Welcome to Russian History Retold.

Episode 352, Leon Trotsky Revisited, Part 1.

Last time, we covered the horrific battle of Berlin, focusing on the human side of the last major battle and the European side of World War II.

Today, we're going to re-examine the life and times of Leon Trotsky, and in today's episode, we will look at his younger years from

his birth and what may have turned him into the revolutionary that he became in his family

life going all the way up to 1905 and the revolution of that year. In the next episode,

we're going to have a special focus on the planning of his death,

one ordered by his arch enemy, Joseph Stalin.

One thing I want to do with this series is to look deeper into the person,

not just what they did historically.

I originally did a three-part series on Trotsky back in 2014, episodes 153 to 155.

One of the reasons I decided to pick Trotsky as my topic today is because of the

2006 publication of one of the main sources for this episode, the book, Death of Trotsky,

the true story of the plot to kill Stalin's greatest enemy by Josh Ireland.

The other two sources I will lean on are Leon Trotsky, A Revolutionary's Life,

by Joshua Rubinstein, and The Prophet, which is an enormous book.

It's about 1,300 pages.

And it's by Isaac Deutsche.

And so this is a two-parter of this time instead of a three-partner, because I want to

really get to the person and not just the history of what he did over the years.

I'd like to start with a quote from Rubenstein's book.

Quote, his years in exile, the outspoken criticism of Stalin, the fate of his four children,

...