ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The idea for this book came from Donald Lamm, my agent and my friend, who has been an endless source of inspiration for me as a writer. I am enormously grateful to him, as well as to his colleagues Christy Fletcher, Emma Parry, and Melissa Chinchillo.
I have been fortunate to have the collaboration of two outstanding editors. Tim Duggan, at HarperCollins, helped me shape the book with his unerring sense of narrative and his relentless pursuit of clear and readable prose. Neil Belton, at Faber and Faber, enforced rigor and precision by challenging me with his skeptical queries and acute insights at every step along the way. I am grateful to both men for their confidence and their support.
Terence Emmons and Donald Sommerville vetted the manuscript for accuracy and readability. Allison Lorentzen was a kind and efficient facilitator. The staff of the Hoover Institution Library and Archives provided expert and courteous assistance throughout.
I could not have written this book without the generosity and encouragement of family and friends, especially Inga Weiss, Kristin Engel, Jack Morton, Austin Hoyt, John Brande, William Free, Chris Roberge, my parents, Bertrand and Muriel Patenaude, and my wife, Christina Patenaude.
SOURCES AND NOTES
This book draws extensively on two main Trotsky archives, abbreviated in the notes as follows:
TEP Trotsky Exile Papers, The Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
TC Trotsky Collection, 1917–1980, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
Other archival collections frequently cited are abbreviated as follows:
Buchman papers Alexander H. Buchman Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
Glotzer papers Albert Glotzer Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
Hansen papers Joseph Hansen Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
Solow papers Herbert Solow Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
Volkogonov papers Dmitri Antonovich Volkogonov Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
A number of works are cited throughout the Notes section. They are listed here, in alphabetical order, according to the abbreviations used for them in the notes:
Andrew & Mitrokhin Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB (Basic Books, 2001).
Brenner Anita Brenner, Idols Behind Altars (Payson & Clarke, 1929).
Broué Pierre Broué, Trotsky (Fayard, 1988).
Broué, Léon Sedov Pierre Broué, Léon Sedov, fils de Trotsky, victime de Stalin (Les Éditions Ouvrières, 1993).
Cambridge History Alan Knight, “Mexico, c. 1930–46,” The Cambridge History of Latin America, vol. VII, Leslie Bethell, ed. (Cambridge University Press, 1984), 1–82.
Case The Case of Leon Trotsky: Report of Hearings on the Charges Made Against Him in the Moscow Trials (Merit Publishers, 1968).
Craig I Gordon A. Craig, Europe, 1815–1914, 3rd ed. (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1971).
Craig II Gordon A. Craig, Europe Since 1914, 3rd ed. (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1972).
Deadly Illusions John Costello and Oleg Tsarev, Deadly Illusions (Crown, 1993).
Deutscher I Isaac Deutscher, The Prophet Armed: Trotsky, 1879–1921 (Verso, 2003).
Deutscher II Isaac Deutscher, The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky, 1921–1929 (Verso, 2003).
Deutscher III Isaac Deutscher, The Prophet Outcast: Trotsky, 1929–1940 (Verso, 2003).
Diary Leon Trotsky, Trotsky’s Diary in Exile, 1935, Elena Zarudnaya, trans. (Harvard University Press, 1958).
Dugrand Alain Dugrand, Trotsky in Mexico, Stephen Romer, trans. (Car-cane, 1992).
Eastman Max Eastman, Love and Revolution: My Journey Through an Epoch (Random House, 1964).
Eastman, Companions Max Eastman, “Problems of Friendship with Trotsky,” Great Companions (Museum Press Limited, 1959).
Eastman, Heroes Max Eastman, “Great in a Time of Storm: The Character and Fate of Leon Trotsky,” Heroes I Have Known: Twelve Who Lived Great Lives (Simon and Schuster, 1942).
FBI Leon Trotsky’s Federal Bureau of Investigation file, made available through the Freedom of Information Act.
Feferman Anita Burdman Feferman, Politics, Logic, and Love: The Life of Jean van Heijenoort (A K Peters, 1993).
Glotzer Albert Glotzer, Trotsky: Memoir & Critique (Prometheus Books, 1989).
Hansen, “With Trotsky in Coyoacan” Hansen, “With Trotsky in Coyoacan,” introduction to Leon Trotsky, My Life (Pathfinder Press, 1970).
Herrera Hayden Herrera, Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo (Bloomsbury, 1998).
Howe Irving Howe, Leon Trotsky (Penguin Books, 1979).
In Defense of Marxism Leon Trotsky, In Defense of Marxism (against the petty-bourgeois opposition) (Pathfinder Press, 1970).
Kelly Daniel Kelly, James Burnham and the Struggle for the World: A Life (ISI Books, 2002).
Kern Gary Kern, A Death in Washington: Walter G. Krivitsky and the Stalin Terror (Enigma Books, 2003).
Knei-Paz Baruch Knei-Paz, The Social And Political Thought Of Leon Trotsky (Clarendon Press, 1978).
Kolpakidi Aleksandr Kolpakidi and Dmitrii Prokhorov, KGB: Spetsoper-atsii sovetskoi razvedki (Olimp, Astrel, 2000).
Legacy The Legacy of Alexander Orlov: Prepared by the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, Ninety-Third Congress, First Session (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1973).
Leon Trotsky Joseph Hansen et al., Leon Trotsky: The Man and His Work (Merit Publishers, 1969).
Levine Isaac Don Levine, The Mind of an Assassin (Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1959).
Montefiore Simon Sebag Montefiore, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar (Alfred A. Knopf, 2004).
Mosley Nicholas Mosley, The Assassination of Trotsky (Michael Joseph, 1972).
My Life Leon Trotsky, My Life: An Attempt at an Autobiography (Dover Publications, 2007).
Natalia Victor Serge and Natalia Sedova Trotsky, The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky, Arnold J. Pomerans, trans. (Basic Books, 1975).
Nikandrov Nil Nikandrov, Grigulevich: Razvedchik, “kotoromu vezlo” (Molodaya Gvardia, 2005).
Ocherki Ocherki istorii rossiiskoi vneshnei razvedki, vol. 3 (Mezhdunaro-dnye otnosheniia, 1997).
Polizzotti Mark Polizzotti, Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995).
Poretsky Elizabeth K. Poretsky, Our Own People: A Memoir of “Ignace Reiss” and His Friends (The University of Michigan Press, 1970).
Rochfort Desmond Rochfort, Mexican Muralists: Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros (Chronicle Books, 1993).
Salazar General Leandro A. Sanchez Salazar, with the collaboration of Julian Gorkin, Murder in Mexico: The Assassination of Leon Trotsky, Phyllis Hawley, trans. (Secker & Warburg, 1950).
Stein Philip Stein, Siqueiros: His Life and Works (International Publishers, 1994).
Sudoplatov Pavel Sudoplatov and Anatoli Sudoplatov, with Jerrold L. and Leona P. Schecter, Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness—a Soviet Spymaster (Little, Brown and Company, 1994).
Trotsky, “The Comintern and the GPU” Leon Trotsky, “The Comintern and the GPU,” Fourth International, vol. 1, no. 6, November 1940, 148–63; available at the Marxist Internet Archive, http://www.marxistsfr.org/archive/trotsky/1940/08/gpu.htm.
Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary Tucker, Stalin in Power Robert C. Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879–1929: A Study in History and Personality (W.W. Norton & Company, 1974).
Robert C. Tucker, Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1928–1941 (W.W Norton & Company, 1990).
Ulam Adam Ulam, The Bolsheviks (Collier Books, 1965).
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br /> Van Jean van Heijenoort, With Trotsky in Exile: From Prinkipo to Coyoacán (Harvard University Press, 1978).
Venona John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (Yale University Press, 1999).
Venona Secrets Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America’s Traitors (Regnery Publishing, 2000).
Volkogonov Dmitri Volkogonov, Trotsky: The Eternal Revolutionary, Harold Shukman, trans., ed. (The Free Press, 1996).
Wald Alan M. Wald, The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s (The University of North Carolina Press, 1987).
Wolfe Bertram D. Wolfe, The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera (Cooper Square Press, 2000).
Writings Writings of Leon Trotsky, 2nd ed., Naomi Allen and George Breitman, eds., vols. 9–12 (Pathfinder Press, 1973–1978).
Prologue: A Miraculous Escape
he needed the money: Van to Frankel, February 27, 1938, TC 23:14; Natalia, “Father and Son,” in Leon Trotsky, 42–43.
Trotsky often said to his wife: Natalia, 252.
Trotsky’s editors in New York: Alan Collins to Charles Walker, September 22, 1938, TEP 13957.
a boon to the Soviet caricaturists: for example, Moscow News, February 3–10, 1937.
Trotsky confidently predicted: Writings, 12:290–91.
“Death to Trotsky!”: Hansen, “The Attempted Assassination of Leon Trotsky,” and Alfred Rosmer, “A Fictionalized Version of the Murder,” in Leon Trotsky, 5–12, 77–79.
a meeting of his guards: Harold Robins, unpublished memoir, TC 30:1.
sound of automatic gunfire: my account of the “miraculous escape” is drawn from Writings, 12:233–35; Natalia, 256–61; Adam [Hank Schultz] to Farrell Dobbs, May 25, 1940, TC 23:12; Harold Robins’s account, TEP 17193; Jake Cooper’s account, TEP 10725.
“assassination failed”…pretended to be dead: Writings, 12:235.
Mexican detectives…not a miracle but a hoax: Salazar, 3–26.
Harte was a victim: Trotsky’s most elaborate statement is “False Suspicions about Robert Sheldon Harte” (unpublished manuscript in Russian), July 15, 1940, Hansen papers, 69:57.
Moscow radio: Deutscher III, 270.
interned in a large house: Deutscher III, 278–79; Natalia, 206–9; Writings, 9:21–36.
“gravedigger of the revolution”: Deutscher II, 248.
“enemy number one”: Writings, 12:241.
Trotsky was predicting…revolutionary shock wave: for example, “Hitler and Stalin: How Long Will It Last?” Liberty, January 27, 1940.
training ground…took refuge in Mexico: Cambridge History, 46.
gathering danger: Trotsky to John Glenner [Jan Frankel], April 12, 1939, TC 10:56.
Chapter One: Armored Train
two sirens: Writings, 9:56.
aged him five years: Trotsky to Tamada Knudsen, January 20, 1937, TEP 8696.
forests and fjords…shrouded in secrecy…“mysterious Mexico”: Writings, 9:37–41.
apprehension rose…Baku, on the Caspian Sea…disembark voluntarily…Max Shachtman…more than two months: Writings, 9:75–79; Natalia, 210; George Novack to Felix Morrow, January 13/15, 1937, TC 23:2.
two hours straight: George Novack to Felix Morrow, January 13/15, 1937, TC 23:2.
“the whole New World”: Natalia, 210.
General Beltrán: George Novack to Felix Morrow, January 13/15, 1937, TC 23:2.
by airplane or by train: George Novack to Felix Morrow, January 13/15, 1937, TC 23:2.
culture shock: Writings, 9:79.
Novack arrived…the train…was armored: George Novack to Felix Morrow, January 13/15, 1937, TC 23:2.
shattering Rubio’s jaw: Time, February 17, 1930.
sun-baked landscape…huddled in a compartment: Writings, 9:80; Natalia, 210.
formed a committee: Dewey et al. to Dear Friend, October 22, 1936, TC 25:4; “American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky: Declaration of Principles,” n.d., TC 25:4.
Dewey, the famous philosopher: George Novack to Felix Morrow, January 13/15, 1937, TC 23:2.
series of ballads…Mexican folk songs: Dugrand, 17.
Rivera was livid…Anita Brenner: Herrera, 204–5.
Rivera’s great surprise: Wolfe, 238.
announced the good news…“splendid decision”: Suzanne La Follette to Dear Friend, December 11, 1936, TC 25:4.
Cárdenas rose to prominence…To establish his authority: Don M. Coerver, Suzanne B. Pasztor, and Robert M. Buffington, Mexico: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Culture and History (ABC-CLIO, 2004), 64–68.
sympathetic to Marxist ideology…“the revolution itself!”: George Novack to Felix Morrow, January 7, 1937, Hansen papers, 69:64; Van, 106.
anti-Trotsky posters…independent liberal class: George Novack to Felix Morrow, January 5, 1937, Hansen papers, 69:64.
Cárdenas summoned Rivera…not land secretly…freedom of movement: Max Shachtman to Felix Morrow, January 5, 1937, TC 23:2.
change in the political atmosphere: George Novack to Felix Morrow, January 5, 1937, and January 13/15, 1937, TC 23:2.
serve Trotsky as a bridge…“one chance in a hundred”…attempt on his life…Thompson submachine gun: Max Shachtman to Felix Morrow, January 5, 1937, TC 23:2.
town of Cárdenas: George Novack to Felix Morrow, January 13/15, 1937, TC 23:2.
“china-blue eyes”: Writings, 9:41.
an additional locomotive: Writings, 9:80.
his glory days: for accounts of Trotsky’s armored train, see My Life, 411–22, and Volkogonov, 163–73.
Russia’s time of troubles: Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, A History of Russia, 4th ed. (Oxford University Press, 1984), 453–61.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk…“breathing spell”: Ulam, 382–410.
Czechoslovak soldiers: George F. Kennan, Russia and the West under Lenin and Stalin (Little, Brown and Company, 1961), 97–99.
“the shape of a noose”: My Life, 396.
“flying administrative apparatus”: My Life, 413.
“Cowards, scoundrels, and traitors”: Volkogonov, 349.
“a real army”: My Life, 408.
political commissars: Deutscher I, 344, 356.
internal lines of operation: Deutscher I, 358–59.
125,000 miles: Volkogonov, 165.
“Pullman wheels”: My Life, 413.
“war of movement”: My Life, 419.
“leather-coated detachment”: My Life, 420.
supplies and gifts: My Life, 414–15.
questions of strategy: Volkogonov, 143.
every tenth deserter: Volkogonov, 137.
“gangrenous wound”: My Life, 401–2.
“Masses of men”: My Life, 411.
Lev Davidovich Bronstein: Deutscher I, 1–47.
virulent form of anti-Semitism: Riasanovsky, A History of Russia, 394–95; Richard Pipes, The Russian Revolution (Vintage Books, 1991), 70–71.
Many Bolsheviks had assumed: Deutscher I, 337, 345.
awards for bravery: Deutscher I, 349.
running feud with Stalin: Volkogonov, 132, 140–43; My Life, 440–44; Deutscher I, 352–53.
Stalin’s intrigues: Deutscher I, 361–65; Volkogonov, 193.
heroic defense of Petrograd: My Life, 423–35.
Order of the Red Banner: Volkogonov, 169.
“despised fascist hireling”: Volkogonov, 128.
“northerner’s fear of the tropics”: Writings, 9:80.
Cárdenas himself typically arrived…“fat and smoldering”: Time, January 25, 1937.
separated from Natalia: Natalia, 211.
“mad dash”: George Novack to Felix Morrow, January 13/15, 1937, TC 23:2.
occupy the Blue House temporarily: Max Shachtman to Felix Morrow, January 5, 1937, TC 23:2; George Novack to Felix Morrow, January 13/15, 1937, TC 23:2.
patio filled with plants and flowers: Natalia, 211.
orange tree
: Writings, 9:80.
“wild confusion”…retreat into private life: George Novack to Felix Morrow, January 13/15, 1937, TC 23:2.
La Venida de Trotsky: George Novack to Felix Morrow, January 5, 1937, Hansen papers, 69:64.
“Out with Trotsky”: Novack to Morrow, January 13/15, 1937, TC 23:2.
“Down with Trotsky”: Time, January 25, 1937.
“polemic with flunkeys”: Writings, 9:82.
bloodthirsty chorus: Natalia, 210.
secretarial staff: Max Shachtman to Felix Morrow, January 5, 1937, TC 23:2.
balance of power: Writings, 9:80.
“ideal country for an assassination”: Time, January 25, 1937.
Chapter Two: Mastermind
“mad dogs be shot”…screaming headline: Tucker, Stalin in Power, 370.
“Anti-Soviet Trotskyite Center”: Robert Conquest, The Great Terror: A Reassessment (Oxford University Press, 1990), 147–49.
mastermind: Leonard Schapiro, The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 2nd ed. (Vintage, 1971), 415–17.
Yuri Pyatakov…breakneck speed: Schapiro, 415; Montefiore, 211.
“semi-Trotskyites”: Moscow News, February 3–10, 1937.
strenuous time: Van, 104–5.
Nikita Khrushchev: Montefiore, 210–11; Conquest, 167.
confessions…endless fascination…hardened Old Bolsheviks: for example, “The Trial of the Trotskyites in Russia,” The New Republic, September 2, 1936; “The Moscow Trials,” The Nation, October 10, 1936.
Kingsley Martin: New Statesman, April 10, 1937.
“One can only be right with the Party”: Deutscher II, 114–15.
“The Pit and the Pendulum”: Writings, 9:94.
Hippodrome: George Novack to Trotsky, February 4, 1937, TEP 3651; Elinor Rice to Trotsky, February 10, 1937, TEP 4250.
“one of the most dramatic events”: Harold Isaacs to Trotsky, February 2, 1937, TEP 2041.
telephone exchange: Van, 106–7.
atmosphere inside the Hippodrome: The New York Herald Tribune, February 10, 1937; The New York Daily News, February 10, 1937; The New York Times, February 10, 1937. Trotsky’s Hippodrome speech published as I Stake My Life (Pioneer Publishers [1937]).
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