"You're lying like Trotsky!" - you probably heard this phrase? Often we hear this about a person who rants a lot and extensively, and can also easily lie without blinking an eye. The phrase "lying like Trotsky" absolutely does not paint a person and has a negative connotation.
As many people know, Leon Trotsky was once a popular revolutionary and political figure. Why is his name still remembered in the impartial expression of "lying like Trotsky"? His activity, like any historical character, deserves careful study, especially since after so many years, this can be partially objective. Studying his biography will bring us closer to a solution. Where did the expression “lying like Trotsky” come from?
Two names
Leon Trotsky is an acquired name, a pseudonym, possibly adopted by him in the fashion of the then revolutionary times. His real name is Leib Davidovich Bronstein. As we see, Lev Davidovich changed it to a more harmonious one, leaving only his middle name unchanged. In fact, many of Trotsky’s life episodes are completely false and full of deceit, that’s why they say: “You’re lying like Trotsky.” Thanks to adventurism and the great gift of persuasion, Trotsky emerged from difficult situations with the least loss for himself.
Leiba Bronstein was born on October 26 (November 7, according to modern style) in 1879, exactly 38 years before the October Revolution, near the village of Yanovka, Kherson Province (Ukraine), in a wealthy family engaged in leasing their own allotments of land to peasants.
Since childhood, Leib tried to speak Russian and Ukrainian, although it was customary to speak Yiddish in his native places. A sense of superiority was formed in the future revolutionary thanks to the environment of the laborers' children, with whom he was arrogant and did not communicate.
Study. Youth
In 1889, Leo entered the Odessa school of St. Paul, where he soon became the best student, but showed great interest in creative subjects - literature, poetry and drawing.
At the age of 17, he actively participates in the revolutionary circle and leads propaganda. A year later, Lev Bronstein becomes one of the organizers of the South Russian Labor Union, after which his first arrest will follow. After spending two years in the Odessa prison, Leo goes over to the side of Marxist ideals. In prison, Lev Bronstein marries the head of the union, Alexandra Sokolovskaya.
In 1900, the young Marxist was exiled to the Irkutsk province, he establishes a connection with the editorial agents of the Iskra newspaper there. Subsequently, being the author of this newspaper, Lev Bronstein is nicknamed Perot, thanks to his journalistic gift.
Emigration and the first revolution
From exile, Trotsky manages to safely escape to Samara. In this escape, his famous surname is born: it is borrowed from the senior guard of the Odessa prison and inscribed in false documents.
Then Trotsky emigrates to London, talks with the Social Democrats, collaborates there with Lenin and works at the Iskra newspaper, and also often gives speeches to Russian emigrants. The talent of the young speaker does not go unnoticed: Trotsky gains the respect of both the Bolsheviks as a whole and Lenin in particular, receives another nickname - Lenin’s club.
But then Trotsky’s love for the leader of the world proletariat fades away, he goes over to the side of the Mensheviks. The relations of Trotsky and Lenin cannot be called unambiguous. They quarrel, then reconcile. Lenin calls him “Judas”, it is likely that the expression “lying like Trotsky” has roots in these conflicts. Accusing Lenin of dictatorship, Trotsky tried to reconcile the two camps of the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, but this finally divorced him with the Mensheviks too.
Returning to Russia in 1905 with his new and last wife, Natalya Sedova, Trotsky falls into the thick of the revolutionary events of St. Petersburg. He creates the St. Petersburg Council of Workers and speaks eloquently and convincingly to the vast masses of dissatisfied workers. How honest these speeches were, whether it was possible to say then "lying like Trotsky!" - already unknown.
In 1906, Trotsky was re-arrested for calling for a revolution. And in 1907 he was deprived of all civil rights, sent to perpetual exile in Siberia, on the road to which Trotsky manages yet another escape.
Two revolutions
From 1908 to 1916 Trotsky is engaged in revolutionary journalistic activities, lives in many cities in Europe. During the First World War, Trotsky also writes military reports on the pages of the newspaper Kievskaya Mysl. He was subjected to another exile from France in 1916, many European countries refuse to accept him. At the beginning of 1917, Trotsky, being expelled from Spain, arrives in the United States.
Trotsky enthusiastically greeted the second Russian revolution in February 1917, and in May of the same year he came to Russia. Speaking at numerous meetings of soldiers, sailors, and workers, Trotsky, thanks to his extraordinary oratory, again gains the recognition of the masses and becomes chairman of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers' Deputies.
Created in October 1917 by Trotsky, the Military Revolutionary Committee, with the help of armed rebellion, helps the Bolsheviks to overthrow the Provisional Government in the October Revolution.
New time
In the new government, Trotsky receives the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. However, after six months, he becomes the People's Commissar of the military and begins the formation of the Red Army by rather cruel methods. Discipline or desertion was followed by immediate arrest or even execution. This period went down in history under the name "Red Terror."
At the end of 1920, Lenin appointed Lev Davidovich People's Commissar of Railways, where Trotsky again uses militarized methods of government. Speaking to the railroad workers, he often does not keep his promises, which may be why ordinary people create the proverb “lying like Trotsky”.
Trotsky becomes the second leader of the country after Lenin, thanks to his convincing speeches during the Civil War and harsh methods of government. However, the death of Lenin did not allow him to fully bring his plans to life. Joseph Stalin, who considered Trotsky his rival, stands at the head of the country.
After Lenin
Stalin is considered a possible progenitor of the phrase "lying like Trotsky." Having taken the country's first post, Stalin immediately subjected Trotsky to disgrace, as a result of which he loses the post of military commissar and membership in the Central Committee of the Politburo.
Trotsky makes an attempt to restore his posts and holds an anti-government demonstration, after which he was deprived of Soviet citizenship and expelled to Alma-Ata, and then completely outside the USSR.
In exile, Trotsky begins to write books, conduct opposition work, and publishes the Opposition Bulletin. In his autobiographical works, he tries to give an answer to Soviet anti-Trotskyism and to justify his life as a whole. Leon Trotsky writes negatively about the leaders of the USSR, strongly criticizes industrialization and collectivization, and also does not believe in Soviet statistics.
Last years
In 1936, Trotsky leaves Europe and settles in Mexico in a guarded estate near Mexico City. But this does not stop the Soviet special agents, who are observing Trotsky for almost round-the-clock surveillance.
In Paris in 1938, under strange circumstances, his eldest son and main associate were killed. Then the Stalinist hand deals with his first wife and youngest son.
Later, it comes to Trotsky himself - Stalin orders to remove him, and after the first failed attempt at the murder, Leon Trotsky dies at the hands of the Spanish NKVD agent Mercader. After his death, Trotsky was cremated and buried within the Mexican estate, where his museum is still located.
