Marxist, a follower of the beliefs from Karl Marx. Soon after Leon joined a study group, where he met Alexandra Sokolovskaya, a fellow Marxist who later became his wife. Together Leon and Alexandra founded the Southern Workers Union and began to distribute pamphlets condemning the terrible factory conditions occurring. Unfortunately, in 1898, Trotsky was arrested by police and sent to serve over one year in jail and sentenced to four years in Siberia. Since he had married Alexandra in jail, they were both sent together to Siberia. However, Trotsky escaped two years later to London, England, leaving his beloved wife and new children behind.

While in London, Trotsky joined VI Lenin and was assigned his first duty. His assignment was to go on a fundraising trip for the newspaper Iskra to different regions around Europe. On a stop at Paris, France, Leon met Natalia Sedov, who became his second wife. Then in 1903, he participated in the Second Congress of Russian Social Democratic Worker’s Party in London, where the separation between the Bolsheviks led by Lenin and the Mensheviks led by Julius Martiv. Trotsky believed Lenin’s stubbornness caused the split between the parties to worsen and warned that government discipline would lead to tyranny.

With little of himself and Lenin, Trotsky admitted his error on the issue of organization and decided to join the Bolsheviks. The Petrograd Soviet elected Trotsky as president. Leon then led the October Revolution in 1917 where “he would fight to the limit of endurance” (Flachmann p. 359). A year later, Trotsky was assigned to organize the military. Then he built a Red Army of five million soldiers.

Although Trotsky enjoyed prestige as a military leader, Stalin controlled the party organization. After Lenin’s death, Stalin established an alliance with Grigory Zinovyev and Lev Kamenev, other communist leaders. Together the three turned against their threat as leader, Leon Trotsky. Leon was unable to defend himself against damaging criticism he was facing, and in 1925, he lost his position as commissar of war. In 1929, Stalin ordered Trotsky to leave the USSR. Again in exile, Trotsky became the “most perspective critic of the Stalin regime” (Commine p. 17). Trotsky’s old friends, his daughters, sons, and former wife all suffered imprisonment or death at Stain’s hands. Trotsky lived in constant danger of assassination. Fearing for his life, Leon fled to Mexico where he continued to promote world revolution. Unfortunately, Leon Trotsky was murdered on August 21, 1940, in Mexico reportedly on Stalin’s orders.

As one of Russia’s most brilliant Marxist leaders, Trotsky was a man of action, a thinker, and a writer, “whose political and literary activity spanned the first four decades of the 20th Century” (Commine p. 24). His writing on Marxism, Bolshevism, and world revolution made an important contribution to both “political theory” and “historic theory” (Commine p. 24). However, Trotsky had a major flaw that would plague him throughout his career and may be why he failed politically. He was always too worried about his image. For instance, Lenin wrote Trotsky a letter, which harshly criticized Stalin, but Trotsky did not want to be a snitch so he did not read it to the Communist Committee until after Lenin’s death. By then, it could not be verified, and Stalin claimed it was all lies.

The bitter, savage, and merciless fight between Stalin and Trotsky began because of their difference of opinion of communism, Though they bot