Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky (7th November 1879 - 21st August 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. Trotsky was one of the leaders of the Russian 1917 October Revolution, second only to Vladimir Lenin. During the early days of the Soviet Union, he served first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and later as the founder and commander of the Red Army and People's Commissar of War. He was a major figure in the Bolshevik victory in the 1917–1922 Russian Civil War. He was also among the first members of the Politburo. After leading a failed struggle of the Left Opposition against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and the increasing role of bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, Trotsky was successively removed from power, expelled from the Communist Party, deported from the Soviet Union and assassinated on Stalin's orders.