Above Left: Portrait of Vladimir Lenin, political mastermind of the Bolshevik revolution. He used the effective propaganda slogan--Bread, Peace, Land--to garner support among dirt-poor illiterate Russian peasants who understood little about politics. Lenin also embraced Russian defeatism in the war to spur the revolution. Above Right: Leon Trotsky, who was in New York at the time of the revolution outbreak working as a writer for a Russian language newspaper, then returned home amid the demise of the Czar and joined Lenin. Below: Bolshevik leaders from Tomsk display a mix of emotions. |
Below: Trotsky, a highly skilled orator and organizer, addresses members of the Bolshevik fighting force called the Red Guard. Trotsky grew the Red Guard from a tiny unskilled militia into an army of five million which effectively battled counter-revolutionary forces during the three years of civil war that followed the Czar's downfall. |
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