Yep, it is just a figure of speech here.
Oh, OK, my bad. I was taking the words literally, which I suppose means that you probably won't follow the link labelled [1], and probably not the others, either.
However, my recommendation to watch Life of Brian stands :-)
Actually, that has been a thing for ages - even during Trotsky's lifetime he wrote scathingly about Stalin and his policies/politics. (Edit to add this parenthetical comment: Oh, and Stalin had him assassinated in exile.) The piece linked [1] offers some insight into this, and it also shows wider splits, fragmentation and arguments; it is written from a socialist perspective. It's an engaging read.
For drier considerations of Stalinism and Trotskyism, I'd just start with the Wikipedia entries for each - see [2], [3] - and for light relief afterwards, maybe watch the Python film Life of Brian, which actually captures rather well the concept of "splitters" and factions.
[1] https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1973/...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalinism
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trotskyism