History of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (1917–27) the position of People's Commissar of War before the end of the year. In 1925, Trotsky was denounced for his essay "Lessons of October," which criticized Zinoviev and Kamenev for initially opposing Lenin's plans for an insurrection in 1917. Trotsky was also denounced for his theory of permanent revolution which contradicted Stalin's position that socialism could be built in one country, Russia, without a worldwide revolution. As the prospects for a revolution in Europe, particularly Germany, became increasingly dim through the 1920s, Trotsky's theoretical position began to look increasingly pessimistic as far as the success of Russian socialism was concerned.
Poles in the Soviet Union and his brother Józef, murdered in Moscow in 1918 as alleged "counter-revolutionaries". There were also people of Polish background associated with the communist movement, though very minor and usually they were of Jewish descent rather than ethnic Polish. Famous revolutionaries include Konstantin Rokossovsky, Julian Marchlewski, Karol Świerczewski and Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka secret police which would later turn into the NKVD. However, according to their ideology they did not identify as Poles or with Poland, and members of the communist party viewed themselves as Soviet citizens without any national sentiments. They were also equally viewed by Poles as