2-548-290 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

Police photograph of Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary, 1898. Trotsky (1879-1940) became involved in revolutionary activities in 1896 and the following year helped organise the South Russian Workers' Union in his home town of Nikolayev. He was arrested by the authorities in 1898 and was sentenced to 4 years exile in Siberia. He participated in the Revolution of 1905 and later joined the Bolsheviks and was one of the leading figures of the Russian Revolution and in the Soviet government afterwards. He lost out to Joseph Stalin in the power struggle that took place at the top of the Communist Party after the death of Lenin and was expelled from the Party on 12 November 1927. In January 1928 he was exiled to Alma Ata, today in Kazakhstan, and the following year was banished from the Soviet Union altogether. In 1940 he was assassinated in Mexico by a Soviet agent. Found in the collection of the State Museum of History, Moscow.