Trotskyism facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Trotskyism is the form of Communism that is based on the ideas of Leon Trotsky. Trotsky described himself as an "orthodox Marxist". This is a different way of seeing the ideas of Karl Marx than the way other communists like Mao Zedong and Josif Stalin saw them. The biggest difference is in Trotsky's idea that there needs to be an international "permanent revolution". A permanent revolution is the idea that proletarian revolution needed to spread in countries worldwide, even where capitalism was not as advanced as only the proletarian revolution could carry out the tasks of the unfinished bourgeois revolutions in these countries. This is different to the Stalinist idea of trying to preserve a single nation's revolution from within. Trotsky also supported a less authoritarian government and more democracy

The largest Trotskyist organizations today are the Reunified Fourth International, International Socialist Tendency, the International Communist League, and the Committee for a Workers' International.

Images for kids

  • Trotskyist Left Opposition-1927

    The leaders of the Trotskyist Left Opposition in Moscow, 1927. Sitting: Leonid Serebryakov, Karl Radek, Leon Trotsky, Mikhail Boguslavsky, and Yevgeni Preobrazhensky. Standing: Christian Rakovsky, Yakov Drobnis, Alexander Beloborodov, and Lev Sosnovsky.

  • TrotskyAtThePolishFront-1919

    Trotsky (raising hand) with troops at the Polish front, during the Polish-Soviet War, 1919.

  • Leo Trotzki 1900 in Sibirien

    Leon Trotsky in exile in Siberia 1900

  • Lenin, Trotsky and Voroshilov with Delegates of the 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

    Trotsky with Lenin and soldiers in Petrograd

  • Causaoperaria

    Trotskyist propaganda in Brazil


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