计算化学计算化学是理论化学的一个分支。
1，利用计算机程序解量子化学方程来计算物质的性质（如能量，偶极距，振动频率等），用以解释一些具体的化学问题。这是一个计算机科学与化学的交叉学科。
2，利用计算机程序做分子动力学模拟。
Category:化学
参见
- 化学
- 量子力学
- 量子化学
- 统计力学
- 分子力学
- 分子力场
- 分子动力学
- Monte Carlo方法
ja:計算化学
th:เคมีการคำนวณ
能量能量是物理学中描写一个系统或一个过程的一个量。一个系统的能量可以被定义为从一个被定义的零能量的状态转换为该系统现状的功的总和。一个系统到底有多少能量在物理中并不是一个确定的值，它随着对这个系统的描写而变换。
举一个例子而言，我们观察一个质量为1kg的固体的能量：
- 假如我们在研究经典力学而只对它的动能感兴趣的话，那么它的能量就是我们要将它从静止加速到它现有速度所加的功的总和。
- 假如我们在研究热学而只对它的内能感兴趣的话，那么它的能量就是我们要将它从绝对零度加热到它现有温度所加的功的总和。
- 假如我们在研究物理化学而只对它所含有的化学能感兴趣的话，那么它的能量就是我们在合成这个固体时对它的原料加入的功的总和。
- 假如我们在研究原子物理而只对它所含的原子能感兴趣的话，那么它的能量就是我们从原子能为零的状态对它做功、使它达到现在状态的功的总和。
当然我们也可以用反过来的方法来定义这个固体所含的能量，举两个例子：
- 该固体的内能是将它冷却到绝对零度所释放出来的功的总和。
- 该固体的原子能是将它所含的所有的原子能全部释放出来的功的总和。
等等。
可见，能量虽然是一个非常常用和非常基础的物理概念，但同时也是一个非常抽象和非常难定义的物理概念。事实上，物理学家一直到19世纪中才真正理解能量这个概念。在此之前能量常常被与力、动量等概念相混。有一段时间里，物理学家使用过一个称为“活力”的、与能量非常相似的概念，其意思是一种使物体活泼起来（动起来、热起来）的力。英语中的能量一词energy是两个希腊词的组合：εν是“在……之中”的意思，εργοs是“功、劳动”的意思。加在一起 en-ergi 就是“加进去的功”的意思。
在物理学中，能量是最基础的一个概念之一，从开门的经典力学到宇宙学、相对论和量子力学，能量总是一个中心的概念。
一般在常用语中或在科普读物中能量是指一个系统能够释放出来的、或者可以从中获得的、可以相当于做一定量的功。比如说1千克汽油含12千瓦小时能量的话，那么是指假如将1千克的汽油中的化学能全部施放出来的话可以做12kWh的功。
能量在物理中的符号一般是E，其国际单位是焦耳J。除焦尔外常用的还有千瓦小时kWh和卡cal：
除此之外在物理中，尤其在原子物理和粒子物理中还常使用电子伏：
1 eV = 1.602 176 462(63) · 10-19 J
能量与质量
爱因斯坦发现，能量和质量是可以互换的：
换一种说法，功可以按上述公式被转化为质量的改变量。
能量守恒
能量守恒定律，也称质能守恒定律或热力学第一定律，是物理学中最基本的定律之一。它指出：在一个封闭的系统中能量既不会增加也不会减少。
虽然在物理学中不存在数学中公理的概念，但能量守恒定律可以被看作是物理学中（也许唯一的）一条公理。从20世纪中开始能量守恒定律没有被质疑过。沃尔夫冈·泡利在讨论β衰变时宁可相信世界上有一种当时物理学家还无法测量的粒子的存在而不愿放弃能量守恒定律。20年后中微子的发现证实他的信任是正确的。
从另一个观点上来看，能量守恒定律也可以被看作是物理学中被实验最常被验证的一个定律。事实上，所有的物理实验，从中学生的第一个实验到粒子加速器、天文观察都不断地证实能量守恒定律的正确性。
有关的物理量
以下是一些其他与能量有关的或与能量相似的物理量：
- 功
- 内能
- 熵
- 焓
- 力
- 动量
常见的能量形式
- 机械能
- 内能
- 电能
- 化学能
- 原子能
- 光能
Category:物理量
Category:经典力学
ja:エネルギー
ko:에너지
ms:Tenaga
simple:Energy
th:พลังงาน
计算机科学
计算机科学是一门包含各种各样与计算和信息处理相关主题的系统学科，从抽象的算法分析、形式化语法等等，到更具体的主题如编程语言、程序设计、软件和硬件等。作为一门学科，它与数学、计算机程序设计、软件工程和计算机工程有显著的不同，却通常被混淆，尽管这些学科之间存在不同程度的交叉和覆盖。
计算机科学研究的课题是：
- 计算机程序能做什么和不能做什么（可计算性）；
- 如何使程序更高效的執行特定任務（算法和复杂性理论）；
- 程序如何存取不同类型的数据（数据结构和数据库）；
- 程序如何显得更具有智能（人工智能）；
- 人类如何与程序沟通（人机互动和人机界面）。
计算机科学的大部分研究是基于“冯·诺依曼计算机”和“图灵机”的，它们是絕大多數实际机器的计算模型。作为此模型的开山鼻祖，邱奇-图灵论题（Church-Turing Thesis）表明，尽管在计算的时间，空间效率上可能有所差异，现有的各种计算设备在计算的能力上是等同的。尽管这个理论通常被认为是计算机科学的基础，可是科学家也研究其它种类的机器，如在实际层面上的并行计算机和在理论层面上概率计算机、oracle 计算机和量子计算机。在这个意义上来讲，计算机只是一种计算的工具：著名的计算机科学家 Dijkstra 有一句名言“计算机科学并不只是关于计算机的，正如天文学并不只是关于望远镜一样”。
计算机科学根植于电子工程、数学和语言学，是科学、工程和艺术的结晶。它在20世纪最后的三十年间兴起成为一门独立的学科，并发展出自己的方法与术语。
早期，虽然英国的剑桥大学和其他大学已经开始教授计算机科学课程，但它只被视为数学或工程学的一个分支，并非独立的学科。剑桥大学声称有世界上第一个传授计算的资格。世界上第一个计算机科学系是由美国的普渡大学在1962年设立，第一个计算机学院於1980年由美国的东北大学设立。现在，多数大学都把计算机科学系列为独立的部门，一部分将它与工程系、应用数学系或其他学科联合。
计算机科学领域的最高荣誉是ACM设立的图灵奖，被誉为是计算机科学的诺贝尔奖。它的获得者都是本领域最为出色的科学家和先驱。华人中首获图灵奖的是姚期智先生.他于2000年以其对计算理论做出的诸多“根本性的、意义重大的”贡献而获得这一崇高荣誉。
计算机系统
计算机系统可划分为软件系统与硬件系统两大类。
硬件
- 结构控制和指令系统
- 算法和逻辑结构
- 存储器结构
- 冯·诺伊曼结构
- 哈佛结构
- 输入/输出和数据通信
- 数字逻辑
- 逻辑设计
- 集成电路
计算机系统组织
- 计算机系统结构
- 计算机网络
- 分布式计算
- 网络安全
- 计算机系统实现
软件
- 系统软件
- 操作系统
- 编译器
- 应用软件
- 计算机游戏
- 办公自动化
- 网络软件
- CAD软件
- 计算机程序
- 程序设计和程序设计实践
- 面向对象技术
- 程序设计语言
- 软件工程
- 软件复用
- 驱动程序
- 计算机模拟
- 程序设计方法学
数据和信息系统
- 数据结构
- 数据存储表示
- 数据加密
- 数据压缩
- 编码与信息论
- 文件
- 信息系统
- 管理信息系统
- 决策支持系统 - 专家系统
- 数据库
- 信息存储和数据存取
- 信息交互与表达
主要的研究领域
形式化基础
- 逻辑学
- 谓词逻辑
- 模态逻辑
- 时序逻辑
- 描述逻辑
- 数学
- 泛代数
- 递归论
- 模型论
- 概率论和数理统计
- 逻辑代数
- 布尔代数
- 离散数学
- 组合数学
- 图论
- 网论
- 信息论
理论计算机科学
- 形式语言
- 自动机
- 可计算性
- 算法
- 计算复杂性
- 描述复杂性
- 编译器
- 程序设计理论
- 信息论
- 类型理论
- 指称语义
- 微程序
- 遗传算法
- 并行计算
计算方法学
- 人工智能
- 计算机图形学
- 图像处理与计算机视觉
- 模式识别
- 语音识别
- 文字识别
- 签名识别
- 人脸识别
- 指纹识别
- 仿真与建模
- 数字信号处理
- 文档与文本处理
计算机应用
- 数值计算
- 数值分析
- 定理机器证明
- 计算机代数
- 工程计算
- 计算机化学
- 计算机物理
- 生物信息论
- 计算生物学
- 非数值计算
- 工厂自动化
- 办公室自动化
- 人工智能
- 信息存储与检索
- 符号语言处理
- 计算机辅助科学
- 计算机辅助设计
- 计算机辅助教学
- 计算机辅助管理
- 计算机辅助软件工程
- 机器人学
- 多媒体技术
- 人机交互
- 电子商务
特定技术
- 测试基准
- 机器视觉
- 数据压缩
- 设计模式
- 数字信号处理
- 文件格式
- 信息安全
- 国际互联网络
- 超大规模集成电路设计
- 网络传输协议
- 网络处理器技术
- 整数运算器
- 浮点运算器
- 矩阵运算处理器
- 网格
计算科学史
- 计算机历史
- 软件业历史
- 编程思想
相关学科
计算机科学与另外的一些学科紧密相关。这些学科之间有明显的交叉领域，但也有明显的差异。
- 信息科学 - 软件工程 - 信息系统 - 计算机工程 - 信息安全 - 密码学 - 数学 - 工程学 - 语言学 - 逻辑学
卓越的先驱者
- 艾伦·图灵
参见
- 计算机科学课程列表
- 计算机科学家
- 图灵奖
- 冯·诺依曼奖
- 中国计算机产业
- 中国计算机科学大事年表
- 程序设计语言列表
- 操作系统列表
- ASCII艺术
外部链接
ko:컴퓨터 과학
ja:情報工学
simple:Computer Science
th:วิทยาการคอมพิวเตอร์
Category:自然科学
Category:技术科学
化学
化学研究物质的性质、组成、结构和变化的科学。中国古代在陶瓷、染色、酿造、造纸、火药等化学工艺方面成就杰出。
化學的早期歷史主要都是與金屬的提取和處理有關。2000年前，人類己廣泛使用金，銀，汞(水銀)，銅，鐵和青銅。
中国古代的炼丹术，西方古代的炼金术，就部分含有化学的雏形，并对近代化学的形成、发展有重大意义。
1800年裏(公元前300-1500年)，煉金術士的主要興趣是將一些便宜的金屬轉化成黃金。跟着的一百年是醫療化學的世紀,因為那時候化學家主要的工作是製造藥物。
古化學家收集了很多不同物質的資料。但是化學的發展到了16世紀還是很慢。在17世紀出現了好幾位大化學家，其中之一是罗伯特·波义耳，他被尊崇為化學之父。
在這之後，很多新發現一個接着一個的出現。到了1850年，化學己與現在所熟知的甚為相似。
当前的化学已从改造天然物质、仿制天然物质向设计功能物质方向迈进。在分子水平上设计制造具有直接功能（如：分辨功能、记忆功能）的材料已不是空想。
学科分类
- 无机化学
- 元素化学
- 无机合成化学
- 配位化学
- 配位聚合物化学
- 无机固態化学
- 有机金属化学
- 生物无机化学
- 有机化学
- 天然有机化学
- 有机合成化学
- 元素有机化学
- 物理有机化学
- 有机分析
- 有機光譜學
- 紅外光譜學
- 核磁共振光譜學
- 紫外光可見光光譜學
- 物理化学
- 化学热力学
- 溶液的性质和溶液理论
- 结构化学
- 量子化学
- 磁化学
- 晶体化学
- 化学动力学
- 催化化学
- 热化学
- 光化学
- 分析化学
- 定性分析
- 定量分析
- 仪器分析
- 电化学分析
- 光学分析
- 放射化学分析
- 结构分析
- 官能团分析
- 立体化学分析
- 高分子化学
- 高分子合成
- 天然高分子
- 高分子物理化学
- 高分子物理
- 放射化学
- 放射性元素
- 核化学
- 放射分析化学
- 同位素化学
- 辐射化学
- 核燃料、反应堆和裂变产物化学
- 其他分支
- 计算化学
- 生物化学
- 地球化学
- 海洋化学
- 大气化学
- 环境化学
- 宇宙化学
- 星际化学
- 药物化学
- 农业化学
- 石油化学
- 木材化学
- 土壤化学
- 化学分类学
- 化学胚胎学
- 化学工程
- 煤化学
- 食品化学
- 化学地理学
- 天体化学
- 岩石化学
- 空间化学
- 化学加工
- 石油化工
- 化学史
- 电化学
参看
- 诺贝尔化学奖
- 元素列表
- 化学工业
- 化学品列表
- 化学术语列表
- 元素周期表
- 化学家
Category:化学Category:自然科学
als:Chemie
ja:化学
ko:화학
ms:Kimia
simple:Chemistry
th:เคมี
Category:化学化学是研究物质的性质、组成、结构和变化的自然科学。
参看Wikipedia:化学首页。
Category:自然科学
als:Kategorie:Chemie
ja:Category:化学
ko:분류:화학
ms:Category:Kimia
th:Category:เคมี
量子力学量子力学理论和相对论理论是现代物理学的两大基本支柱，经典力学奠定了现代物理学的基础，但对于高速运动的物体和微观条件下的物体，牛顿定律不再适用，相对论解决了高速运动问题；量子力学解决了微观亚原子条件下的问题。量子力学认为在亚原子条件下，粒子的运动速度和位置不可能同时得到精确的测量，微观粒子的动量、电荷、能量、粒子数等特性都是分立不连续的，量子力学定律不能描述粒子运动的轨道细节，只能给出相对機率，为此爱因斯坦和玻尔产生激烈争论，并直至去世时仍不承认量子力学理论的哥本哈根诠释。
量子力学是一个物理学的理论框架，是对经典物理学在微观领域的一次革命。它有很多基本特征，如不确定性、量子涨落、波粒二象性等，在原子和亚原子的微观尺度上将变的极为显著。爱因斯坦、海森堡、玻尔、薛定谔、狄拉克等人对其理论发展做出了重要贡献。
量子力学和--的結合產生了一門新的學科——--。
量子力学理论体系
量子力学基本假设
波函数假设
在量子力学中，体系的状态用坐标和时间的函数 ψ 来描述。这个函数叫做状态函数或者叫波函数，它包涵和关于体系的可确定的全部知识。
量子力学算子假设
对于每一个物理量都有一个对应的量子力学算子。对应于物理量 F 的量子力学算子可以这样得到：写出物理量 F 作为笛卡儿坐标和对应动量的函数的经典表达式，然后做如下代换:
: (q为笛卡儿坐标，包括 xyz。)
:
本征函数集完备性假设
代表任意物理量的线性厄米算子的本征函数集构成一个完备集。
测量平均值假设
一个态为的体系的物理量 A 的测量平均值是, 其中 是物理量 A 对应的量子力学算子。
电子自旋假设
电子具有自旋角动量，他的三个分量对应於量子力学的三个线性厄米算符 、 和 ,他们遵循角动量的对易关系：
:
:
:
复杂体系态函数和能量本征值的近似算法
重要主题
- 波粒二象性和不确定关系
- 波函数和薛定谔方程
- 量子態和態向量
- 算符和本徵態、本徵值
- 量子力学中的微扰
- 量子散射
- 全同粒子
- 角动量理论
- 密度矩阵和量子统计
- 量子測量
- 量子纏結
- 量子脫散
- 二次量子化
- 量子多体问题
- 相对论性量子力学
- 量子场论
- 路径积分
- 决定论
- 因果律
- 自由意志
外部链接
- [http://www.blog.edu.cn/more.asp?name=muer&id=29900 大话量子力学史]
- [http://www.quantumchemistry.net/index.asp 量子化学网]
Category:量子力学
ja:量子力学
ko:양자역학
统计力学统计力学（又叫统计物理学）是研究大量粒子（原子、分子）集合的宏观运动规律的科学。统计力学运用的是经典力学原理。由于粒子的量大，存在大量的自由度，虽然和经典力学应用同样的力学规律，但导致性质上完全不同的规律性。不服从纯粹力学的描述，而服从统计规律性，用量子力学方法进行计算，得出和用经典力学方法计算相似的结果。从这个角度来看，统计力学的正确名称应为统计物理学。
一个粒子运动存在3个自由度，即上下、左右、前后，按照牛顿力学方法，确定它的运动方向，就可以计算它的运动速度、轨迹等，但每个粒子有3个自由度，如果是大量的粒子，加在一起会有无法计算的自由度量，无法计算出它们全体总的运动效果，只能用统计方法计算，即概率论的方法计算。玻耳兹曼用统计方法和牛顿力学原理计算大量粒子运动情况，得出：
:
20世纪初，量子力学出现，物理学家重新用量子力学计算方法研究热力学问题，得出和玻耳兹曼公式相似的结果，量子力学是研究微观世界的最有效的工具，电动力学和非平衡物理动力学是属于量子力学范畴内的，不是应用经典力学的公式，不能算做统计物理学的内容。
Category:统计物理学
ja:統計力学
ko:통계역학
分子力场分子力场根据量子力学的波恩-奥本海默近似，一个分子的能量可以近似看作构成分子的各个原子的空间坐标的函数，简单地讲就是分子的能量随分子构型的变化而变化，而描述这种分子能量和分子结构之间关系的就是分子力场函数。分子力场函数为来自实验结果的经验公式，可以讲对分子能量的模拟比较粗糙，但是相比于精确的量子力学从头计算方法，分子力场方法的计算量要小数十倍，而且在适当的范围内，分子力场方法的计算精度与量子化学计算相差无几，因此对大分子复杂体系而言，分子力场方法是一套行之有效的方法。以分子力场为基础的分子力学计算方法在分子动力学、蒙特卡罗方法、分子对接等分子模拟方法中有着广泛的应用。
构成
一般而言，分子力场函数由以下几个部分构成：
- 键伸缩能：构成分子的各个化学键在键轴方向上的伸缩运动所引起的能量变化
- 键角弯曲能：键角变化引起的分子能量变化
- 二面角扭曲能：单键旋转引起分子骨架扭曲所产生的能量变化
- 非键相互作用：包括范德华力、静电相互作用等与能量有关的非键相互作用
- 交叉能量项：上述作用之间耦合引起的能量变化
构成一套力场函数体系需要有一套联系分子能量和构型的函数，还需要给出各种不同原子在不同成键状况下的物理参数，比如正常的键长、键角、二面角等，这些力场参数多来自实验或者量子化学计算。
常用力场函数和分类
不同的分子力场会选取不同的函数形式来描述上述能量与体系构型之间的关系。到目前，不同的科研团队设计了很多适用于不同体系的力场函数，根据他们选择的函数和力场参数，可以分为以下几类
- 传统力场
- AMBER力场：由Kollman课题组开发的力场，是目前使用比较广泛的一种力场，适合处理生物大分子。
- CHARMM力场：由Karplus课题组开发，对小分子体系到溶剂化的大分子体系都有很好的拟合。
- CVFF力场：CVFF力场是一个可以用于无机体系计算的力场
- MMX力场：MMX力场包括MM2和MM3，是目前应用最为广泛的一种力场，主要针对有机小分子
- 第二代力场
- :第二代的势能函数形式比传统力场要更加复杂，涉及的力场参数更多，计算量也更大，当然也相应地更加准确。
- CFF力场CFF力场是一个力场家族，包括了CFF91、PCFF、CFF95等很多力场，可以进行从有机小分子、生物大分子到分子筛等诸多体系的计算
- COMPASS力场由MSI公司开发的力场，擅长进行高分子体系的计算
- MMF94力场Hagler开发的力场，是目前最准确的力场之一
- 通用力场
- :通用力场也叫基于规则的力场，它所应用的力场参数是基于原子性质计算所得，用户可以通过自主设定一系列分子作为训练集来生成合用的力场参数
- ESFF力场MSI公司开发的力场，可以进行有机、无机分子的计算
- UFF力场可以计算周期表上所有元素的参数
- Dreiding力场适用于有机小分子、大分子、主族元素的计算
参见
计算化学
量子化学
分子模拟
category:计算化学
category:化学
分子动力学分子动力学是一套分子模拟方法，该方法主要是依靠牛顿力学来模拟分子体系的运动，以在由分子体系的不同状态构成的系综中抽取样本，从而计算体系的构型积分，并以构型积分的结果为基础进一步计算体系的热力学量和其他宏观性质。
分子動力学简史
- 1957年：基于刚球势的分子動力学法（Alder and Wainwright）
- 1964年：質点系への拡張(Rahman)
- 1971年：剛体系への拡張(Rahman and Stillinger)
- 1977年：约束动力学方法（Rychaert等）
- 1980年：恒压条件下的动力学方法（Andersenの方法、Parrinello-Rahman法）
- 1983年：非平衡态动力学方法(Gillan and Dixon)
- 1984年：恒温条件下的动力学方法（能勢‐フーバーの方法）
- 1985年：第一原理分子動力学法（→カー・パリネロ法）
- 1991年：巨正则系综的分子动力学方法(Cagin and Pettit)
基本步骤
- 确定起始构型
:进行分子动力学模拟的第一步是确定起始构型， 一个能量较低的起始 构型 是进行 分 子模拟 的基础 ，一般分子的起始构型主要来自实验数据或量子化学计算。
:在确定起始构型之后要赋予构成分子的各个原子速度，这一速度是根据波尔兹曼分布随机生成的，由于速度的分布符合波尔兹曼统计，因此在这个阶段，体系的温度是恒定的。另外，在随机生成各个原子的运动速度之后须 进 行调整，使得体系总体在各个方向上的动量之和为零，即保证体系没有平动位移。
- 进入平衡相
:由上 一步 确定的分子组建平衡相，在构建平衡相的时候会对构型、温度等参数加以监控。
- 进入生产相
:进入生产相之后体系中的分子和分子中的原子开始根据初始速度运动，可以想象其间会发生吸引、排斥乃至碰撞，这时就根据牛顿力学和预先给定的粒子间相互作用势来对各个粒子的运动轨迹进行 计算 ，在这个过程中，体系总能量不变，但分子内部势能和动能不断相互转化，从而 体系的 温度也不断变化，在整个过程中，体系会遍历势能面上的各个点，计算的样本正是在这个过程中抽取的。 +
- 计算结果
:用抽样所得体系的各个状态计算当时体系的势能，进而计算构型积分。
作用势与动 力学 计算
作用势的选择与动力学计算的关系极为密切，选择不同的作用势，体系的势能面会有不同的形状，动力学计算所得的分子运动 和 分子内部运动的轨迹也会不同，进而影响到抽样的结果和抽样结果的势能计算，最初的分子动力学计算采用比较简单的刚球势，现在更多地采用Lennard-Jones势，后者能够更好的与粒子间相互作用拟合。
时间步长与约束动力学
分子动力学计算的基本思想是赋予分子体系初始运动状态之后利用分子的自然运动在相空间中抽取样本进行统计计算，时间步长就是抽样的间隔，因而时间步长的选取对动力学模拟非常重要。太长的时间步长会造成分子间的激烈碰撞，体系数据溢出；太短的时间步长会降低模拟过程搜索相空间的能力，因此一般选取的时间步长为体系各个自由度中最短运动周期的十分之一。
但是通常情况下，体系各自由度中运动周期最短的是各个化学键的振动，而这种运动对计算某些 宏观性质 并不产生影响，因此就产生了屏蔽分子内部振动或其他无关运动的约束动力学，约束动力学可以有效地增长分子动力学模拟的时间步长，提高搜索相空间的能力。
应用
分子动力学的计算过程给定了体系的总能量，因此适用于对 微正则系综的模拟计算，另外由于分子动力学计算过程始终是时间的函数，因此一些与时间有关的宏观量如扩散系数的模拟必须应用分子动力学。
另外，在实际应用中，经常把分子动力学方法和蒙特卡罗法联合使用。
参见
计算化学
分子模拟
category: 计算化学
category:化学
Category:分子物理学
ja:分子動力学法
Leon Davidovich Trotsky:This article is a biography of Leon Trotsky. For modern interpretations and theory of Trotsky, see Trotskyism.
Trotskyism
(Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий; also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij and Trotzky ) (October 26 (O.S.) = November 7 (N.S.), 1879 – August 21 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев Давидович Бронштейн), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. He was an influential politician in the early Soviet Union, first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and then as the founder and commander of the Red Army and People's Commissar of War. He was also a founding member of the Politburo. Following a power struggle with Joseph Stalin in the 1920s, Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and deported from the Soviet Union; he was later murdered in Mexico by Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent, with an ice axe. Trotsky's ideas form the basis of the communist theory of Trotskyism.
Before the 1917 Revolution
Childhood and Family (1879-1896)
Trotsky's date of birth is October 26 (Julian calendar) or November 7 (Gregorian calendar), 1879, the day of the October revolution of 1917. Trotsky was born in Yanovka, Kherson Province, Ukraine, a small village 15 miles from the nearest post office. He was the fifth child of a wealthy but illiterate Jewish farmer, David Leontyevish Bronstein (or Bronshtein, 1847 - 1922) and Anna Bronstein (d. 1910). Although the family had Jewish ancestry, it was not religious and the languages spoken at home were Russian and Ukrainian, not Yiddish. Trotsky's younger sister, Olga, married Lev Kamenev, a leading Bolshevik.
When Trotsky was 9, his father sent the boy to Odessa for education. There he was enrolled in a historically German school, which became increasingly Russified during his years in Odessa due to the government's policy of russification. Although he was a good student, even in his youth Trotsky had a rebellious nature, organizing a protest against an unpopular teacher in 2nd grade. However, he didn't express an active interest in politics or socialism until 1896 when he moved to Nikolayev for the final year of schooling.
Revolutionary Activity and Exile (1896-1902)
Nikolayev
Trotsky became involved in revolutionary activities in 1896 after moving to Nikolayev. At first a narodnik (revolutionary populist), he was introduced to Marxism later that year and gradually became a Marxist. Instead of pursuing a mathematics degree, Trotsky helped organize South Russian Workers' Union in Nikolaev in early 1897. Using the name 'Lvov' , he wrote and printed leaflets and proclamations, distributed revolutionary pamphlets and popularized socialist ideas among industrial workers and revolutionary students.
In January 1898, over 200 members of the Union, including Trotsky, were arrested and he spent the next two years in prison awaiting trial. Two months after Trotsky's arrest and imprisonment, the 1st Congress of the newly formed Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) was held and from that point on, Trotsky considered himself a member of the party. While in prison, he married a fellow Marxist, Aleksandra Sokolovskaya, and studied philosophy. In 1900 he was sentenced to four years in exile in Ust-Kut and Verkholensk (see [http://www.supertravelnet.com/maps/?country=241_690_8&language=1 map]) in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, where his first two daughters, Nina Nevelson and Zinaida Volkova, were born.
It was in Siberia that Trotsky became aware of the differences within the party, which had been decimated by arrests in the last two years of the 19th century. Some social democrats known as "economists" were arguing that the party should concentrate on helping industrial workers improve their lot in life. Others argued that overthrowing the monarchy was more important and that a well organized and disciplined revolutionary party was essential. The latter were led by the London-based newspaper Iskra, which was founded in 1900. Trotsky quickly sided with the Iskra position.
First Emigration and the Second Marriage (1902-1903)
Trotsky escaped from Siberia in the summer of 1902, using a passport in the name of 'Trotsky' (a former jailer in Odessa), which became his primary revolutionary pseudonym. Once abroad, he moved to London to join Georgy Plekhanov, Vladimir Lenin, Julius Martov and other editors of Iskra. Under the penname Pero ("feather" or "pen" in Russian) Trotsky soon became one of the paper's leading authors.
Unbeknownst to Trotsky, the 6 editors of Iskra were evenly split between the "old guard" led by Plekhanov and the "new guard" led by Lenin and Martov. Not only were Plekhanov's supporters older (in their 40s and 50s), but they had also spent the previous 20 years in European exile together. Members of the new guard were in their early 30s and had only recently come from Russia. Lenin, who was trying to establish a permanent majority against Plekhanov within Iskra, expected Trotsky, then 23, to side with the new guard and wrote in March 1903 :
:I suggest to all the members of the editorial board that they co-opt 'Pero' as a member of the board on the same basis as other members. [...] We very much need a seventh member, both as a convenience in voting (six being an even number), and as an addition to our forces. 'Pero' has been contributing to every issue for several months now; he works in general most energetically for the Iskra; he gives lectures (in which he has been very successful). In the section of articles and notes on the events of the day, he will not only be very useful, but absolutely necessary. Unquestionably a man of rare abilities, he has conviction and energy, and he will go much farther.
Due to Plekhanov's opposition, Trotsky did not become a full member of the editorial board, but from that point on he participated in its meetings in an advisory capacity, which earned him Plekhanov's enmity.
In late 1902, Trotsky met Natalia Sedova, who soon became his companion and, from 1903 until his death, wife. They had two children together, Leon Sedov (b. 1906) and Sergei Sedov (b. 1908). As Trotsky later explained , after the 1917 revolution:
:In order not to oblige my sons to change their name, I, for "citizenship" requirements, took on the name of my wife.
However, the name change remained a technicality and he never used the name "Sedov" either privately or publicly. Natalia Sedova sometimes signed her name "Sedova-Trotskaya". Trotsky and his first wife, Aleksandra Sokolovskaya, maintained a friendly relationship until Sokolovskaya disappeared in 1935 during the Great Purges.
Split with Lenin (1903-1904)
In the meantime, after a period of secret police repression and internal confusion that followed the first party Congress in 1898, Iskra succeeded in convening the party's 2nd congress in London in August 1903, with Trotsky and other Iskra editors in attendance. At first the Congress went as planned, with Iskra supporters handily defeating the few "economist" delegates at the Congress. Then the Congress discussed the position of the Jewish Bund, which had co-founded the RSDLP in 1898 but wanted to remain autonomous, within the Party. In the heat of the debate, Trotsky made a controversial statement to the effect that he and eleven other non-Bund Jewish delegates who had signed an anti-Bund statement
:while working in the Russian party, regarded and still do regard themselves also as representatives of the Jewish proletariat.
As Trotsky explained two months later, his statement was just a tactical maneuver made on Lenin's request.
Shortly thereafter, Iskra delegates unexpectedly split in two factions. Lenin and his supporters (known as "Bolsheviks") argued for a smaller but highly organized party. Martov and his supporters (known as "Mensheviks") argued for a larger and less disciplined party. In a surprise development, Trotsky and most of the Iskra editors supported Martov and the Mensheviks while Plekhanov supported Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
The two factions were in a state of flux in 1903-1904 with many members changing sides. Plekhanov soon parted ways with the Bolsheviks. Trotsky left the Mensheviks in September 1904 over their insistence on an alliance with Russian liberals and their opposition to a reconciliation with Lenin and the Bolsheviks. From that point until 1917 Trotsky remained a self-described "non-factional social democrat". He spent much of his time between 1904 and 1917 trying to reconcile different groups within the party, which resulted in many clashes with Lenin and other prominent party members. Trotsky later conceded he had been wrong against Lenin on the issue of the party.
It was at this time that Trotsky began developing his theory of permanent revolution, which led to a close working relationship with Alexander Parvus over the following 3 years.
The 1905 Revolution and Trial (1905-1906)
After the events of Bloody Sunday (1905), Trotsky secretly returned to Russia in February 1905. At first he wrote leaflets for an underground printing press in Kiev, but soon moved to the capital, St. Petersburg. There he worked with both Bolsheviks like Central Committee member Leonid Krasin as well as the local Menshevik committee, which he pushed in a more radical direction. The latter, however, were betrayed by a secret police agent in May. Trotsky had to flee to rural Finland, where he worked on fleshing out his theory of permanent revolution until October, when a national strike made it possible for him to return to St. Petersburg.
After returning to the capital, Trotsky and Parvus took over the newspaper Russian Gazette and increased its circulation to 500,000. Trotsky also co-founded Nachalo ("The Beginning") with Parvus and the Mensheviks, which proved to be very successful.
Immediately prior to Trotsky's return to the capital, the Mensheviks had independently come up with the same idea that Trotsky had -- an elected non-party revolutionary organization representing the capital's workers, the first Soviet ("Council") of Workers. By the time of Trotsky's arrival, the St. Petersburg Soviet was already functioning with Khrustalyov-Nosar (Georgy Nosar, alias Pyotr Khrustalyov), a compromise figure, at its head and proved to be very popular with the workers in spite of the Bolsheviks' original opposition. Trotsky joined the Soviet under the name "Yanovsky" (after the village he was born in, Yanovka) and was elected vice-Chairman. He did much of the actual work at the Soviet and, after Khrustalev-Nosar's arrest on November 26, was elected its Chairman. On December 2, the Soviet issued a proclamation which included the following statement about the Tsarist government and its foreign debts :
:The autocracy never enjoyed the confidence of the people and was never granted any authority by the people. We have therefore decided not to allow the repayment of such loans as have been made by the Czarist government when openly engaged in a war with the entire people.
The following day, December 3, the Soviet was surrounded by troops loyal to the government and the deputies were arrested.
Trotsky and other Soviet leaders were put on trial in 1906 on charges of supporting an armed rebellion. At the trial, Trotsky delivered some of the best speeches of his life and solidified his reputation as an effective public speaker, which he confirmed in 1917-1920. He was convicted and sentenced to exile for life.
Second Emigration (1907-1914)
In January 1907, Trotsky escaped en route to exile and once again made his way to London, where he attended the 5th Congress of the RSDLP. In October 1907, he moved to Vienna where he frequently participated in the activities of the Austrian Social Democratic Party and, occasionally, of the German Social Democratic Party, for the next seven years.
It was in Vienna that Trotsky became close to Adolph Joffe, his friend for the next 20 years, who introduced Trotsky to psychoanalysis . In October 1908 he started a bi-weekly Russian language Social Democratic paper aimed at Russian workers called Pravda ("The Truth"), which he co-edited with Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and Victor Kopp and which was smuggled into Russia. The paper avoided factional politics and proved popular with Russian industrial workers. When various Bolshevik and Menshevik factions (both the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks split multiple times after the failure of the 1905-1907 revolution) tried to re-unite at the January 1910 RSDLP Central Committee meeting in Paris over Lenin's objections, Trotsky's Pravda was made a party-financed 'central organ'. Lev Kamenev, Trotsky's brother-in-law, was added to the editorial board from the Bolsheviks, but the unification attempts failed in August 1910 when Kamenev resigned from the board amid mutual recriminations. Trotsky continued publishing Pravda for another two years until it finally folded in April 1912.
When the Bolsheviks started a new workers-oriented newspaper in St. Petersburg on April 22, 1912, they called it Pravda as well. In what appeared to be a minor development at the time, in April 1913 Trotsky was so upset by what he saw as a usurpation of 'his' newpaper's name that he wrote a letter to Nikolay Chkheidze, a Menshevik leader, bitterly denouncing Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Trotsky was able to suppress the contents of the letter in 1921 to avoid embarrassment, but once he started losing power in the early 1920s, the letter was made public by his opponents within the Communist Party in 1924 and used to paint him as Lenin's enemy.
This was a period of heightened tension within the RSDLP and led to numerous frictions between Trotsky, the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. The most serious disagreement that Trotsky and the Mensheviks had with Lenin at the time was over the issue of "expropriations" , i.e. armed robberies of banks and other companies by Bolshevik groups to procure money for the Party, which had been banned by the 5th Congress, but continued by the Bolsheviks.
In January 1912, the majority of the Bolshevik faction led by Lenin and a few Mensheviks held a conference in Prague and expelled their opponents from the party. In response, Trotsky organized a "unification" conference of social democratic factions in Vienna in August 1912 (aka "The August Bloc") and tried to re-unite the party. The attempt was generally unsuccessful.
While in Vienna, Trotsky continuously published articles in radical Russian and Ukrainian newspapers like Kievskaya Mysl under a variety of pseudonyms, often "Antid Oto". In September 1912 Kievskaya Mysl sent him to the Balkans as its war correspondent, where he covered the two Balkan Wars for the next year and became a close friend of Christian Rakovsky, later a leading Soviet politician and Trotsky's ally in the Soviet Communist Party.
On August 3 1914, at the outbreak of World War I which pitted Austria-Hungary against the Russian empire, Trotsky was forced to flee Vienna for neutral Switzerland to avoid arrest as a Russian emigre.
World War I (1914-1917)
The outbreak of WWI caused a sudden realignment within the RSDLP and other European social democratic parties over the issues of war, revolution, pacifism and internationalism. Within the RSDLP, Lenin, Trotsky and Martov advocated various internationalist anti-war positions, while Plekhanov and other social democrats (both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks) supported the Russian government to some extent.
While in Switzerland, Trotsky briefly worked within the Swiss Socialist Party, prompting it to adopt an internationalist resolution, and wrote a book against the war, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1914-war/index.htm The War and the International]. The thrust of the book was against the pro-war position taken by the European social democratic parties, primarily the German party.
Trotsky moved to France on November 19, 1914, as a war correspondent for the Kievskaya Mysl. In January 1915 he began editing (at first with Martov, who soon resigned as the paper moved to the Left) Nashe Slovo ["Our Word"], an internationalist socialist newspaper, in Paris. He adopted the slogan of "peace without indemnities or annexations, peace without conquerors or conquered", which didn't go quite as far as Lenin, who advocated Russia's defeat in the war and demanded a complete break with the Second International.
Trotsky attended the Zimmerwald Conference of anti-war socialists in September 1915 and advocated a middle course between those who, like Martov, would stay within the Second International at any cost and those who would, like Lenin, break with the Second International and form a Third International. The conference adopted the middle line proposed by Trotsky. At first opposed to it, in the end Lenin voted for Trotsky's resolution to avoid a split among anti-war socialists.
In September 1916, Trotsky was deported from France to Spain for his anti-war activities. Spanish authorities wouldn't let him stay and he was deported to the United States on December 25, 1916. He arrived in New York City on January 13, 1917. In New York, he wrote articles for the local Russian language socialist newspaper Novy Mir and made speeches to Russian emigres.
1917
Trotsky was living in New York City when the February 1917 Russian Revolution overthrew Tsar Nicholas II. He left New York on March 27, but his ship was intercepted by British naval officials in Halifax, Nova Scotia and he spent a month detained at Amherst, Nova Scotia. After [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch23.htm initial hesitation] by the Russian foreign minister Pavel Milyukov, he was forced to demand that Trotsky be released and the British government freed Trotsky on April 29. He finally made his way back to Russia on May 4 of that year.
Upon his return, Trotsky was in substantive agreement with the Bolshevik position, but he didn't join them right away. At the time, Russian social democrats were split in at least 6 groups and the Bolsheviks were waiting for the next party Congress to determine which factions they would merge with. Trotsky temporarily joined the Mezhraiontsy, a regional social democratic organization in St. Petersburg, and became one of its leaders. At the First Congress of Soviets in June, he was elected member of the first All-Russian Central Executive Committee ("VTsIK") from the Mezhraiontsy faction.
Trotsky was arrested on August 7, 1917 (New Style) after an unsuccessful pro-Bolshevik uprising in Petrograd, but was released 40 days later in the aftermath of the failed counter-revolutionary uprising by Kornilov. After the Bolsheviks gained a majority in the Petrograd Soviet, Trotsky was elected Chairman on October 8 (New Style). He sided with Lenin against Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev when the Bolshevik Central Committee discussed staging an armed uprising and he led the efforts to overthrow the Provisional Government headed by Aleksandr Kerensky.
The following summary of Trotsky's Role in 1917 was given by Stalin in Pravda, November 6, 1918. (Although this passage was quoted in Stalin's book "The October Revolution" issued in 1934, it was expunged in Stalin's Works released in 1949.)
:"All practical work in connection with the organisation of the uprising was done under the immediate direction of Comrade Trotsky, the President of the Petrograd Soviet. It can be stated with certainty that the Party is indebted primarily and principally to Comrade Trotsky for the rapid going over of the garrison to the side of the Soviet and the efficient manner in which the work of the Military Revolutionary Committee was organised."
After the success of the uprising on November 7-8 (New Style), Trotsky led the efforts to repeal a counter-attack by cossaks under General Pyotr Krasnov and other troops still loyal to the overthrown Provisional Government at Gatchina. Allied with Lenin, he successfully defeated attempts by other Bolshevik Central Committee members (Zinoviev, Kamenev, Alexei Rykov, etc) to share power with other socialist parties.
By the end of 1917, Trotsky was unquestionably the second man in the Bolshevik Party after Lenin, overshadowing the ambitious Zinoviev, who had been Lenin's top lieutenant over the previous decade, but whose star appeared to be fading. This turnaround planted the seeds of the two Bolshevik leaders' mutual enmity, which lasted until 1926 and, in the end, did much to destroy them both.
After the Russian Revolution
1926
Commissar for Foreign Affair and Brest-Litovsk (1917-1918)
After the Bolsheviks came to power, Trotsky became the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and published the secret treaties previously signed by the Triple Entente and the United States that detailed plans for post-war reallocation of colonies and redrawing state borders.
Trotsky was the head of the Soviet delegation during the peace negotiations in Brest-Litovsk between December 22, 1917 and February 10, 1918. At that time the Soviet government was split on the issue. Left Communists, led by Nikolai Bukharin, continued to believe that there could be no peace between a Soviet republic and a capitalist country and that only a revolutionary war leading to a pan-European Soviet republic would bring a durable peace. They cited the successes of the newly formed (January 15, 1918) voluntary Red Army against Polish forces of Gen. Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki in Belarus, White forces in the Don region and newly independent Ukrainian forces as proof that the Red Army could successfully repel German forces, especially if propaganda and asymmetrical warfare were used. Left Communists didn't mind holding talks with the Germans as a means of exposing German imperial ambitions (territorial gains, reparations, etc) in hopes of accelerating the hoped for Soviet revolution in the West, but they were dead set against signing any peace treaty. In case of a German ultimatum, they advocated proclaiming a revolutionary war against Germany in order to inspire Russian and European workers to fight for socialism. Their opinion was shared by Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who were then the Bolsheviks' junior partners in a coalition government.
Lenin, who had earlier hoped for a speedy Soviet revolution in Germany and other parts of Europe, quickly decided that the imperial government of Germany was still firmly in control and that, absent a strong Russian military, an armed conflict with Germany would lead to a collapse of the Soviet government in Russia. He agreed with the Left Communists that ultimately a pan-European Soviet revolution would solve all problems, but until then the Bolsheviks needed to be able to survive and stay in power. Lenin didn't mind prolonging the negotiating process for maximum propaganda effect, but, from January 1918 on, he advocated signing a separate peace treaty if faced with a German ultimatum.
Trotsky's position during this period was in between these two Bolshevik factions. Like Lenin, he admitted that the old Russian military, inherited from the monarchy and the Provisional Government and in advanced stages of decomposition, was unable to fight :
:That we could no longer fight was perfectly clear to me and that the newly formed Red Guard and Red Army detachments were too small and poorly trained to resist the Germans.
On the other hand, he agreed with the Left Communists that signing a separate peace treaty with an imperialist power would be a terrible moral and material blow to the Soviet government, negating all of its military and political successes in late 1917-early 1918, resurrecting the notion that the Bosheviks were secrelty allied with the German government, and causing an upsurge of internal resistance. In case of a German ultimatum, Trotsky argued, the best policy was to refuse to accept it, which had a good chance of being the last drop that would lead to an uprising within Germany or, at the very least, inspire German soldiers to refuse to obey their officers since any German offensive would be a naked grab for territories. As Trotsky wrote in 1925 :
:We began peace negotiations in the hope of arousing the workmen's party of Germany and Austria-Hungary as well as of the Entente countries. For this reason we were obliged to delay the negotiations as long as possible to give the European workman time to understand the main fact of the Soviet revolution itself and particularly its peace policy.
:But there was the other question: Can the Germans still fight? Are they in a position to begin an attack on the revolution that will explain the cessation of the war? How can we find out the state of mind of the German soldiers, how to fathom it?
Red Guard
Throughout January and February of 1918, Lenin's position was supported by 7 members of the Bolshevik Central Committee and Bukharin's by 4. Trotsky had 4 votes (his own, Felix Dzerzhinsky's, Nikolai Krestinsky's and Adolph Joffe's) and, since he held the balance of power, he was able to pursue his policy in Brest-Litovsk. When he could no longer delay the negotiations, he withdrew from the talks on (February 10, 1918), refusing to sign on Germany's harsh terms. After a brief hiatus, the Central Powers notified the Soviet government that they would no longer observe the truce after February 17. At this point Lenin again argued that the Soviet government had done all it could to explain its position to Western workers and that it was time to accept the terms. Trotsky refused to support Lenin since he was waiting to see whether German workers would rebel or whether German soldiers would refuse to follow orders.
The German side resumed military operations on February 18. Within a day, it became clear that the German army was capable of conducting offensive operations and that Red Army detachments, which were relatively small, poorly organized and poorly led, were no match for it. At this point, in the evening of February 18, 1918, Trotsky and his supporters in the Bolshevik Central Committee abstained. Lenin's proposal was accepted 7-4 and the Soviet government sent a telegram to the German side accepting the final Brest-Litovsk peace terms.
The German side didn't respond for three days, continuing its offensive and encountering little resistance. When the response did arrive on February 21, the proposed terms were so harsh that even Lenin briefly thought that the Soviet government had no other choice but to fight. In the end, however, the Bolshevik Central Committee once again voted 7-4 on February 23, 1918, which paved the way to the signing of Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3 and its ratification on March 15, 1918. Since he was so closely associated with the policy previously followed by the Soviet delegation at Brest-Litovsk, Trotsky submitted his resignation from his position as Commissar for Foreign Affairs in order to remove a potential obstacle to the new policy.
At the Head of the Red Army (Spring 1918)
March 15
The failure of the recently formed Red Army to resist the German offensive in February 1918 put its weaknesses on display: insufficient numbers, lack of knowledgeable officers, almost complete absence of coordination and subordination. Celebrated and feared Baltic Fleet sailors, one of the bastions of the new regime led by Pavel Dybenko, ignominiously fled from the German army at Narva. The notion that the Soviet state could have an effective voluntary or militia type military was seriously undermined.
Trotsky was one of the first Bolshevik leaders to recognize the problem and he pushed for the formation of a military council of former Russian generals that would function as an advisory body. Lenin and the Bolshevik Central Committee agreed to create the Supreme Military Council, with former chief of the imperial General Staff Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich at its head, on March 4. However, the entire Bolshevik leadership of the Red Army, including People's Commissar (defense minister) Nikolai Podvoisky and commander-in-chief Nikolai Krylenko, protested vigorously and eventually resigned. They believed that the Red Army should consist only of dedicated revolutionaries, rely on propaganda as well as on force, and have elected officers. They viewed former imperial officers and generals as potential traitors who should be kept out of the new military, much less put in charge of it. Their views continued to be popular with many Bolsheviks throughout most of the Russian Civil War and their supporters, including Podvoisky, who became one of Trotsky's deputies, were a constant thorn in Trotsky's side. The discontent with Trotsky's policies of strict discipline, conscription and reliance on carefully supervised non-Communist military experts eventually led to the Military Opposition, which was active within the Communist Party in late 1918-1919.
On March 13, 1918 Trotsky's resignation as Commissar for Foreign Affairs was officially accepted and he was appointed People's Commissar of Army and Navy Affairs (Нарком по военным и морским делам, Нарком армии и флота) in place of Podvoisky and chairman of the Supreme Military Council. The post of the commander-in-chief was abolished and from that point on, Trotsky was in full control of the Red Army, responsible only to the Communist Party leadership, their Left Socialist Revolutionary allies having left the government over Brest-Litovsk. With the help of his faithful deputy Ephraim Sklyansky, Trotsky spent the rest of the Civil War transforming the Red Army from a ragtag network of small and fiercely independent detachments into a large and disciplined military machine.
The Civil War (1918-1920)
1918
Trotsky's managerial skills and his approach to building the Soviet military were soon put to a test. When the Czechoslovak Legions, then en route from European Russia to Vladivostok, rose against the Soviet government in May-June 1918, the Bolsheviks were suddenly faced with the loss of most of the country's territory, an increasingly well organized resistance by Russian anti-Communist forces (usually referred to as the White Army after their best known component) and widespread defection by the military experts that Trotsky relied on.
Trotsky and the Soviet government responded with a full-fledged mobilization, which increased the size of the Red Army from less than 300,000 in May 1918 to one million in October 1918, and an introduction of political commissars into the Red Army. The latter were responsible for ensuring the loyalty of military experts' (who were mostly former officers in the imperial army) and counter-signing their orders.
Facing military defeats in mid-1918, Trotsky introduced increasingly severe penalties for desertion, insubordination, and retreat. He organized the formation of the infamous "blocking units", special squads stationed behind the front-line troops, whose role it was to summarily gun down all soldiers suspected of desertion and unauthorized retreat. As he later wrote in his autobiography :
:An army cannot be built without reprisals. Masses of men cannot be led to death unless the army command has the death penalty in its arsenal. So long as those malicious tailless apes that are so proud of their technical achievements — the animals that we call men — will build armies and wage wars, the command will always be obliged to place the soldiers between the possible death in the front and the inevitable one in the rear.
These reprisals included the death penalty for deserters and "traitors", as well as using former officers' families as hostages against possible defections:
:[...] commissars are obligated to keep track of [former] officers' families and appoint them to positions of responsibility when it is possible the seize their families in case of treason.
:[...]I ordered you to establish the family status of former officers among command personnel and to inform each of them by signed receipt that treachery or treason will cause the arrest of their families and that, therefore, they are each taking upon themselves responsibility for their families. That order is still in force. Since then there have been a number of cases of treason by former officers, yet not in a single case, as far as I know, has the family of the traitor been arrested, as the registration of former officers has evidently not been carried out at all. Such a negligent approach to so important a matter is totally impermissible.
Trotsky also threatened to execute unit commanders and commissars whose units either deserted or retreated without permission. (Trotsky later argued that these threats were either taken out of context or were used to scare his subordinates into action and were not necessarily meant to be carried out.) Since Red Army commissars were often prominent Bolsheviks, it sometimes led to clashes between them and Trotsky.
Though he and Trotsky were later to become mortal enemies, Stalin was influenced by Trotsky's use of brutal disciplinary measures, and expanded the use of blocking units well into World War II.
In addition to the use of terror, Trotsky believed that state-sponsored propagation of revolutionary ideals could improve an army's performance. As he wrote in his memoirs :
:And yet armies are not built on fear. The Czar's army fell to pieces not because of any lack of reprisals. [...] The strongest cement in the new army was the ideas of the October revolution, and the train supplied the front with this cement.
The train referred to in the quote above was Trotsky's personal armored train that he used during the Civil War to visit the most critical sections of the front. While there, he not only planned and supervised military operations, but also used his considerable oratorial talents to inspire Red Army soldiers and even deserters, often with considerable success. Trotsky made at least 36 trips to "hot spots" in 1918-1920 and his train became one of the symbols of the Red Army.
Trotsky continued to insist that former officers should be used as military experts within the Red Army and, in the summer of 1918, was able to convince Lenin and the Bolshevik leadership not only to continue the policy in the face of mass defections, but also to give these experts more direct operational control of the military. In this he differed sharply from Stalin who was, from May through October 1918, the top commissar in the South of Russia. Stalin and his future defense minister, Kliment Voroshilov, went so far as to refuse to accept former general Andrei Snesarev who had been sent to them by Trotsky. Stalin's stubborn opposition to Trotsky's military policies led to an acute personal conflict, which continued, in various forms, for the next 10 years, until Trotsky's expulsion from the Soviet Union.
In September 1918, the Soviet government, facing continuous military difficulties, declared what amounted to martial law and reorganized the Red Army. The Supreme Military Council was abolished and the position of the commander-in-chief was restored, filled by the commander of the Red Latvian rifleman Ioakim Vatsetis (aka Jukums Vācietis), who had formerly led the Eastern Front against the Czechoslovak Legions. Vatsetis was put in charge of day to day operations of the Red Army while Trotsky was appointed Chairman of the newly formed Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic and retained overall control of the military. Trotsky and Vatsetis had clashed earlier in 1918 while Vatsetis and Trotsky's adviser Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich were also on unfriendly terms. Nevertheless, Trotsky eventually established a working relationship with the often prickly Vatsetis.
The reorganization caused yet another conflict between Trotsky and Stalin in late September - early October 1918 when the latter refused to accept former imperial general Pavel Sytin, who had been appointed by Trotsky to command the Southern Front. As a result, Stalin was recalled from the South Front. Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov tried to get Trotsky and Stalin to mend fences, but their meeting was unsuccessful.
1919
Throughout late 1918 and early 1919, Trotsky had to fend off a number of attacks on his leadership of the Red Army, including veiled accusations in newspaper articles inspired by Stalin and a direct attack by the Military Opposition at the VIIIth Party Congress in March 1919. On the surface, he weathered all of them successfully and was elected one of only five full members of the first Politburo after the Congress. However, as he later wrote :
:It is no wonder that my military work created so many enemies for me. I did not look to the side, I elbowed away those who interfered with military success, or in the haste of the work trod on the toes of the unheeding and was too busy even to apologize. Some people remember such things. The dissatisfied and those whose feelings had been hurt found their way to Stalin or Zinoviev, for these two also nourished hurts.
It was not until the summer of 1919 that the dissatisfied had an opportunity to mount a serious challenge to Trotsky's leadership of the Red Army.
By mid-1919, the Red Army had successfully defeated the White Army's spring offensive in the East and was about to cross the Urals mountains and enter Siberia in pursuit of Admiral Alexander Kolchak's forces. However, at the same time the situation in the South, where General Anton Denikin's forces were advancing, was deteriorating rapidly. On June 6 commander-in-chief Vatsetis ordered the Eastern Front to stop the offensive so that he could use its forces in the South. The leadership of the Eastern Front, including its commander Sergei Kamenev (a colonel in the imperial army, not to be confused with the Politburo member Lev Kamenev), and Eastern Front Revolutionary Military Council members Ivar Smilga, Mikhail Lashevich and Sergei Gusev vigorously protested and wanted to keep emphasis on the Eastern Front. They insisted that it was vital to capture Siberia before the onset of winter and that once Kolchak's forces were broken, it would be possible to free up many more divisions for the Southern Front. Trotsky, who had had conflicts with the leadership of the Eastern Front earlier, including a temporary removal of Kamenev in May 1919, supported Vatsetis.
The conflict came to a head at the July 3-4 Central Committee meeting. After a heated exchange the majority supported Kamenev and Smilga against Vatsetis and Trotsky. Not only was Trotsky's plan rejected, but he was subjected to a barrage of criticism for various alleged shortcomings in his leadership style, much of it of a personal nature. Stalin used this opportunity to try to pressure Lenin to dismiss Trotsky from his post. However, when, on July 5, Trotsky offered his resignation, the Politburo and the Orgburo of the Central Committee unanimously rejected it.
Nevertheless, a number of significant changes to the leadership of the Red Army were made after July 4. Trotsky was temporarily sent to the Southern Front, while the work in Moscow was informally coordinated by Smilga. Most members of the bloated Revolutionary Military Council who were not involved in its day to day operations, were relieved of their duties on July 8 while new members including Smilga were added. The same day, while Trotsky was already in the South, Vatsetis was suddenly arrested by the Cheka on suspicion of involvement in an anti-Soviet plot and replaced by Sergei Kamenev.
After a few weeks in the South, Trotsky returned to Moscow and resumed control of the Red Army. A year later, after Smilga's (and Tukhachevsky's) famous defeat during the Miracle at the Vistula, Trotsky refused to use this opportunity to pay Smilga back, which earned him Smilga's friendship and subsequent support during the intra-Party battles of the 1920s.
In the meantime, by October 1919 the Soviet government found itself in the worst crisis of the Civil War, with Denikin's troops approaching Tula and Moscow from the South and General Nikolay Yudenich's troops approachig Petrograd from the West. Lenin decided that, since it was more important to defend Moscow than Petrograd, the latter would have to be abandoned. Trotsky argued that Petrograd needed to be defended, at least in part to prevent Estonia and Finland from intervening. In a rare reversal, Trotsky was supported by Stalin and Zinoviev and prevailed against Lenin in the Central Committee. He immediately went to Petrograd, whose leadership headed by Zinoviev he found demoralized, and organized its defense, sometimes personally stopping fleeing soldiers. By October 22 the Red Army was on the offensive and in early November Yudenich's troops were driven back to Estonia, where they were disarmed and interned. Trotsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his actions in Petrograd.
1920
With the defeat of Denikin and Yudenich in late 1919, the Soviet government's emphasis shifted to economic work and Trotsky spent the winter of 1919-1920 in the Urals region trying to get its economy going again. Based on his experiences there, he proposed abandoning the policies of War Communism , which included confiscating grain from peasants, and partially restoring the grain market. Lenin, however, was still committed to the system of War Communism at the time and the proposal was rejected. Instead, Trotsky was put in charge of the country's railroads (while retaining overall control of the Red Army), which he tried to militarize in the spirit of War Communism. It wasn't until the spring of 1921 that economic collapse and uprisings would force Lenin and the rest of the Bolshevik leadership to abandon War Communism in favor of the New Economic Policy.
In the meantime, in early 1920 Soviet-Polish tensions escalated to the point where they eventually led to the Polish-Soviet War. In the runup to the war and during the hostilities, Trotsky argued that the Red Army was exhausted and that the Soviet government should sign a peace treaty with Poland as soon as possible. He also didn't believe that the Red Army would find much support in Poland proper. Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders, however, thought that the Red Army's successes in the Russian Civil War and against the Poles meant that, as Lenin said later :
:The defensive period of the war with worldwide imperialism was over, and we could, and had the obligation to, exploit the military situation to launch an offensive war.
However, the Red Army offensive was stopped and turned back during the Battle of Warsaw in August 1920, in part because of Stalin's failure to obey Trotsky's orders in the runup to the decisive engagements. Back in Moscow, Trotsky again argued in favor of signing a peace treaty and this time was able to prevail.
The Trade Union Discussion (1920-1921)
In late 1920, after the Bolshevik victory in the Civil War, the Communist Party found itself engaged in a heated and increasingly acrimonious discussion over the role of trade unions in the Soviet state. Although most Party leaders agreed that the differences between the mainstream positions within the Party were not that great, the discussion split the Party into numerous factions. Lenin, Trotsky and Bukharin each had their "platforms" (factions), Bukharin eventually merging his faction with Trotsky's. Smaller, more radical factions like the Workers' Opposition and the Group of Democratic Centralism were particularly active. Disagreements were threatening to get out of hand and many Bolsheviks, including Lenin, feared that the Party would splinter. The Central Committee was split almost evenly between Lenin's and Trotsky's supporters, with all three Secretaries of the Central Comm |
