Editing Leon Trotsky (section)

=== 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.