Personalities and Powerbases - Trotsky

Trotsky

• Born 1879
• 1903, sided with Mensheviks and not Lenin
• 1902 joined Lenin in London
• November 1905, leading figure in the St Petersburg Soviet 
• 1917, his reputation won support for the communists during the October Revolution
• Masterminded the communist seizure of power
• Restructed Red Army during Civil War 1918-1921
• Critisized in Lenin's Testement as having 'too far-reaching self confidence'
• Lots of support from young/student communists and Red Army due to his Civil War heriosm
• Most Urban (in a rural country)
• Many envied his close relationship with Lenin
• Party members were afraid he could use the Red Army to seize power
• Many members of army were not members of the party
• Played a main role in the Sovnarkon (head of Red Army)
• Left wing (hated NEP)
• Collective leadership or one-person rule (could have done either)

Struggle for power

• 1903, throughout the year only made sporadic attempts to engage in battle with…