Series / Trotsky

Long live the revolution.

"Revolution is a woman! She needs a true man! Be men! Inseminate her!"

— Leon Trotsky

In May 1940, on the outskirts of Mexico City, a detachment of Mexican Communists dressed as policemen attack the house of the former leader of the Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky. For a quarter of an hour they shoot at the house, but by an incredible coincidence, Trotsky and his wife survive. Having lost during the eleven years of expulsion almost all those close to him, Trotsky now understands: his eternal enemy, Stalin, will continue to pursue him until the end of his days. He then decides to leave a political testament, to tell fully and sincerely how a man from an oppressed minority managed to become a prophet of a new world and overthrow an empire. To write his memoirs, Trotsky invites his ideological opponent – a Canadian journalist sympathetic to Stalin — to convert him into his faith, so that he in turn can convert the whole mankind.

This series provides examples of:

• Amicable Exes: Trotsky and his first wife Aleksandra are more or less emotionally separated the moment he meets Natalia. Even after their divorce however, he still greets her warmly and addresses her as his friend.
• Anti-Hero: Trotsky's mission is to make the entire world happy by spreading his socialist ideas and has stated that he wishes to love all of humanity. Despite his intentions, he is exceedingly megalomaniacal, alienates almost everyone around him and grows increasingly ruthless as time goes on.
• Arch-Enemy: Trotsky and Stalin have a very bitter and personal hatred of one another that stems mostly from personality clashes but eventually escalates to political and personal violence. Stalin despises Trotsky for his arrogance and superiority complex while Trotsky views Stalin with great contempt and sees him as nothing more than an unwashed thug who is merely pretending to be a revolutionary.
• Arc Villain: As the series frequently jumps from different time periods, there are several main antagonists whose prominence depends on what year it is.
  • Nikolai Trotsky, the prison warden is Leon's first antagonist in 1898. An abusive and cruel jailer, he mocks Leon's idea of justice and does everything he can to suppress him.
  • Czar Nicholas II is the main antagonist from 1902-1918 as he and his monarchy are what stands in Trotsky's way of achieving his dream of a socialist Russia. His government is the most visible threat of the series as much of the battles are between the Red Army and his royalist troops.
  • Josef Stalin in the scenes set in the 1940s, as he is repeatedly trying to have Trotsky assassinated and is ultimately the one who gets him killed.
  • As the series progresses however, it becomes exceedingly clear that Trotsky's greatest enemy is himself and his ego.
• Artistic License – History:
  • The German Revolution gets portrayed as occurring in December 1917, with Trotsky's instigation. In reality, it wasn't until November 1918, and they had nothing to do with him. Some of its leaders even had denounced the Bolshevik regime.
  • The Kronstadt Rebellion was in March 1921. In the show, it's said to be March 1918. Yet they retained a reference to the Bolsheviks being in power for three and a half years. That would have been right by the real date, but not in what is given.
• "Ass" in Ambassador: Trotsky's stint as the Commissar of Foreign affairs is a total disaster as he not only openly treats the German ambassador with contempt but also fails to move the negotiations forward at all.
• The Chains of Commanding: Being the Commissar of the Soviet Red army takes its toll on Trotsky and only makes him more ruthless and emotionally dead.
• Dead Person Conversation: Occurs Once per Episode at the end. The dead people in question include Trotsky's father, his first wife, Sigmund Freud, Markin, Skalon, and Lenin. However, it's left ambiguous as to whether these are ghosts, hallucinations, conscious imaginings, or unconscious manifestations of Trotsky's fear and guilty conscience.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Trotsky faces open antisemitism quite frequently, and it's made clear he could never be Russia's leader simply because he's Jewish. His father also gets brutally beaten up by antisemites just for being Jewish and disagreeing with something they said.
• Desecrating the Dead: Trotsky orders his men to use wooden crosses from a nearby graveyard as fuel after his train has been stalled. Outraged funeral goers attack them, only to be killed.
• Disappeared Dad: Trotsky is largely absent in his children's lives, emotionally or physically, which Sergei expresses resentment of.
• Dragon-in-Chief: While Lenin is still nominally the head of the Party and Trotsky is merely his second in command, it is Trotsky who coordinates the October revolution and manages the internal affairs of the party.
• Driven to Suicide: The former Tsarist general, Vladimir Skalon and Trotsky's eldest daughter, Zinadia.
• The Exile:
  • Trotsky is forced into exile multiple times for opposing the Tsarist government.
  • Dissident intellectuals in 1922 are made to leave the Soviet Union for good, on pain of death if they ever return. Their only other choice is also death.
• False Flag Operation: The Tsarist government sends agents undercover among the demonstrators who will open fire and give their soldiers a reason to shoot back, rather than it being unprovoked. It doesn't work as Trotsky has them disperse so that no violence will occur.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Stalin starts out as a lowly robber for the Bolshevik party while Trotsky treats him as a mindless thug and doesn't even bother to shake his hand when approached. Eventually, Stalin's more down to earth approach wins over the appeal of the Red army and he takes over and exiles Trotsky shortly after Lenin dies.
• Gilligan Cut: In a dramatic example, a Rousing Speech by one of the Kronstandt sailors against the Bolsheviks immediately cuts to the sight of the bodies of the dead sailors being burnt after their revolt is crushed.
• A God Am I: Trotsky actually considers himself to be even greater than God because unlike God, people can actually see and hear him and therefore have a much greater reason to worship and follow him.
• Hallucinations: This is one possible explanation of Trotsky frequently seeing dead relatives and others in his last days.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: During the Civil War, Trotsky and much of the Red Army wear all-leather outfits.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Trotsky was jailed for opposing the Tsarist government, who murdered unarmed protestors in the streets. He ends up using the same tactics or being part of a government which does and approving them, rising into an greater height. Gorky tries to urge him against this, but it only makes Trostky relent once, by ordering dissident intellectuals exiled rather than just shot.
• Historical Beauty Update: Occasionally, for some of the more minor characters.
  • Compare the historical Fyodor Raskolnikov◊ to the one in the series◊.
  • The real Vladimir Skalon◊ was both less handsome and more stocky than Sergey Bezrukov◊.
  • The trope is, however, arguably inverted in the case of Vadim Skvirskiy◊ as Mikhail Tukhachevsky◊.
• Hypocrite: Trotsky claims to want to free the proletariat from their chains and to rid the world of social class but treats close to everyone as beneath him and cannot accept a sailor to be his friend.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Trotsky staunchly defends all his actions during the revolution (freely admitting they probably killed millions), saying this was all needed to make a better world.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Lenin develops one by the beginning of the final episode.
• I Have No Son!: Trotsky's father at last disowns him over disagreeing with his politics.
• Jerkass: Trotsky is incredibly arrogant and rude, frequently talking down to those around him and treats them as inferior beings. It should come as no surprise that he has little to no political allies aside from Lenin.
• Kavorka Man: Despite being pretty average looking and not very charming (he's charismatic, though not with them), Trotsky's gets with four different beautiful woman (while marrying two and having children by them) without visible effort of any kind.
• Kick the Dog: Trotsky does this a few times to highlight how his ego has gotten the better of him.
  • He allows his soldiers to slaughter an innocent family simply because they were protesting his army using the wooden crosses in a cemetery as firewood.
  • He sets up Markin, his best and perhaps only friend, to be killed because he despises the fact that a lowly sailor has the nerve to treat him like a normal human being.
• The Needs of the Many: Trotsky justifies his brutality at one point this way, saying it was necessary to create a better world in the future for everyone.
• Nominal Hero: Lenin is portrayed as a selfish, power-hungry opportunist who is more concerned with being famous and wielding authority and only sees the common people as tools even though he is supposed to be helping them. Nevertheless, he is Trotsky's only reliable political ally and the main reason he is able to succeed as a revolutionary leader.
• Only Friend: Markin is the only one who treats Trotsky as a friend and helps him out of admiration and friendship without any ulterior motives. This is horribly deconstructed though as Trotsky's ego and sense of superiority does not allow him to accept a member of the lower class to be his friend which leads to Markin's death.
• Parental Neglect: Trotsky mostly ignores the needs of his children in order to focus on his political career and even leaves his daughter Nina on her deathbed while planning the October revolution.
  Zinaida: "While you were having your conversation^note with Lenin on his role in the party, Nina was nearly trampled to death!"
  Frida: "Leon has never been a good father."
• Persecuted Intellectuals: In 1922 the Soviet government starts rounding up all kinds of dissident intellectuals, mostly poets and university professors. They initially want them shot, but Trotsky successfully convinces the government to just exile them (in a rare moment of mercy, though he says it's practical as mass executions could alienate many Western Communist sympathizers, urged on by Maxim Gorky).
• Potty Failure: Trotsky's son Sergei pisses himself when a man threatens his father right in front of him with a gun.
• Pride: Trotsky's Fatal Flaw. He is so absolutely convinced of his own superiority, he refuses to compromise or cooperate with anyone who does not capitulate to his will. His arrogance turns all of his allies away and is what ultimately allows Stalin to exile him in the end.
• Right Through His Pants: Trotsky's isn't shown undressing at all while having sex with Natalia, Frida and Laisa Reissner (aside from removing his coat once).
• Rousing Speech: Trotsky has a talent for giving these and it is his most valuable skill as he rallies many many workers to his cause.
• Those Two Guys: Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, much as in real life, are rarely seen without the other, and tend to function as a unit.
• Translation Convention: Russian is used even when characters from many different backgrounds who would not logically know or use it are speaking (for instance Sigmund Freud, when lecturing in Vienna).
• Ungrateful Bastard: Markin protects Trotsky's family, rallies many workers to his cause and later risks his life to free him from prison. And how does Trotsky repay him? By setting him up to be killed because he doesn't like the way he talks to him in front of other people.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Trotsky admits that, though confident in his beliefs and choices, he still wants his father's approval, while feeling guilty for doing things he dislikes.