Trotsky was a political theorist who did much to analyse the development of capitalism.
However he was much much more than that.
He was the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet in 1905 which attempted to end the rule of the autocratic Tsar. As a Jewish socialist in a deeply anti semitic Tsarist Russia this was quite an achievement.
He was a brilliant historian and his History Of The Russian Revolution is a towering work.
He was an indefatigable opponent of the Tsar during his long years of exile between 1905 and 1917.
He was an anti war champion who opposed the slaughterhouse of the First World War when all the democrats of Europe were wallowing in jingoism and patriotism.
He was a brilliant journalist who reported the Balkan wars and massacres in the run up to August 1914.
He was, with Lenin, a leader of the October Revolution which ended the war on the Eastern Front and lit a beacon of hope for the brutalised millions across Europe.
He was the founding leader of the Red Army which defeated a dozen foreign armies plus the right wing White Russian armies at a terrible cost to both the Russian people themselves and the ranks of the Bolsheviks . This was the Red Army that tore the guts out of the Nazis some 25 years later.
Trotsky was also the opponent of Stalin and fought to keep the flame of International Socialsim going in opposition to the greater Russian chauvinism of Stalin.It was to cost him and his extended family their lives as those he loved were arrested,shot or assassinated.
He was a prolonged critic of Stalin throughout the 1930s at a time when he was being hounded by the police ,expelled from various countries and harassed at every turn.
He saw the dangers of fascism at a very early stage and did his utmost to warn all democratic and leftwing forces about its barbarism.In particular he urged the formation of United Fronts that could take on and beat back the nazi menace.
He was also a prolific writer on art and literature and so much more.
ALBERT