Assess the Impact of Leon Trotsky

“The assessment of the impact of a personality in history depends on differing historical perspectives”

How accurate is this statement in relation to the personality you have studied?

When determining the impact of an individual, a thorough consideration of varying perspectives is essential to gain a balanced comprehension of the social, political and economic impacts of the personality. The statement “the assessment of the impact of a personality in history depends on differing historical perspectives’’ is accurate as sources do not agree on Leon Trotsky’s role and contribution to features such as Revolutionary, Military and Political aspects of Russian history. To make a valid, and well rounded judgment of   Trotsky’s impact,   a variety of historical perspectives must be taken into account.

Historians when considering the outcomes of the policies applied have come to different conclusions on the significance of Leon Trotsky to the revolution, a review of a range of contrasting perspectives in pertinent to a sound assessment of Trotsky in this role. Trotsky’s significance in orchestrating the successful Bolshevik insurrection in October is controversial amongst historians. After the breakout of the March Revolution, Trotsky formally joined the Bolshevik party in July 1917, where his chairmanship of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet was vital in helping the Bolsheviks seize power from the Provisional Government and therefore consolidating Bolshevik control. Anatoly Vasilievich Lumacharsky writing from his experience in the Bolshevik government views Trotsky’s role in the insurrection as imperative to the Petrograd Soviet, crediting Trotsky’s organization of the initial ‘politically uneducated and somewhat unstable’ Soviet and his ability to convert it into an organized and strong body to govern Russia.   Isaac Deutscher alludes to Trotsky’s sole responsibility and organization of the insurrection in his The Prophet Rimed: Trotsky...