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Leon Trotsky

30 bytes added, 16:47, January 28, 2012
/* Career */
"Death came early to him, explains his leading biographer, "because he fought for a cause that was more destructive than he ever imagined."<ref>Service (2009)</ref>
==Career==
Trotsky, was the son of a prosperous and reportedly non-religious Jewish farmer in the Ukraine. Well educated and rebellious, he became a professional revolutionary as a teenager. He was arrested in 1898 and was later exiled to Siberia, where he joined the Social Democratic party. In 1902 he escaped abroad, met Lenin.
In 1903, while Lenin headed the Bolsheviks, Trotsky joined the rival Mensheviks. Mensheviks did not believe trying to ignite a revolution, expecting that it would happen when the people were ready. By contrast the Bolsheviks who believed that the people needed to be led. From 1904 until 1917 Trotsky had a stormy relationship with Lenin, accusing Lenin of wanting to become a dictator. But the two of them resolved their differences in 1917, and after that point Trotsky was totally loyal to Lenin.
Trotsky was the most powerful orator in the Bolshevik party, and due to his numerous spells in jail and his active role in the failed 1905 revolution he was much more famous than Lenin was to ordinary Russians. He was the actual organizer behind the [[October Revolution]], as Lenin was still in exile and so unable to participate.
 
==Civil War==
Trotsky also helped build the [[Red Army]] that defeated the White Russian Army in the subsequent Civil War in Russia, despite having no military experience of any kind.
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