Trotsky Essay - Help needed - Hard Question (1 Viewer)

[Conker]

"The paradox of Trotsky lay in the fact that while by his very nature he was a radical, or leftist, he supported the reformists and the moderates"

In light of this statement, asses the role played by Trotsky in the development of the aims, the resulting charachteristics and the impacts of both War Communism and the New Economic Policy (NEP).


Does anyone have any information that could help me answer this question. All the books i am currently reading dont have any information on Trotsky's role in War Communism or the NEP, but rather just focus on his role as Commiseriat of War during the Civil War. Did Trotsky actually play a role in the development of the NEP or War Communism??? Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[hello99999]

Trotsky played a large role in the development of War Communism. He supported NEP when it was first introduced but later argued against it.

Try to have a read of Westwood, Lynch and Christian if you can. Also find some info on the Kronstadt Rebellion of March 1921- it's very important for understanding Trotsky's role in war communism.

 

[MissSavage29]

In light of this statement, asses the role played by Trotsky in the development of the aims, the resulting charachteristics and the impacts of both War Communism and the New Economic Policy (NEP).

Trotsky was activly invovled in supporting war communism when it was introduced. He created the red army which were the backbone of the revolutionary movment - if you remember war communism was introduced just after the november 1917 revolution.

There are some very good quotes in Christian, Gill and McCauley regarding the role of trotksy. THey talk about his leadership, how he gained support of the men and how he pushed the violence of war communism in teh name of the red revolution.

Also have a bit of a search on the internet and find some of Trotsky's own writings - he mentioned his actual role in one of his texts. If you can its a really good idea to have a look in a second hand bookshop and grab yourself a copy of stalin and trotky's own histories because they are VERY helpful in this topic

with the NEP it was originally Trotksys idea - some historians have quotes that mention this and sum it up nicely - christian i think has a good one -

given that i just read over your question again and you need to make sure that you answer the question correctly (which my teacher always pointed out is one of the biggest problems with modenr history)

you dont have to give a recount of trotksys actions during hte induction of war communism or nep. what you must do is assess his role in
a) the development of the aims
b) the resulting characterisitcs
c) the impacts
of war communism and NEP

SO really you have to make a judgement and say how important trotsky was in those areas - you would be looking at three midlenghted paragrahs (one for each) where you would ouline his role, outline what other factors contributed and then make a judgment on how important he actually was.

just to give you a few points you could mention - the development of aims - you have hte fact NEP was originally his plan which Lenin overrided and Stalin reintroduced at a later date.

characteristics - well with War Communism - he was invovled in the red army and the checka i believe - thus he was promoting the violence needed to maintain such a state.

the impacts - did he have a role in the imapcts of both policies? you need to know what hte impacts were first off all. LIke War Comm - there was decrease in production, and a stronger increase in dedication to communism (because it was forced)
the the impacts of NEP - momentarily happy peasents, some induction of capitalism, however still problems (1928 scizzor crisis)