Trotsky the most amazing figure?

One reason you do not hear so much about him is that Stalin did his best to write him out of history, just as he did with all the Old Bolsheviks. Stalin even had photographs and films edited (this was before Photoshop) to remove Trotsky from the record. He then had him assassinated in exile in Mexico.

He was undoubtedly very important to the Revolution. If his Left Social Revolutionary group had not deserted to the Bolsheviks the Bolshevik coup might not have succeeded. He led the Red Army quite brilliantly in the Civil War. His role at the two rebellions in Kronstadt is still hotly debated. Some believe he betrayed the true Revolution but suppressing the second revolt, others that he prevented Counter-Revolution. In the period that followed he was always close to Lenin, but failed to endear himself to the Old Bolsheviks,and like them was forced out by Stalin's divide and conquer tactics.

His theory of Permanent Revolution has been influential, not least in Maoism where it was used to justify the Cultural Revolution.

However, if you have ever had contact with left-wing groups you would have quickly found that his legacy is not forgotten. Trotskyist groups are quite common and prone to internal disputes and splits. The Socialist Workers Party in the UK is Trotskyist. Back in the 1970s there was a great hoo-ha in the British Labour Party about Trotskyist "entryism", in other words trying to take over the Labour Party from within. The Labour Party Young Socialists issued a commemoration of the 1917 Revolution which was lifted straight from Reed's "Ten Days that shook the world" and was entirely uncritical, not mentioning the fate of the Social Democrats who were aligned with the British Labour movement.

Lenin was the real key figure