Leon Trotsky survives

nova2010

Banned
If Leon Trotsky survives the assasination attempt of 1940 in Mexico and lives enough after Stalin's death what the impact?
 
If Leon Trotsky survives the assasination attempt of 1940 in Mexico and lives enough after Stalin's death what the impact?

Not much as censorship and purges were so complete. Every surviving leader had his hands dirty and hardly would want to share the pie, very much including Khrushchev. Or so I guess.

He would have a small Western following, which might persist more durably with the sooner or later fall of communism, presumed to be long, long after his death of whatever cause. "This time we will do it right." would be their motto in heart if not actual words, I suggest.
 
Would the USA let him live after the Cold War starts? I could see a CIA mission to take him out. The USA doesn't want anyone spreading Communism, especially on their doorstep.

I think that in the event that Trotsky eludes both USA and Soviet agents but then gets killed by the USA after Stalin's death, he would get a big boost in popularity in the Soviet Union. They'd really like a martyr.
 
Possible third axis of power in the Cold War with Trotskiest running around the globe 'spreading the revolution' during the anti-Colonial phase?
 
Possible third axis of power in the Cold War with Trotskiest running around the globe 'spreading the revolution' during the anti-Colonial phase?

Trotskyism isn't particularly strong outside of Latin America, Maoism already succeeded as the third axis of power (though its more accurate to call China the minor power)/
 

HJ Tulp

Donor
Would the USA let him live after the Cold War starts? I could see a CIA mission to take him out. The USA doesn't want anyone spreading Communism, especially on their doorstep.

I think that in the event that Trotsky eludes both USA and Soviet agents but then gets killed by the USA after Stalin's death, he would get a big boost in popularity in the Soviet Union. They'd really like a martyr.

Depends on his relationship with the USSR. The PRC was a US ally as well at a certain point.
 
It really depends on which line Trotsky trots. Though he believed and criticized the Soviet Union for being a degenerated worker's state, he believed it was better than the imperialist-capitalist states that were running amok. If he survives the 1940 attempt on his life, he could survive into the post war period, see the actions that the Soviet Union takes regarding Eastern Europe, and champion an "international liberation" line, not too dissimilar from Maoism. Hell, if he lived that long, I could see him being a supporter of Mao, feverishly against the Soviets.

It's also important to note the effect Trotsky had on neo-conservatism, and how many ex-Entryist Trotskyists became supporters of forceful democracy abroad, as development from his own theories on permanent revolution.
 
It would be interesting to see Trotsky land a job as a professor in France or Switzerland. I could see a surviving Trotsky defusing much of the paranoia that existed in the west towards communism, which would obviously generate enormous butterflies. This would make a good POD for a Cold War (or lack thereof) TL.
 
Top