Leon Trotsky

Born Lev Davidovich Bronstein in 1879 in what is now Ukraine, he became one of the most influential Marxist thinkers of the early 20th century. He was drawn into revolutionary politics as a young man, spent years in prison and exile, and adopted the name Leon Trotsky along the way.

Trotsky emerged as a central figure in the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. After the Bolsheviks took power, he served as a leading Soviet official and played a major role in building and directing the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. He was also a prolific author whose books, essays, and speeches combined political theory with vivid historical writing.

After Lenin's death, Trotsky lost the power struggle to Stalin, was expelled from the Soviet Union, and lived in a succession of exiles before settling in Mexico. There he continued to write fiercely about revolution, dictatorship, and the future of socialism until he was assassinated in 1940. His life remains one of the most dramatic and controversial stories in modern political history.