While few know of Leon Trotsky today, his tactics are commonplace in modern politics. He was constantly aggrieved and looking for a fight. As such, he always lived one step ahead of the law. He was a revolutionary and opposed Czarist rule. He was arrested in 1897 and spent time in prison, waiting for his final sentencing.

While in prison, he met a girl, Alexandria Sokolovskaya (some women go for the bad-boy type). Finally, in 1900, Trotsky was sentenced to four years of exile in Siberia, a fate worse than death. So, enamored with Trotsky, Alexandria decided to marry him so she could accompany him.

While in exile, they lived a horrible existence. Nevertheless, they brought two children into the world. As luck would have it, Trotsky managed to escape in a hay wagon, leaving his wife and two young children behind. It was then that he took the name of one of his guards, Trotsky, and used it as his own.

Not a man to live alone, he soon remarried. He became the head of the Red Army and brutalized people resisting the revolutionary cause. He went so far as to impale officers from the opposing forces. Internecine battles emerged within the Bolshevik Party, and when Lenin pasted away, Trotsky was out. All the way out. It’s a fascinating look into how grievance can boil into unthinkable actions. Leon Trotsky is alive within many political figures today, even if they don’t realize it.