Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) was a participant with Lenin in the communist revolution in Russia in 1917. Specifically, Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks and was part of the October Revolution then.

Trotsky also helped build the Red Army that defeated the White Russian Army in the subsequent Civil War in Russia.

When Lenin died, Trotsky had a power struggle with Stalin. Trotsky took the view that socialism in the Soviet Union must await a revolution in western Europe and even worldwide. Stalin wanted power immediately, and expelled Trotsky in 1927 from the political party and exiled him from Russia in 1929.

Trotsky eventually settled in Mexico in 1937, where he was hunted down and murdered by a Stalin assassin posing as a gardener.

Trotsky's famous command was this: "Those who do not obey, do not eat."