Trotsky: Vladimir Lenin and Practical Revolutionary Essay

Was Trotsky a Practical Revolutionary or a naïve idealists?
Trotsky, being the Commissar Minister for War and the second most powerful man in Russia during the reign of Lenin, was sent to exile and assassinated. His life was filled with honor, pride and most importantly, confidence. His gifted talent of public speak had an overwhelming effect on the people. . He proved himself to be a practical revolutionary in most of the activities he undertook and in many of the policies he supported. However, he was also politically ineffectual, and his naïve and uncompromising idealism contributed to his downfall.
He believed his theory of “Permanent Revolution” was the perfect structure of revolution suitable for Russia, it was suppose to bring hope and power to the Soviet Union, the communism will spread across the World and finally union the World under the control of Communism. However, this was never achieved, the Permanent Revolution was nothing but a reverie of his, Trotsky was a naive idealist but not a practical revolutionary.

During the peace talk with Germans, Trotsky was assigned the main negotiator; it was clear to Trotsky that the Great War was undesirable and should be abandoned as soon as possible. In addition, on an ideological level, the war was one of capitalist where the only victims were the proletariat classes and the only winners were the capitalists. However on a practical level, the Russian Army was totally exhausted; the extent of the army’s capacity and morale had reached its limit. Nevertheless, Trotsky’s view was in hoping a wave of Communism would flow through other European countries and would overrun Germans’ government, making the treaty irrelevant. However, the Germans were locked in for supporting the Soviet new government, a minimum of 3 million gold mark per month from the mid 1918 and it was contributed to the civil war effort. This idea of receiving benefits from other country by surrendering land itself is capitalist. And therefore this treaty itself was capitalist just like the Great War, however Trotsky disregarded this fact and signed the treaty due to his naive belief in the “Permanent Revolution” In the brest- Litovsk negotiations, Trotsky wanted nothing but peace, he continuingly declined the Treaty due to their large amounts of requests. As he kept declining to sign the treaty more demands were placed upon Russia. Germany then invaded Russia, which forced them to sign the Treaty. Trotsky was too ashamed and ‘hot headed’ to sign the treaty and resigned as commissar of war. As a man tied up in his own views that is unable to perceive of any outcome other than the one he wishes. His arrogance and determination to be right defeated the whole purpose. This suggested that

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Trotsky: Vladimir Lenin and Practical Revolutionary Essay

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