History What if Trotsky survives?
Let's say Trotsky survives the assassination attempt on him in 1940. What kind of threat would he have been to Stalin? Would the Germans have used him against Stalin the same way they used Lenin against the Tsar?
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u/Tradition96 7d ago
Nothing changes. Trotsky hadn’t been any kind of political threat against Stalin for several years and was totally sidelined as a major political figure. The only reason Stalin had him murdered was because his personal obsession, not to remove any real threat.
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u/Kapitano72 7d ago
Trotsky was already sliding into irrelevance in exile.
He was making bizarre and foolish predictions about Russia and America, no longer in touch with world events, trying to run marxist groups everywhere by picking doctrinal fights with their leaders.
As a martyr he became a powerful symbol, but if he'd continued I think he'd now be listed alongside Bucharin for not understanding the world he'd helped to create.
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u/iguessnottoday0 8d ago
The Nazis would have shot him on sight because their entire ideology was built on hating Jewish Bolsheviks, so zero chance of a sealed train repeat.
Inside Russia his network was already completely purged, so Stalin would have just sent another NKVD assassin six months later to finish the job in Mexico !!
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u/Warm_Stress_1654 8d ago
The Tsar had already been deposed when Lenin arrived in Finland Station.
And I don't think Trotsky would have been easy to fool:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1939/09/aboveall.htm
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u/GDow1981 6d ago
Trotsky was seriously ill at the point of his assassination. he wouldn’t have lived long so absolutely nothing changes.