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Leon Trotsky: A Life from Beginning to End
Leon Trotsky * * *Download for FREE on Kindle Unlimited + Free BONUS Inside!* * * Read On Your Computer, MAC, Smartphone, Kindle Reader, iPad, or Tablet. The man that history came to know by the name of Trotsky has the well-established legacy of being one of the most mysterious of all the cast and characters involved with the Russian Revolution. If the Russian Revolution was a Shakespearean tragedy, Trotsky would undoubtedly be cast into the role of an Othello or King Lear type figure who means well but seems to hamstring himself with his never-ending ideological speculation and theorizing. Inside you will read about... ✓ A Prisoner of War ✓ Putting a Stop to World War I ✓ The Execution of the Last Tsar ✓ Russia Under Siege ✓ Stalin Takes Over ✓ Trotsky’s Exile Begins ✓ Trotsky’s Last Testament And much more! In many ways, Trotsky could be said to be a brilliant thinker that was miscast in the wrong role. Almost seeming to refute Plato's idea of the philosopher king, Trotsky appeared to be just a little bit too introspective for his own good. While the likes of Joseph Stalin were taking action and seizing the reins from Lenin, Trotsky seemed to be lost in his thought. This book takes a look at the great mind that the Russian Revolution forgot, Leon Trotsky.
109 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 10, 2017
132 people are currently reading
186 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 1, 2020
All in all the book is super informative despite the short length of its page numbers.
...In a cold winter day near DMZ, a young ROK Army Private was hand-washing a couple of Corporals' G. I. socks outside the building. He didn't understand the situation, but due to his squad's "proud" tradition, the newly arrived Private 2nd Classes were not allowed to use hot water until they made PFCs; it was called the "discipline" just like the old Red Code in the Corps. His Platoon leader saw the man and told him, "Hey, buddy, bring some hot water for that." The Private said, "yes, Lieutenant", and ran into the building to get some hot water. The two Corporals, however, were guarding the water taps waiting for him to finish the job. They called the PVT an undisciplined garbage and made him push-up 50 times before they kicked him out of the building again. A minute later, the Captain of his Company passed by telling him, "It's freezing today. You will have trouble tomorrow with those hands! Do it with hot water, that's an order, Private." Then the Capt. walked away. "Yes, sir." The Private answered, but he knew he would be further disciplined by his Corporals if he asked them for hot water again, so he quietly kept washing their socks with the freezing cold water. Another minute later a Sergeant First Class found the PVT and told him, go tell your Corporals that I need some hot water. When the Private brought the water, the Sergeant told him, "now go ahead with the water you just brought here..."
Those early Communist leaders, just like any other "typical" politicians of our times, were nothing more than the two Officers in this story: Not really helping the people in need by solving their problems, but only satisfying the own egos and vanities of the new political elites by showing off the "sounds-good", "theory-based" big-mouth, fake leadership.
The rule of Communist has never really been freedom and equality to the people they classified as proletariats, but just the assembly of those previously pathetic outcasts hungry for power. It was simply another political leadership shift from one to another to rule over the people.
(Kindle Locations 69-73)
...Trotsky made his way to the Irkutsk region of Siberia where he obtained a stolen passport. It was this fictitious name, hastily written on the pages of this passport as his new identity, that would go down in history as one of the primary leaders of the Russian Revolution. Taken in part from one of his jailers back at the prison camp, this little bit of spur of the moment identity theft would have Lev Bronstein forever known as Leon Trotsky.
(Kindle Locations 88-89)
It is the irony which comes with democracy that England was letting these men, who would have gladly dismantled the British system, speak freely of their ideas under its very auspices...
(Kindle Locations 168-171)
“The masses go into a revolution not with a prepared plan of social reconstruction, but with a sharp feeling that they cannot endure the old regime; only the guiding layers of a class have a political program, and even this still requires the test of events and the approval of the masses.” —Leon Trotsky
I don't approve what he did with his extremist colleagues called the "Bolsheviks", but these lines clearly prove that the man understood politics, although I do pity the people in personal relationship with him, especially his two wives.
(Kindle Locations 186-187)
...It seemed in those days that the winds of change could lock someone up one moment and then elect them as chairman the next; these were tumultuous times...
Instability and turbulence...these are the first conditions for a new order to rise to take over the old one.
(Kindle Locations 285-287)
“The dynamic of revolutionary events is directly determined by swift, intense, and passionate changes in psychology of classes which have already formed themselves before the revolution.” —Leon Trotsky
Formed by the few people like Trotsky and Lenin, but the truth about the people's role in the event is that the people supported them because of the unforgiving hunger and pain watching their kids in the same pain without any future. The few so-called the Revolutionary "Elites" just used the people's weary emotion. I don't see any difference in them from all the other politicians. They simply just started another political "ideology" which would fail in the very same century. It was a failed attempt to build a technocracy after all led by a few elites of that political doctrine.
(Kindle Locations 290-292)
...Stalin would use this technocratic position as a springboard in which he could make fundamental changes to the party structure itself, and by the time anyone caught on to what he was up to, it was too late...
(Kindle Locations 416-419)
Leon Trotsky lived a life of intense thought and action. He was an ideological idealist, and like so many other tragic thinkers in history, he thought that he could change human nature with the stroke of a pen. Trotsky was the man that Lenin wished to succeed him, but for all his passionate idealism, Trotsky couldn’t stand up to the savage realism that someone like Joseph Stalin presented. Stalin would forever crush Trotsky’s dreams of a communist utopia.
Yeah, might have turned out to be better if that Stalin bastard hadn't popped out and seized the power then. But, no one knows, because after all Trotsky, too, wanted to control the nation and its neighbors to achieve his dream of "global" utopia of Communism.
(Kindle Locations 176-179)
Positioning himself as the Marxist Moses, Trotsky at this point seemed almost destined to be a future leader of what would become the Soviet Union. Interestingly enough, in one of his many discourses during this early revolutionary period, he had set his scope beyond Russia entirely as he began to advocate for a “United States of Europe,” basically expounding upon a communist version of the European Union.
(Kindle Locations 19-20)
...Trotsky believed that they needed to seize the moment and advance toward what he considered the ultimate goal of Marxism: worldwide revolution.
So this guy, too, somehow "caused" the Korean and Vietnam Wars putting bloody-sharp daggers into millions of families' hearts for his stupid "ideology!"
(Kindle Locations 23-26)
For Trotsky, all of the above-mentioned distinctions were just another name for the greedy landlords who wanted to unnaturally create class distinctions, national boundaries, and other artificial walls of separation between a humanity that should be united as one. He mused all of these thoughts as his train pulled into the station, and he had his assistant who was seated nearby write down his words.
The dilemma...the initial purpose and cause were good as always. They have always failed in the middle and made things even worse. Yup, again, might have turned out to be better if Stalin bastard hadn't popped out and seized the power.
(Kindle Locations 26-28)
He quietly dictated, “A cavalry corps of 30 to 40,000 horsemen must be formed to invade India. The path to Paris and London lies through the cities of Afghanistan, the Punjab, and Bengal. Our victories in the Urals and Siberia must greatly raise the prestige of the Soviet Republic throughout oppressed Asia.”
So he copied the Imperial Russia's plan of the Great Game anyway: Bloody armed conflicts with the world powers to seize the open water passages. And he thought he was different than the Tsar his ideology had brutally destroyed?
(Kindle Locations 28-34)
That day on the train, Trotsky was speaking of—among other things—an invasion of Afghanistan. He firmly believed that if he could gather some of the more downtrodden and oppressed nations of the east under the banner of Soviet communism, he would be able to build a power base that would be unbreakable by the west. And in doing so, he would have added millions of grateful and fanatic believers to the cause, fighting for the future liberation of Europe from the industrialists that Trotsky believed to be holding them down. And inevitably after the fall of Europe, the United States and the rest of the world would follow. As Trotsky’s train came to a stop at its station and his own train of thought came to a close, he was thinking of outright world domination.
So he WAS one of the scheming bastards who initiated all the bloody proxy wars. His fault was pushing his goal of the United Humanity, not by winning the people's support from their hearts, but by force against their happiness and minimum well-being. The way the average Russians lived at the time would never hook up any of the hungry people's mind, so the Bolsheviks, in a hurry as was their extremist nature, had to rely on force, even worse than most of other political entities in history.
Why always hurrying things up to complete everything in only one generation as if there's never a better future tomorrow? Leave some work for the following generations to fulfill! That's why they failed, and that's why guys like XI Jinping and Erdogan are meant to fail too.
I'm afraid to say that ideas like Communism and Socialism have always been losers' ideologies. Winners find solutions within themselves first before they move their focus on the outer elements. Winners don't blame others for problems, but blame themselves first, so while others focus on outer elements which they got no actual control over, the winners keep working on themselves to be better and stronger so as to fit in their goals. Winners neither blame their society nor depend on it. They make the society depend on them after all.
If we want to win anything significant in this world and find some self-confidence and pride in ourselves, we better think like winners first, no matter how gloomy everything looks at the moment. Let's plan long and not give up. Let us not try to fly to the final destination at once; we will make any goals and dreams of ours starting with small stepping stones one by one, and even if we do not complete the final goals and dreams of ours, our next generations will always have chance to complete them as long as we do not give up. We just need to build good enough bases for our following generations, which could be considered and remembered as a great achievement on our end.
Let’s be patient with hope in our hearts because the Heaven's to help those who fight with great fortitude after all.
All in all the book is super informative in such short length of its page numbers, so anyone can read fast and learn about the man's life and dream quite in detail within a day.
I only found one typo:
(Kindle Locations 378-379)
...Perhaps the affair was just the straw the broke the camel’s back.
Supposed to be...that broke the camel's back.
Good work!
...In a cold winter day near DMZ, a young ROK Army Private was hand-washing a couple of Corporals' G. I. socks outside the building. He didn't understand the situation, but due to his squad's "proud" tradition, the newly arrived Private 2nd Classes were not allowed to use hot water until they made PFCs; it was called the "discipline" just like the old Red Code in the Corps. His Platoon leader saw the man and told him, "Hey, buddy, bring some hot water for that." The Private said, "yes, Lieutenant", and ran into the building to get some hot water. The two Corporals, however, were guarding the water taps waiting for him to finish the job. They called the PVT an undisciplined garbage and made him push-up 50 times before they kicked him out of the building again. A minute later, the Captain of his Company passed by telling him, "It's freezing today. You will have trouble tomorrow with those hands! Do it with hot water, that's an order, Private." Then the Capt. walked away. "Yes, sir." The Private answered, but he knew he would be further disciplined by his Corporals if he asked them for hot water again, so he quietly kept washing their socks with the freezing cold water. Another minute later a Sergeant First Class found the PVT and told him, go tell your Corporals that I need some hot water. When the Private brought the water, the Sergeant told him, "now go ahead with the water you just brought here..."
Those early Communist leaders, just like any other "typical" politicians of our times, were nothing more than the two Officers in this story: Not really helping the people in need by solving their problems, but only satisfying the own egos and vanities of the new political elites by showing off the "sounds-good", "theory-based" big-mouth, fake leadership.
The rule of Communist has never really been freedom and equality to the people they classified as proletariats, but just the assembly of those previously pathetic outcasts hungry for power. It was simply another political leadership shift from one to another to rule over the people.
(Kindle Locations 69-73)
...Trotsky made his way to the Irkutsk region of Siberia where he obtained a stolen passport. It was this fictitious name, hastily written on the pages of this passport as his new identity, that would go down in history as one of the primary leaders of the Russian Revolution. Taken in part from one of his jailers back at the prison camp, this little bit of spur of the moment identity theft would have Lev Bronstein forever known as Leon Trotsky.
(Kindle Locations 88-89)
It is the irony which comes with democracy that England was letting these men, who would have gladly dismantled the British system, speak freely of their ideas under its very auspices...
(Kindle Locations 168-171)
“The masses go into a revolution not with a prepared plan of social reconstruction, but with a sharp feeling that they cannot endure the old regime; only the guiding layers of a class have a political program, and even this still requires the test of events and the approval of the masses.” —Leon Trotsky
I don't approve what he did with his extremist colleagues called the "Bolsheviks", but these lines clearly prove that the man understood politics, although I do pity the people in personal relationship with him, especially his two wives.
(Kindle Locations 186-187)
...It seemed in those days that the winds of change could lock someone up one moment and then elect them as chairman the next; these were tumultuous times...
Instability and turbulence...these are the first conditions for a new order to rise to take over the old one.
(Kindle Locations 285-287)
“The dynamic of revolutionary events is directly determined by swift, intense, and passionate changes in psychology of classes which have already formed themselves before the revolution.” —Leon Trotsky
Formed by the few people like Trotsky and Lenin, but the truth about the people's role in the event is that the people supported them because of the unforgiving hunger and pain watching their kids in the same pain without any future. The few so-called the Revolutionary "Elites" just used the people's weary emotion. I don't see any difference in them from all the other politicians. They simply just started another political "ideology" which would fail in the very same century. It was a failed attempt to build a technocracy after all led by a few elites of that political doctrine.
(Kindle Locations 290-292)
...Stalin would use this technocratic position as a springboard in which he could make fundamental changes to the party structure itself, and by the time anyone caught on to what he was up to, it was too late...
(Kindle Locations 416-419)
Leon Trotsky lived a life of intense thought and action. He was an ideological idealist, and like so many other tragic thinkers in history, he thought that he could change human nature with the stroke of a pen. Trotsky was the man that Lenin wished to succeed him, but for all his passionate idealism, Trotsky couldn’t stand up to the savage realism that someone like Joseph Stalin presented. Stalin would forever crush Trotsky’s dreams of a communist utopia.
Yeah, might have turned out to be better if that Stalin bastard hadn't popped out and seized the power then. But, no one knows, because after all Trotsky, too, wanted to control the nation and its neighbors to achieve his dream of "global" utopia of Communism.
(Kindle Locations 176-179)
Positioning himself as the Marxist Moses, Trotsky at this point seemed almost destined to be a future leader of what would become the Soviet Union. Interestingly enough, in one of his many discourses during this early revolutionary period, he had set his scope beyond Russia entirely as he began to advocate for a “United States of Europe,” basically expounding upon a communist version of the European Union.
(Kindle Locations 19-20)
...Trotsky believed that they needed to seize the moment and advance toward what he considered the ultimate goal of Marxism: worldwide revolution.
So this guy, too, somehow "caused" the Korean and Vietnam Wars putting bloody-sharp daggers into millions of families' hearts for his stupid "ideology!"
(Kindle Locations 23-26)
For Trotsky, all of the above-mentioned distinctions were just another name for the greedy landlords who wanted to unnaturally create class distinctions, national boundaries, and other artificial walls of separation between a humanity that should be united as one. He mused all of these thoughts as his train pulled into the station, and he had his assistant who was seated nearby write down his words.
The dilemma...the initial purpose and cause were good as always. They have always failed in the middle and made things even worse. Yup, again, might have turned out to be better if Stalin bastard hadn't popped out and seized the power.
(Kindle Locations 26-28)
He quietly dictated, “A cavalry corps of 30 to 40,000 horsemen must be formed to invade India. The path to Paris and London lies through the cities of Afghanistan, the Punjab, and Bengal. Our victories in the Urals and Siberia must greatly raise the prestige of the Soviet Republic throughout oppressed Asia.”
So he copied the Imperial Russia's plan of the Great Game anyway: Bloody armed conflicts with the world powers to seize the open water passages. And he thought he was different than the Tsar his ideology had brutally destroyed?
(Kindle Locations 28-34)
That day on the train, Trotsky was speaking of—among other things—an invasion of Afghanistan. He firmly believed that if he could gather some of the more downtrodden and oppressed nations of the east under the banner of Soviet communism, he would be able to build a power base that would be unbreakable by the west. And in doing so, he would have added millions of grateful and fanatic believers to the cause, fighting for the future liberation of Europe from the industrialists that Trotsky believed to be holding them down. And inevitably after the fall of Europe, the United States and the rest of the world would follow. As Trotsky’s train came to a stop at its station and his own train of thought came to a close, he was thinking of outright world domination.
So he WAS one of the scheming bastards who initiated all the bloody proxy wars. His fault was pushing his goal of the United Humanity, not by winning the people's support from their hearts, but by force against their happiness and minimum well-being. The way the average Russians lived at the time would never hook up any of the hungry people's mind, so the Bolsheviks, in a hurry as was their extremist nature, had to rely on force, even worse than most of other political entities in history.
Why always hurrying things up to complete everything in only one generation as if there's never a better future tomorrow? Leave some work for the following generations to fulfill! That's why they failed, and that's why guys like XI Jinping and Erdogan are meant to fail too.
I'm afraid to say that ideas like Communism and Socialism have always been losers' ideologies. Winners find solutions within themselves first before they move their focus on the outer elements. Winners don't blame others for problems, but blame themselves first, so while others focus on outer elements which they got no actual control over, the winners keep working on themselves to be better and stronger so as to fit in their goals. Winners neither blame their society nor depend on it. They make the society depend on them after all.
If we want to win anything significant in this world and find some self-confidence and pride in ourselves, we better think like winners first, no matter how gloomy everything looks at the moment. Let's plan long and not give up. Let us not try to fly to the final destination at once; we will make any goals and dreams of ours starting with small stepping stones one by one, and even if we do not complete the final goals and dreams of ours, our next generations will always have chance to complete them as long as we do not give up. We just need to build good enough bases for our following generations, which could be considered and remembered as a great achievement on our end.
Let’s be patient with hope in our hearts because the Heaven's to help those who fight with great fortitude after all.
All in all the book is super informative in such short length of its page numbers, so anyone can read fast and learn about the man's life and dream quite in detail within a day.
I only found one typo:
(Kindle Locations 378-379)
...Perhaps the affair was just the straw the broke the camel’s back.
Supposed to be...that broke the camel's back.
Good work!
hourly-history-read
December 17, 2020The Russian revolution
I didn't find this book as interesting as others, although it was informative. I knew practically nothing about Leon Trotsky, so it was all new information. I knew a little about the Russian revolution when they killed the royal family and so was able to fit Trotsky into his place in all that.
Trotsky's goal was world domination, making the entire planet communist. However, he disagreed with Lenin on how it should be accomplished. Upon his death, Lenin intended for Trotsky to be his successor. But they hadn't anticipated that Joseph Stalin would steal the revolution for his own ends.
I didn't find this book as interesting as others, although it was informative. I knew practically nothing about Leon Trotsky, so it was all new information. I knew a little about the Russian revolution when they killed the royal family and so was able to fit Trotsky into his place in all that.
Trotsky's goal was world domination, making the entire planet communist. However, he disagreed with Lenin on how it should be accomplished. Upon his death, Lenin intended for Trotsky to be his successor. But they hadn't anticipated that Joseph Stalin would steal the revolution for his own ends.
October 23, 2017
In the course of history, individuals that can only be described as born revolutionaries, have appeared, leaving the world vastly changed in their wake. Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, and Leon Trotsky were all such individuals. They all changed the world around them and, in turn, the world as a whole. Some of the changes were for the good and some for the bad, but all of them caused untold damage, suffering, and death to multitudes.
Lev Davidovich Bronstein aka Leon Trotsky was born on November 7, 1879. From an early age, it was noted that he possessed a very keen intellect. He also showed another, equally dominant trait, of constantly bucking the system and revolting against the status quo. In 1900, Trotsky married a fellow revolutionary, Aleksandra Sokolovskaya. She was soon arrested and sentenced to a Siberian work camp. Leon decided to accompany her there. The couple had two daughters but Trotsky escaped, acquiring a false passport bearing the name Leon Trotsky; thus Lev Davidovich Bronstein disappeared into oblivion and Leon Trotsky made plans for revolution.
All three of the above mentioned Russian dissidents changed the ailing social system of Russia. Throwing off the traditional, outdated system and established a new order. This was a long and bloody struggle that caused much death and suffering. From the beginning, Trotsky saw the fall of the Tsar and the old feudal system and replacing it with a new socialist order; Communism, as just the first step in a much larger revolution and transformation.
This biography is just the tip of the Leon Trotsky iceberg. The system that evolved from his revolutionary efforts transformed, after his death, into something he could never imagine, and by his written legacy, wouldn’t have approved.
Lev Davidovich Bronstein aka Leon Trotsky was born on November 7, 1879. From an early age, it was noted that he possessed a very keen intellect. He also showed another, equally dominant trait, of constantly bucking the system and revolting against the status quo. In 1900, Trotsky married a fellow revolutionary, Aleksandra Sokolovskaya. She was soon arrested and sentenced to a Siberian work camp. Leon decided to accompany her there. The couple had two daughters but Trotsky escaped, acquiring a false passport bearing the name Leon Trotsky; thus Lev Davidovich Bronstein disappeared into oblivion and Leon Trotsky made plans for revolution.
All three of the above mentioned Russian dissidents changed the ailing social system of Russia. Throwing off the traditional, outdated system and established a new order. This was a long and bloody struggle that caused much death and suffering. From the beginning, Trotsky saw the fall of the Tsar and the old feudal system and replacing it with a new socialist order; Communism, as just the first step in a much larger revolution and transformation.
This biography is just the tip of the Leon Trotsky iceberg. The system that evolved from his revolutionary efforts transformed, after his death, into something he could never imagine, and by his written legacy, wouldn’t have approved.
September 14, 2019
Man without a country
I knew very little about Trotsky before this read.. I had no idea that he was exiled to so many countries. I would have liked to know what happened to his first wife and children.
I knew very little about Trotsky before this read.. I had no idea that he was exiled to so many countries. I would have liked to know what happened to his first wife and children.
October 31, 2017
This free book provides a fantastic insight into Leon Trotsky, the man who almost was the leader of Russia. I did learn a bit about the 1917 Russian revolution at school, and picked up bits and pieces since, but this book did a great job of showing the action from Trotsky's view point.
This book isn't a complete picture, but it is free, and you can read it in an hour or so. Fantastic
This book isn't a complete picture, but it is free, and you can read it in an hour or so. Fantastic
June 27, 2019
Good book to learn about Leon Trotsky. Informative and interesting facts about the much forgotten (other) leader of the Bolshevik revolution. Along with Lenin, Trotsky had the most to gain from the revolution. But others were envious of Trotsky's views and position. I recommend this quick read for quick information on Leon Trotsky.
December 15, 2020
Great reading. Easy to understand the life of an important character of Russian Revolution and if the Twenty century. It also gives a view about another revolutionary:Stalin.
I like the accuracy and concise structure of the book. This is one of the most important stages of European political history.
I like the accuracy and concise structure of the book. This is one of the most important stages of European political history.
October 20, 2017
Simplistic, but informative.
If you know little or nothing about Trotsky this is a good book to start with. The author has avoided to a large part forcing his own opinions into this book.
If you know little or nothing about Trotsky this is a good book to start with. The author has avoided to a large part forcing his own opinions into this book.
December 8, 2021
Trotsky - Yet Another Idealist About Communism
For a very intelligent man he was outmaneuvered by Josef Stalin, who was not a true communist but rather a political opportunist that undid everything that Lenin tried to accomplish in Russia.
For a very intelligent man he was outmaneuvered by Josef Stalin, who was not a true communist but rather a political opportunist that undid everything that Lenin tried to accomplish in Russia.
February 14, 2019
these one hour histories can be interesting - this one didn't really teach me much - I think I could have gotten more about Trotsky on Wikipedia but didn't check it.
January 9, 2020
One of the best piece of the Hourly History's series.
February 9, 2021
Well written overview
A well written overview of an important life. A more complete discussion of his writings and later life would have been helpful.
A well written overview of an important life. A more complete discussion of his writings and later life would have been helpful.
January 25, 2023
Eye opening
I found this book interesting and it opened for me a picture of a man whose name is known in history books, but of someone who I knew little about.
I found this book interesting and it opened for me a picture of a man whose name is known in history books, but of someone who I knew little about.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews