Leon Trotsky was a communist theorist, leader in the 1917 Russian Revolution,

the peoples commissar for foreign affairs under Lenin (1917-1918), and the
head of the Red Army as the peoples commissar of army and navy affairs (19181924). Trotsky was born on the 7th of November 1879 in Yanovka, Ukraine. He
was exiled from the Soviet Union after losing a power struggle with Stalin over
who would become Lenins successor; he was brutally assassinated on the 21st
of August 1940 in Mexico.
Trotsky was a controversial man as he was one of the leading people in the
Russian Revolution. Both Trotsky and Lenin gave the revolution drive and
organisation. It is believed that Leon Trotsky's leadership in the Russian Civil War
may have saved the Bolshevik Revolution*.
Many people believe Trotsky was not all that bad; compared to Stalin, at least.
Leon Trotsky was against the totalitarian regime Stalin wanted. Trotsky believed
in the idea of turning the "working class" into the "ruling class". Trotsky valued
the common man, and valued the peoples voice. He alone defended the
traditions and ideas of Marxism**. With his views on Social Democracy, amazing
things could have been done to the world.
Just as many people, however, believe that Leon Trotsky was just as bad as
Stalin. Trotsky was and still is seen a mass murderer. As the general of the Red
Arm, he had used his power to have anyone who stood out of line killed at the
snap of his fingers. Some sailors, who were declaring their right to have their
own opinions on the Revolution, were massacred on his order. Trotsky wanted
Communism to spread across the world. He himself converted from being Jewish
to atheist to peruse the Communist idea. The idea of traditional Marxism was
already gone before Trotsky was sent into exile. Trotsky lost the struggle against
Stalin because he was less cunning than what Stalin was.
Even though Leon Trotsky wasnt as bad as what Stalin was, but he was still a
bad person. He murdered innocent people for standing up for what they believed
in, much like what he was murdered for. He had the right views and followed the
ideas of Marxism to some degree, but even that didnt make what he was doing
any better then what Stalin did. Trotsky still murdered masses of innocent people
and helped start a not so great revolution in Russia. He was the person who
founded and first led the Red Army, who killed thousands of people under his
command in the revolution.
"There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything
depends on circumstances."
-Leon Trotsky

*The
were born out
Social
Party. When
in 1903, the Bolsheviks only had one obvious leader; Lenin.

Bolsheviks
of Russias
Democrat
the party split

**Marxism- the political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels,
later developed by their followers to form the basis of communism.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/clives_lives/2007/04/leon_trotsky.
html
http://www.debate.org/debates/Trotsky-good-or-bad/1/