WEBVTT

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Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today we are taking

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on a figure so central to the 20th century that

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the story of his life is not just parallel to

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the Soviet Union's existence, but is inseparable

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from it, from its fiery birth to its dark, bloody

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betrayal, Leon Trotsky. And we really need to

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move beyond that simplified historical narrative.

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You know, the one where the Russian Revolution

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is just a power struggle between Lenin and Stalin.

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Right. Because Lev Davidovich Bronstein, who

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we all know as Leon Trotsky, was arguably the

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third. And for a really critical period, the

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undisputed second most prominent figure in the

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Soviet state. We're talking about those foundational

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years between 1917 and Lenin's death in 1924.

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So our mission today is to follow that incredible,

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tragic arc. We're going to look at how a man

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who was the chief strategist, the architect of

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the Red Army, the military genius who won the

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Civil War. Exactly. How that man could be reduced

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to the world's most famous political exile, the

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international symbol of the anti -Stalinist left,

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and ultimately the target of one of the 20th

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century's most dramatic assassinations. We're

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going to unpack his origins, which are really

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surprising. Yeah, and his foundational roles.

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I mean, from... People's Commissar for Foreign

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Affairs to the man who chaired the Petrograd

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Soviet. And of course, his intellectual contributions,

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Trotskyism and that unyielding, brutal conflict

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with Joseph Stalin that just consumed his final

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two decades. It's a tale of a spectacular, almost

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impossible rise and then this catastrophic, systematic

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fall. And we have the source material here to

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really get into the granular detail to understand

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not just what happened, but why it happened.

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So where do we start? We'll start with the man

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at his peak, the political wonder at Keene. And

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then we'll track that slow suffocating process

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that reduced him from a global revolutionary

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powerhouse to a stateless figure hunted across

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continents by the very apparatus he helped create.

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It forces you to ask that essential question,

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the one that defines all revolutions. Does bureaucracy

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inevitably conquer ideology? Or can, you know,

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a series of political miscalculations doom even

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the most theoretically sound movement? OK, let's

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unpack this revolutionary origin story, because

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it starts in a place you might not expect for

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a future radical intellectual who preached global

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proletarian revolution. It starts with prosperity.

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It's a remarkable starting point, isn't it? Leon

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Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich Bronstein in 1879,

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came from a surprisingly comfortable Jewish farming

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family in Yanovka, Ukraine, which was then part

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of the Russian Empire. So not exactly from the

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downtrodden masses. Not at all. His parents,

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David and Anna Bronstein, were wealthy grain

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growers. And what's crucial here is that they

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were illiterate. They operated completely outside

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that urban intellectual world. That's a huge

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contrast to the background of most other revolutionaries

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who usually came out of the cities or the, you

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know, the impoverished intelligentsia. Absolutely.

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So he wasn't exactly destined for the barricades,

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but the sources all highlight his immense early

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intellectual horsepower. Yeah. That's what clearly

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separated him from his roots. From the very beginning.

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From the moment he was sent away for school at

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age nine, he just excelled. He was especially

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talented in science and mathematics, got praise

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for his exceptional mind, and he was a famously

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voracious reader, just absorbing everything he

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could get his hands on. His father wanted him

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to be an engineer, right? That was the plan.

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His father intended for him to become a mechanical

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engineer, and he did briefly study engineering

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at Odessa University. But engineering clearly

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bored him. When did that political fire truly

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ignite? It started burning very quickly, around

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1896 in Nikolaev. And this is another interesting

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nuance. He didn't start as a Marxist. Oh, that's

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interesting. He was initially affiliated with

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the Narodniks. They were these agrarian socialist

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populists who believed Russia's future lay with

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the peasant commune. So what changed his mind?

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His future first wife, Ebiata Sokolovskaya. She

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was a dedicated Marxist, and she was the one

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who converted him to the materialist doctrines

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of scientific socialism. By early 1897, he dropped

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out of his engineering studies completely to

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go organize the South Russian Workers' Union

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in Nikolaev. And organizing meant attracting

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the inevitable attention of the Tsar's secret

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police. That led almost immediately to his first

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major brush with the state. That's the classic

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pattern for a professional revolutionary's life,

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isn't it? In January 1898, he was arrested, along

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with over 200 other union members. Wow. And he

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spent the next two years just waiting for his

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trial in a series of prisons, Nikolaev, Kherson,

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Odessa, and Moscow. These prisons were effectively

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revolutionary universities for him. He's meeting

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other political prisoners, reading. Exactly.

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He's reading crucial texts like Lenin's The Development

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of Capitalism in Russia. After the trial in 1900,

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he was sentenced to four years of administrative

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exile in eastern Siberia, where you really solidify

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his political stance. And the drama of his escape

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also marks the birth of that famous name that

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stuck. It does. Urged on by Alexandra, who he'd

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married in a Moscow prison and who later escaped

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Siberia herself with their two young daughters,

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Trotsky made his own famous escape in the summer

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of 1902. The story is that he was hidden under

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a load of hay on a cart. That's the one. He's

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hidden in the hay. Upon escape, he needed a new

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passport, so he adopted the name Trotsky, reportedly

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the name of a stern jailer he'd encountered back

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in the Odessa prison. That pseudonym stuck for

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the rest of his life. It became his primary identity.

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So he escapes Siberia, makes his way to Western

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Europe, sails to London, and steps directly into

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the inner circle of the fragmented Russian Marxist

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movement. He arrives in London in October 1902,

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and he walks, quite literally, into the heart

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of Russian social democracy. He immediately joins

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the editorial board of ISKR, which means The

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Spark, working alongside the Titans. Georgi Plekhanov,

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Lenin, Julius Martov. And he makes a name for

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himself fast. Immediately. He quickly became

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one of the paper's most eloquent and persuasive

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writers, earning the nickname Perrault, which

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means quill or pen. And the initial reception

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from Lenin was, well, it was ecstatic. How impressed

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was Lenin? We always hear about their later feud,

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but the sources indicate Lenin saw him as a real

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diamond in the rough. Oh, Lenin was deeply impressed,

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which is what makes the later feud so bitter.

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He referred to the 23 -year -old Trotsky as unquestionably

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a man of rare abilities, saying he had conviction

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and energy. He famously predicted Trotsky would

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go much farther. That's high praise. It's more

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than that. Lennon even proposed co -opting the

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young man to the editorial board as a full fifth

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member, a sign of immense political trust and

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respect, especially given Trotsky's age. But

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the seeds of his later tragic downfall were sown

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almost immediately with that famous 1903 schism

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at the second Congress of the RSDLP. This is

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the critical moment. This is where personality

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and ideology just collided. The Congress in London

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sees the party split into the Bolsheviks and

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the Mensheviks. And the conventional wisdom focuses

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on the organizational difference, right? Lenin

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wanting a small, disciplined party, Martov wanting

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a bigger, more inclusive one. Right. Lenin wanted

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the Bolsheviks to be a small, tightly disciplined

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party of professional revolutionaries, while

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Martov wanted the Mensheviks to be a larger,

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more inclusive party that welcomed mere sympathizers.

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But the source material suggests the philosophical

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difference underpinning it was actually deeper.

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It was about the role of the working class itself.

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Exactly. The split was rooted in divergent views

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on revolutionary consciousness. Lenin believed

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consciousness had to be brought to the working

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class by the professional party elite. Marta

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favored a more spontaneous, organic development

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of class consciousness within a broader, more

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open party structure. And Trotsky initially sided

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fiercely with the Mensheviks. He did. He viewed

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Lenin's consciousness of a centralized elite

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party as substitutionism, the idea that the party

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was substituting itself for the working class.

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He actually declared himself non -factional by

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1904 and spent the next decade trying, unsuccessfully,

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to reconcile the two warring groups. And this

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is where that infamous personal feud with Lenin

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begins, one that provides endless toxic ammunition

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for Stalin later on. It became highly personalized

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and astonishingly aggressive. During this period,

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when Trotsky was attacking Lenin's organizational

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principles, Lenin leveled some truly shocking

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personal attacks against him in print and private

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letters. What kind of attacks? He called Trotsky

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Judas, a scoundrel, and even a swine. The intensity

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of that dispute just colored their entire relationship

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until they finally reunited in 1917. Trotsky

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himself later admitted he was wrong to oppose

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Lenin on the issue of strong, centralized party

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organization. Moving on, the next major pivot

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point is the 1905 revolution. This was his first

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taste of real executive power, of revolutionary

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governance. The massacre on Bloody Sunday in

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January 1905, where the Tsarist Guard fired on

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peaceful petitioners in St. Petersburg, it just

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galvanized revolutionary fervor across the country.

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Trotsky secretly returned to Russia in February

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1905, working with underground groups. And this

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was a period of intense ideological development

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for him. Absolutely. While he was briefly hiding

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in rural Finland, he fully articulated his theory

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of permanent revolution, which was based on the

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recognition that the Russian bourgeoisie was

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just too weak to carry out its own revolution.

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So when he returned to the capital in October,

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right in the middle of these massive widespread

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strikes, he encountered the Soviet. Explain to

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us why the St. Petersburg Soviet of workers'

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deputies was so groundbreaking and immediately

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so powerful. It was a spontaneous, radical organizational

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innovation. The Soviet was an elected, non -party,

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mass body that represented the striking workers

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of the capital. It was initially conceived by

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the Mensheviks, but Trotsky just rapidly ascended

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the ranks. He became the leader. He joined as

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deputy, was elected vice chairman, and then after

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the chairman was arrested, Trotsky took over.

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This gave him direct executive and symbolic leadership

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over the revolutionary working class of the Russian

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capital right at the height of the 1905 uprising.

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And his leadership was immediately provocative.

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He issued a proclamation that directly attacked

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the economic stability of the Tsarist regime.

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The most famous act of the Soviet under his chairmanship

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was the proclamation about Tsarist government

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debts. On December 2nd, the Soviet essentially

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declared the Tsarist government bankrupt. What

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did it say? It said they would not allow the

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repayment of such loans as had been made by the

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Tsarist government when openly engaged in a war

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with the entire people. This wasn't just rhetoric.

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It was a profound economic challenge. It directly

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jeopardized the regime's standing with international

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financiers in Paris and London, and it triggered

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the final violent crackdown. Which was swift.

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The very next day. December 3, 1905, government

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troops arrested the Soviet deputies en masse.

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Trotsky was convicted of sedition and sentenced

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to indefinite Siberian exile, which led to his

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dramatic second escape in January 1907. So, exiled

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again, he spends the next decade hopping across

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Europe trying to keep the fractured Marxist movement

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alive, right up until the outbreak of World War

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I. He first moved to Vienna in Austria -Hungary

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in 1907. There, he launched his own biweekly

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Russian -language social democratic paper called

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Pravda, which means truth. It was popular, non

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-factional, and successfully smuggled into Russia.

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And this detail is crucial because in 1912, the

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Bolsheviks, under Lenin, deliberately usurped

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the name. They did. They launched their own paper,

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also called Pravda, instantly creating another

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deep point of friction and resentment with Trotsky

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that Stalin could and would later weaponize.

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The sources also mention his failed attempt to

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reconcile the factions in 1912. Yes, the August

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block of 1912 was his big comprehensive effort

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to unify the warring Bolshevik and Menshevik

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factions. But it was ultimately unsuccessful.

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He just... deeply underestimated Lenin's absolute

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commitment to organizational separation and the

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bloc collapsed quickly. And then the war breaks

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out. When World War I broke out in 1914, he was

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forced to flee Vienna for neutral Switzerland.

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The war also split the RSDLP between defeatists

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like Lenin and Trotsky, who opposed the imperialist

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war, and defensists like Plekhanov, who supported

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their nation's war efforts. His outspoken internationalist

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anti -war stance made him a dangerous figure

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for every European government. It ultimately

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led him all the way to the U .S. Right. He worked

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as a war correspondent in France, publishing

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a paper called Nachoslovo, our word, in Paris.

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But he was deported in September 1916 for his

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anti -war activities, first to Spain and then

00:12:36.659 --> 00:12:38.799
unwillingly to the United States. He was in the

00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:40.960
Bronx. He lived briefly in the Bronx, working

00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:43.960
for the socialist newspaper Novumir. He was there

00:12:43.960 --> 00:12:46.580
when the February Revolution of 1917 deposed

00:12:46.580 --> 00:12:48.759
the Tsar, and he left immediately to go back.

00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:51.679
And his journey back to Russia provided that

00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:54.399
famous anecdote, the Canadian Detour. The sources

00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:57.120
describe his month -long detention at the Amherst

00:12:57.120 --> 00:12:59.419
internment camp in Nova Scotia. It's an incredible

00:12:59.419 --> 00:13:02.360
story that just speaks to his relentless, almost

00:13:02.360 --> 00:13:06.679
manic charismatic energy. His ship, the SS Christiani

00:13:06.679 --> 00:13:08.940
of Shored, was intercepted by the Royal Navy.

00:13:09.309 --> 00:13:11.509
The British detained him as a German -aligned

00:13:11.509 --> 00:13:12.929
troublemaker. And what does he do in the camp?

00:13:13.190 --> 00:13:15.970
He immediately starts agitating. He's organizing

00:13:15.970 --> 00:13:17.909
among the workers and sailors who were part of

00:13:17.909 --> 00:13:20.870
the 800 German inmates. He famously described

00:13:20.870 --> 00:13:23.850
his month there as one continual mass meeting.

00:13:24.139 --> 00:13:26.600
The audacity is remarkable. He's organizing the

00:13:26.600 --> 00:13:29.940
enemy aliens against their captors? He was. And

00:13:29.940 --> 00:13:31.919
the sources say his political speeches were so

00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:34.460
effective that they sometimes angered the German

00:13:34.460 --> 00:13:36.980
inmates themselves, many of whom were conservative

00:13:36.980 --> 00:13:40.220
merchants and officers who hated socialism. They

00:13:40.220 --> 00:13:42.659
complained to the camp commander about the Russian

00:13:42.659 --> 00:13:46.500
agitator. How did he get out? He was only released

00:13:46.500 --> 00:13:48.820
after intense diplomatic pressure from the newly

00:13:48.820 --> 00:13:51.940
formed Petrograd Soviet, which demanded the freedom

00:13:51.940 --> 00:13:54.700
of a fellow Russian citizen. It was a perfect

00:13:54.700 --> 00:13:56.840
demonstration of his powerful oratory skills

00:13:56.840 --> 00:13:59.539
in action. He finally arrived back in Petrograd

00:13:59.539 --> 00:14:03.620
in May 1917. The crucial step now was his long

00:14:03.620 --> 00:14:05.480
-awaited alignment with the Bolsheviks. Yes.

00:14:05.659 --> 00:14:09.159
Upon arrival, he joined the Mezryansi, an organization

00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:11.860
of non -factional socialists, which formally

00:14:11.860 --> 00:14:14.820
merged with the Bolsheviks in August 1917. His

00:14:14.820 --> 00:14:16.879
political influence just exploded. He's arrested,

00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:20.409
released. Right. After the failed July Days uprising,

00:14:20.629 --> 00:14:23.610
he was briefly arrested, but his release coincided

00:14:23.610 --> 00:14:25.710
with the failed Kornilov counter -revolutionary

00:14:25.710 --> 00:14:29.450
uprising. And by October 1917, he was once again

00:14:29.450 --> 00:14:32.190
elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, which

00:14:32.190 --> 00:14:34.909
perfectly positioned him to direct the armed

00:14:34.909 --> 00:14:36.990
uprising that was about to launch the Bolsheviks

00:14:36.990 --> 00:14:39.590
into power. And this is where we find the ultimate

00:14:39.590 --> 00:14:42.299
historical endorsement. confirming his centrality

00:14:42.299 --> 00:14:44.899
to the revolution's success, an endorsement that

00:14:44.899 --> 00:14:47.840
naturally was later completely erased by the

00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:49.980
author himself. The source material provides

00:14:49.980 --> 00:14:52.779
a deeply revealing quote from Joseph Stalin of

00:14:52.779 --> 00:14:55.820
all people. It was published in Pravda on November

00:14:55.820 --> 00:14:58.980
6th, 1918, a year after the seizure of power.

00:14:59.159 --> 00:15:02.240
What did Stalin say? He said all practical work

00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:04.299
in connection with the organization of the uprising

00:15:04.299 --> 00:15:07.019
was done under the immediate direction of Comrade

00:15:07.019 --> 00:15:09.100
Trotsky, the president of the Petrograd Soviet.

00:15:09.690 --> 00:15:11.830
It can be stated with certainty that the party

00:15:11.830 --> 00:15:14.269
is indebted primarily and principally to Comrade

00:15:14.269 --> 00:15:16.909
Trotsky for the rapid going over of the garrison

00:15:16.909 --> 00:15:19.230
to the side of the Soviet and the efficient manner

00:15:19.230 --> 00:15:21.389
in which the work of the Military Revolutionary

00:15:21.389 --> 00:15:23.529
Committee was organized. That is the ultimate

00:15:23.529 --> 00:15:26.129
acknowledgement. It confirms that he was, at

00:15:26.129 --> 00:15:28.350
that critical moment, unquestionably the second

00:15:28.350 --> 00:15:30.769
most powerful and most strategically vital man

00:15:30.769 --> 00:15:34.019
after Lenin. The fact that passage was quickly

00:15:34.019 --> 00:15:36.399
expunged from later editions of Stalin's works

00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:39.340
just underscores the systematic historical rewriting

00:15:39.340 --> 00:15:41.769
that was about to come. So the success of the

00:15:41.769 --> 00:15:44.710
October Revolution launches Trotsky into executive

00:15:44.710 --> 00:15:49.190
power. And his first role was pure revolutionary

00:15:49.190 --> 00:15:51.710
provocation on the world stage. As the People's

00:15:51.710 --> 00:15:53.789
Commissar for Foreign Affairs, his first cabinet

00:15:53.789 --> 00:15:57.230
post, he literally blew up the established diplomatic

00:15:57.230 --> 00:15:59.909
world order. His first critical act was publishing

00:15:59.909 --> 00:16:02.429
the Triple Entente secret treaties, including

00:16:02.429 --> 00:16:04.950
the Sykes -Picot Agreement on November 23rd,

00:16:04.950 --> 00:16:08.090
1917. These documents revealed the imperialist

00:16:08.090 --> 00:16:10.850
plans of Britain and France to carve up territories

00:16:10.850 --> 00:16:13.450
after the war. Secret agreements that totally

00:16:13.450 --> 00:16:15.590
contradicted the democratic rhetoric of the Allied

00:16:15.590 --> 00:16:19.669
powers. Exactly. This revelation caused immense

00:16:19.669 --> 00:16:22.210
embarrassment. It destabilized Allied governments

00:16:22.210 --> 00:16:25.649
and it achieved a massive, instantaneous propaganda

00:16:25.649 --> 00:16:29.149
victory for the Bolsheviks. Trotsky famously

00:16:29.149 --> 00:16:31.629
declared that upon taking the post, he would

00:16:31.629 --> 00:16:34.029
issue a few revolutionary proclamations to the

00:16:34.029 --> 00:16:36.389
peoples of the world and then shut up shop. But

00:16:36.389 --> 00:16:38.490
his diplomatic career quickly led straight into

00:16:38.490 --> 00:16:40.730
the biggest immediate crisis facing the newborn

00:16:40.730 --> 00:16:44.269
Soviet state, the Treaty of Brest -Litovsk, negotiating

00:16:44.269 --> 00:16:47.009
peace with the Central Powers, Germany and Austria

00:16:47.009 --> 00:16:49.669
-Hungary. The military situation was desperate.

00:16:49.850 --> 00:16:52.590
The old Russian army had just dissolved and the

00:16:52.590 --> 00:16:54.889
German military was advancing almost unopposed.

00:16:55.389 --> 00:16:57.990
This created a massive internal policy conflict

00:16:57.990 --> 00:17:00.730
within the Bolshevik Central Committee. It was

00:17:00.730 --> 00:17:02.429
a struggle between three distinct positions.

00:17:02.769 --> 00:17:04.789
Okay, let's lay out those three positions clearly

00:17:04.789 --> 00:17:07.250
because it really defines the early ideological

00:17:07.250 --> 00:17:11.009
fault lines. Okay. First, you had Lenin. He prioritized

00:17:11.009 --> 00:17:13.410
survival and immediate peace at almost any cost,

00:17:13.569 --> 00:17:15.970
recognizing the military impotence of the new

00:17:15.970 --> 00:17:18.650
state. Pragmatism above all. Second, you had

00:17:18.650 --> 00:17:20.970
the left communists led by Nikolai Bukharin.

00:17:21.049 --> 00:17:23.490
They were furious at the thought of peace. They

00:17:23.490 --> 00:17:26.190
advocated for a revolutionary war, believing

00:17:26.190 --> 00:17:27.970
the revolution had to be exported immediately

00:17:27.970 --> 00:17:30.509
and that no peace was possible with capitalist

00:17:30.509 --> 00:17:33.369
empires. They were willing to sacrifice the Soviet

00:17:33.369 --> 00:17:35.369
state for the purity of the global revolution.

00:17:35.710 --> 00:17:39.849
And then Trotsky carved out his own famous impossible

00:17:39.849 --> 00:17:44.049
to maintain middle path, the strategy of no war,

00:17:44.190 --> 00:17:47.319
no peace. It was strategically brilliant. if

00:17:47.319 --> 00:17:50.019
ultimately doomed. Trotsky understood that the

00:17:50.019 --> 00:17:52.559
old army couldn't fight, but he also agreed with

00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:55.339
the left communists that signing this devastatingly

00:17:55.339 --> 00:17:57.839
humiliating peace treaty would demoralize the

00:17:57.839 --> 00:18:00.980
masses. And revive suspicions of Bolshevik German

00:18:00.980 --> 00:18:03.380
collusion. Right. So his proposal was to announce

00:18:03.380 --> 00:18:05.539
the termination of the war and demobilization

00:18:05.539 --> 00:18:07.880
of the army without actually signing the treaty.

00:18:08.269 --> 00:18:10.750
The idea was to put the fate of occupied territories

00:18:10.750 --> 00:18:13.750
like Poland and the Baltic provinces on the conscience

00:18:13.750 --> 00:18:16.329
of the German and Austrian working people. He

00:18:16.329 --> 00:18:18.230
was gambling that Germany was too internally

00:18:18.230 --> 00:18:20.690
unstable to resume fighting. It was a gamble

00:18:20.690 --> 00:18:23.690
he lost, decisively proving Lenin right about

00:18:23.690 --> 00:18:26.730
the need for immediate painful peace. Unfortunately,

00:18:26.789 --> 00:18:30.519
yes. Germany resumed military operations on February

00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:34.359
18, 1918. Their detachments easily routed the

00:18:34.359 --> 00:18:36.859
disorganized Red Guard forces. And though Trotsky

00:18:36.859 --> 00:18:38.880
personally abstained from the final Central Committee

00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:42.180
vote, his policy had failed in spectacular fashion.

00:18:42.380 --> 00:18:46.109
So Lenin's position prevailed. It did. Lenin's

00:18:46.109 --> 00:18:48.529
position to accept the harsher German terms prevailed

00:18:48.529 --> 00:18:51.170
by a vote of seven to four. Because Trotsky was

00:18:51.170 --> 00:18:53.490
so closely associated with no war, no peace,

00:18:53.710 --> 00:18:55.869
he resigned as commissar for foreign affairs

00:18:55.869 --> 00:18:59.049
in March 1918, just before the treaty was signed.

00:18:59.329 --> 00:19:01.829
That probably saved his political career, even

00:19:01.829 --> 00:19:03.869
if it wounded his pride. And this diplomatic

00:19:03.869 --> 00:19:06.329
failure led directly to his greatest historical

00:19:06.329 --> 00:19:08.869
contribution. building and commanding the Red

00:19:08.869 --> 00:19:11.670
Aki. He became People's Commissar of Army and

00:19:11.670 --> 00:19:14.269
Navy Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary

00:19:14.269 --> 00:19:16.769
Military Council. This was Trotsky's monumental,

00:19:17.130 --> 00:19:19.569
career -defining role. The key challenge was

00:19:19.569 --> 00:19:21.829
that the Civil War, which was about to explode

00:19:21.829 --> 00:19:24.309
on 16 fronts against organized white armies,

00:19:24.430 --> 00:19:26.869
Cossacks, and foreign interventionists, it couldn't

00:19:26.869 --> 00:19:28.910
be won with just revolutionary enthusiasm and

00:19:28.910 --> 00:19:31.549
elected officers. The opposition he faced from

00:19:31.549 --> 00:19:34.049
within his own party was fierce. Oh, absolutely.

00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:37.700
The existing Bolshevik military leadership, including

00:19:37.700 --> 00:19:40.099
the former Defense Commissar Nikolai Podvoisky,

00:19:40.200 --> 00:19:43.180
vehemently protested his appointment and resigned.

00:19:43.619 --> 00:19:45.779
They believe the Red Army should only consist

00:19:45.779 --> 00:19:48.599
of dedicated revolutionaries, rely on propaganda,

00:19:48.880 --> 00:19:52.180
and have elected officers. But Trotsky realized

00:19:52.180 --> 00:19:55.299
those ideals were a recipe for military annihilation.

00:19:55.460 --> 00:19:57.839
He just shredded them in favor of ruthless efficiency

00:19:57.839 --> 00:20:00.880
and military necessity. Precisely. He was facing

00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:03.200
professional armies. He understood that in that

00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:05.559
moment, ideology was secondary to organization.

00:20:05.980 --> 00:20:09.140
The Red Army swelled from under 300 ,000 in May

00:20:09.140 --> 00:20:13.660
1918 to 3 million by mid -1919. And this expansion

00:20:13.660 --> 00:20:17.019
relied on controversial draconian methods. Mass

00:20:17.019 --> 00:20:19.259
conscription, fierce discipline backed by summary

00:20:19.259 --> 00:20:21.859
execution for desertion, and mandatory reliance

00:20:21.859 --> 00:20:24.380
on military specialists, some 50 ,000 former

00:20:24.380 --> 00:20:26.700
czarist officers. Using czarist officers was

00:20:26.700 --> 00:20:28.500
pragmatic, but it must have been revolutionary

00:20:28.500 --> 00:20:31.579
heresy to the hardliners. How did the political

00:20:31.579 --> 00:20:33.400
commissar system, which sounds like an awkward

00:20:33.400 --> 00:20:35.759
compromise, actually work to integrate this expertise?

00:20:35.940 --> 00:20:38.440
Was it just fear, or did it effectively integrate

00:20:38.440 --> 00:20:42.160
their skills? It was a fascinating blend of pragmatism

00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:45.329
and political control. The Tsarist officers were

00:20:45.329 --> 00:20:49.009
supervised 247 by political commissars who had

00:20:49.009 --> 00:20:51.809
to co -sign all of their orders. This gave the

00:20:51.809 --> 00:20:53.930
specialists the necessary technical freedom to

00:20:53.930 --> 00:20:56.269
command while the commissars ensured their loyalty

00:20:56.269 --> 00:20:58.769
to the Soviet cause. And Trotsky defended this.

00:20:58.950 --> 00:21:01.509
He did. He later argued he had no other bricks

00:21:01.509 --> 00:21:04.250
to build the army, as Lenin later agreed. This

00:21:04.250 --> 00:21:06.569
system was constantly challenged by Bolshevik

00:21:06.569 --> 00:21:08.470
hardliners who formed the military opposition

00:21:08.470 --> 00:21:12.210
in 1918 -1919. They viewed it as a total betrayal

00:21:12.210 --> 00:21:14.470
of revolutionary principle. He also deployed

00:21:14.470 --> 00:21:17.049
extremely controversial measures like hostage

00:21:17.049 --> 00:21:19.809
taking to prevent defections measures that mirror

00:21:19.809 --> 00:21:22.269
the methods of his future executioner. The sources

00:21:22.269 --> 00:21:24.930
confirm this. He authorized holding relatives

00:21:24.930 --> 00:21:27.450
of ex -Saurus officials in the Red Army hostage

00:21:27.450 --> 00:21:30.130
to deter betrayal, particularly on the Eastern

00:21:30.130 --> 00:21:32.490
Front. While this dark practice was deployed

00:21:32.490 --> 00:21:35.309
by both red and white armies, Trotsky later defended

00:21:35.309 --> 00:21:37.670
it. What was his justification? He argued that

00:21:37.670 --> 00:21:40.210
no families of betraying ex -officials were actually

00:21:40.210 --> 00:21:43.210
executed and that such draconian deterrence,

00:21:43.289 --> 00:21:45.970
if adopted earlier, would have reduced overall

00:21:45.970 --> 00:21:48.250
Civil War casualties by shortening the conflict.

00:21:48.670 --> 00:21:51.470
He was operating on a purely utilitarian calculation

00:21:51.470 --> 00:21:54.710
of maximum efficiency in a total war scenario.

00:21:55.210 --> 00:21:57.690
The Civil War period is also inextricably linked

00:21:57.690 --> 00:22:00.950
with the Red Terror. How did Trotsky, the intellectual,

00:22:01.170 --> 00:22:03.369
offer a justification for that period of mass

00:22:03.369 --> 00:22:05.809
repression? The Red Terror was officially enacted

00:22:05.809 --> 00:22:08.329
after the assassination of the Petrograd Cheka

00:22:08.329 --> 00:22:10.970
leader, Moisei Yuritsky, the party editor, V.

00:22:11.170 --> 00:22:13.529
Volodarsky, and the assassination attempt on

00:22:13.529 --> 00:22:16.809
Lenin in August 1918. But the Bolsheviks also

00:22:16.809 --> 00:22:19.069
cited early white army massacres as context.

00:22:19.609 --> 00:22:21.829
Trotsky viewed the terror as a necessary historical

00:22:21.829 --> 00:22:24.829
counterterror deployed to defend the revolution's

00:22:24.829 --> 00:22:27.349
very existence. And he offered a purely utilitarian,

00:22:27.470 --> 00:22:29.869
cold -blooded justification for it in his 1920

00:22:29.869 --> 00:22:33.430
work Terrorism and Communism. He did. He argued

00:22:33.430 --> 00:22:35.589
that the Red Terror was a necessary weapon deployed

00:22:35.589 --> 00:22:38.410
against a doomed class that was fighting desperately

00:22:38.410 --> 00:22:41.680
to survive and does not wish to perish. This

00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:43.880
wasn't just pragmatic, it was an ideological

00:22:43.880 --> 00:22:46.779
defense of state violence. He claimed that while

00:22:46.779 --> 00:22:49.039
the white terror could only temporarily retard

00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:52.059
the rise of the proletariat, the red terror would

00:22:52.059 --> 00:22:54.680
hasten the destruction of the bourgeoisie as

00:22:54.680 --> 00:22:57.410
a class. It really represents the hardening of

00:22:57.410 --> 00:22:59.670
his political thought under the extreme pressure

00:22:59.670 --> 00:23:02.250
of the Civil War. Yet, even as he was winning

00:23:02.250 --> 00:23:04.750
the war, his internal conflicts, especially with

00:23:04.750 --> 00:23:07.450
Stalin, were accelerating, foreshadowing the

00:23:07.450 --> 00:23:10.230
coming succession struggle. The two clashed fiercely

00:23:10.230 --> 00:23:12.849
in late 1918 over command appointments on the

00:23:12.849 --> 00:23:14.930
Southern Front. This was a conflict where Stalin

00:23:14.930 --> 00:23:17.890
showed his ruthless disregard for military specialists,

00:23:18.190 --> 00:23:20.829
some of whom he allegedly imprisoned on a barge

00:23:20.829 --> 00:23:23.730
and then sunk. And Trotsky won that fight. Crucially.

00:23:24.119 --> 00:23:27.180
Yes, Trotsky succeeded in reversing Stalin's

00:23:27.180 --> 00:23:29.880
unauthorized command decisions. A year later,

00:23:29.920 --> 00:23:33.079
in October 1919, when General Yudinich approached

00:23:33.079 --> 00:23:35.799
Petrograd, Lenin was prepared to abandon the

00:23:35.799 --> 00:23:37.940
city to concentrate forces for the defense of

00:23:37.940 --> 00:23:41.259
Moscow. Trotsky argued passionately and successfully

00:23:41.259 --> 00:23:43.720
for defending Petrograd, prevailed in the Central

00:23:43.720 --> 00:23:46.240
Committee, and saved the city, earning the Order

00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:48.259
of the Red Banner for it. But his aggressive

00:23:48.259 --> 00:23:50.759
organizing tendencies led to further clashes

00:23:50.759 --> 00:23:52.900
in the post -war period regarding the structure

00:23:52.900 --> 00:23:55.259
of the economy and labor. With the Civil War

00:23:55.259 --> 00:23:58.180
winding down in late 1919, attention shifted

00:23:58.180 --> 00:24:00.880
to the devastated economy. And what's fascinating

00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:03.240
here is that Trotsky showed surprising economic

00:24:03.240 --> 00:24:07.039
foresight. In early 1920, he proposed abandoning

00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:09.559
the harsh war communism policies, specifically

00:24:09.559 --> 00:24:12.259
grain confiscation and partially restoring the

00:24:12.259 --> 00:24:14.839
grain market. A proposal Lenin rejected. Lenin

00:24:14.839 --> 00:24:17.119
rejected it, only to adopt those same principles

00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:20.000
later under the new economic policy. or NEP.

00:24:20.259 --> 00:24:23.039
So on economic reform, Trotsky was actually ahead

00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:25.500
of the curve. The Polish Soviet war in 1920 was

00:24:25.500 --> 00:24:27.180
another moment of internal friction where his

00:24:27.180 --> 00:24:30.539
caution was overruled. Yes. Lenin and others

00:24:30.539 --> 00:24:32.740
believed the Red Army's successes meant they

00:24:32.740 --> 00:24:35.380
could export the revolution into Europe. They

00:24:35.380 --> 00:24:38.180
overruled Trotsky's call for a quick peace, believing

00:24:38.180 --> 00:24:40.680
they had a revolutionary obligation to launch

00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:42.980
an offensive to carry the revolution to Poland

00:24:42.980 --> 00:24:45.930
and beyond. Which ended in disaster. The subsequent

00:24:45.930 --> 00:24:48.069
devastating defeat at the Battle of Warsaw was

00:24:48.069 --> 00:24:50.890
a massive blow, forcing them to sign a painful

00:24:50.890 --> 00:24:53.849
peace treaty again, confirming Trotsky's earlier

00:24:53.849 --> 00:24:56.250
strategic caution. The last great debate before

00:24:56.250 --> 00:24:58.950
Lenin's final illness was the trade union debate,

00:24:59.190 --> 00:25:02.049
and this highlights his most controversial authoritarian

00:25:02.049 --> 00:25:05.569
tendencies regarding labor organization. It does.

00:25:06.130 --> 00:25:08.769
Trotsky advocated the militarization of labor.

00:25:08.950 --> 00:25:11.190
He argued that trade unions should be integrated

00:25:11.190 --> 00:25:14.049
directly into the state apparatus, treating workers

00:25:14.049 --> 00:25:16.690
essentially as soldiers of labor under strict

00:25:16.690 --> 00:25:19.609
discipline to rebuild the economy. A deeply unpopular

00:25:19.609 --> 00:25:23.230
policy. Very. And Lenin sharply disagreed. He

00:25:23.230 --> 00:25:25.190
argued unions should retain some independence

00:25:25.190 --> 00:25:28.170
as schools of communism, teaching workers state

00:25:28.170 --> 00:25:30.769
administration and self -governance. Lenin's

00:25:30.769 --> 00:25:33.089
view won at the Tenth Party Congress in 1921.

00:25:33.549 --> 00:25:36.349
And finally, his instrumental role in suppressing

00:25:36.349 --> 00:25:38.609
the Kronstadt Rebellion, an act that defined

00:25:38.609 --> 00:25:41.369
his role as both savior and destroyer of democratic

00:25:41.369 --> 00:25:44.809
ideals. The Kronstadt Rebellion in March 1921

00:25:44.809 --> 00:25:47.529
saw sailors and soldiers at the naval base revolt.

00:25:48.089 --> 00:25:51.089
They demanded democratic reforms, free elections

00:25:51.089 --> 00:25:53.890
to the Soviets, and an end to one -party rule.

00:25:54.480 --> 00:25:57.000
As commissar of war, Trotsky was instrumental

00:25:57.000 --> 00:25:58.960
in ordering the successful violent suppression

00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:01.420
of the rebellion by the Red Army. Resulting in

00:26:01.420 --> 00:26:04.380
thousands of deaths and executions. Yes. This

00:26:04.380 --> 00:26:06.799
was a direct, brutal confrontation between the

00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:09.279
party and those who upheld the revolution's early

00:26:09.279 --> 00:26:12.640
ideals. Anarchists like Emma Goldman accused

00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:14.480
him of betraying the revolution's democratic

00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:17.220
promise. This incredible duality really defines

00:26:17.220 --> 00:26:19.460
his time in power, making him such a complex

00:26:19.460 --> 00:26:22.559
historical figure. The historian Vladimir Cherniev

00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:25.000
summarizes this dark contradiction in a very

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:27.779
sobering critique. Cherniev states that Trotsky

00:26:27.779 --> 00:26:30.700
bears a great deal of responsibility both for

00:26:30.700 --> 00:26:32.819
the victory of the Red Army and the Civil War

00:26:32.819 --> 00:26:35.759
and for the establishment of a one -party authoritarian

00:26:35.759 --> 00:26:39.240
state with its apparatus for ruthlessly suppressing

00:26:39.240 --> 00:26:42.559
dissent. This includes being an ideologist and

00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:45.099
practitioner of the Red Terror, the initiator

00:26:45.099 --> 00:26:47.619
of forced labor camps, and promoting summary

00:26:47.619 --> 00:26:50.640
executions. Practices that later became the standard

00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:53.500
monstrous operating procedure under Stalin. He

00:26:53.500 --> 00:26:55.759
created the very machinery that would later hunt

00:26:55.759 --> 00:26:58.759
and destroy him. Exactly. Yet the sources also

00:26:58.759 --> 00:27:00.900
stress that without Trotsky's unique ability

00:27:00.900 --> 00:27:02.900
to blend revolutionary zeal with the pragmatic

00:27:02.900 --> 00:27:05.599
use of military specialists and his capacity

00:27:05.599 --> 00:27:08.359
for swift, determined action, the Bolsheviks

00:27:08.359 --> 00:27:09.900
would almost certainly have lost this. Civil

00:27:09.900 --> 00:27:12.579
War within a year. It's impossible to discuss

00:27:12.579 --> 00:27:14.579
his contributions without acknowledging that

00:27:14.579 --> 00:27:17.839
fatal contradiction. By late 1921, Trotsky stood

00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:19.920
at the peak of his career. He was number two

00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:22.000
in the government, a founding Politburo member,

00:27:22.119 --> 00:27:25.019
and the hero who saved the revolution. But the

00:27:25.019 --> 00:27:26.920
political ground was already shifting, primarily

00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:29.400
because of Lenin's failing health, which began

00:27:29.400 --> 00:27:31.839
this dangerous vacuum of power. Lenin suffered

00:27:31.839 --> 00:27:35.319
his first stroke in May 1922, and his health

00:27:35.319 --> 00:27:37.859
just slowly declined until his death in January

00:27:37.859 --> 00:27:41.619
1924. This deterioration created a political

00:27:41.619 --> 00:27:44.640
vacuum that was filled not by revolutionary merit,

00:27:44.740 --> 00:27:47.960
but by administrative maneuvering and conspiracy.

00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:50.940
That's the critical dynamic. Joseph Stalin, who

00:27:50.940 --> 00:27:53.440
had just been elevated to the brand new administrative

00:27:53.440 --> 00:27:55.539
position of Central Committee General Secretary

00:27:55.539 --> 00:27:59.259
in April 1922, a position nobody yet understood

00:27:59.259 --> 00:28:02.380
to be the fulcrum of power, immediately formed

00:28:02.380 --> 00:28:04.660
a triumvirate. The Troika. The Troika. Yeah.

00:28:04.700 --> 00:28:07.670
With Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev. And their

00:28:07.670 --> 00:28:10.769
explicit, singular mission was to prevent Trotsky,

00:28:10.930 --> 00:28:13.710
who was widely considered Lenin's heir presumptive,

00:28:13.730 --> 00:28:16.349
from succeeding him. Why was the Troika so fixated

00:28:16.349 --> 00:28:18.569
on stopping Trotsky? Was it purely ideological

00:28:18.569 --> 00:28:20.710
or was there deep -seated resentment? It was

00:28:20.710 --> 00:28:23.029
a mixture of both. Trotsky was immensely popular

00:28:23.029 --> 00:28:25.029
with the younger generation and the Red Army,

00:28:25.150 --> 00:28:27.309
but he was disliked by many old Bolsheviks for

00:28:27.309 --> 00:28:29.569
his abrasive personality, his perceived arrogance,

00:28:29.809 --> 00:28:32.609
and his constant non -factional maneuvering before

00:28:32.609 --> 00:28:35.289
1917. And the Troika exploited that resentment.

00:28:35.670 --> 00:28:39.660
They did. They used the secretariat to cut Trotsky

00:28:39.660 --> 00:28:42.740
off from decision -making, deliberately withholding

00:28:42.740 --> 00:28:45.079
information and scheduling Politburo meetings

00:28:45.079 --> 00:28:48.359
when he was ill or away. But Lenin tried to intervene.

00:28:48.700 --> 00:28:52.200
He foresaw the catastrophic danger posed by this

00:28:52.200 --> 00:28:55.160
rising bureaucracy centered around Stalin's secretariat.

00:28:55.339 --> 00:28:57.880
That is the pivotal missed opportunity in Soviet

00:28:57.880 --> 00:29:02.480
history. In late 1922, Lenin began to ally strategically

00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:05.519
with Trotsky against Stalin over crucial issues,

00:29:05.700 --> 00:29:08.559
like preserving the foreign trade monopoly and

00:29:08.559 --> 00:29:10.740
opposing Stalin's brutal handling of the Georgian

00:29:10.740 --> 00:29:12.940
affair. Lenin actually wrote to Stalin about

00:29:12.940 --> 00:29:15.200
it. He did. He wrote to Stalin stating he had

00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:17.180
come to an arrangement with Trotsky to stand

00:29:17.180 --> 00:29:19.920
up for my views on the trade monopoly, confirming

00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:21.759
that he trusted Trotsky over the rest of the

00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:24.799
leadership on key policy matters. And Lenin also

00:29:24.799 --> 00:29:27.180
explicitly offered Trotsky the position that

00:29:27.180 --> 00:29:29.319
might have secured his future, but Trotsky refused

00:29:29.319 --> 00:29:31.619
it. This gets right to the core of his political

00:29:31.619 --> 00:29:36.420
flaw. Yes. On September 11, 1922, Lenin proposed

00:29:36.420 --> 00:29:38.720
that Trotsky should become his deputy at the

00:29:38.720 --> 00:29:41.220
Council of People's Commissars, the Sovnorkom.

00:29:41.640 --> 00:29:44.799
Many historians interpret this as Lenin subtly

00:29:44.799 --> 00:29:47.140
designating Trotsky his successor as head of

00:29:47.140 --> 00:29:49.960
government. But Trotsky categorically refused.

00:29:50.359 --> 00:29:52.559
If Lenin had laid the political path for him,

00:29:52.660 --> 00:29:55.000
why did Trotsky, the great strategist, fail to

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:57.900
execute these basic political steps? Was he too

00:29:57.900 --> 00:30:00.480
much the theorist? to be a successful politician?

00:30:00.819 --> 00:30:02.960
The sources offer multiple possible reasons,

00:30:03.180 --> 00:30:05.619
all of which point to a lack of political acumen

00:30:05.619 --> 00:30:08.259
in the context of bureaucratic infighting. One

00:30:08.259 --> 00:30:10.319
interpretation, based on the notes of Politburo

00:30:10.319 --> 00:30:13.440
Secretary Boris Bozinov, suggests Trotsky declined

00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:15.859
because he feared his Jewish origins would be

00:30:15.859 --> 00:30:18.039
exploited to fuel anti -Semitic attitudes towards

00:30:18.039 --> 00:30:20.259
the Soviet Union. Damaging the state during a

00:30:20.259 --> 00:30:22.500
sensitive transition. Right. Others argue it

00:30:22.500 --> 00:30:25.119
was intellectual arrogance. He simply disdained

00:30:25.119 --> 00:30:27.180
the mundane administrative work of running the

00:30:27.180 --> 00:30:29.359
state, preferring to focus on intellectual debates

00:30:29.359 --> 00:30:31.839
and military strategy. Whatever the specific

00:30:31.839 --> 00:30:33.940
motivation, the historian Mark McCauley noted

00:30:33.940 --> 00:30:36.400
it was lamentable lack of political judgment

00:30:36.400 --> 00:30:38.900
at the crucial moment. Then came the famous testament,

00:30:39.039 --> 00:30:41.500
which the Troika successfully suppressed after

00:30:41.500 --> 00:30:45.549
Lenin's death in January 1924. In January 1923,

00:30:45.809 --> 00:30:49.069
days before his final stroke, Lenin dictated

00:30:49.069 --> 00:30:51.730
an amendment to his testament. It recommended

00:30:51.730 --> 00:30:54.269
Stalin's removal as general secretary due to

00:30:54.269 --> 00:30:56.890
his rudeness and excessive power, while also

00:30:56.890 --> 00:31:00.210
mildly criticizing Trotsky for excessive self

00:31:00.210 --> 00:31:03.670
-assurance. And Lenin asked Trotsky to act. He

00:31:03.670 --> 00:31:06.349
asked Trotsky to denounce Stalin's great Russian

00:31:06.349 --> 00:31:09.369
nationalistic campaign at the upcoming 12th Party

00:31:09.369 --> 00:31:12.390
Congress. So why did Trotsky, armed with Lenin's

00:31:12.390 --> 00:31:14.130
direct support and the potentially explosive

00:31:14.130 --> 00:31:17.250
testament, remain silent at the 12th Party Congress?

00:31:17.609 --> 00:31:19.410
This is perhaps his greatest tactical failure.

00:31:19.990 --> 00:31:23.230
At the Congress in April 1923, Trotsky did not

00:31:23.230 --> 00:31:24.849
raise the issue of the testament or directly

00:31:24.849 --> 00:31:27.529
confront the Troika. He later claimed he refused

00:31:27.529 --> 00:31:30.690
to deliver a report because it seemed to me equivalent

00:31:30.690 --> 00:31:33.089
to announcing my candidacy for the role of Lenin's

00:31:33.089 --> 00:31:35.329
successor at a time when Lenin was fighting a

00:31:35.329 --> 00:31:37.609
grave illness, which he viewed as inappropriate.

00:31:38.250 --> 00:31:40.509
This extreme political caution, or perhaps his

00:31:40.509 --> 00:31:42.529
characteristic intellectual disdain for petty

00:31:42.529 --> 00:31:44.849
factional fighting, allowed the Troika to win.

00:31:45.029 --> 00:31:47.650
It did. They controlled the Congress delegates,

00:31:47.930 --> 00:31:50.950
adopted vague resolutions on democracy that were

00:31:50.950 --> 00:31:53.789
never implemented, and effectively sealed their

00:31:53.789 --> 00:31:56.569
control over the party apparatus. After Lenin's

00:31:56.569 --> 00:31:59.609
death in January 1924 and the Troika's successful

00:31:59.609 --> 00:32:02.210
suppression of the Testament, Trotsky finally

00:32:02.210 --> 00:32:05.029
launched his formal offensive, creating the left

00:32:05.029 --> 00:32:08.329
opposition. His offensive began in mid -1923,

00:32:08.630 --> 00:32:12.089
starked by widespread economic strikes. In October

00:32:12.089 --> 00:32:14.390
1923, Trotsky wrote a sharp letter to the Central

00:32:14.390 --> 00:32:16.190
Committee, followed by the broader Declaration

00:32:16.190 --> 00:32:19.509
of 46. These documents condemned the rise of

00:32:19.509 --> 00:32:21.750
the secretarial hierarchy and the total loss

00:32:21.750 --> 00:32:24.210
of internal party democracy. A critique that

00:32:24.210 --> 00:32:26.670
was politically prophetic. Absolutely. But the

00:32:26.670 --> 00:32:28.910
apparatus, controlled by Stalin's secretariat,

00:32:29.069 --> 00:32:31.849
immediately fought back, not on policy, but by

00:32:31.849 --> 00:32:34.509
inventing the label Trotskyism. They manufactured

00:32:34.509 --> 00:32:37.539
Trotskyism. weaponizing it to mean petty bourgeois

00:32:37.539 --> 00:32:40.359
deviation. And in October 1924, Trotsky gave

00:32:40.359 --> 00:32:42.579
them fresh ammunition by publishing Lessons of

00:32:42.579 --> 00:32:45.440
October, an article summarizing the 1917 revolution.

00:32:46.039 --> 00:32:48.740
Crucially, this piece publicly attacked Zinoviev

00:32:48.740 --> 00:32:51.339
and Kamenev for their 1917 hesitation to seize

00:32:51.339 --> 00:32:53.740
power. This ignited the literary discussion.

00:32:54.160 --> 00:32:57.400
It did. The Troika countered by resurrecting

00:32:57.400 --> 00:33:00.839
all of Trotsky's pre -1917 disagreements with

00:33:00.839 --> 00:33:04.019
Lenin. painting him as a perpetual outsider and

00:33:04.019 --> 00:33:06.519
a disloyal Bolshevik. The political damage was

00:33:06.519 --> 00:33:09.279
immediate and devastating, resulting in his total

00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:12.480
political castration. The Troika used the debate

00:33:12.480 --> 00:33:15.319
to marginalize him completely. Although Stalin

00:33:15.319 --> 00:33:17.480
played the moderate by preventing his expulsion,

00:33:17.799 --> 00:33:20.200
Trotsky was forced to resign his crucial military

00:33:20.200 --> 00:33:23.099
posts as People's Commissar of Army and Fleet

00:33:23.099 --> 00:33:25.420
Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military

00:33:25.420 --> 00:33:28.640
Council in January 1925. His control over the

00:33:28.640 --> 00:33:31.559
military, his strongest institutional base, was

00:33:31.559 --> 00:33:34.119
gone and the political landscape shifted again

00:33:34.119 --> 00:33:36.900
as that alliance of convenience fractured the

00:33:36.900 --> 00:33:39.039
troika only lasted as long as trotsky was the

00:33:39.039 --> 00:33:42.359
common enemy Once he was defanged, Stalin turned

00:33:42.359 --> 00:33:44.539
on Zinoviev and Kamenev, defeating them. They

00:33:44.539 --> 00:33:47.180
were dubbed the new opposition. Right. And realizing

00:33:47.180 --> 00:33:49.400
their fatal error, they soon gravitated back

00:33:49.400 --> 00:33:51.680
toward Trotsky's followers, forming the United

00:33:51.680 --> 00:33:54.740
Opposition in early 1926. So the fight was no

00:33:54.740 --> 00:33:57.539
longer just about bureaucracy. It was now centered

00:33:57.539 --> 00:34:00.000
on the absolute ideological conflict that would

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:03.460
define the global left for decades. Permanent

00:34:03.460 --> 00:34:06.859
revolution versus socialism in one country. This

00:34:06.859 --> 00:34:11.269
was the defining... irreconcilable clash. Trotsky's

00:34:11.269 --> 00:34:13.949
theory of permanent revolution held that for

00:34:13.949 --> 00:34:16.150
the revolution to survive in a backward country

00:34:16.150 --> 00:34:19.369
like Russia, it must spread internationally to

00:34:19.369 --> 00:34:21.610
advanced capitalist countries for support. And

00:34:21.610 --> 00:34:24.570
Stalin's theory rejected that. Completely. Stalin's

00:34:24.570 --> 00:34:26.849
emerging theory of socialism in one country argued

00:34:26.849 --> 00:34:29.710
that the USSR could achieve true socialism independently,

00:34:30.150 --> 00:34:33.489
focusing inward on consolidation. This was enormously

00:34:33.489 --> 00:34:35.929
appealing to the Soviet bureaucracy, who just

00:34:35.929 --> 00:34:38.380
wanted stability and national power. The true

00:34:38.380 --> 00:34:41.320
tragic test of these opposing strategies played

00:34:41.320 --> 00:34:43.480
out in China. The Chinese revolution became the

00:34:43.480 --> 00:34:46.000
ideological demarcation line, and the sources

00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:48.559
show how clear the warnings were. Trotsky argued

00:34:48.559 --> 00:34:50.880
that the small Chinese Communist Party must maintain

00:34:50.880 --> 00:34:53.340
class independence from the Kuomintang, the KMT.

00:34:53.500 --> 00:34:56.880
But Stalin insisted they merge. He insisted they

00:34:56.880 --> 00:35:00.079
merge and submit to the KMT leadership, believing

00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:02.840
the KMT leader Chiang Kai -shek was the only

00:35:02.840 --> 00:35:06.360
one capable of defeating the imperialists. Stalin

00:35:06.650 --> 00:35:08.929
infamously insisted they should use Chiang's

00:35:08.929 --> 00:35:12.030
right -wing KMT until they were squeezed for

00:35:12.030 --> 00:35:14.530
all usefulness like a lemon before being discarded.

00:35:14.750 --> 00:35:17.469
But the lemon squeezed back first, proving Trotsky

00:35:17.469 --> 00:35:20.750
completely and tragically right. In April 1927,

00:35:21.090 --> 00:35:24.170
Chiang Kai -shek reversed the tables in the Shanghai

00:35:24.170 --> 00:35:27.010
Massacre, brutally massacring the communists,

00:35:27.010 --> 00:35:29.750
killing thousands. This ideological disaster

00:35:30.590 --> 00:35:33.309
deeply discredited Stalin's foreign policy. But

00:35:33.309 --> 00:35:35.489
by then, Stalin was so entrenched controlling

00:35:35.489 --> 00:35:37.969
the entire party apparatus that he could just

00:35:37.969 --> 00:35:40.590
crush the internal opposition anyway, ignoring

00:35:40.590 --> 00:35:43.050
the validation of Trotsky's warnings. The final

00:35:43.050 --> 00:35:45.289
nail in the political coffin was the opposition's

00:35:45.289 --> 00:35:47.570
ill -fated attempt to take their arguments out

00:35:47.570 --> 00:35:49.349
of the party committee rooms and onto the streets.

00:35:50.090 --> 00:35:52.050
On the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution

00:35:52.050 --> 00:35:55.710
in November 1927, the opposition held a street

00:35:55.710 --> 00:35:58.110
demonstration in Moscow against Stalin's government.

00:35:58.409 --> 00:36:00.730
This public challenge was instantly dispersed

00:36:00.730 --> 00:36:03.329
and condemned as factionalism. And he was expelled

00:36:03.329 --> 00:36:06.119
from the party. Shortly after. He gave his last

00:36:06.119 --> 00:36:08.480
public speech in the Soviet Union at his friend

00:36:08.480 --> 00:36:10.980
Adolf Joff's funeral later that month, after

00:36:10.980 --> 00:36:13.699
Joff committed suicide in protest. His exile

00:36:13.699 --> 00:36:15.980
started internally before moving abroad. He was

00:36:15.980 --> 00:36:19.900
exiled to Alma -Ada, Kazakhstan, in January 1928

00:36:19.900 --> 00:36:23.179
with his wife and eldest son Lev. From this internal

00:36:23.179 --> 00:36:26.599
exile, he continued to write and organize. A

00:36:26.599 --> 00:36:29.159
year later, the decision was made to deport him

00:36:29.159 --> 00:36:31.980
entirely from the Soviet Union to Turkey in February

00:36:31.980 --> 00:36:35.119
1929. We have to pause here to acknowledge the

00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:37.880
horrifying long -term cost of the struggle, particularly

00:36:37.880 --> 00:36:40.320
the fate of his family and the purges that followed.

00:36:40.719 --> 00:36:42.800
Stalin's cruelty wasn't limited to politics.

00:36:43.059 --> 00:36:46.320
It extended to biological annihilation. The tragedy

00:36:46.320 --> 00:36:49.460
is profound, and the sources emphasize this systematic

00:36:49.460 --> 00:36:53.260
targeted cruelty. Almost all of the 18 close

00:36:53.260 --> 00:36:55.559
relatives Trotsky left behind in the Soviet Union

00:36:55.559 --> 00:36:58.179
faced repression. His children and other relatives

00:36:58.179 --> 00:37:00.340
were subjected to torture and execution in the

00:37:00.340 --> 00:37:02.079
purges. Can you tell us more about the fate of

00:37:02.079 --> 00:37:05.199
his sons Lev and Sergo? His eldest son, Lev Sadov,

00:37:05.300 --> 00:37:07.780
was a committed revolutionary and a key political

00:37:07.780 --> 00:37:10.260
activist. He died under mysterious circumstances

00:37:10.260 --> 00:37:13.260
in Paris in 1938, almost certainly assassinated

00:37:13.260 --> 00:37:16.519
by NKVD agents. His younger son, Sergei Sadov,

00:37:16.619 --> 00:37:19.820
was a scientist, an engineer, and he explicitly

00:37:19.820 --> 00:37:22.719
rejected political life. But even his non -political

00:37:22.719 --> 00:37:25.619
status offered no protection. Not at all. Sergei

00:37:25.619 --> 00:37:29.260
was arrested in 1937 and executed, as was Trotsky's

00:37:29.260 --> 00:37:32.380
sister, Olga Kameneva. This wasn't random violence.

00:37:32.460 --> 00:37:34.820
It was a targeted, systematic campaign to erase

00:37:34.820 --> 00:37:38.019
not just his ideas, but his entire biological

00:37:38.019 --> 00:37:40.780
existence and any vestige of a shared personal

00:37:40.780 --> 00:37:43.800
past within the Soviet state. It just underscores

00:37:43.800 --> 00:37:45.780
the utter ruthlessness of Stalin's betrayal.

00:37:46.159 --> 00:37:49.320
So Trotsky is deported to Turkey in 1929, now

00:37:49.320 --> 00:37:51.900
a stateless global pariah, spending the last

00:37:51.900 --> 00:37:54.059
decade of his life physically escaping Stalin

00:37:54.059 --> 00:37:56.260
while intellectually dismantling him from exile.

00:37:56.500 --> 00:37:59.760
His first refuge was Buyukata, or Prinkipo, an

00:37:59.760 --> 00:38:01.869
island near Istanbul. He lived in the Yonaros

00:38:01.869 --> 00:38:03.849
mansion, heavily guarded and under surveillance,

00:38:04.090 --> 00:38:06.489
but safe from immediate execution. This was an

00:38:06.489 --> 00:38:08.349
incredibly productive period for him. This is

00:38:08.349 --> 00:38:10.809
where he wrote his major works. It was. He wrote

00:38:10.809 --> 00:38:13.570
prolifically, including his monumental history

00:38:13.570 --> 00:38:15.929
of the Russian Revolution and his autobiography.

00:38:16.829 --> 00:38:19.909
Critically, in 1932, he and his family officially

00:38:19.909 --> 00:38:22.550
lost their Soviet citizenship. He was completely

00:38:22.550 --> 00:38:25.150
stateless, entirely dependent on the political

00:38:25.150 --> 00:38:28.000
goodwill of foreign powers. And that statelessness

00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:30.699
led to four years of precarious European asylum

00:38:30.699 --> 00:38:33.360
with every government eager to get rid of him

00:38:33.360 --> 00:38:35.300
due to relentless political pressure from both

00:38:35.300 --> 00:38:38.340
local fascists and the Soviet regime. Every asylum

00:38:38.340 --> 00:38:41.860
granted was conditional and brief. In 1933, he

00:38:41.860 --> 00:38:44.639
found temporary asylum in France, but was restricted

00:38:44.639 --> 00:38:46.900
from living in Paris and placed under constant

00:38:46.900 --> 00:38:49.559
police surveillance. His situation became absolutely

00:38:49.559 --> 00:38:52.059
untenable after the Franco Soviet Treaty of Mutual

00:38:52.059 --> 00:38:55.059
Assistance in 1935. He was officially told he

00:38:55.059 --> 00:38:57.369
was no longer welcome. as the French sought to

00:38:57.369 --> 00:39:00.050
appease Stalin. And the next stop, Norway, proved

00:39:00.050 --> 00:39:02.309
to be one of the most cynically frustrating experiences

00:39:02.309 --> 00:39:06.130
of his entire life. In 1935, he was granted asylum

00:39:06.130 --> 00:39:08.929
in Norway, becoming a guest of Conrad Knudsen

00:39:08.929 --> 00:39:12.469
near Honefoss. But when the infamous Moscow show

00:39:12.469 --> 00:39:15.469
trials began in the summer of 1936, accusing

00:39:15.469 --> 00:39:18.690
him of these massive, complex conspiracies, the

00:39:18.690 --> 00:39:21.010
Norwegian labor government grew terrified of

00:39:21.010 --> 00:39:23.929
Soviet pressure. They cracked down on him. Following

00:39:23.929 --> 00:39:26.570
a fascist burglary on his house, police forced

00:39:26.570 --> 00:39:29.449
Trotsky to sign new conditions. No writing on

00:39:29.449 --> 00:39:32.409
current politics. No interviews. All correspondence

00:39:32.409 --> 00:39:35.170
inspected. It's incredible to think the man who

00:39:35.170 --> 00:39:37.409
directed the civil war was effectively imprisoned

00:39:37.409 --> 00:39:40.250
by a supposedly socialist government just because

00:39:40.250 --> 00:39:43.170
Moscow snapped its fingers. What did the sources

00:39:43.170 --> 00:39:45.949
say about the psychological impact of that forced

00:39:45.949 --> 00:39:48.210
silence? He was under effective house arrest,

00:39:48.369 --> 00:39:51.010
confined indoors 22 hours a day. desperately

00:39:51.010 --> 00:39:53.010
prevented from protesting the trials where his

00:39:53.010 --> 00:39:56.090
former comrades, Zinoviev and Kamenev, were confessing

00:39:56.090 --> 00:39:58.250
to plotting with him to kill Stalin. He later

00:39:58.250 --> 00:40:00.250
called this period of enforced silence and political

00:40:00.250 --> 00:40:02.150
persecution by the Norwegian socialist government

00:40:02.150 --> 00:40:04.530
the worst persecution he had ever experienced.

00:40:04.730 --> 00:40:07.570
Worse than his Siberian exiles. Worse than Siberia.

00:40:07.650 --> 00:40:10.809
By late 1936, the Norwegian government deported

00:40:10.809 --> 00:40:13.030
him again, and he arrived in Mexico in January

00:40:13.030 --> 00:40:17.369
1937. Welcome by President Lazaro Cardenas. Mexico

00:40:17.369 --> 00:40:19.590
gave him a crucial period of intellectual safety

00:40:19.590 --> 00:40:22.469
and a famously colorful social life with the

00:40:22.469 --> 00:40:25.329
revolutionary art community. He and Natalia first

00:40:25.329 --> 00:40:27.949
lived at La Casa Azul, the home of painters Frida

00:40:27.949 --> 00:40:30.630
Kahlo and Diego Rivera, where Trotsky also had

00:40:30.630 --> 00:40:33.110
a brief, notorious affair with Kahlo. He later

00:40:33.110 --> 00:40:35.250
broke with Rivera over political disagreements

00:40:35.250 --> 00:40:37.750
and moved to his final fortified residence on

00:40:37.750 --> 00:40:40.489
Avenida Viena in Coyoacan. And he collaborated

00:40:40.489 --> 00:40:42.809
with other artists there. He famously collaborated

00:40:42.809 --> 00:40:44.849
with Andre Breton and Rivera on the Manifesto

00:40:44.849 --> 00:40:47.090
for an Independent Revolutionary Art in 1938,

00:40:47.650 --> 00:40:50.469
advocating fiercely for artistic freedom outside

00:40:50.469 --> 00:40:52.650
of both capitalist and Stalinist constraints.

00:40:52.969 --> 00:40:55.849
But the Moscow show trials were raging, inventing

00:40:55.849 --> 00:40:58.269
these elaborate conspiracies against him. How

00:40:58.269 --> 00:41:00.630
did he fight back from exile against the enormous

00:41:00.630 --> 00:41:03.369
propaganda machine of the Soviet state? The trials

00:41:03.369 --> 00:41:06.670
saw old Bolsheviks confess to plotting to kill

00:41:06.670 --> 00:41:09.269
Stalin with Trotsky. He was sentenced to death

00:41:09.269 --> 00:41:13.389
in absentia. To combat this fabrication, he cooperated

00:41:13.389 --> 00:41:15.690
with an independent commission of inquiry chaired

00:41:15.690 --> 00:41:17.869
by the famous American philosopher John Dewey.

00:41:17.929 --> 00:41:20.489
The Dewey Commission? Yes. The Dewey Commission

00:41:20.489 --> 00:41:23.210
rigorously investigated the charges, traveled

00:41:23.210 --> 00:41:25.429
to Mexico, and published its findings in the

00:41:25.429 --> 00:41:28.550
book Not Guilty, completely exonerating Trotsky

00:41:28.550 --> 00:41:31.769
and exposing the trials as fabrications extracted

00:41:31.769 --> 00:41:35.070
by torture. That international independent validation

00:41:35.070 --> 00:41:37.829
must have been critical for the anti -Stalinist

00:41:37.829 --> 00:41:40.269
movement. I appreciate the sources highlighting

00:41:40.269 --> 00:41:42.510
his defiant opening statement to the commission.

00:41:42.849 --> 00:41:45.250
He delivered a defiant address titled, I stake

00:41:45.250 --> 00:41:47.710
my life, reaffirming his lifelong commitment

00:41:47.710 --> 00:41:50.610
to true socialism. Whoever seeks physical comfort

00:41:50.610 --> 00:41:53.329
and spiritual calm, let him step aside. But all

00:41:53.329 --> 00:41:55.929
those for whom the word socialism is not a hollow

00:41:55.929 --> 00:41:59.860
sound, forward. That conviction, in the face

00:41:59.860 --> 00:42:02.719
of immense danger, is key to his legacy. And

00:42:02.719 --> 00:42:04.880
this conviction led directly to his final great

00:42:04.880 --> 00:42:07.119
organizational effort, the founding of the Fourth

00:42:07.119 --> 00:42:10.360
International. By mid -1933, after the Nazis

00:42:10.360 --> 00:42:13.639
seized power in Germany, Trotsky judged the Communist

00:42:13.639 --> 00:42:16.579
International, the Comintern, to be dead. It

00:42:16.579 --> 00:42:18.820
had failed utterly to rally the German working

00:42:18.820 --> 00:42:21.219
class against Hitler, and had just become a tool

00:42:21.219 --> 00:42:25.480
of Stalin's foreign policy. So in 1938, he decided

00:42:25.480 --> 00:42:28.280
to found the Fourth International as a revolutionary

00:42:28.280 --> 00:42:32.420
internationalist alternative. This move cemented

00:42:32.420 --> 00:42:35.619
his ideological legacy. It did, but it also underscored

00:42:35.619 --> 00:42:38.039
his relentless, uncompromising commitment to

00:42:38.039 --> 00:42:40.599
factional organization, even utter isolation.

00:42:41.179 --> 00:42:43.300
Just months before his death, under the shadow

00:42:43.300 --> 00:42:45.599
of persistent threats, he left us his final,

00:42:45.739 --> 00:42:48.300
incredibly moving political and personal statement.

00:42:48.360 --> 00:42:51.300
His testament, written in February 1940 because

00:42:51.300 --> 00:42:53.340
he feared a cerebral hemorrhage due to high blood

00:42:53.340 --> 00:42:56.260
pressure, is profoundly human. It reaffirmed

00:42:56.260 --> 00:42:59.119
his unshaken faith in a communist future, forcefully

00:42:59.119 --> 00:43:01.940
denied Stalin's accusations of betrayal and thanked

00:43:01.940 --> 00:43:04.199
his wife, Natalia Sadova, describing her as an

00:43:04.199 --> 00:43:06.480
inexhaustible source of love, magnanimity and

00:43:06.480 --> 00:43:08.659
tenderness. And his final words were about life

00:43:08.659 --> 00:43:11.860
itself. His final poignant words stated, life

00:43:11.860 --> 00:43:14.599
is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse

00:43:14.599 --> 00:43:17.500
it of all evil, oppression and violence and enjoy

00:43:17.500 --> 00:43:19.840
it to the full. The attempts on his life started

00:43:19.840 --> 00:43:22.389
almost immediately after that. culminating in

00:43:22.389 --> 00:43:24.309
one of the most infamous murders in history.

00:43:24.550 --> 00:43:27.030
There was a brazen failed attempt in May 1940,

00:43:27.449 --> 00:43:30.849
led by NKVD agents, including the muralist David

00:43:30.849 --> 00:43:33.650
Alfaro Siqueiros. They sprayed his house with

00:43:33.650 --> 00:43:36.710
machine gun fire. Trotsky survived, though his

00:43:36.710 --> 00:43:38.690
14 -year -old grandson was shot in the foot.

00:43:39.239 --> 00:43:44.920
He recognized the gravity and wrote, And the

00:43:44.920 --> 00:43:47.739
successful attack in August 1940 is famous, but

00:43:47.739 --> 00:43:50.420
the weapon is frequently misidentified. On August

00:43:50.420 --> 00:43:54.980
20, 1940, NKVD agent Ramon Mercader, having infiltrated

00:43:54.980 --> 00:43:56.820
Trotsky's household under the guise of being

00:43:56.820 --> 00:43:59.079
a friendly Belgian journalist, attacked him in

00:43:59.079 --> 00:44:01.510
his study. The sources are precise. Mercator

00:44:01.510 --> 00:44:03.449
used a mountaineering ice axe, a specialized

00:44:03.449 --> 00:44:05.869
tool used for cutting steps and holds on ice,

00:44:05.949 --> 00:44:08.269
not the commonly cited ice pick. So it was an

00:44:08.269 --> 00:44:10.269
ice axe, not an ice pick. Correct. The flat,

00:44:10.289 --> 00:44:12.730
wide adds of the axe struck his head, fracturing

00:44:12.730 --> 00:44:14.829
his parietal bone and penetrating seven centimeters

00:44:14.829 --> 00:44:17.170
into his brain. It's chilling that even after

00:44:17.170 --> 00:44:20.050
such a catastrophic injury, he fought back and

00:44:20.050 --> 00:44:22.829
insisted on his killer being kept alive. Witnesses

00:44:22.829 --> 00:44:25.449
reported Trotsky spat on Mercator, struggled

00:44:25.449 --> 00:44:28.090
fiercely, and even broke Mercator's hand during

00:44:28.090 --> 00:44:31.630
the attack. Even in agony, he insisted his bodyguards

00:44:31.630 --> 00:44:34.110
not kill the assassin, but keep him alive so

00:44:34.110 --> 00:44:36.650
he could answer questions and expose the plot.

00:44:36.829 --> 00:44:38.710
He died the next day. He died the next day at

00:44:38.710 --> 00:44:41.309
age 60 from blood loss and shock. Mercator spent

00:44:41.309 --> 00:44:44.130
20 years in a Mexican prison. And the absolute

00:44:44.130 --> 00:44:46.409
confirmation of Stalin's direct responsibility

00:44:46.409 --> 00:44:49.889
came decades later. Yes. Mercator was initially

00:44:49.889 --> 00:44:53.090
denied any public award by the USSR. But upon

00:44:53.090 --> 00:44:55.289
his release and arrival in the Soviet Union in

00:44:55.289 --> 00:44:58.889
1961, Leonid Brezhnev personally signed a decree

00:44:58.889 --> 00:45:01.650
awarding Mercator the title Hero of the Soviet

00:45:01.650 --> 00:45:04.389
Union for the Special Deed, confirming that the

00:45:04.389 --> 00:45:07.170
Kremlin orchestrated the assassination and celebrated

00:45:07.170 --> 00:45:09.769
it as a state victory. Here's where it gets really

00:45:09.769 --> 00:45:11.929
interesting. Let's shift to the intellectual

00:45:11.929 --> 00:45:14.730
legacy he left behind, which continues to influence

00:45:14.730 --> 00:45:17.150
the left today. What are the key takeaways for

00:45:17.150 --> 00:45:19.269
you, the learner, from this deep dive into his

00:45:19.269 --> 00:45:21.849
theoretical contributions? First and foremost

00:45:21.849 --> 00:45:25.110
is the concept of permanent revolution. We discussed

00:45:25.110 --> 00:45:27.610
it conceptually, but the takeaway is clear. In

00:45:27.610 --> 00:45:30.110
countries with underdeveloped capitalism, the

00:45:30.110 --> 00:45:33.190
working class must seize power, rapidly implement

00:45:33.190 --> 00:45:36.070
socialist measures, and critically link their

00:45:36.070 --> 00:45:38.639
struggle to the international revolution. The

00:45:38.639 --> 00:45:40.760
revolution cannot be completed or sustained nationally.

00:45:40.960 --> 00:45:44.059
It must spread or it will succumb to internal

00:45:44.059 --> 00:45:46.579
and external pressures. This was the fundamental

00:45:46.579 --> 00:45:49.960
rebuttal to Stalin's nationalized insular concept

00:45:49.960 --> 00:45:53.500
of social. Exactly. Second is his definitive

00:45:53.500 --> 00:45:56.539
and increasingly prescient critique of the Soviet

00:45:56.539 --> 00:45:59.179
system articulated in his most important book.

00:45:59.360 --> 00:46:01.639
The Revolution Betrayed. Right. In that book.

00:46:01.960 --> 00:46:04.440
From 1936, he offered a devastating assessment

00:46:04.440 --> 00:46:07.340
of the USSR. He argued that the Soviet Union

00:46:07.340 --> 00:46:10.159
had become a degenerated worker state dominated

00:46:10.159 --> 00:46:13.380
by an undemocratic, parasitical bureaucracy that

00:46:13.380 --> 00:46:15.260
betrayed the revolution's promise of workers'

00:46:15.380 --> 00:46:17.840
democracy. And he predicted its collapse. He

00:46:17.840 --> 00:46:19.619
predicted that this bureaucratic state would

00:46:19.619 --> 00:46:21.699
either be overthrown by a political revolution

00:46:21.699 --> 00:46:25.420
establishing workers' democracy or, absent that,

00:46:25.739 --> 00:46:29.400
degenerate into a capitalist class state. A view

00:46:29.400 --> 00:46:32.300
many scholars found astonishingly prescient of

00:46:32.300 --> 00:46:34.619
the U .S .A.'s eventual collapse after 1989.

00:46:35.119 --> 00:46:37.800
His economic thinking, despite his loss of power,

00:46:37.900 --> 00:46:40.139
was also highly influential, even on Stalin's

00:46:40.139 --> 00:46:42.840
policy decisions. Trotsky was an early and consistent

00:46:42.840 --> 00:46:45.900
advocate for strong economic planning and accelerated

00:46:45.900 --> 00:46:49.719
industrialization as early as 1923. He proposed

00:46:49.719 --> 00:46:51.800
joint reports to the Central Committee to strengthen

00:46:51.800 --> 00:46:54.179
Gauss' plan and introduce a national plan to

00:46:54.179 --> 00:46:56.670
catch up to the West. But... his approach was

00:46:56.670 --> 00:46:59.170
different from Stalin's. Very different. His

00:46:59.170 --> 00:47:01.550
later proposals countered Stalin's brutal forced

00:47:01.550 --> 00:47:04.309
collectivization by emphasizing that successful

00:47:04.309 --> 00:47:06.909
planning required Soviet democracy, right of

00:47:06.909 --> 00:47:09.510
criticism, free elections, internal party democracy,

00:47:09.949 --> 00:47:12.210
which he insisted would yield higher economic

00:47:12.210 --> 00:47:14.409
successes than the bureaucratic terror -driven

00:47:14.409 --> 00:47:17.389
approach. It is now scholarly consensus that

00:47:17.389 --> 00:47:20.110
Stalin basically appropriated the left opposition's

00:47:20.110 --> 00:47:22.909
position on accelerated industrialization, even

00:47:22.909 --> 00:47:24.809
if he implemented it with characteristic brutality.

00:47:25.309 --> 00:47:27.969
And finally, his strategic view on countering

00:47:27.969 --> 00:47:30.349
fascism proved heartbreakingly correct in the

00:47:30.349 --> 00:47:34.550
1930s. His strategy was the united front. Revolutionaries

00:47:34.550 --> 00:47:37.050
and reformists must temporarily unite in a common

00:47:37.050 --> 00:47:39.469
struggle to mobilize workers against fascism.

00:47:39.570 --> 00:47:41.929
He strongly criticized the Comintern's shifting

00:47:41.929 --> 00:47:45.030
policy under Stalin, which forced German communists

00:47:45.030 --> 00:47:48.170
to treat the Social Democrats as social fascists.

00:47:48.210 --> 00:47:50.650
Which divided the German working class. It did.

00:47:51.050 --> 00:47:53.550
And the failure of the Comintern to forge a united

00:47:53.550 --> 00:47:57.010
front in Germany is widely judged to have tragically

00:47:57.010 --> 00:48:00.030
facilitated Hitler's rise to power, a devastating

00:48:00.030 --> 00:48:02.429
historical validation of Trotsky's warnings.

00:48:02.949 --> 00:48:05.670
Looking back, Trotsky is a study in historical

00:48:05.670 --> 00:48:09.460
duality. He was the revolutionary hero. the unparalleled

00:48:09.460 --> 00:48:11.920
orator and writer, the general who forged the

00:48:11.920 --> 00:48:14.420
Red Army and won the Civil War. And yet simultaneously,

00:48:14.679 --> 00:48:16.820
he was the intellectual who articulated the most

00:48:16.820 --> 00:48:19.460
comprehensive critique of Stalinism and the anti

00:48:19.460 --> 00:48:21.820
-Stalinist last entire program. He was literally

00:48:21.820 --> 00:48:24.320
written out of history by Stalin's machine, becoming

00:48:24.320 --> 00:48:26.340
a non -person whose name could not be spoken.

00:48:26.619 --> 00:48:29.760
He was completely erased under Stalin. His works

00:48:29.760 --> 00:48:33.460
were banned in the USSR until 1987 under Gorbachev's

00:48:33.460 --> 00:48:36.809
glasnost. It wasn't until 2001 that the General

00:48:36.809 --> 00:48:38.570
Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation

00:48:38.570 --> 00:48:41.980
officially rehabilitated him. That historical

00:48:41.980 --> 00:48:44.460
erasure was a deliberate campaign. Oh, it was

00:48:44.460 --> 00:48:46.420
a deliberate attempt by Stalin to remove his

00:48:46.420 --> 00:48:49.280
legacy, which required the virtually unlimited

00:48:49.280 --> 00:48:52.280
resources of the Soviet regime and the ruthless

00:48:52.280 --> 00:48:54.539
extermination of every single person associated

00:48:54.539 --> 00:48:57.159
with his name. But the physical traces of his

00:48:57.159 --> 00:49:00.400
life endures globally, a testament to his intellectual

00:49:00.400 --> 00:49:03.000
struggle. His archive, which he sold just before

00:49:03.000 --> 00:49:05.440
his assassination, is now housed at Harvard University.

00:49:05.760 --> 00:49:09.050
It occupies 65 feet of shelf space. a gold mine

00:49:09.050 --> 00:49:11.590
for historians. And his preserved final home

00:49:11.590 --> 00:49:14.150
in Coyoacan, Mexico City, where he died, remains

00:49:14.150 --> 00:49:17.010
the Leon Trotsky House Museum, a stark moving

00:49:17.010 --> 00:49:20.190
monument to his final defiant years. So what

00:49:20.190 --> 00:49:22.510
does this all mean for us? We've seen a man with

00:49:22.510 --> 00:49:25.170
undeniable brilliance, a military genius and

00:49:25.170 --> 00:49:28.070
an intellectual powerhouse who failed spectacularly

00:49:28.070 --> 00:49:29.550
at the simple political maneuvering required

00:49:29.550 --> 00:49:32.369
to succeed Lenin. The sources repeatedly hint

00:49:32.369 --> 00:49:34.630
at a critical flaw. The historical reputation

00:49:34.630 --> 00:49:37.650
is split. There's immense praise for his organizational

00:49:37.650 --> 00:49:40.309
skills and intellectual foresight, mixed with

00:49:40.309 --> 00:49:42.469
strong criticism for his early authoritarian

00:49:42.469 --> 00:49:45.289
practices that paved the way for Stalin's terror.

00:49:45.650 --> 00:49:48.090
But the fundamental tragedy lies in the political

00:49:48.090 --> 00:49:50.269
arena. He was a brilliant theorist who seemed

00:49:50.269 --> 00:49:52.789
blind to the machinery of political power once

00:49:52.789 --> 00:49:55.150
the revolution became institutionalized. So here

00:49:55.150 --> 00:49:57.369
is a final provocative thought for you to explore.

00:49:57.920 --> 00:50:00.360
based on the material we've covered today if

00:50:00.360 --> 00:50:03.099
trotsky's personal refusal to accept the deputy

00:50:03.099 --> 00:50:06.539
premier role in 1922 and his subsequent hesitation

00:50:06.539 --> 00:50:09.320
to directly challenge stalin armed with lenin's

00:50:09.320 --> 00:50:12.760
testament at the 12th congress in 1923 ultimately

00:50:12.760 --> 00:50:16.150
enabled stalin's ascent To what extent can an

00:50:16.150 --> 00:50:18.909
individual's personality flaws, such as intellectual

00:50:18.909 --> 00:50:21.710
arrogance or a fatal misreading of the changing

00:50:21.710 --> 00:50:24.210
political climate doom, even the most theoretically

00:50:24.210 --> 00:50:26.670
sound political movement? Is the greatest visionary

00:50:26.670 --> 00:50:29.070
often the worst politician? Think about that

00:50:29.070 --> 00:50:31.110
as you reflect on this deep dive into the life

00:50:31.110 --> 00:50:33.369
and fate of Leon Trotsky. We hope you feel a

00:50:33.369 --> 00:50:34.150
little better informed.