e was facing, and in 1925, he lost his position as commissar of war. In 1929, Stalin ordered Trotsky to leave the USSR. Again in exile, Trotsky became the “most perspective critic of the Stalin regime” (Commine p. 17). Trotsky’s old friends, his daughters, sons, and former wife all suffered imprisonment or death at Stain’s hands. Trotsky lived in constant danger of assassination. Fearing for his life, Leon fled to Mexico where he continued to promote world revolution. Unfortunately, Leon Trotsky was murdered on August 21, 1940, in Mexico reportedly on Stalin’s orders. As one of Russia’s most brilliant Marxist leaders, Trotsky was a man of action, a thinker, and a writer, “whose political and literary activity spanned the first four decades of the 20th Century” (Commine p. 24). His writing on Marxism, Bolshevism, and world revolution made an important contribution to both “political theory” and “historic theory” (Commine p. 24). However, Trotsky had a major flaw that would plague him throughout his career and may be why he failed politically. He was always too worried about his image. For instance, Lenin wrote Trotsky a letter, which harshly criticized Stalin, but Trotsky did not want to be a snitch so he did not read it to the Communist Committee until after Lenin’s death. By then, it could not be verified, and Stalin claimed it was all lies. The bitter, savage, and merciless fight between Stalin and Trotsky began because of their difference of opinion of communism, Though they both thrived on spreading communism throughout the world, they differed in their ways of doing it. Trotsky followed the strict Marxist belief that revolution should take place all over the world. Stalin, however, advocated “socialism in one country” (Laquer p. 52), the USSR only. Stalin believed that after socialism succeeded there, the revolution would spread ...
