Trotsky’s Contribution to the Success of the Bolsheviks Up to 1922

Trotsky’s Contribution to the Success of the Bolsheviks Up to 1922

The relatively brief period between approximately 1917 and 1922 was an

extremely strenuous, yet glorious and successful time for the

Bolshevik Party. With the great help of his right hand man Trotsky,

the party leader, Lenin was soon able to deflect support from the

current provisional government, and turn heads towards the far more

organised and dedicated Bolsheviks. Despite having once been a

Menshevik, Trotsky was soon converted to a loyal and dedicated

Bolshevik through the greatly influential persuasive power of Lenin,

who convinced Trotsky that the time was right for Revolution. Come

June 1917, Trotsky was already considered Lenin’s right-man, and as a

matter of fact, Lenin himself even said that he believed Trotsky to be

the only person able to sae the revolution. There are a variety of

ways in which Trotsky contributed to the success of the Bolsheviks up

to 1922.

Trotsky made great use of his outstanding ability in leadership in

order to help the Bolsheviks succeed. He was very intelligent, good at

public speaking and very persistent. Where Trotsky had holes and

weaknesses in his qualities, they were filled by Lenin, who was very

strong intellectually, and as a result they formed an excellent,

persuasive and effective pair of leaders, achieving results such as

winning the October revolution in 1919.

During the years around 1917, Lenin was extremely busy battling with

the current provisional government for power. In order to do this, he

was required to promote the main Bolshevik policies, ‘peace land and

Bread’. This was a series of promises in which the...

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...ghting were extremely isolated

groups, who stood virtually no chance of success, leaving the

Bolsheviks safe for the time being. At one point, Trotsky said, ‘I

felt like a surgeon who has finished a difficult, and dangerous

operation – I must wash my hands, take off my apron and rest’. This

success was really a collective result of all of Trotsky’s successes

and contributions to the Bolshevik party, and emphasises the enormity

of his importance to their success.

As a conclusion, it is apparent that Trotsky made an enormous and

critical contribution to the successes of the Bolsheviks. In

particular was the way in which he devoted himself so well to

supporting and organising the Red Army. By doing so, Trotsky was able

to defeat the huge number of opponents, who challenged the Bolsheviks

in the coming years to 1922.