Time Line Of Leon Trotsky
1879
Born Lev Davidovich Bronstein in the Ukraine.
1897
Became a professional revolutionary after leading a half-Marxist, half-Populist student revolutionary group.
1898
Arrested and sent to Siberia for revolutionary activities; joined the Russian Social Democratic Party, the South Russian Workers’ Union.
1900
Married Alexandra Sokolovskaya.
1902
Escaped Siberia to London; first met Vladimir Lenin.
1903
Sided with the Menshevik faction when the Russian Social Democratic Party split.
1905
Returned to Russia and during the revolution against the Tsarist regime he was chairman of the first Soviet (St Petersburg Soviet of Workers’ Deputies) and was arrested and exiled to Siberia.
1907-1917
Escaped Siberia and toured central Europe developing his revolutionary theories; wrote Results and Prospects.
1913
Openly advocated for a proletarian dictatorship.
1914
Outbreak of World War I; Trotsky called for revolution.
1917
March Revolution and the formation of the Provisional Government; Trotsky returned to Russia in May and became a Bolshevik in July; elected to CC and later elected chairman of Petrograd Soviet; planned the November Revolution as part of the Military Revolutionary Committee; was appointed Commissar for Foreign Affairs after the formation of Sovnarkom.
1918
Negotiated peace terms with Germany at Brest-Litovsk following Russian withdrawal from the war.
1918-21
During the Russian Civil War, he was Commissar for War and