Leon Trotsky

1879 – 1940 · died at about 61^[1][2]

Politics & Leadership

Fun Facts About Leon Trotsky

• Leon Trotsky was born Lev Bronstein. He reportedly took the surname "Trotsky" from a jailer in the Odessa prison where he had been held.^[1]
• When the February Revolution of 1917 began in Russia, Trotsky was living in the Bronx, New York, writing for Russian-language and Yiddish newspapers.^[1]
• On his way back to Russia in 1917, Trotsky was arrested in Halifax and held for a month in a Canadian internment camp, where 530 prisoners protested when he was banned from making speeches.^[1]
• In Mexico, Trotsky lived in the Blue House of painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and had an affair with Kahlo, who gave him a self-portrait dedicated to him.^{[1][3][4][5][6]}
• In 1902 Trotsky escaped from exile in Siberia hidden in a load of hay.^[1]
• Trotsky survived a 1940 armed raid on his villa in Mexico led partly by the Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros.^[1]
• Leon Trotsky was alive at the same time as Charles Darwin — their lives overlapped for 3 years (1879–1882).^[1][2][7][8]
• Leon Trotsky and Albert Einstein were both born in 1879.^{[1][2][9][10]}

Lev Davidovich Trotsky, better known as Leon Trotsky, was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure in the 1905 Revolution, the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian Civil War, and the establishment of the Soviet Union, from which he was exiled in 1929 before his assassination in 1940. Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin were widely considered the two most prominent figures in the Soviet state from 1917 until Lenin's death in 1924. Ideologically a Marxist and a Leninist, Trotsky's ideas and beliefs inspired a school of Marxism known as Trotskyism.^[1]

Contemporaries

Nikola Tesla

61 yr overlap

Rabindranath Tagore

61 yr overlap

Henry Ford

61 yr overlap

Edvard Munch

61 yr overlap

H.G. Wells

61 yr overlap

Mahatma Gandhi

61 yr overlap

Max Planck

61 yr overlap

Orville Wright

61 yr overlap

Winston Churchill

61 yr overlap

Carl Jung

61 yr overlap

Albert Einstein

61 yr overlap

Lise Meitner

61 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Leon Trotsky

When was Leon Trotsky born?

Leon Trotsky was born in 1879 and died on August 21, 1940.

How old was Leon Trotsky at death?

Leon Trotsky died in 1940 at about 61 years old (1879–1940).

What was Leon Trotsky known for?

Leon Trotsky was known for: Russian revolutionary, founder of the Red Army. Lev Davidovich Trotsky, better known as Leon Trotsky, was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure in the 1905 Revolution, the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian Civil War, and the establishment of the Soviet Union, from which he was exiled in 1929 before his assassination in 1940. Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin were widely considered the two most prominent figures in the Soviet state from 1917 until Lenin's death in 1924. Ideologically a Marxist and a Leninist, Trotsky's ideas and beliefs inspired a school of Marxism known as Trotskyism.

Who was alive at the same time as Leon Trotsky?

Leon Trotsky's closest contemporary was Nikola Tesla. Their lives overlapped for 61 years.