1917 Russian Revolution | "The October revolution laid the foundation of a new culture, taking everybody into consideration, and for that very reason immediately acquiring international significance. Even supposing for a moment that owing to unfavourable circumstances and hostile blows the Soviet regime should be temporarily overthrown, the inexpungable imprint of the October revolution would nevertheless remain upon the whole future development of mankind." Trotsky - The History of the Russian Revolution Leon Trotsky played a fundamental role in the 1917 Russian Revolution, together with Lenin. There have been many attempts to distort and even to deny the role of Trotsky, especially on the part of the official Stalinist historians. But any reading of a serious history of the events in 1917 will show how Trotsky's name was inseparable from that of Lenin. Trotsky played a particularly important role in building up the Red Army, without which the revolution would have been crushed.