Daily Quiz for May 8, 2008

Leon Trotsky. In the struggle to succeed Lenin as leader of the Politburo, Leon Trotsky lost to Joseph Stalin and was later exiled from the U.S.S.R. Trotsky, a leader of the October Revolution of 1917 and principal communist ideologue, failed to defeat the skillful backroom maneuvering of Joseph Stalin, then a low-profile figure within the party. Lenin suffered his first cerebral hemorrhage in May 1922 although his health had been failing previously. In April of that year, he had appointed Stalin as the party`s general secretary. Stalin used his position to build support for himself and also formed an alliance with Politburo members Grigory Zinovyev and Lev Kamenev. Against this united front, Trotsky`s influence was curbed. Although he joined Zinovyev and Kamenev in 1926 when they fell into disfavor, his opposition to Stalin`s growing support within the party proved fruitless. After being exiled from the U.S.S.R in 1929 he traveled to a variety of countries promoting communism and criticizing Stalin. He was assassinated while in Mexico in 1940.