Leon Trotsky died on 21 August 1940 in Coyoacán, aged 60. A Russian Marxist revolutionary born Lev Bronstein, Trotsky became prominent in the Petrograd Soviet during the 1905 revolution and again in 1917, when he organized the Bolshevik seizure of power. As the first Soviet commissar for war he created the Red Army and led it to victory in the civil war. After Lenin's death he lost the struggle for leadership to Stalin, was expelled from the party and was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929. He formed the Fourth International in opposition to Stalinism and lived in Turkey, France, Norway and finally Mexico. A Soviet agent, Ramón Mercader, attacked him with an ice axe in Mexico City, and he died the next day.
Before and after
- from 10 July 1940 to 29 August 1944Vichy France
- from 14 July 1940 to 15 July 1940Operation Ambassador
- 19 July 1940Battle of Cape Spada
- from 21 July 1940 to 20 August 1991Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic
- 21 August 1940Death of Leon Trotsky
- 30 August 1940Death of Joseph John Thomson
- from 7 September 1940 to 21 May 1941The Blitz
- from 9 September 1940 to 16 September 1940Italian invasion of Egypt
- 12 September 1940Lascaux
More in Wars, politics & history
- 16 May 1916Sykes–Picot Agreement
- from February 1919 to March 1921Polish–Soviet War
- 4 June 1920Treaty of Trianon
- 24 July 1923Treaty of Lausanne
- from 1 September 1939 to 2 September 1945World War II
- from 6 June 1944 to 29 August 1944Normandy landings
The era
This moment belongs to the Modern era (1914 CE to 1945 CE), world wars and a changing world. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.