And the The Welcome to Russian History Retold, episode 155. Leon Trotsky, Ouster and the end.

Last time we went over the life of Leon Trotsky between the 1905 Revolution and the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and 1917.

And you must be thinking of regular listeners, wow two

episodes in one week, what's giving? Well I'm getting a little bit of Trotsky

fatigue because when I first went into the podcast series, I had not a positive outlook on Leon Trotsky, but more of a kind of neutral one.

And the fact that he was hounded by Stalin to the end of his life and murdered in 1940 and I know I'm not giving away anything here.

But when I started really researching Leontratsky, it went from being kind of a non-committal

on him to rather negative one and I think you're going to

hear this within the entire podcast. I no longer have any positive viewpoint of Leon, maybe of

his family afterwards and the suffering they went through,

absolutely.

But he himself, he got what he deserved actually.

So let's get into this.

Trotsky and his family were now in St. Petersburg, which was in turmoil, and it was called

Petrograd at the time because they wanted to make it sound less Germanic.

The czar was gone and a provisional government was in place and things were changing in Russia in a way not seen in over 300 years since the times of trouble.

Trotsky and quickly Lenin were in the capital and their followers were awaiting what they had to say about the events that were unfolding.

What Lenin was to say was shocking to his fellow Bolsheviks.

He was told he told them they were not to back the government, but all power must be in the hands of the Soviets.

When this was done, only then could the stand and aligned himself with Trotsky's position. With the Zargon, the political spectrum changed dramatically. The former

left wing, the cadets, were now on the right with the Mensheviks, Bolsheviks, and

other socialists on the left.

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