Talk:Leon Trotsky

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	Leon Trotsky is a former featured article candidate. Please view the links under Article milestones below to see why the nomination failed. For older candidates, please check the archive.
January 27, 2006 Featured article candidate Not promoted

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Contents 1 Ice Cream? 1.1 Rumors of appearances in American films 2 Mother 3 Numerology 4 Where did the catergories go? 5 Snippet on Emmanuel Goldstein? 6 Break-up Into Sub Articles 7 Biography Needs Sources 8 Eugenics 9 The Great Purge

[edit] Ice Cream?

When I typed in Leon Trotsky I got an jumbled article about saying that he was an Ice Cream man on a BBC show. Did a sysop delete this article? Vladimir Stalin 10:01am EST 4.1.07

Let's hope so, since he was not an ice-cream man for the BBC. --Duncan 08:47, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

On the other hand, he was an early film actor when he was exiled in America. --Eqdoktor 04:43, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

You're kidding? Like in what? --AdamM 01:36, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

In 1916-1917 when Trotsky was exiled in the New York, USA, he supplemented his meagre revolutionary income by hiring himself out as a movie extra at the one of early movie studios filming in NYC. One movie that he was believed to be in was called, "My official wife". The script called for "revolutionary types" and what better actor for this bit part than the founder and first commander of the Communist Red Army! In it, a Trotsky can be seen over-acting ferociously (which was standard in those early days of silent movies) and mugging the camera in all his scenes. Soon after, the Russian Revolution of 1917 happened and he had to leave the glamorous world of movie film-making and work on creating the Russian Red Army... :)

I picked up this bit of movie trivia from, "The Guiness Book of Films" and there are some references to this trivia on the Internet. Alas... Some people declare this delicious bit of trivia as an urban legend, but since most silent movies are lost/destroyed; there is no conclusive proof that he wasn't a bit-part movie actor either :) --Eqdoktor 07:27, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Myth is quite the word. Trotsky was in New York for, what, seven weeks? It seems quite unlikely. We'd need proof of it, rather than conclusive proof that is it untrue. --Duncan 10:18, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if it helps but this was cut from the article on 2nd March 2007 (rightly or wrongly):-

[edit] Rumors of appearances in American films

- There is an urban legend that Trotsky was once an extra in one or more American movies. This legend is based on two separate episodes. - - First, there is a minor 1930s documentary about Hollywood history which is shown by the cable television channel Turner Classic Movies from time to time. It includes an 8-10 second excerpt from a silent movie (Thought to be "My Official Wife" made 1916-1917, when Trotsky briefly lived in New York City) with a Trotsky look-alike making a brief appearance as an extra. The announcer claims, perhaps in jest since the whole episode is played for laughs, that it is indeed Trotsky supplementing his income while in New York in early 1917. Kevin Brownlow argued that it couldn't possibly be Trotsky.^[1] - - The second episode is described here: - - ::Recorded on the Fox lot in Hollywood on January 27, 1928, the Dedication of "Park Row" footage constitutes one of the earliest synchronous-sound newsreels. [...] However, the real star here is this "Leon Trotsky of the Soviet Republic!" Exactly what Trotsky is doing in Hollywood seems to bewilder even those standing behind him in this film. More bewildering still to most viewers in 1928 is the fact that his Russian goes untranslated. Is this confirmation that it is really he? It looks like Trotsky, albeit a little younger and leaner than he was at the time. While we, like they, might have wondered, for the Russian-speaker the joke is given away immediately. The actor's words (delivered haltingly, with a Slavic accent) can be translated as:

- :::Comrades, by the irony of fate I play the role of Trotsky in the new Raoul Walsh production by the Fox studio. In this production, he will show the very best anyone has ever seen. Raoul Walsh is famous for this staging of What Price Glory?, and in this production he'll show something truly special. [Translation by Alexander Ogden and Judith Kalb]

I was sad to see it get deleted (didn't follow the discussion, if there was any) but given the article's excellent serious detail and length, the trivia probably has no place. Andysoh 16:45, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mother

Was Trotsky's mother, Anna Bronstein, also Jewish? The article states that his father was Jewish but does not state whether his mother was also. Badagnani 20:04, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes she was Jewish, as well as being from the middle class. Consequently, her family did not like her marraige to David Bronstein, as he was a peasant and he was not as committed to Judaism they were.

Sugrnspice (talk) 07:24, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Numerology

Has somebody noticed here that Trotsky was born the day the Communists came to power in 1917 (November 7) and was killed the day they lost power in 1991 (August 21)? A pretty funny coincidence. Uocila 11:29, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Get outVTNC (talk) 01:37, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Communists did not lost power in August 21.--79.120.69.77 (talk) 07:35, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

We still very much exist —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.189.133.20 (talk) 06:56, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Where did the catergories go?

I went to the bottom of the page, and half the catergories are gone. All there is in the categories is 1879 births and 1940 deaths. Where did everything else go? Like, where's the part about him being an atheist? Was he religious? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wearetherevolution (talk • contribs) 06:37, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

What do you think? Of course he wasn't religious, he was a marxist. You can't be marxist and religious.80.167.85.23 (talk) 16:14, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Snippet on Emmanuel Goldstein?

The character in 1984 is clearly based off in part to Trotsky and Emma Goldman, what with him helping found Oceania with "Big Brother" and later being exiled and thus speaking out against the Union. The part that described his facial features says it all.--The Youth Counselor (talk) 09:43, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Break-up Into Sub Articles

I would advise whoever is working on this article to break Trotsky's biography into sub-articles as the article has reached an enourmous length. --Xtreambar (talk) 17:01, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Still needs expansion if anything, it is not only incomplete but still smaller than articles like Paul McCartney and Jesus. Questioning81 (talk) 21:30, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Biography Needs Sources

The biographical section here leaves a lot to be desired in terms of references. If this article is your baby, I'd suggest you take some time to attribute sources. On a figure of this much historical significance, and with such political implications for its content, we must be particularly weary of either vandalism in the bio, or hero-worship/revisionism that isn't backed up by the record. Take care. Jordanp (talk) 07:26, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Eugenics

Trotsky directly references and supports eugenics in his speech If America Should Go Communist^[2] —Preceding unsigned comment added by VTNC (talk • contribs) 09:07, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

A throwaway remark at the end of an article written at a time when eugenics was still regarded as being a genuine science and had not been discredited by the travesties of the Nazis. Even then he clearly distinguishes what he has in mind from the pseudo-science of the Nazis:

"While the romantic numskulls of Nazi Germany are dreaming of restoring the old race of Europe’s Dark Forest to its original purity, or rather its original filth, you Americans, after taking a firm grip on your economic machinery and your culture, will apply genuine scientific methods to the problem of eugenics."

It would be a serious distortion to raise this to a central aspect of Trotsky's politics. --Mia-etol (talk) 09:58, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Great Purge

The first paragraph of this article states that Trotsky was exiled from USSR in the Great Purge, while in fact that happened about ten years earlier. The Great Purge, that means the period 1936-1938. Trotsky had to leave the country in 1928. Volga Burlak (talk) 11:40, 9 June 2008 (UTC)