Trotsky
Stalin's banished rival
Leon Trotsky was a Russian revolutionary and Marxist theorist, second only to Lenin in leading the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
He founded the Red Army and championed "permanent revolution"—the idea that socialism couldn't survive in one country alone.
After losing the power struggle to Stalin, he was exiled and eventually assassinated in Mexico in 1940.
Trotskyism persists as a leftist tendency critical of Stalinist authoritarianism.
To call someone a Trotskyist or Trot often implies doctrinaire radicalism.
Soviet communist party member
- LeninSoviet state founder
- StalinSoviet autocrat, mid-century
- October RevolutionSoviet founding coup
- Red ArmySoviet ground forces
USSR · Politburo · Central Committee · Comintern · Kremlin · collectivization · purge · show trials
Class-based revolutionary philosophy
- world revolutionWorldwide systemic overthrow
- internationalismFavoring cooperation among nations
- bureaucracyRigid administrative system
- LeninismVanguard-led revolutionary doctrine
Capital of its nation
- assassinationMurder of a prominent figure
- asylumShelter from persecution
- deportationLegal expulsion from country
- expulsionForced permanent removal
Norway · France · stateless · Diego Rivera · Frida Kahlo · GPU · NKVD · fugitive
Soviet ground forces
- commissarSoviet political officer
- civil warDomestic armed conflict
- WhitesEuropean-ancestry ethnic group
- armored trainWeaponized, shielded rail vehicle
military strategy · conscription · mobilization · discipline
Developer of explanatory systems
- polemicistAggressive debate writer
- oratorSkilled public speaker
- writerCreator of texts
- historianExpert on past events
journalist · critic · essayist · pamphleteer · autodidact · multilingual
Bolshevik
Soviet communist party member
- LeninSoviet state founder
- StalinSoviet autocrat, mid-century
- October RevolutionSoviet founding coup
Red Army · USSR · Politburo · Central Committee · Comintern · Kremlin · collectivization · purge · show trials · icepick
Marxism
Class-based revolutionary philosophy
- world revolutionWorldwide systemic overthrow
- internationalismFavoring cooperation among nations
- bureaucracyRigid administrative system
Mexico City
Capital of its nation
- assassinationMurder of a prominent figure
- asylumShelter from persecution
- deportationLegal expulsion from country
expulsion · Norway · France · stateless · Diego Rivera · Frida Kahlo · GPU · NKVD · fugitive · refuge
Red Army
Soviet ground forces
- commissarSoviet political officer
- civil warDomestic armed conflict
- WhitesEuropean-ancestry ethnic group
armored train · military strategy · conscription · mobilization · discipline
theorist
Developer of explanatory systems
- polemicistAggressive debate writer
- oratorSkilled public speaker
- writerCreator of texts
historian · journalist · critic · essayist · pamphleteer · autodidact · multilingual
- Marxist ThinkersKarl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lenin, Gramsci, Althusser
- communismMarx, Marxism, Leninism, Lenin, proletariat
- Russian HistorySoviet Union, tsars, Tsarist Russia, Romanov, czars
- socialismMarxism, communism, proletariat, bourgeoisie, communal ownership
- Soviet communismLenin, Stalin, Leninism, Bolsheviks, Stalinism
- Soviet EraUSSR, Soviet Union, Soviet rule, CCCP, Eastern Bloc
TrotskyStalin
Soviet autocrat, mid-century
Joseph Stalin · Stalinism · social democrats · reformism · gradualism
TrotskyStalin
Soviet autocrat, mid-century
Franco · Mao Zedong · Fidel Castro · Lenin · Pinochet