Leon Trotsky was a valid Marxist until the time came to throw his support to the Bolsheviks. As a Menshevik, he made it clear that Lenin had created an organization which incorrectly led the Party as a whole. Trotsky's foresight was remarkable. Later, the Central Committee of the "organization" takes control of the movement. And finally, Lenin or another dictator becomes, in essence the Central Committee. Trotsky's vision was remarkable and of course it all came to pass as he foresaw it would. For the sake of the movement, clearly the Menscheviks understood the situation.
Trotsky was first associated with the Menshevik faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, then the Bolshevik Party and lastly the Communist Party.
After the Second Congress of the Social Democratic Party, Trotsky was turned off by the violence he saw in Lenin's Bolshevik Party. They were too much like the Jacobin policies of the French Revolution. Trotksky instead preferred the socialism of the Mensheviks. In fact, Trotsky authored pamphlets attacking Lenin and his Bolsheviks.
Leon Trotsky was not apart of the October Revolution. However he lead the Red Army in the November Revolution as a part of the Bolshevik Party.
Trotsky used his pen to oppose Joseph Stalin, his political arch enemy in the Bolshevik/Communist Party. After Stalin had Trotsky expelled from the Communist Party and then from the country, Trotsky wrote books and articles often criticizing Stalin and how he was betraying Marxism and the Revolution by his dictatorial ways.
Lenin was more important by far. Lenin was the founder and leader of the Bolshevik Party, which eventually took over the country and set up the new socialist government. Trotsky was not even a member of the Bolshevik Party until shortly before the revolution. Trotsky became more of a right hand man to Lenin during the revolution and afterwords but he was never above Lenin in leadership.
Stalin and Trotsky were among the top leaders of the Bolshevik Party after the Revolution and Civil War. They disliked one another intensely and had conflicting opinions on how to run the country after the revolution. Trotsky favored spreading communism to all countries as Marx and Lenin had envisioned. Stalin felt that they should establish communism firmly in one country first then move from there. Stalin also disliked Trotsky because he was Jewish and had only recently joined the Bolshevik Party. After Lenin died in 1924, the two vied for control of the Communist Party and the country with Stalin winning and expelling Trotsky first from the Communist Party then from the country. In 1940, Trotsky was living in Mexico in exile and Stalin had an undercover agent assassinate him.
Lenin may have chosen to exile Leon Trotsky due to political differences and power struggles within the Bolshevik party. Trotsky's popularity and influence posed a threat to Lenin's leadership, leading to his expulsion in order to maintain control and unity within the party.
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky, the number two man in the Bolshevik Party during the Russian Revolution of October 1917 was assassinated in Mexico City, Mexico in 1940.
Stalin had always supported the Bolsheviks, while Trotsky only switched from the Menshevik party to the Bolshevik party after it was apparent that the Bolsheviks would win. Trotsky was a thinker with brilliant speeches, Stalin used force for votes. Trotsky led the army, while Stalin was the secretary. Stalin had great political appeal, but Trotsky had great militaristic and organisational appeal. Furthermore, Stalin was mentally and physically strong, but after Lenin's death, Trotsky began breaking down. The power struggle between the two sparked a conflict in which Trotsky fled the USSR but was later disposed.
Leon Trotsky, being a true Marxist, took on the Menshevik view that a bourgeoisie revolution must replace the Czar. The Bolsheviks disagreed with this. Also, at the time, Trotsky was not in favor of what he saw as a ruthless organization that placed the Bolshevik Party above the workers. He held these views for a long time before changing them.
Leon Trotsky was a Russian revolutionary at first allied with the Menshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party. He later changed his alliance and went over to Lenin and the Bolsheviks. During the October Revolution, Trotsky was considered Lenin's right hand man. During the Russian Civil War Trotsky became Commissar of War and organized the Red Army, which then defeated the opposing White Russian forces. Trotsky was Lenin's choice to succeed him, but Joseph Stalin and others in the Bolshevik/Communist Party plotted against Trotsky, had him expelled from the Party, exiled from the country and assassinated in Mexico by Stalin's henchmen in 1940.