Editing Leon Trotsky (section)

== Early political activities and life (1896–1917) ==
=== Revolutionary activity and imprisonment (1896–1898) ===
[[File:LeonTrotsky1897.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|Trotsky in 1897]]
Trotsky became involved in revolutionary activities in 1896 after moving to the port town of [[Mykolaiv|Nikolayev]] (now Mykolaiv) on the [[Black Sea]].{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=36}} Initially a ''[[narodnik]]'' (revolutionary [[agrarian socialist]] [[populist]]), he opposed [[Marxism]] but was converted by his future first wife, [[Aleksandra Sokolovskaya]]. He graduated from high school with first-class honours the same year.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=39}} His father had intended for him to become a [[mechanical engineer]].<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Brotherstone |editor1-first=Terence |editor2-last=Dukes |editor2-first=Paul |title=The Trotsky reappraisal |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |page=8}}</ref>

Trotsky briefly attended [[Odessa University]], studying [[engineering]] and [[mathematics]]. A university colleague noted his exceptional mathematical talent. However, bored with his studies, he increasingly focused on [[political philosophy]] and underground revolutionary activities.{{Sfn|Renton|2004|p=19}} He dropped out in early 1897 to help organize the South Russian Workers' Union in Nikolayev.{{Sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=39}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eastman |first1=Max |title=Leon Trotsky: the Portrait of a Youth |date=1970 |publisher=AMS Press |isbn=978-0-404-02235-8 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=koErAQAAMAAJ&q=Leon+Trotsky:+The+Portrait+of+a+Youth |language=en}}</ref> Using the name "Lvov",<ref name=":4">chapter XVII of his autobiography, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch07.htm ''My Life''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051119141154/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch07.htm |date=19 November 2005}}, Marxist Internet Archive</ref> he wrote and printed leaflets, distributed revolutionary pamphlets, and popularized socialist ideas among industrial workers and students.{{sfn|Renton|2004|pp=22–24}}

In January 1898, over 200 union members, including Trotsky, were arrested. He spent the next two years in prison awaiting trial, first in Nikolayev, then [[Kherson]], Odessa, and finally Moscow.<ref>Commission of Inquiry into the Charges Made Against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow Trials,&nbsp;''The Case of Leon Trotsky''&nbsp;(1937, reprinted 1968).</ref> In Moscow, he encountered other revolutionaries, learned of Lenin, and read Lenin's ''[[The Development of Capitalism in Russia]]''.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=40}} Two months into his imprisonment, the first Congress of the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]] (RSDLP) was held (1–3 March 1898).{{sfn|Schapiro|1970|p=645}} From then on, Trotsky identified as an RSDLP member.

=== First marriage and Siberian exile (1899–1902) ===
{{Main|First exile of Trotsky}}
[[File:Leo Trotzki 1897.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Trotsky's first wife Aleksandra Sokolovskaya (centre) with her brother (left), Trotsky (right), and Dr G. A. Ziv (bottom) in 1897]]
While imprisoned in Moscow in the summer of 1899, Trotsky married Aleksandra Sokolovskaya (1872–1938), a fellow Marxist, in a ceremony performed by a Jewish chaplain.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=42}} In 1900, he was sentenced to four years of exile in [[Siberia]]. Due to their marriage, Trotsky and his wife were exiled together to [[Ust-Kut]] and Verkholensk in the [[Lake Baikal|Baikal]] region. They had two daughters, [[Zinaida Volkova|Zinaida]] (1901–1933) and Nina (1902–1928), both born in Siberia.

In Siberia, Trotsky studied [[history]], [[philosophy]], [[economics]], [[sociology]], and the works of [[Karl Marx]] to solidify his political stance.{{sfn|Warth|1978|p=22}} He became aware of internal party differences, particularly the debate between "[[Economism|economists]]", who focused on workers' economic improvements, and those who prioritized overthrowing the monarchy through a disciplined revolutionary party.{{sfn|Schapiro|1970|pp=31–32}} The latter position was advocated by the London-based newspaper ''[[Iskra]]'' (''The Spark''), founded in 1900. Trotsky quickly sided with ''Iskra'' and began writing for it.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=67}}

In the summer of 1902, urged by his wife, Trotsky escaped from Siberia hidden in a load of hay.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=55}} Aleksandra later escaped with their daughters.{{sfn|Warth|1978|p=22}} Both daughters married and had children but died before their parents. Nina Nevelson died from [[tuberculosis]] in 1928. Zinaida Volkova, also suffering from tuberculosis and [[depression (mood)|depression]], followed her father into exile in Berlin but committed suicide in 1933. Aleksandra disappeared in 1935 during Stalin's [[Great Purge]] and was murdered by Soviet forces in 1938.

=== First emigration and second marriage (1902–1903) ===
Until this point, Trotsky had used his birth name, Lev (Leon) Bronstein.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=7}} He adopted the surname "Trotsky"—reportedly the name of a jailer in the Odessa prison where he had been held—which he used for the rest of his life.<ref>cf, for instance, [http://www.bartleby.com/65/tr/Trotsky.html "Leon Trotsky"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090314102048/http://www.bartleby.com/65/tr/Trotsky.html |date=14 March 2009}}, ''The Columbia Encyclopedia''</ref> This became his primary revolutionary pseudonym. After escaping Siberia, Trotsky moved to London, joining [[Georgi Plekhanov]], Vladimir Lenin, [[Julius Martov]], and other editors of ''Iskra''. Writing under the pen name ''Pero'' ("quill" or "pen"), Trotsky soon became one of the paper's leading writers.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|pp=6–7}}
[[File:Лев Троцкий после побега из первой ссылки (ок. 1902).jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Trotsky in 1902]]

The six editors of ''Iskra'' were split between an "old guard" led by Plekhanov and a "new guard" led by Lenin and Martov. Lenin, seeking a majority against Plekhanov, expected the 23-year-old Trotsky to side with the new guard. In March 1903, Lenin proposed Trotsky's co-option to the editorial board:
{{Blockquote|I suggest to all the members of the editorial board that they co-opt 'Pero' as a member of the board on the same basis as other members. [...] We very much need a seventh member, both as a convenience in voting (six being an even number) and as an addition to our forces. 'Pero' has been contributing to every issue for several months now; he works, in general, most energetically for the Iskra; he gives lectures (in which he has been very successful). In the section of articles and notes on the events of the day, he will not only be very useful, but absolutely necessary. Unquestionably a man of rare abilities, he has conviction and energy, and he will go much farther.<ref>Quoted in chapter XII of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch12.htm 'My Life'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051121230553/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch12.htm |date=21 November 2005}}, Marxist Internet Archive</ref>}}
Due to Plekhanov's opposition, Trotsky did not become a full board member but participated in an advisory capacity, earning Plekhanov's animosity.

In late 1902, Trotsky met [[Natalia Sedova]] (1882–1962), who soon became his companion. They married in 1903 and remained together until his death. They had two sons, [[Lev Sedov]] (1906–1938) and [[Sergei Sedov]] (1908–1937), both of whom predeceased their parents. Trotsky later explained that, for "citizenship" requirements after the 1917 revolution, he "took on the name of my wife" so his sons would not have to change their name. However, he never publicly or privately used the name "Sedov".<ref>Trotsky's [http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6735/673549.html 'Thermidor and anti-Semitism' (1937)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051129055537/http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6735/673549.html |date=29 November 2005}}</ref> Natalia Sedova sometimes signed her name "Sedova-Trotskaya".

=== Split with Lenin (1903–1904) ===
In August 1903, ''Iskra'' convened the RSDLP's [[2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|Second Congress]] in London. Trotsky attended with other ''Iskra'' editors. After defeating the "economist" delegates, the congress addressed the [[Jewish Bund|Bund's]] desire for autonomy within the party.<ref name=":3">Trotsky, Leon.&nbsp;''My life: an attempt at an autobiography''. Courier Corporation, 2007.</ref>

Subsequently, the pro-Iskra delegates unexpectedly split. The initial dispute was organisational: Lenin and his supporters (the Bolsheviks) advocated for a smaller, highly organized party of committed members, while Martov and his supporters (the [[Mensheviks]]) favoured a larger, less disciplined party that included sympathizers. Trotsky and most ''Iskra'' editors supported Martov, while Plekhanov backed Lenin. During 1903–1904, allegiances shifted; Trotsky left the Mensheviks in September 1904, disagreeing with their insistence on an alliance with Russian liberals and their opposition to reconciliation with Lenin and the Bolsheviks.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cavendish|first=Richard|year=2003|title=The Bolshevik–Menshevik Split|url=http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/bolshevik-menshevik-split|journal=History Today|volume=53|number=11|access-date=22 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022175007/http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/bolshevik-menshevik-split|archive-date=22 October 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

From 1904 to 1917, Trotsky described himself as a "non-factional social democrat". He attempted to reconcile party factions, leading to clashes with Lenin and others. Trotsky later admitted he was wrong to oppose Lenin on party organization. During this period, he developed his theory of [[permanent revolution]] and worked closely with [[Alexander Parvus]] (1904–1907).<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8497.1975.tb01151.x|title=Parvus, Luxemburg and Kautsky on the 1905 Russian Revolution: The Relationship with Trotsky|last=Weber|first=Nicholas|date=1975|journal=Australian Journal of Politics and History|volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=39–53 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8497.1975.tb01151.x  |issn=0004-9522}}</ref> During their split, Lenin referred to Trotsky as "Judas" (''Iudushka'', after a character in [[Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin]]'s novel ''[[The Golovlyov Family]]''),<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1911/jan/02.htm Lenin: "Judas Trotsky's Blush of Shame"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703011452/http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1911/jan/02.htm |date=3 July 2013}}, Marxists Internet Archive; retrieved 26 July 2013.</ref><ref>Goryachkina, [http://feb-web.ru/feb/irl/il0/il9/il9-159-.htm?cmd=2 М.S. М.Е.Saltykov-Shchedrin]. The Selected Works. Critical and biographical essay. Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Publishers. Moscow. 1954. Pp. 5–24.</ref> a "scoundrel",<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/periodicals/communist_review/1950/01/x01.htm CPGB: Stalin: "Slander and Truth"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130625022442/http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/periodicals/communist_review/1950/01/x01.htm |date=25 June 2013}}, Marxists Internet Archive; retrieved 26 July 2013.</ref> and a "swine".<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/feb/17ak.htm Lenin: 123. To Alexandra Kollontai] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130110225222/http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/feb/17ak.htm |date=10 January 2013}}, Marxists Internet Archive, (9 June 2006); retrieved 26 July 2013.</ref>

=== 1905 revolution and trial (1905–1906) ===
Anti-government unrest culminated in [[Saint Petersburg]] on 3 January 1905 (O.S.), when a strike began at the [[Putilov Works]]. This escalated into a general strike, with 140,000 strikers in Saint Petersburg by 7 January 1905.{{sfn|Trotsky|1971|p=73}}

On Sunday, 9 January 1905, Father [[Georgi Gapon]] led a procession to the [[Winter Palace]], ostensibly to petition the Tsar. Accounts differ, but the Palace Guard fired on the demonstration, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries. This event, known as [[Bloody Sunday (1905)|Bloody Sunday]], intensified revolutionary fervour. Gapon's own biography suggests a degree of provocation by radicals within the crowd, a claim later echoed by some police records.<ref>Gapon, Georgy. ''The Story of My Life''. Chapman & Hall; 1st THUS edition (1 January 1905)</ref><ref>Smith, Edward Ellis. The Okhrana; The Russian Department of Police; A Bibliography. Hoover Institution, Stanford University, 1967.</ref>
[[File:Leon Trotsky Mugshot.png|thumb|upright=1.3|left|Police mugshots of Trotsky in 1905 after his arrest as a leader of the Saint Petersburg Soviet]]

Following Bloody Sunday, Trotsky secretly returned to Russia in February 1905 via [[Kiev]].{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=117}} He wrote for an underground press in Kiev before moving to Saint Petersburg. There, he worked with Bolsheviks like [[Leonid Krasin]] and the local Menshevik committee, pushing the latter in a more radical direction. A police raid in May forced him to flee to rural [[Grand Duchy of Finland|Finland]], where he further developed his theory of permanent revolution.<ref>{{cite book | author = Leon Trotsky | title = Permanent Revolution | chapter = Results and Prospects | publisher = Pathfinder Press | location = New York | year = 1969 | orig-year = 1929 | pages = 27, 122}}</ref>

On 19 September 1905, typesetters at [[Ivan Sytin]]'s Moscow printing house struck for shorter hours and higher pay. By 24 September, 50 other Moscow printing shops joined. On 2 October, Saint Petersburg typesetters struck in solidarity. On 7 October, railway workers of the [[Moscow–Kazan Railway]] also struck.{{sfn|Trotsky|1971|pp=85–88}} Amidst this turmoil, Trotsky returned to Saint Petersburg on 15 October. He addressed the Saint Petersburg Soviet (Council) of Workers' Deputies at the Technological Institute, with an estimated 200,000 people gathered outside—about half the city's workers.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=126}}
[[File:TrotskiEnLaFortalezaDePedroYPabloEn1906.png|thumb|upright=.8|Trotsky in prison, awaiting trial, 1906]]

After his return, Trotsky and [[Parvus]] took over the newspaper ''Russian Gazette,'' increasing its circulation to 500,000. Trotsky also co-founded "Nachalo" ("The Beginning") with Parvus, Julius Martov, and other Mensheviks, which became a successful newspaper during the 1905 revolutionary climate in Saint Petersburg.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|pp=138–139}}

Before Trotsky's return, Mensheviks had independently conceived of an elected, non-party revolutionary body representing the capital's workers: the first [[Soviet (council)|Soviet]]. By Trotsky's arrival, the [[Saint Petersburg Soviet]] was functioning, headed by [[Georgy Stepanovich Khrustalev-Nosar|Khrustalyev-Nosar]] (Georgy Nosar, alias Pyotr Khrustalyov), a lawyer chosen as a compromise figure.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=131}} Khrustalyev-Nosar became popular and was the Soviet's public face.{{sfn|Trotsky|1971|p=218}}{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=131}} Trotsky joined the Soviet as "Yanovsky" (after his birthplace) and was elected vice-chairman. He performed much of the practical work and, after Khrustalyev-Nosar's arrest on 26 November 1905, became its chairman. On 2 December, the Soviet issued a proclamation on Tsarist government debts:
{{Blockquote|The autocracy never enjoyed the confidence of the people and was never granted any authority by the people. We have therefore decided not to allow the repayment of such loans as have been made by the Tsarist government when openly engaged in a war with the entire people.<ref>Quoted in Chapter XIV of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch14.htm ''My Life''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060414150502/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch14.htm |date=14 April 2006}}</ref>}}
The following day, 3 December 1905, government troops surrounded the Soviet, and its deputies were arrested.{{sfn|Trotsky|1971|pp=231–233}} Trotsky and other leaders were tried in 1906 for supporting an armed rebellion. On 4 October 1906, he was convicted and sentenced to internal exile in Siberia.

=== Second emigration (1907–1914) ===
[[File:ParvusTrotskiDeich.jpg|thumb|Trotsky (centre) with [[Alexander Parvus]] (left) and [[Leo Deutsch]] (right) in the Peter and Paul Fortress prison, Saint Petersburg, 1906]]
En route to exile in [[Obdorsk]], Siberia, in January 1907, Trotsky escaped at [[Beryozovo, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug|Berezov]]<ref>Chapter XXIII of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch17.htm ''1905''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060305033203/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch17.htm |date=5 March 2006}}</ref> and made his way to London. He attended the [[5th Congress of the RSDLP]]. In October, he moved to [[Vienna]], Austria-Hungary. For the next seven years, he participated in the activities of the [[Austrian Social Democratic Party]] and occasionally the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|German Social Democratic Party]].<ref name=":3" /> In Vienna, he became close to [[Adolph Joffe]], his friend for the next 20 years, who introduced him to [[psychoanalysis]].<ref>Chapter XVII of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch17.htm ''My Life''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060305033203/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch17.htm |date=5 March 2006}}, Marxist Internet Archive; retrieved 31 January 2018.</ref>

[[File:Троцкий читает газету „Правда“ в Вене (ок. 1910).jpg|thumb|left|upright=.7|Trotsky reading ''Pravda'' in Vienna, circa 1910]]
In October 1908, Trotsky joined the editorial staff of ''[[Pravda]]'' ("Truth"), a bi-weekly, Russian-language social democratic paper for Russian workers, co-editing it with Adolph Joffe and [[Matvey Skobelev]]. It was smuggled into Russia.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=191}} The paper appeared irregularly, with only five issues in its first year.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=191}} Avoiding factional politics, it proved popular with Russian industrial workers. After the 1905–1907 revolution's failure, both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks experienced multiple splits. Funding for ''Pravda'' was scarce. Trotsky sought financial backing from the RSDLP [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]] throughout 1909.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=192}}

In 1910, a Bolshevik majority controlled the Central Committee. Lenin agreed to finance ''Pravda'' but required a Bolshevik co-editor.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|p=192}} When various factions tried to reunite at the January 1910 RSDLP Central Committee meeting in Paris (over Lenin's objections),<ref>{{cite web | title = Towards Unity | author = V. I. Lenin | url = https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1910/feb/13.htm | website = Internet Marxists Archive | year = 1974 | volume = 16 | pages = 147–155}}</ref> Trotsky's ''Pravda'' was made a party-financed 'central organ'. [[Lev Kamenev]], Trotsky's brother-in-law, joined the editorial board from the Bolsheviks. However, unification attempts failed by August 1910. Kamenev resigned amid mutual recriminations. Trotsky continued publishing ''Pravda'' for another two years until it folded in April 1912.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|loc=Chapter 1}}

The Bolsheviks launched a new workers' newspaper in Saint Petersburg on 22 April 1912, also named ''Pravda''. Trotsky, upset by what he saw as the usurpation of his newspaper's name, wrote a bitter letter to [[Nikolay Chkheidze]], a Menshevik leader, in April 1913, denouncing Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Though he quickly moved past the disagreement, the letter was intercepted by the [[Okhrana]] (secret police) and archived. After Lenin's death in 1924, Trotsky's opponents within the Communist Party publicized the letter to portray him as Lenin's enemy.{{sfn|Deutscher|2003a|pp=6–7}}

The 1910s were a period of heightened tension within the RSDLP. A major disagreement between Trotsky and the Mensheviks on one side, and Lenin on the other, concerned "expropriations"—armed robberies of banks and businesses by Bolshevik groups to fund the Party.<ref>Chapter XVI of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch16.htm ''My Life''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060420211850/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch16.htm |date=20 April 2006}}</ref> These actions, banned by the 5th Congress, were continued by Bolsheviks.
[[File:Trotsky in Vienna.jpg|thumb|left|Trotsky in Vienna, c. 1907–1914]]
In January 1912, most of the Bolshevik faction, led by Lenin, held a conference in [[Prague]], broke away from the RSDLP, and formed the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks)]]. In response, Trotsky organized a "unification" conference of social democratic factions in Vienna in August 1912 (the "August Bloc") to reunite Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, but this attempt was largely unsuccessful.<ref name=":3" />

In Vienna, Trotsky published articles in radical Russian and Ukrainian newspapers like ''Kievskaya Mysl,'' using pseudonyms such as "Antid Oto", a name chosen randomly from an Italian dictionary. Trotsky joked he "wanted to inject the Marxist antidote into the legitimate newspapers".{{sfn|Service|2010|p=62}}<ref>{{cite web | title = My Life, Chapter IX | author = L. Trotsky | url = https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/mylife/ch09.htm | website = Marxists Internet Archive}}</ref> In September 1912, ''Kievskaya Mysl'' sent him to the Balkans as its war correspondent, where he covered the two [[Balkan Wars]] for the next year. There, Trotsky chronicled [[ethnic cleansing]] carried out by the Serbian army [[Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars|against Albanian civilians]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Perritt |first1=Henry H. Jr. |title=The Road to Independence for Kosovo: A Chronicle of the Ahtisaari Plan |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-11624-4 |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f2nOTuF_KC0C&q=Leon+Trotsky+Kosovo&pg=PA17 |access-date=1 January 2020}}</ref> He became a close friend of [[Christian Rakovsky]], later a leading Soviet politician and Trotsky's ally. On 3 August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, with [[Austria-Hungary]] fighting the Russian Empire, Trotsky was forced to flee Vienna for neutral Switzerland to avoid arrest as a Russian [[émigré]].<ref name=":4" />

=== World War I (1914–1917) ===
World War I caused a sudden realignment within the RSDLP and other European social democratic parties over issues of war, revolution, pacifism, and internationalism. The RSDLP split into "defeatists" and "defencists". Lenin, Trotsky, and Martov advocated various internationalist anti-war positions, viewing defeat for their own country's ruling class as a "lesser evil" and opposing all imperialists in the war. "Defencists" like Plekhanov supported the Russian government to some extent. Trotsky's former colleague Parvus, now a defencist, sided so strongly against Russia that he wished for a German victory. In Switzerland, Trotsky briefly worked with the [[Swiss Socialist Party]], prompting it to adopt an internationalist resolution. He wrote ''The War and the International,''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1914-war/index.htm |title=Marxists.org, ''The War and the International'' |access-date=31 August 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051120092354/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1914-war/index.htm |archive-date=20 November 2005 |url-status=live}}</ref> opposing the war and the pro-war stance of European social democratic parties, especially the German party.
[[File:Trotskynina1915.jpg|thumb|upright|Leon Trotsky with his daughter Nina in 1915]]

As a war correspondent for ''Kievskaya Mysl'', Trotsky moved to France on 19 November 1914. In January 1915 in Paris, he began editing ''[[Nashe Slovo]]'' ("Our Word"), an internationalist socialist newspaper, initially with Martov (who soon resigned as the paper moved left). He adopted the slogan "peace without indemnities or annexations, peace without conquerors or conquered." Lenin advocated Russia's defeat and demanded a complete break with the [[Second International]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Life of Lenin|last=Fischer|first=Louis|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson History|year=2001|isbn=978-1-84212-230-3|location=UK}}</ref>

Trotsky attended the [[Zimmerwald Conference]] of anti-war socialists in September 1915, advocating a middle course between those like Martov, who would stay in the Second International, and those like Lenin, who would break from it and form a [[Third International]]. The conference adopted Trotsky's proposed middle line. Lenin, initially opposed, eventually voted for Trotsky's resolution to avoid a split among anti-war socialists.<ref>Gus Fagan. [http://www.marxists.org/archive/rakovsky/biog/biog2.htm Christian Rakovsky biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060619133845/http://www.marxists.org/archive/rakovsky/biog/biog2.htm |date=19 June 2006}}, marxists.org; accessed 31 January 2018.</ref>

In September 1916,{{sfn|Rubenstein|2011|p=75}} Trotsky was deported from France to Spain for his anti-war activities. Spanish authorities, not wanting him, deported him to the United States on 25 December 1916. He arrived in New York City on 13 January 1917, staying for over two months at 1522 Vyse Avenue in [[The Bronx]]. In New York, he wrote articles for the local [[Russian language|Russian-language]] socialist newspaper ''[[Novy Mir (1916 magazine)|Novy Mir]]'' and, in translation, for the Yiddish-language daily [[The Jewish Daily Forward|''Der Forverts'']] ("Forward"). He also gave speeches to Russian émigrés.<ref name=":5" />

Trotsky was in New York City when the [[February Revolution]] of 1917 led to the abdication of [[Tsar Nicholas II]]. He left New York aboard SS ''Kristianiafjord'' on 27 March 1917, but his ship was intercepted by the [[Royal Navy]] at [[Halifax, Nova Scotia]]. Trotsky was arrested and detained for a month at the [[Amherst Internment Camp]] in [[Nova Scotia]]. In the camp, he befriended workers and sailors among his fellow inmates, describing his month there as "one continual mass meeting".<ref name="ns1758.ca">[http://ns1758.ca/quote/trotsky1917.html ''Leon Trotsky: My Life – In a Concentration Camp''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150508001344/http://ns1758.ca/quote/trotsky1917.html |date=8 May 2015}}, ns1758.ca; accessed 31 January 2018.</ref> His speeches and agitation angered German inmates, who complained to the camp commander, Colonel Morris, about Trotsky's "anti-patriotic" attitude.<ref name="ns1758.ca" /> Morris subsequently forbade Trotsky from making public speeches, leading to 530 prisoners protesting and signing a petition against the decision.<ref name="ns1758.ca" /> In Russia, after initial hesitation and under pressure from workers' and peasants' Soviets, Foreign Minister [[Pavel Milyukov]] demanded Trotsky's release as a Russian citizen. The British government freed him on 29 April 1917.<ref name="ns1758.ca" />
[[File:Leo Trotzki 1917.jpg|thumb|left|Trotsky arriving in Petrograd by train in May 1917]]

He reached Russia on 17 May 1917. Upon his return, Trotsky largely agreed with the Bolshevik position but did not immediately join them. Russian social democrats were split into at least six groups, and the Bolsheviks awaited the next party Congress to decide on mergers. Trotsky temporarily joined the [[Mezhraiontsy]], a regional social democratic organization in [[Petrograd]], becoming one of its leaders. At the First [[All-Russian Congress of Soviets|Congress of Soviets]] in June, he was elected a member of the first [[All-Russian Central Executive Committee]] (VTsIK) from the Mezhraiontsy faction.<ref>{{cite web|title=Leon Trotsky {{!}} Biography, Books, Assassination, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leon-Trotsky|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=26 May 2020}}</ref>

After an unsuccessful pro-Bolshevik uprising in Petrograd in July (the [[July Days]]), Trotsky was arrested on 7 August 1917. He was released 40 days later following the failed counter-revolutionary [[Kornilov affair|uprising by Lavr Kornilov]]. After the Bolsheviks gained a majority in the [[Petrograd Soviet]], Trotsky was elected its chairman on {{OldStyleDate|8 October|1917|25 September}}.<ref name="Wade p. xxi">{{harvnb|Wade|2004|p=xxi}}</ref> He sided with Lenin against [[Grigory Zinoviev]] and [[Lev Kamenev]] when the Bolshevik Central Committee discussed staging an armed uprising, and he led the efforts to overthrow the [[Russian Provisional Government]] headed by socialist [[Aleksandr Kerensky]].

[[Joseph Stalin]] wrote the following summary of Trotsky's role in 1917 in ''Pravda'' on 6 November 1918:<ref name="NI26">[https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/ni/vol02/no06/quote.htm In One And The Same Issue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715133106/https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/ni/vol02/no06/quote.htm |date=15 July 2018}} New International, Vol. 2 No. 6, October 1935, p. 208.</ref>
{{Blockquote|All practical work in connection with the organization of the uprising was done under the immediate direction of Comrade Trotsky, the President of the Petrograd Soviet. It can be stated with certainty that the Party is indebted primarily and principally to Comrade Trotsky for the rapid going over of the garrison to the side of the Soviet and the efficient manner in which the work of the [[Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee|Military Revolutionary Committee]] was organized.}}
Although this passage was quoted in Stalin's book ''The October Revolution'' (1934),<ref name="NI26" /> it was expunged from Stalin's ''Works'' (1949).<ref>{{cite web | author = J. V. Stalin | title = The October Revolution and the National Question | url = https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1918/11/19.htm | website = Internet Marxists Archive | volume = 4}}</ref>

After the success of the [[October Revolution]] on 7–8 November 1917, Trotsky led efforts to repel a [[Kerensky–Krasnov uprising|counter-attack]] by [[Cossacks]] under General [[Pyotr Krasnov]] and other troops loyal to the overthrown Provisional Government at [[Gatchina]]. Allied with Lenin, he defeated attempts by other Bolshevik Central Committee members (Zinoviev, Kamenev, [[Alexei Rykov|Rykov]], etc.) to share power with other moderate socialist parties. Trotsky advocated for a predominantly Bolshevik government and was reluctant to recall Mensheviks as partners after their voluntary withdrawal from the Congress of Soviets. However, he released several socialist ministers from prison. Neither Trotsky nor his colleagues in 1917 initially wished to suppress these parties entirely; the Bolsheviks reserved vacant seats in the Soviets and the [[All-Russian Central Executive Committee|Central Executive Committee]] for these parties in proportion to their vote share at the Congress.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet Armed Trotsky 1879-1921 (1954) |date=1954 |publisher=Oxford University Press. |pages=330–336 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.507702/page/335/mode/1up?view=theater}}</ref> Concurrently, prominent [[Left Socialist-Revolutionaries|Left Socialist Revolutionaries]] assumed positions in Lenin's government, leading commissariats such as agriculture ([[Andrei Kolegayev]]), property ([[Vladimir Karelin]]), justice ([[Isaac Steinberg]]), posts and telegraphs ([[Prosh Proshian]]), and local government (Vladimir Trutovsky).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abramovitch |first1=Raphael R. |title=The Soviet Revolution, 1917-1939 |date=1985 |publisher=International Universities Press |page=130 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L_q1WAmv7XkC&q=Steinberg+became+the+People%27s+Commissar+of+Justice,+Proshyan+became+the+People%27s+Commissar+for+Posts+and+Telegraphs |language=en}}</ref> According to Deutscher, Menshevik and Social Revolutionary demands for a coalition government included disarming Bolshevik detachments and excluding Lenin and Trotsky, which was unacceptable even to moderate Bolshevik negotiators like Kamenev and [[Grigori Sokolnikov|Sokolnikov]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet Armed Trotsky 1879-1921 (1954) |date=1954 |publisher=Oxford University Press. |page=331 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.507702/page/330/mode/1up?view=theater}}</ref> By the end of 1917, Trotsky was unquestionably the second most powerful man in the Bolshevik Party after Lenin, overshadowing Zinoviev, who had been Lenin's top lieutenant for the previous decade.