Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein (7 November 1879 – 21 August 1940), more commonly known under his alias Leon Trotsky, was a Russian revolutionary, political theorist, and writer. He is known for his role in the October revolution of 1917, as well as his subsequent founding of the Fourth International. After Lenin's death, Stalin took control of the party and had Trotsky exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929. In 1940, Trotsky was assassinated by an NKVD agent in his home in Mexico City. Trotsky was the founder of the movement known as Trotskyism.
During his time in the Soviet Union, Trotsky has been described by his colleagues as childish and arrogant. He had read French fiction novels during meetings of the Central Committee.[1] Just how childish he was can be demonstrated by his failed dramatic exit during a meeting:
The meeting ended with Trotsky being ordered to make a public statement admitting and apologizing for crimes against the workers' state. Trotsky jumped from his seat and tried to slam the door of the throne room at the Kremlin. The hall door is massive, Trotsky pulled it with all his strength, but it was dead slow to open. In his fury, he did not notice and made repeated attempts to bang it shut. Thus instead of witnessing a dramatic gesture indicating a historic breach, we watched a sorry figure struggling with a door.
— Boris Bajanov, personal secretary to Josef Stalin and witness to Leon Trotsky's expulsion from the Soviet Central Committee.[2]
Trotsky, together with his son Sedov, lead a fifth column within the Soviet Union with the aim to overthrow the only workers' and peasants' state at that time. Trotsky and Sedov collaborated with Nazi Germany and militarist imperialist Japan to reach this goal.