How Was Leon Trotsky More Important To The Russian Revolution

Section 1: Identification and Evaluation of Sources
The question of this investigation is: “To what extent was Leon trotsky more valuable to the Bolsheviks and the Russian Revolution, rather than Vladimir Lenin, his superior?” The Russian Revolution was a key turning point in Russian history and in many ways is responsible for shaping the country into what it stands as now. At the helm of the revolutionary group, the Bolsheviks, was Vladimir Lenin and directly beneath him stood Leon Trotsky. It is important to make the distinction between the importance of rankings, and the amount of influence these two leaders had, when making the distinction between which of the two was more essential in the Russian Revolution. The main argument presented
In fact, Trotski is quoted saying “We have not organised the revolution to kill”(Spartacus). However, there were too many groups trying to destroy the Bolsheviks. This forced Vladimir Lenin to create the “Extraordinary Commission for the Suppression of the Counter-Revolution” also known as the Cheka; A secret police force. While the creation of this group was Lenin’s idea, Trotsky was put in charge, and repeatedly eliminated numerous enemies of the revolution. This was Trotsky’s first step in winning the civil war. When the “Whites” attacked the Bolsheviks and started the Civil War, Lenin appointed Trotsky as the Commissar for War, and President of the Supreme War Council. Thus, Trotsky single handedly was responsible for the Bolsheviks victory in the Civil War after defeating all enemy threats with terror and fulfilling the head leadership roles he was appointed to. Trotsky was extremely valuable to the Bolsheviks due to the fact that without him, they would have lost the Civil War. Without Trotsky, there would have been no one suitable to fill his numerous positions in which he had to make hard decisions that conflicted with his personal morals and mastermind many of the Bolsheviks victories. In addition, the vicious, blunt leader rebuilt the Russian army with the help of the Red Guards and through a recruiting and training process which proved difficult due to the fact that most officers supported the “Whites”. Trotsky was single handedly responsible for increasing the amount of soldiers from 7,000 in March 1918 to 5 million in Sep 1920(Brown, 1990). Without the essential rassemblement of this army, Trotsky would have not had the fire power to order Red Guards to ruthlessly put down the revolt of the Kronstadt sailors in March of