Editing Leon Trotsky (section)

== Childhood and family (1879–1895) ==
[[File:Leo Trotsky 1888 Portrait (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=.8|left|Trotsky in 1888]]
{{Leon Trotsky series}}
Lev Davidovich Bronstein was born on 7 November 1879 in Yanovka, [[Kherson Governorate]], Russian Empire (now [[Bereslavka, Ukraine]]), into a wealthy but illiterate [[History of the Jews in Ukraine|Jewish farming family]].<ref name=":0" /> He was the fifth child of David Leontyevich Bronstein (1847–1922), a Russified Jewish colonist, and Anna Lvovna (née Zhivotovskaya, 1850–1910). Trotsky's younger sister, [[Olga Kameneva|Olga]] (1883–1941), also became a [[Bolshevik]] and Soviet politician, and married fellow Bolshevik [[Lev Kamenev]].{{sfn|Parrish|1996|p=69}}

Some authors, notably [[Robert Service (historian)|Robert Service]], claim Trotsky's childhood first name was the [[Yiddish]] ''Leiba''.{{sfn|Service|2010|p=11}} However, Trotskyist writer [[David North (socialist)|David North]] argues this is an assumption based on Trotsky's Jewish heritage, lacking documentary evidence, especially as Yiddish was not spoken by his family.{{sfn|North|2010|pp=144–146}} Both North and historian [[Walter Laqueur]] state Trotsky's childhood name was ''Lyova'', a standard Russian diminutive of ''Lev''.{{sfn|Laqueur|1990|pp=59–60}} North likens the speculation to an undue emphasis on Trotsky's Jewish surname.{{sfn|North|2010|pp=144–146}}{{sfn|Laqueur|1990|pp=59–60}} The family spoke a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian ([[Surzhyk]]), not Yiddish.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Троцкий |first=Лев |title=Моя жизнь |year=1930 |location=Berlin |pages=22,109 |language=Russian}}</ref>{{sfn|North|2010|p=145}} Although Trotsky acquired good proficiency in French, English, and German, he stated in his autobiography ''[[My Life (Leon Trotsky autobiography)|My Life]]'' that he was truly fluent only in Russian and Ukrainian.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=My Life – Chapter VIII, My First Prisons |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/mylife/ch08.htm |publisher=Marxists Internet Archive |access-date=20 May 2021}}</ref> [[Raymond Molinier]] noted Trotsky spoke French fluently.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.revolutionary-history.co.uk/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070604005522/http://.revolutionary-history.co.uk/supplem/bronstein.htm|url-status=usurped|title=On Meeting with Trotsky|first1=Raymond|last1=Molinier|translator-first1=Ted| translator-last1=Crawford|archive-date=4 June 2007|access-date=29 January 2022}}</ref>

When Trotsky was eight,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leon-Trotsky|title=Leon Trotsky – Biography, Books, Assassination, & Facts|access-date=24 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170915061510/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leon-Trotsky|archive-date=15 September 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> his father sent him to [[Odessa]] for education. He enrolled in a Lutheran German-language school (St. Paul's Realschule), which admitted students of various faiths<ref>''Mein Leben. Ein Essay über Trockijs Autobiographie und den jungen Trockij (1879–1904)'', Wolfgang und Petra Libitz, 2022, p. 48.</ref> and became increasingly Russified during his time there due to the Imperial government's [[Russification]] policy.<ref name="Lindemann2000">{{cite book|author=Albert S. Lindemann|title=Esau's Tears: Modern Anti-Semitism and the Rise of the Jews|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NagdhSUgB9oC&pg=PA446|access-date=26 September 2013|year= 2000| publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79538-8|page=446}}</ref> Trotsky and his wife Natalia later registered their children as Lutheran, as Austrian law then required children to receive religious education "in the faith of their parents".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=My Life – Chapter XVII, Preparing for a New Revolution|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/mylife/ch17.htm |publisher=Marxists Internet Archive |access-date=7 April 2022}}</ref> Odessa, a bustling cosmopolitan port city, differed greatly from typical Russian cities and contributed to the development of young Trotsky's international outlook. He excelled academically, particularly in science and mathematics, and was a voracious reader, often disciplined for reading non-curriculum books during class.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|loc=Chapter 1}}