Josh Ireland

So he's admirable in many ways, but also I imagine insufferable.

But at some point he meets a woman who is a communist.

And to begin with, he's sceptical of what she's telling him.

And then at some point it just flips.

And that is his Damascene moment.

He marries this woman, but more than that, he marries this faith.

I mean, that's the other thing that Trotsky realises is when he's in his early 20s is not just that he's,

fired by this pattern, but also that he has an incredible gift for speaking, that he can stand up in front of thousands of people and sway them.

He can persuade people.

He can rise them to the pitches of fury.

And all of this comes to a head in 1905 when Russia experiences the first of its revolutions in the 20th century.

And suddenly Trotsky, this sort of tiny figure from the provinces, like this dandy who's never worked a day in his life, who doesn't know what it's like to work.

all of these people, because that's the world that Conrad builds in The Secret Agent of slightly shabby rooms and plotting and the smell of sulphur and the sordidness, but also that lives alongside idealism and excitement.

And so he suddenly becomes a central figure in this revolution.

This first sort of sign that the rule of the Tsars, which has lasted just over 500 years, the Romanov family have ruled Russia.

There have been one or two attempts to sort of unseat them, but never particularly serious.

And then this is the first rumble of something.

And in one sense, the revolution is a failure because the Romanovs, you know, at the end of it, the Romanovs are still in power.

They give some sort of limited concessions and people like Trotsky and other revolutionaries are sent into exile in Siberia, the classic Russian story.

Yeah, right in the centre of the empire.