Was Lev Trotsky the leader in the Petersburg Soviet of Workers’ Deputies in 1905?

Abstract

The article reexamines the role of famous revolutionary and Social Democrat L. D. Trotsky in the Petersburg Soviet of Workers’ Deputies. One claim in the scholarly literature is that Trotsky was the leader of the Soviet, but this is based on his or someone else’s memoirs. This article analyzes this position: first, memoirs about the thesis on Trotsky’s prominent role as speaker during meetings of the Soviet, and the argument about Trotsky’s support in the Soviet; also, the question about the rating of the formal chairman of the Soviet, G. S. Khrustalev-Nosar, is discussed. This examination is based on archival documents: records of the interrogations of participants of the Soviet’s meetings written between the end of 1905 and the spring of 1906; letters written by Trotsky (mostly in the pre-revolutionary period); and the works of G. S. Khrustalev-Nosar. Analytic and comparative methods suggest that these sources are more objective than memoirs written many years after 1905 and in another historical context. The article concludes that Trotsky’s role in the Petersburg Soviet is exaggerated: memoirs are subjective or analyzed only from one point of view, and sources closest to the time show that Trotsky was a participant and even the prominent speaker in Soviet meetings, but he did not find wide ideological support there. The formal chairman of the Soviet, G. S. Khrustalev-Nosar, had enough authority, denying the claim that Trotsky was the one and only leader of the Soviet.