Editing Leon Trotsky (section)

== Legacy==
{{Main|Red Army|Petrograd Soviet|Fourth International|Leon Trotsky bibliography}}
[[File:Trotsky grave.jpg|thumb|upright|Leon Trotsky's grave in [[Coyoacán]], Mexico City, where his ashes are interred.]]
In 1923, the historic town of [[Gatchina]] in [[Petrograd Governorate]] (now [[Leningrad Oblast]]) was renamed Trotsk ({{langx|ru|Троцк}}) by Soviet authorities after Leon Trotsky.<ref name="GatchinskyUyezdHist">{{cite web|url=http://classif.spb.ru/sprav/np_lo/4_Gatch_uezd.htm|script-title=ru:Гатчинский уезд (февраль 1923 г. – август 1927 г.)|publisher=Система классификаторов исполнительных органов государственной власти Санкт-Петербурга|language=ru|access-date=27 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304094855/http://classif.spb.ru/sprav/np_lo/4_Gatch_uezd.htm|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> After Joseph Stalin became General Secretary, Trotsky was gradually exiled, and the town was renamed '''Krasnogvardeysk''' ({{lang|ru|Красногварде́йск}}, ''Red Guard City'') in 1929. In 1944, to boost morale, its historic name Gatchina was restored.<ref name="DistrictHist">{{cite web|url=http://classif.spb.ru/sprav/np_lo/43_Trotsky_Krasnofvardeysky_Gatchinsky_rayon.htm|script-title=ru:Троцкий район (август 1927 г. – август 1929 г.), Красногвардейский район (август 1929 г. – январь 1944 г.), Гатчинский район (январь 1944 г.)|publisher=Система классификаторов исполнительных органов государственной власти Санкт-Петербурга|language=ru|access-date=27 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203001008/http://classif.spb.ru/sprav/np_lo/43_Trotsky_Krasnofvardeysky_Gatchinsky_rayon.htm|archive-date=3 December 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Trotsky's house in Coyoacán is preserved much as it was on the day of his assassination and is now the [[Leon Trotsky House Museum]], run by a board that included his grandson Esteban Volkov (1926–2023).<ref>{{cite news |last1=Pérez |first1=David Marcial |title=Muere a los 97 años Esteban Volkov, nieto y guardián de la memoria de León Trotsky |trans-title=Esteban Volkov, grandson and guardian of Leon Trotsky's memory, dies at 97 |url=https://elpais.com/mexico/2023-06-17/muere-a-los-97-anos-esteban-volkov-nieto-y-guardian-de-la-memoria-de-leon-trotsky.html |access-date=18 June 2023 |work=El País México |date=17 June 2023 |language=es-MX}}</ref> His grave is on its grounds. The "International Friends of the Leon Trotsky Museum" foundation raises funds to improve the museum.

Shortly before his assassination, Trotsky agreed to sell most of his remaining papers to [[Harvard University]]. After his death, his widow, Natalya Sedova, collected his remaining papers and sent them to Harvard. Over the years, Harvard acquired additional papers hidden from Soviet and Nazi agents in Europe.<ref>Gerald M. Rosberg, [https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/7/3/leon-trotskys-personal-papers-pbibn-the/ "Leon Trotsky's Personal Papers"], ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]'', 3 July 1967.</ref> These papers now occupy {{convert|65|ft|m}} of shelf space in Harvard's [[Houghton Library]].<ref>[https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/24/resources/6706 Leon Trotsky exile papers], MS Russ 13.1 in the Houghton Library.</ref>

Trotsky was never [[Rehabilitation (Soviet)|rehabilitated]] by the Soviet government, despite [[de-Stalinization]]-era rehabilitations of most other [[Old Bolshevik]]s. His son, Sergei Sedov (died 1937), was rehabilitated in 1988, as was Nikolai Bukharin. Beginning in 1989, Trotsky's books, forbidden until 1987, were published in the Soviet Union. Trotsky was rehabilitated on 16 June 2001 by the [[Prosecutor General of Russia|General Prosecutor's Office]] of the Russian Federation.<ref>[http://memorial-nic.org/iofe/3.html В. В. Иофе. Осмысление Гулага.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110821184248/http://memorial-nic.org/iofe/3.html |date=21 August 2011}} НИЦ «Мемориал»</ref>

Historian [[Harold Shukman]] assessed conflicting perspectives on Trotsky's legacy:
{{Blockquote|Trotsky's legacy, unlike those of Stalin and Lenin, had long been submerged and obliterated as a topic of debate, and his place in Soviet history books had correspondingly diminished to one of no importance. For Western readers, however, Trotsky has always been one of the most enigmatic and powerful personalities of the Russian revolution, a Mephistophelian figure whose life ended in an appropriately dramatic way.<ref>{{cite book |last=Volkogonov |first=Dmitri |date=18 June 2008 |others=Harold Shukman (ed. and trans.) |title=Trotsky: Eternal Revolutionary |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4391-0573-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/trotskyeternalre0000volk/page/n27/mode/2up xxi] (Preface) |url=https://archive.org/details/trotskyeternalre0000volk/page/n27/mode/2up |language=en}}</ref>}}
Political theorist David North attributed Trotsky's diminished historical influence to the "virtually unlimited resources of the Soviet regime, and of [[Marxism–Leninism|Stalinist-run]] parties throughout the world, [which] were devoted to blackguarding Trotsky as an anti-Soviet saboteur, terrorist and fascist agent. Within the Soviet Union, his political co-thinkers, past and present, were ruthlessly exterminated".{{sfn|North|2010|pp=160–161}} North also criticized biographical literature on Trotsky by some historians (Ian Thatcher, Geoffrey Swain, Robert Service), viewing these trends as a "confluence of [[neo-Stalinist]] falsification and traditional Anglo-American [[anti-Communism]]".{{sfn|North|2010|pp=127}}
[[File:Ludwig Binder Haus der Geschichte Studentenrevolte 1968 2001 03 0275.4212 (17086177105).jpg|thumb|[[West German student movement|West German students]] holding a placard of Trotsky during protests in 1968]]

In 2018, John Kelly wrote that "almost 80 years after Leon Trotsky founded the Fourth International, there are now Trotskyite organisations in 57 countries, including most of [[Western Europe]] and [[Latin America]]". However, he argued no Trotskyist group had ever led a revolution or built an enduring mass political party.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kelly |first1=John |title=Contemporary Trotskyism: Parties, Sects and Social Movements in Britain |date=14 March 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-36894-6 |page=iii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0mJRDwAAQBAJ&q=john+kelly+57+countries |language=en}}</ref> British historian Christian Høgsbjerg countered that academic literature on Trotskyism minimized its historical role in building social movements, stressing British Trotskyists' key role in the [[Vietnam Solidarity Campaign]] (1966–1971), [[Anti-Nazi League]] (1977–1981), [[All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation]] (1989–1991), and [[Stop the War Coalition]] (from 2001).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Høgsbjerg |first1=Christian |title=Trotskyology: A review of John Kelly, Contemporary Trotskyism: Parties, Sects and Social Movements in Britain |journal=International Socialism |date=18 October 2018 |issue=160 |url=https://isj.org.uk/trotskyology/}}</ref>

Outside the Fourth International, Trotsky has been admired by figures including philosopher [[Jean-Paul Sartre]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Birchall |first1=Ian H. |title=Sartre Against Stalinism |date=2004 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-57181-621-4 |page=86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p0FE2XWvFRcC |language=en}}</ref> military general [[Mikhail Tukhachevsky]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Medvedev |first1=Roy Aleksandrovich |title=On Stalin and Stalinism |date=1979 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-215842-0 |page=53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=82JpAAAAMAAJ&q=Tukhachevsky%20admired%20Trotsky |language=en}}</ref> Marxist theorist [[Rosa Luxemburg]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Luxemburg |first1=Rosa |title=The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg Volume IV: Political Writings 2, On Revolution (1906-1909) |date=15 March 2022 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78873-810-1 |page=xviii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YSIhEAAAQBAJ&dq=she+admired+trotskyist&pg=PR28 |language=en}}</ref> economist [[Paul Sweezy]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Saccarelli |first1=Emanuele |title=Gramsci and Trotsky in the Shadow of Stalinism: The Political Theory and Practice of Opposition |date=28 February 2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-89980-6 |page=242 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8GSAgAAQBAJ&dq=paul+sweezy+trotsky&pg=PA242 |language=en}}</ref> philosopher [[John Dewey]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gregson |first1=John |title=Marxism, Ethics and Politics: The Work of Alasdair MacIntyre |date=11 December 2018 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-030-03371-2 |page=186 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=04J-DwAAQBAJ&dq=Admirer+of+Trotsky&pg=PA186 |language=en}}</ref> historian [[A. J. P. Taylor]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Roy |first1=James Charles |title=All the World at War: People and Places, 1914–1918 |date=31 May 2024 |publisher=Pen and Sword Military |isbn=978-1-3990-6034-9 |pages=1–672 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vizaEAAAQBAJ&dq=Admirer+of+Trotsky&pg=PT760 |language=en}}</ref> psychoanalyst [[Erich Fromm]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wilde |first1=Lawrence |title=Erich Fromm and the Quest for Solidarity |date=30 April 2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-07511-6 |page=121 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWoYDAAAQBAJ&dq=admiration+of+trotsky&pg=PA121 |language=en}}</ref> philosopher [[Alasdair MacIntyre]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Saccarelli |first1=Emanuele |title=Gramsci and Trotsky in the Shadow of Stalinism: The Political Theory and Practice of Opposition |date=28 February 2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-89980-6 |page=114 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8GSAgAAQBAJ&dq=philosopher+admire+trotsky&pg=PA114 |language=en}}</ref> literary critic [[Edmund Wilson]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wald |first1=Alan M. |title=The New York Intellectuals, Thirtieth Anniversary Edition: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s |date=10 October 2017 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-1-4696-3595-8 |page=157 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bDM5DwAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref> painter [[Diego Rivera]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Feferman |first1=Anita Burdman |title=From Trotsky to Gödel: The Life of Jean van Heijenoort |date=28 January 2022 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-000-11079-1 |page=123 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yu1bEAAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref> political leader [[Martin Tranmæl]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hoidal |first1=Oddvar |title=Trotsky in Norway: Exile, 1935–1937 |date=1 October 2013 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-5806-5 |page=298 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8f_-DwAAQBAJ&dq=admired+trotsky&pg=PA298 |language=en}}</ref> and literary writer [[Lu Xun]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Benton |first1=Gregor |title=Lu Xun and Leon Trotsky |website=www.historicalmaterialism.org |date=24 January 2020 |url=https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/book-review/lu-xun-and-leon-trotsky}}</ref>