The St. Paul Real School young Leyba Bronstein was attending in the years 1888-1896 has been built in 1825 as St. Paul Evangelical School, facing the street that was customarily called 'Lutheran Lane' after the nearby Lutheran Square. In 1858 it changed its name to 'German Real School', changing its profile to 'real', what at the time meant that its main education role was to prepare students for further economical and technical occupation or studies. In 1876 it has been reformed, with all the courses being taught in Russian (initially it was aimed at the needs of a local German community and the lessons were conducted in German, although since 1868 Russian was gradually introduced for some courses, suggesting that the school became popular among various inhabitants of Odessa) and the school itself being grated a status of a regular state school, although it remained independent and was supported by a local Lutheran community. Principals and inspectors of the school were being appointed by the local religious council and then approved by the Odessa branch of the Department of the National Enlightenment. In 1876 the school also changed its name to 'St. Paul's Odessa Real School'. In addition, it wasn't necessarily very prestigious, but rather simply known as a solid, modern educational establishment.

It is worth noting however, that the school, although built and supported by the local German Lutheran community was open to everyone and did not discriminate along the national or religious lines during the admissions, paying only a lip service to the official guidelines. In 1890, when young Bronstein has already been attending the school for two years, the student roster included 139 Russians, 111 Germans, 83 Jews and 44 Poles. It also provided education to both boys and girls, although the classes were segregated and the school for girls had a curriculum preparing the students for the role of a housewife, as many other such schools of the time.

The Pale of Settlement is not relevant here, as both the Poltava Governorate from where Trotsky's parents migrated, Janovka (now Byeryeslavka, Ukraine), where Trotsky spent the early years and Odessa, where is attended real school were located within the Kherson Governorate that was in the southern-central part of the Pale and Odessa, like many other port cities around Europe was generally known for its multi-ethnic population (before Second World War Russians and Soviets generally strongly associated this city with a large urban Jewish community, the sentiment is to some extent felt until today) and Trotsky was living in the house of his cousin, Moses Shpentser, who owned a small printing shop that later evolved into a large business. It should also be noted that although the region allowing the Jewish settlement was initially small, as the order of Catherine II of 23rd December 1791 speaks only of Mokhylev, Polotsk, Kiev and Chernigov governorate as well as the Novgorod and Yekaterinoslav Viceroyalty and Taurida Region, it was later expanded to all the Polish lands annexed during the Second and Third Partitions of Poland (from where majority of Russian Jews originated) only to be limited again, forcing majority of Jews to settle chiefly in the eastern part of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and southwestern Russia. But for almost a century, the settlement restrictions were not observed very strictly, as the major expulsion of the Jewish inhabitants of St. Petersburg and Moscow was noted as late as 1891 (although some of the specialists deemed 'useful' were allowed to stay). Of note is that the restrictions were generally preventing Jews from settling in villages and since the introduction of the 'Provisional Regulations Regarding Jews' on 15th May 1882, also in smaller towns (under 1000 inhabitants), limiting the settlement to large towns, cities and rural colonies. Regulations also prevented Jews from renting or getting a management title to any real estate outside such settlements.

Jews were never banned from attending any kind of schools, including universities, but in 1880s new 'numerus clausus' regulations limited their number in any given high school or university to the overall percentage of Jews in the entire Empire, regardless of the actual percentage in a given region or city. These restrictions were later increased to 10% in the Pale of Settlement, 5% outside it and 3% in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Thus, although the access to education was limited for Jews, it was still possible. In his autobiography, Trotsky states, that after narrowly passing an exam, he was assigned to an introductory class, as the promotion to the actual school from within was not a subject to the restrictions that, as the practice has shown, was not really observed by the school authorities. Thus, the attendance of a Jewish boy in a school in a large city within Pale of Settlement in 1880s was nothing really exceptional.

Lev's father bought Janovka from the family of the retired Colonel Janovski (possibly of Polish origin) who was awarded 500 dyesatinas of land (roughly 550 ha or 1370 acres) but did not manage to turn it into a prospering homestead before his death. Bronsteins bought initially 100 ha and later rented 200 ha more, eventually becoming a major landholders, at least for commoners in the mid-19th century Russian Empire, where the serfdom has been abolished shortly before. In addition, they also rented 200 ha some land from the Dembowski family that lived nearby and 400 ha from Hertopanovskoy family. Trotsky himself considered his family very affluent and judging from the given numbers and described realities, this most likely was the case. The fact that Bronsteins were Jews did not seem too important, the fact that they were largely not observed any Jewish customs, used Russian Ukrainian language and were not subscribing to any religion suggesting that other people might have simply taken them for Ukrainians. In Kherson and Yekaterinoslav Governorates there were roughly 40 Jewish rural colonies inhabited by circa 25.000 people, who were generally treated as all other agricultural workers, regardless of origin. According to Trotsky, his parents were able to get ahead largely thanks to their hard work and skills, what was maybe not very common, but definitely not unheard of.

So, Bronstein family was definitely not an average Jewish family at least for standards of Russian Empire, but it largely started with everyone else and had both luck and skill that allowed them to flourish. Young Trotsky attending grammar school in Odessa was also something normal, especially given that it was a more or less a private establishment loosely implementing governmental restrictions.