User blog:Deathblade 100/Revolutions, Mexico and Assassinations: Leon Trotsky vs Pancho Villa

Today, we look at two warriors who participated in World War One on either side of the Atlantic. Both were revolutionaries and were willing to do what ever it took to bring about a social and economic reformation in their nations. They also met rather sticky ends.

Pancho Villa, the Mexican revolutionary whose guerrilla army destroyed corrupt dictators in the early 20th Century and then invaded the United States.

VS.

Leon Trotsky- The Menshevik turned Bolshevik leader; who became right hand man of Lenin, reformed the Red Army and was later assassinated by Stalin.

WHO...IS...DEADLIEST?

To find out the history of war and modern science collide, as we test the weapons and tactics used by these instruments of war. We dissect their strengths and weaknesses and file them in for an all new battle to the death. It’s no rules, no safety, no mercy. It’s a duel to the death as we find out who is the Deadliest Warrior.

Pancho Villa
José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, better known by his pseudonym Francisco Villa or its hypocorism Pancho Villa, was one of the most prominent Mexican Revolutionary generals.

As commander of the División del Norte (Division of the North), he was the veritable caudillo of the Northern Mexican state of Chihuahua which, given its size, mineral wealth, and proximity to the United States of America, provided him with extensive resources. Villa was also provisional Governor of Chihuahua in 1913 and 1914. Although he was prevented from being accepted into the "panteón" of national heroes until some 20 years after his death, today his memory is honored by Mexicans, U.S. citizens, and many people around the world. In addition, numerous streets and neighborhoods in Mexico are named in his honor.

Villa and his supporters seized hacienda land for distribution to peasants and soldiers. He robbed and commandeered trains, and, like the other revolutionary generals, printed fiat money to pay for his cause. Villa's men and supporters became known as Villistas during the revolution from 1910 to roughly 1920. Villa's dominance in northern Mexico was broken in 1915 through a series of defeats he suffered at Celaya and Agua Prieta at the hands of Álvaro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles.

After Villa's famous raid on Columbus in 1916, US Army General John J. Pershing tried unsuccessfully to capture Villa in a nine-month pursuit that ended when Pershing was called back as the United States entry into World War I was assured. Villa retired in 1920 and was given a large estate which he turned into a "military colony" for his former soldiers. In 1923, he decided to re-involve himself in Mexican politics and as a result was assassinated, most likely on the orders of Obregón.

Weapons:
Pancho fires with:

Long Range= Winchester 1886 Mid Range= Colt SAA Colt Bisley Close Range= Machete Special= Mondragón M1902
 * Range: 228 metres
 * Calibre: .44-40
 * Capacity: 9
 * Range: 30 metres
 * Calibre: .45 Colt
 * Capacity: 6
 * Range: 30 metres
 * Calibre: .44-40
 * Capacity: 6
 * Length: 30 cm
 * Weight: 3.5 kg
 * Range: 200 metres
 * Calibre: 7.92x57mm Mauser
 * Capacity: 10

Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky (born Lev Davidovich Bronstein 7 November 1879 – 21 August 1940) was a Russian revolutionary, Marxist theorist, and Soviet politician whose particular strain of Marxist thought is known as Trotskyism.

Initially supporting the Menshevik Internationalists faction within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, he joined the Bolsheviks just before the 1917 October Revolution, immediately becoming a leader within the Communist Party. He would go on to become one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 to manage the Bolshevik Revolution.

After leading a failed struggle of the Left Opposition against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and against the increasing role of bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, Trotsky was removed as Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs (January 1925), removed from the Politburo (October 1926), removed from the Central Committee (October 1927), expelled from the Communist Party (November 1927), exiled to Alma–Ata (January 1928), and exiled from the Soviet Union (February 1929). As the head of the Fourth International, Trotsky continued to oppose the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union while in exile.

Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico City by Ramón Mercader, a Spanish-born NKVD agent. On 20 August 1940, Mercader attacked Trotsky with an ice axe and Trotsky died the next day in a hospital. Mercader acted upon instruction from Stalin and was nearly beaten to death by Trotsky's bodyguards, and spent the next 20 years in a Mexican prison for the murder. Stalin presented Mercader with an Order of Lenin in absentia.

Weapons:
Trotsky takes up arms with:

Long Range= Mosin-Nagant M1891 Mid Range= Nagant M1895 Mosin Obrez Close Range= Spike Bayonet Special= Fedorov Avtomat M1916
 * Range: 500 metres
 * Calibre: 7.62x53mmR
 * Capacity: 5
 * Range: 25 metres
 * Calibre: 7.62x38mmR
 * Capacity: 7
 * Range: 25 metres
 * Calibre: 7.62x53mmR
 * Capacity: 5
 * Length: 30 cm
 * Weight: 1.5 kg
 * Range: 200 metres
 * Calibre: 6.5x50mmSR Arisaka
 * Capacity: 25

Battle
TBA