And the The Welcome to Russian History Retold, episode 153. Leon Trotsky Part 1.

Last time we cover the life of the great writer Fyodor Dostevsky. Today we go in a completely

different direction with the life of revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Yes, I know.

Last time I said I was going to cover the life of Leo Tolstoy next.

But the books I ordered on his life haven't come yet,

and the ones on Trotsky came early, so I made the call. That and there had actually been a request

from listener Ryan on our Facebook page to do a biographical podcast on Leon. But before we start, I'd like to say thank you very much to listener Sandra for the

very generous donation to the podcast. It is greatly appreciated as it will go a

long way towards getting the books needed to continue things. Born Lev Davidovich Braunsstein on October 26, 1879 in Yannovka, Kirsong province in southern Ukraine to a moderately well-off Jewish family.

His nickname by which he was known until he was 23 was Liba, according to Robert's

service, but others like David North and Walter

Liqueur dispute this and say his childhood name was actually Laiova or Lev.

They claim that since the Bronstein family did not speak

Yiddish, they would never have used a Yiddish name like Leba. And of course, but this

was not the norm as it was estimated that fully 97% of Jews living in Russia believed that Yiddish was their native tongue.

And this was not so at the Brumstein family.

Numerous biographies have been written about this enigmatic and oft times contradictory personality.

Some view him as a sympathetic and idealistic character, but some, like the Robert Service see him as a murderous conniving

hypocrite who deserves only contempt.

While I lean a little bit towards Service's point of view, I think that Trotsky and especially his family

should get some sympathy especially because of his opposition to Stalin in the latter part of his life.

While born Jewish Levin his family were decidedly non-religious. During his life, he was what we would call a devout atheist, although he would oftentimes sympathize with his fellow Jews, especially when the numerous pogromes were promoted by the czarist regime.

...