Page "Leon Trotsky" Paragraph 12

Unknown to Trotsky, the six editors of Iskra were evenly split between the " old guard " led by Plekhanov and the " new guard " led by Lenin and Martov.

Not only were Plekhanov's supporters older ( in their 40s and 50s ), but they had also spent the previous 20 years in European exile together.

Members of the new guard were in their early 30s and had only recently come from Russia.

Lenin, who was trying to establish a permanent majority against Plekhanov within Iskra, expected Trotsky, then 23, to side with the new guard and wrote in March 1903: