Leo Trotzki

Leo Trotsky (born Lev Davidovich Bronstein, 1879–1940) was a Russian revolutionary, communist politician, and Marxist theorist. He played a leading role in the Revolution of 1905 and the October Revolution of 1917. As People’s Commissar for Military Affairs, he organized the Red Army. After being expelled from the Communist Party and sent into exile, he founded the Left Opposition in 1923 and criticized Stalin’s policies. In 1938, he helped establish the Fourth International. Trotsky was assassinated by a Soviet agent in Mexican exile in 1940.