Why Trotsky was expelled from the USSR. Expulsion of Trotsky from the USSR - political disagreements

Vadim Zakharovich Rogovin is a Russian historian, sociologist and publicist, whose main topic of research was the 1930s in the USSR. The book you are about to read shows the confrontation between two leaders of the Communist Party - I.V. Stalin and L.D. Trotsky. It did not end after Trotsky’s expulsion from the USSR in 1929; on the contrary, it became even more acute. Trotsky sharply opposed Stalin's policies, published revealing documents, and organized resistance to the Stalinist regime. It is not surprising that attempts were made on Trotsky’s life; the next one in 1940 was successful. In his book, Vadim Rogovin not only provides facts and documents about this struggle and the murder itself, but also analyzes in detail the causes of the conflict between Stalin and Trotsky.

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The given introductory fragment of the book Stalin's main enemy. How Trotsky was killed (V.Z. Rogovin, 2017) provided by our book partner - the company liters.

Expulsion of Trotsky from the USSR

In order to completely isolate Trotsky from his like-minded people, the GPU, from October 1928, suddenly interrupted all his correspondence with his comrades, friends, and relatives. Trotsky even received a letter from a Moscow hospital from a hopelessly ill daughter expelled from the party 73 days after it was sent, and the answer did not find her alive.

On November 26, the Politburo, having discussed the issue “On Trotsky’s counter-revolutionary activities,” instructed the OGPU to give Trotsky an ultimatum to stop all political activities. For this purpose, the representative of the secret political department of the OGPU, Volynsky, was sent to Alma-Ata, who read out a memorandum to Trotsky, in which it was reported that the OGPU board had information that his activities were “taking on more and more the character of direct counter-revolution” and the organization of the “second party.” " Therefore, if Trotsky refuses to lead the “so-called opposition,” the OGPU “will be forced” to change the conditions of his detention in order to isolate him as much as possible from political life.

Trotsky responded to this ultimatum with a letter to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Comintern, which, in particular, said: “Theoretical reason and political experience indicate that the period of historical return, rollback, i.e. reaction, can come not only after the bourgeois, but also after the proletarian revolution. For six years we have been living in the USSR in conditions of growing reaction against October and thereby clearing the way for Thermidor. The most obvious and complete expression of this reaction within the party is the wild persecution and organizational destruction of the left wing...

The threat to change the conditions of my existence and isolate me from political activity sounds as if the Stalin faction, the direct organ of which is the GPU, did not do everything it could to isolate me not only from political, but also from any other life... In this and in an even worse situation are thousands of impeccable Bolshevik-Leninists, whose services to the October Revolution and the international proletariat immeasurably exceed the merits of those who imprisoned or exiled them... Violence, beatings, torture, physical and moral, are applied to the best Bolshevik workers for their loyalty behests of October. These are the general conditions that, in the words of the GPU collegium, “do not interfere” with the political activity of the opposition and mine in particular.

The pathetic threat to change these conditions for me towards further isolation means nothing more than the decision of the Stalin faction to replace exile with prison. This decision, as stated above, is not new to me. Outlined in perspective back in 1924, it is being implemented gradually, through a series of steps, in order to surreptitiously accustom the oppressed and deceived party to Stalinist methods, in which gross disloyalty has now ripened into poisoned bureaucratic dishonor.”

The reaction to this letter was the decision of the Politburo to expel Trotsky abroad. Motivating this decision, Stalin stated that it was necessary in order to debunk Trotsky in the eyes of the Soviet people and the foreign labor movement: if Trotsky makes further denunciations of the party leadership abroad, “then we will portray him as a traitor.” This decision was made by a majority vote. Only Rykov and Voroshilov voted for an even harsher measure - putting Trotsky in prison.

On January 7, 1929, the Politburo resolution was sent to the chairman of the OGPU Menzhinsky. On January 18, the decision to expel was formalized by a Special Meeting at the OGPU Collegium. Two days later, Volynsky presented Trotsky with a resolution from the OSO, which stated: “Heard: The case of citizen Trotsky, Lev Davydovich, under Art. 58/10 of the Criminal Code on charges of counter-revolutionary activities, expressed in the organization of an illegal anti-Soviet party, the activities of which have recently been aimed at provoking anti-Soviet protests and preparing an armed struggle against Soviet power. They decided: Citizen Trotsky, Lev Davydovich, should be expelled from the USSR.” Thus, the expulsion of Trotsky was an act of extrajudicial execution on fictitious charges to which the accused was not given the right to answer. After Volynsky invited Trotsky to sign for familiarization with this document, Trotsky wrote: “A decree of the GPU was announced to me, criminal in essence and lawless in form.”

In an official report on the execution of his assignment, Volynsky reported that Trotsky told him: “The GPU was faced with a dilemma - either put me in prison or send me abroad. The first, of course, is less convenient, since it will cause noise and inevitable unrest and agitation among the workers for emancipation. Therefore, Stalin decided to send me abroad. I could, of course, refuse, because from the point of view of my internal situation it would be more profitable for me to go to prison. If I had reasoned like Stalin, who never understood what revolutionary emigration meant, I would have refused to go. For Stalin, “emigrant” is a dirty word, and going into emigration for him means political death... with his limited brain he is not able to understand that for a Leninist it is the same in which part of the working class to work.”

Based on the directive received from Yagoda, Volynsky, immediately after presenting the OSO resolution, announced that Trotsky and his family were under house arrest and gave them 48 hours to prepare for the trip. After this, they were loaded, under escort of specially selected GPU officers, into a carriage, the route of which was not announced to them.

In order to avoid protest demonstrations during Trotsky’s deportation, similar to the one that accompanied his exile in Alma-Ata a year earlier, the deportation took place in the strictest secrecy. However, the Zinoviev group was informed about it, from which Stalin expected approval of this action. When the Zinovievites gathered to discuss this news, Bakaev proposed to protest against the expulsion. To this, Zinoviev stated that “there is no one to protest to,” since “there is no owner.” The next day, Zinoviev visited Krupskaya, who told him that she, too, had heard about the impending deportation. “What are you going to do with him?” – Zinoviev asked her, meaning that Krupskaya is a member of the Presidium of the Central Control Commission. "First of all, don't You, A They“,” Krupskaya answered, “and secondly, even if we decided to protest, who listens to us?”

Only after a few days of travel was Trotsky informed that Constantinople had been appointed as the place of his deportation. These days, the Soviet government turned to many governments with a request to accept Trotsky, but only Turkey, after long negotiations, gave a positive answer. Unaware of this, Trotsky refused to voluntarily go to Turkey and demanded to be sent to Germany. For 12 days the train stood at a remote stop in the Kursk region, until the new representative of the OGPU, Bulanov, who replaced Volynsky, reported that the German government categorically refused to let Trotsky into their country and that a final order had been received to deliver him to Constantinople. In his official reports, Bulanov, reporting on his conversations with Trotsky on the train, mentioned his extremely harsh tone and expressions “addressed to the big boss.”

Along the way, the convoy grew larger and larger and Trotsky was forbidden to leave the train, which stopped only at small stations to take on water and fuel. Meanwhile, OGPU officer Fokin, sent to Odessa to organize the secret loading of Trotsky onto the ship, informed his superiors that he had done everything to prevent a possible demonstration in the city. A thorough check of the crew of the steamer Ilyich was carried out, the “unreliable” ones were written off and a reserve crew was trained, “able to navigate the ship even if the rest of the crew completely fails.”

The carriage that arrived in Odessa was delivered directly to the pier. Despite the deep night, the pier was cordoned off by GPU troops. On February 12, “Ilyich” entered the border waters, where Trotsky handed the Turkish officer a statement to pass on to the President of the Turkish Republic Kemal Pasha: “Dear Sir. At the gates of Constantinople, I have the honor to inform you that I did not come to the Turkish border by choice and that I can only cross this border by submitting to violence.”

Only a week after this, Pravda published a short note: “L. D. Trotsky was expelled from the USSR for anti-Soviet activities by a resolution of the Special Meeting of the OGPU. His family went with him, according to his wishes.” This message did not contain the accusation contained in the OSO resolution that Trotsky was preparing an armed struggle against Soviet power. In one of the first articles published in exile, Trotsky wrote: “Why did Stalin not dare to repeat in Pravda what was said in the GPU resolution? Because he knew that no one would believe him... But why, in this case, was it necessary to include this obvious lie in the GPU resolution? Not for the USSR, but for Europe and the whole world. Stalin could not explain the expulsions and countless arrests other than as an indication of the opposition’s preparation for armed struggle. With this monstrous lie he caused the greatest harm to the Soviet Republic. The entire bourgeois press said that Trotsky, Rakovsky, Smilga, Radek, I.N. Smirnov, Beloborodov, Muralov, Mrachkovsky and many others, who built the Republic and defended it, are now preparing an armed struggle against Soviet power. It is clear to what extent such a thought must weaken the Soviet Republic in the eyes of the whole world!”

Expulsion of Trotsky from the USSR

Meanwhile, it became obvious to Joseph Vissarionovich that Trotsky did not intend to calm down in Alma-Ata either. “From Central Asia, I had the opportunity to maintain continuous contact with the opposition, which was growing,” explained Lev Davidovich himself. - Under these conditions, Stalin, after hesitating for a year, decided to use deportation abroad as a lesser evil. His arguments were: isolated from the USSR, deprived of apparatus and material resources, Trotsky would be powerless to do anything... Stalin admitted several times that my deportation abroad was “the greatest mistake.”

On January 18, 1929, a special meeting of the OGPU board decided to expel Trotsky from the USSR on charges of “organizing an illegal anti-Soviet party, the activities of which have recently been aimed at provoking anti-Soviet protests and preparing an armed struggle against Soviet power.” On January 20, Trotsky received this decree and wrote on it: “What scoundrels!” - adding to this a receipt with the following content: “The resolution of the OS at the GPU Collegium dated January 18, 1929, criminal in essence and lawless in form, was announced to me on January 20, 1929 by L. Trotsky.”

Trotsky was sure that he would not be allowed to take out the archive, but the security officers who came to pick him up had no instructions about the papers and therefore did not interfere.

In the book by Yu. Felshtinsky and G. Chernyavsky “Leon Trotsky. Oppositionist” describes the dramatic departure of Trotsky and his loved ones to emigrate: “At dawn on January 22, Trotsky, his wife and son Lev were seated on an escorted bus, which set off along a well-worn snowy road towards the Kurdai Pass. We managed to get through the pass itself with great difficulty. Snow drifts were raging, a powerful tractor, which took the bus and several passing cars in tow, itself got stuck in the snow. Several accompanying people died from hypothermia. Trotsky's family was loaded onto a sleigh. The distance of 30 kilometers was covered in more than seven hours. Beyond the pass there was a new transfer to a car, which safely transported all three to Frunze, where they were loaded onto a train. In Aktyubinsk, Trotsky received a government telegram (this was the last government telegram that was in his hands), informing him that his destination was the city of Constantinople in Turkey.

Trotsky and his family were not deprived of their citizenship. They were given one and a half thousand dollars for their first expenses in Turkey.

On January 31, 1929, a joint meeting of the Politburo and the Presidium of the Central Control Commission took place, at which N.I. Bukharin, A.I. Rykov and M.P. Tomsky were officially accused of factional activities. In response, they made a statement directed against Stalin. He immediately attacked the factionalists: “This is a group of right-wing deviationists, whose platform calls for slowing the pace of industrialization, curtailing collectivization and freedom of private trade. Members of this group naively believe in the saving role of the fist. Their trouble is that they do not understand the mechanism of the class struggle and do not see that in fact the kulak is the sworn enemy of Soviet power.” Stalin further recalled that even before the revolution, Lenin called Bukharin “devilishly unstable” - and now he justifies this opinion by starting secret negotiations with the Trotskyists.

On July 11, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the use of labor of criminal prisoners,” which ordered that those convicted for a term of three years or more be sent to forced labor camps under the control of the OGPU. The resolution was marked “not subject to publication.”

The same OGPU resolution indicated the need to expand existing camps and create new ones in remote areas of the Soviet Union in order to develop these places and use their natural resources. It was also planned to increase the population of the wild regions by those who were paroled from the camp for settlement, by those who, having served their sentence, did not have the right to live in large cities or voluntarily wished to stay.

The life of the 20th century revolutionary figure Lev Davidovich Trotsky (birth name Leib Davidovich Bronstein), in modern terms, is increasingly reminiscent of a crazy and dashing roller coaster. Leon Trotsky will begin his revolutionary activities at the age of 17, being a member of a small revolutionary circle in Nikolaev, where, together with other members, he will conduct revolutionary propaganda.

Very soon, after just two years, he will be arrested for the first time. In the Odessa prison, where young Bronstein spent 2 years, he becomes a Marxist. Since 1900, he was in exile in the Irkutsk province, where he established contact with agents of Iskra, a revolutionary illegal newspaper founded by Lenin in 1900. (the newspaper's editorial office was in Munich and then in London) Trotsky was attracted to the newspaper not only for his convictions and revolutionary spirit - he was distinguished from most revolutionaries by his literacy and obvious literary gift, for which he was given the nickname “Pen”.

Arriving in London to see Lenin, Trotsky became a permanent contributor to the newspaper, gave abstracts at meetings of emigrants and quickly gained fame. As Trotsky himself recalled: “I came to London a big provincial, and in every sense at that. Not only abroad, but also in St. Petersburg, I had never been before. In Moscow, as in Kyiv, I lived only in a transit prison.”

A.V. Lunacharsky wrote about the young Trotsky: “... Trotsky impressed the foreign public with his eloquence, significant education and aplomb for a young man. ...They didn’t take him very seriously due to his youth, but everyone resolutely recognized his outstanding oratorical talent and, of course, felt that he was not a chicken, but an eaglet.”

But then no one imagined that from this little eaglet the most dangerous anarchist and revolutionary of the 20th century would grow up, who would lead the October Revolution - one of the largest political events of the 20th century, which occurred in Russia in October 1917 and influenced the further course of world history . As a result of the revolution, the Civil War began in Russia, the Provisional Government was overthrown and the government of the Bolsheviks, Left Socialist Revolutionaries and other anarchist organizations came to power.

In fact, Trotsky was one of the main leaders of the October Revolution.

A year later, I. Stalin wrote about this period:

“All work on the practical organization of the uprising took place under the direct leadership of the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, Comrade Trotsky. It is safe to say that the party owes, first and foremost, to Comrade Comrade the quick transition of the garrison to the side of the Soviet and the skillful organization of the work of the Military Revolutionary Committee. Trotsky."

A few more years later, with the beginning of a fierce struggle for power within the CPSU (b), Stalin already sharply changed his tone:

“...It cannot be denied that Trotsky fought well during the October Revolution. Yes, that's true, Trotsky really fought well in October. But during the October period, not only Trotsky fought well; even people like the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who then stood side by side with the Bolsheviks, fought well. In general, I must say that during a period of a victorious uprising, when the enemy is isolated and the uprising is growing, it is not difficult to fight well. At such moments, even the retarded become heroes.”

During the years of the revolution and the Civil War, Trotsky was actually the second person in the state, however, he was defeated with the beginning of an acute struggle for power in the CPSU (b) in the 1920s, in which the main opponents were Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev. The latter in this struggle slowed down their pace and openly began to support Stalin, who had gained both strength and weight in the political life of the then Russia... So the “Stalin-Trotsky confrontation” ended in defeat for the latter.

Trotsky, who fell in love with power, did not want to admit defeat, as a result of which he began to put together shadow opposition forces, still counting on the support of the army, which was actually subordinate to him.

But in 1925 he was removed from the key posts of the People's Commissar of Military Affairs and the Pre-Revolutionary Military Council. And in October 1926 he was removed from the Politburo. Lev Davidovich's ardent impulses to concentrate power around himself were doomed to failure.

It must be admitted that they got rid of Trotsky gently and non-violently. In January 1928, Trotsky, as well as a number of his particularly stubborn supporters, was exiled to Alma-Ata. The terms of the link were quite lenient; Trotsky's correspondence was not restricted in any way; he was able to take out his huge personal archive. (Another short-sightedness of Stalin was to allow him to take out the archive, and these are Lenin’s little-known notes and secret resolutions of the Politburo. After all, the oppositionist could use (and widely used) all these materials to prepare anti-Stalin articles...)

In exile, Trotsky developed vigorous activity to organize his remaining adherents. But already in October 1928, the exile’s correspondence with the outside world was suspended. On December 16, 1928, OGPU representative Volynsky, on behalf of the Politburo meeting of November 26, presented Trotsky with an ultimatum demanding that he stop opposition activities; Trotsky himself, however, assessed the prospects for such a cessation with skepticism...

On January 18, 1929, a Special Meeting of the OGPU Collegium decided to expel Trotsky from the USSR. But then the question arose - where to exile? And who will accept? And control over the activities of the restless oppositionist was simply necessary.

A number of countries with which the Soviet government negotiated refused to accept Trotsky; Only Türkiye gave its consent. Trotsky himself demanded to be sent to Germany, which, however, also refused to accept him. Trotsky's position in Istanbul (Constantinople) was quite difficult, since a significant number of White emigrants had accumulated in this city, and he began to fear an assassination attempt.

A month later, the oppositionist was resettled to the Princes' Islands (a group of nine islands off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey, in the Sea of ​​Marmara), where he actively engaged in journalistic activities, writing the autobiographical work “My Life”, and starting the fundamental work “The History of the Russian Revolution” . Also from Turkey, he organized the release of the “Opposition Bulletin,” which was illegally delivered to the USSR.

The revolutionary, who has not calmed down, quite predictably begins to use the influence of his archive, throwing little-known materials to the press that expose Stalin and his supporters. Having come to his senses, Stalin and his team begin the hunt for Trotsky’s archive. So in 1932, a fire occurred in Trotsky’s house, in which part of the archive burned down; soon after this, he was officially deprived of USSR citizenship.

On July 17, 1933, France agreed to accept Trotsky, where he soon moved. In this country, Trotsky began mass contacts with representatives of the European socialist movement; At the beginning of 1934, the French Minister of the Interior ordered Trotsky to leave the country, fearing that the exile had begun preparing a new revolution. However, this order was not implemented, since not a single country agreed to accept it. Instead, he was moved to a small village under police supervision.

In 1934, the NKVD was able to introduce its agent Mark Zborovsky into the circle of Trotsky’s son Lev Sedov in Paris, through whom part of Trotsky’s archives was transferred to Moscow.

In the spring of 1935, Trotsky applied for political asylum to the government of Norway, where the Workers' Party, which had been a member of the Comintern until 1923, won the elections. However, the Norwegian government soon came under pressure from the USSR and banned Trotsky from participating in political activities.

In Norway, Trotsky completed his work, The Revolution Betrayed; On August 6, 1936, his house was raided. Under continued pressure from the Soviet government to stop importing Norwegian herring, that country's government interned Trotsky on September 2, 1936, sequestering him from the outside world in a small village.

In December 1936, Trotsky received a message that Mexico had agreed to accept him, where the socialist Lazaro Cardenas had been elected president.

On January 9, 1937, Trotsky arrived in Mexico City - this would be Trotsky's last movement around the world, in an attempt to hide from Kremlin agents...

Many historians consider Trotsky’s exile from the country to be Stalin’s most serious mistake, reproaching him for short-sightedness. After all, it was Trotsky who was capable of causing the most serious damage to Stalin’s reputation.

From this point on, Stalin and Trotsky will become the most ardent enemies for life and death. Then it seemed to Stalin that it was enough to get rid of Trotsky, not by liquidating him, but simply by “expelling” him from the country. Why didn’t Stalin shoot Trotsky even then in Moscow, so as not to later look for an opportunity to do it abroad, looking for Trotsky, who had been constantly moving around different countries for more than 10 years? Lev Davidovich himself was surprised at this. In 1940, he would publish an article that he would call:

"Stalin's Mistake"

“To the uninitiated it may seem incomprehensible why Stalin’s clique first sent me abroad and then is trying to kill me abroad. Wouldn't it be easier to have me shot in Moscow, like so many others? The explanation is this.

In 1928, when I was expelled from the party and deported to Central Asia, it was still impossible to talk not only about execution, but also about arrest: the generation with which I went through the October Revolution and the civil war was still alive. The Politburo felt under siege from all sides. From Central Asia I was able to maintain continuous contact with the opposition. Under these conditions, Stalin, after hesitating for a year, decided to resort to deportation abroad as a lesser evil. His arguments were: isolated from the USSR, deprived of apparatus and material resources, Trotsky would be powerless to do anything...

As I was informed, Stalin admitted several times that my deportation abroad was a “great mistake.” To correct the mistake, there was nothing else left but a terrorist act...”

"Stalin's order to 'eliminate' Trotsky"

So, Trotsky and Stalin became personal enemies for life and death. Both hated each other, and there could be no reconciliation between them. True, after 1929, when Trotsky was expelled from the USSR and lived in Turkey, Norway, France, and since 1937 in Mexico, he had little real strength. Only twenty of his supporters attended the congress of the Fourth International that he convened. On the other hand, the Trotskyists could organize more serious actions. For example, during the Spanish Civil War, local Trotskyists - POUMists - together with anarchists, raised an uprising on Republican territory, which could have turned into a tragedy - they actually opened the front, and the Republicans were forced to withdraw a division from forward positions in order to suppress the rebellion.

Trotsky's main strength was in his propaganda articles, in which Stalin was the main target of attacks. Here's just one example.

Leon Trotsky called his evil article about Stalin’s services to Germany: “Stalin is Hitler’s intendant.” In this article, he wrote that Stalin “is most afraid of war. His capitulatory policy testifies to this all too clearly... Stalin cannot fight with the general discontent of the workers and peasants and with the army he has decapitated.”

But the Trotskyists were not limited to anti-Stalinist propaganda. It gradually developed into anti-Soviet propaganda, damaging not Stalin personally, but the Soviet Union, which the Trotskyists sought to deprive of its position as the leader of the world communist movement. Stalin believed that Trotsky's actions seriously threatened the Comintern.

As one of the leaders of Soviet intelligence P.A. testifies. Sudoplatov, at a narrow meeting in September 1938, Stalin said:

“- There are no important political figures in the Trotskyist movement except Trotsky himself. If Trotsky is dealt with, the threat to the Comintern will be eliminated...Trotsky, or as you call him in your affairs, "The Old Man", must be eliminated within a year before the inevitable war breaks out. Without the removal of Trotsky, as the Spanish experience shows, we cannot be sure, in the event of an attack by the imperialists on the Soviet Union, of the support of our allies in the international communist movement.”

Stalin clearly preferred streamlined words like “action” (instead of “liquidation”) and “elimination” (instead of “murder”), and said that if the action was successful, “the party will never forget those who took part in it and will take care not to only about themselves, but about all members of their families.”

Experienced intelligence officer N. Eitingon was appointed head of the “action”, which was called “Duck”. No one knew better than him the agents who settled in Mexico after the end of the Spanish Civil War. He also knew well the agents in Western Europe and the USA and managed to independently put together two groups of these agents. One of the groups received the code name “Horse”, the other - “Mother”.

The first group was led by the famous Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, where he commanded a brigade, the second was led by Caridad Mercader, a Spanish revolutionary, a brave and selfless woman. Her eldest son died in battle with the Francoists; the middle one, Ramon, fought in a partisan detachment; the youngest, Luis, came to Moscow in 1939 among other Spanish children saved from the war.

Both groups acted completely independently and did not know about each other's existence. And the tasks before them were different. If the “Horse” group was preparing to storm Trotsky’s villa in Coyacan, a suburb of Mexico City, then the “Mother” group sought to deeply penetrate Leon Trotsky’s circle. The fact is that there was not a single Soviet agent in his circle. Because of this, the work of the first group was also stalled - after all, there was no plan for the villa, the system of security and access to the villa was unknown, they knew nothing about Trotsky’s daily routine.

The path to Trotsky’s encirclement lay through a woman’s heart. In order to win him, the young, handsome, energetic Ramon Mercader was recalled from the ranks of the Spanish partisans and sent to Paris, where the headquarters of the Trotskyist organizations, headed by Trotsky’s son Lev Sedov, was located.

Ramon (under the nickname “Raymond”) entered Trotskyist circles, but remained independent there, did not “get involved” in their affairs and did not try to gain trust. But he met the sister of an employee of Trotsky’s secretariat, Ruth Agelov, who was also a liaison with his supporters in the USA. This sister, Sylvia, lived in New York. The meeting with her was carried out through a cunning combination.

Trusted by the New York station, Ruby Weil met and became friends with Sylvia, then “received an inheritance” and invited her to Paris, where on July 1, 1938, in a cafe they “accidentally” met “an old friend of the Weil family” Ramon. He quickly became close to Sylvia, frequent meetings followed, joint trips followed, and talk turned to marriage. But Sylvia had to return to New York. Some time later, Ramon appeared there, with a fake Canadian passport in the name of Frank Jackson.

In October 1939, he moved to Mexico, and in January 1940, Sylvia followed him there. Using her sister's recommendation, she met with Trotsky and worked as his secretary for two months. She knew nothing about the true role of “Raymond”.

During Sylvia's stay in Mexico City, he made no attempt to enter the villa, but called on the girl every day; The guards got used to him. In March 1940, Ramon was invited to the villa for the first time. Since then, he has been there (according to entries in the security log) 12 times, spent a total of more than 5 hours, met Trotsky several times in the garden and talked with him.

Mercader obtained useful information about the security system of the villa turned into a fortress and its inhabitants and passed it on to Eitingon, who at that time was in Mexico City and maintained constant contact with Siqueiros, the immediate leader of the terrorist group, in which there was not a single Soviet agent, but only his personal friends.

On May 24, 1940, at about four o'clock in the morning, a group of 20 people, dressed in the uniform of Mexican police and military personnel, under the command of Siqueiros, approached the gates of the fortress villa. The duty officer was called - it was Robert Sheldon Hart, an American, who opened the gate and let the attackers in. They grabbed and locked the guards in closed rooms and turned off the sound alarm. Having gone upstairs, they took up positions around Trotsky’s bedroom and opened fire with a light machine gun and small arms, firing more than 200 bullets. Trotsky and his wife slipped out of bed, hid under it and remained unharmed.

The attackers, having finished shooting and taking Sheldon Hart with them, fled in two cars. They killed their captive, considering him an American agent (which was true), and scattered throughout the surrounding area.

The police managed to track down the attackers. Minor participants in the attack were detained; the rest, except Siqueiros, managed to escape. The artist was detained only in July 1940, but by the decision of the president, a great admirer of his talent, Siqueiros was released and he left the country. Before this, he stated that the purpose of the attack was not to kill Trotsky, but to cause psychological shock and use it as a protest against Trotsky's residence in Mexico.

Soon a sensational message was received from Mexico City: on August 20, 1940, an attempt was made on Trotsky, who was mortally wounded, from which he died the evening of the next day.

What happened at Villa Coyacane?

When Ramon visited her every day during Sylvia’s work as Trotsky’s secretary (January – March 1940), he met and “became friends” with his old friends Margarita and Alfred Rosmer, who were visiting Trotsky. As his own man - Sylvia's fiancé, a friend of the Rosmers - he was perceived by Trotsky and his wife. One day, in August 1940, Ramon (he was known to Trotsky and his entourage as the Belgian subject Jacques Mornard) showed Trotsky his article on Trotskyist organizations in the United States and asked him to make his comments. Trotsky took this article and invited Rayon to come to him on August 20 to discuss the article.

On this day, Ramon came to the villa armed with a pistol, an ice pick and a knife hidden in the lining of his jacket. The knife was needed in case the guards discovered and offered to hand over the pistol and ice pick. But no one stopped him, and he calmly entered Trotsky’s office. He sat down at the table, putting the article in front of him, and began to express his opinion. Ramon stood behind, as if listening carefully to the “teacher’s” comments. Then he took out an ice ax, swung it a little and hit Trotsky on the head. The blow did not turn out to be fatal - Trotsky turned around, screamed wildly and grabbed Mercader’s hand with his teeth. The guards rushed in and grabbed Ramon, twisted him, and began to brutally beat him, half to death. Finally, the bloodied killer screamed: “I had to do it! They're holding my mother! I was forced to! Kill right away or stop hitting!”

Trotsky was taken to the hospital. After the assassination attempt, Trotsky lived in the hospital for 26 hours. The doctors tried to do everything possible and impossible to save him, although it was clear that the blow had struck the vital centers of the brain. Two hours after the assassination attempt, Trotsky fell into a coma. On August 21, 1940 he died without regaining consciousness.

Ramon Mercader was taken to prison. A long investigation began. They demanded a sincere confession from him, which, however, was not received either then or subsequently. Through the Belgian envoy it was established that Ramon was not the Belgian subject Jacques Mornard. However, Ramon stood his ground, confirming the version set out in the letter that he gave to the head of the medical carriage when he was being transported after his arrest. The letter said that he, Jacques Mornard, a Belgian subject, came to Mexico at the suggestion of one of the members of the Fourth International (surname not given) to get into contact with Trotsky. From him we also received money for the trip and a passport in the name of Frank Jackson.

The letter further detailed the motives for the murder: disappointment in the theory and practice of Trotskyism as a result of meeting Trotsky, and especially after Trotsky expressed his intention to send him to the USSR to commit terrorist acts and assassinate Stalin. In addition, Trotsky objected to his marriage to Sylvia.

Having not received recognition, the investigation began to apply measures of moral, psychological and physical influence. At the police station, the torture continued for several weeks. During the preliminary investigation, Ramon was kept in the basement for seven months, “being,” as the official memorandum states, “the subject of unheard-of bullying and humiliation ... He was on the verge of losing his sight.”

Only in May 1944, the court of the Federal District of Mexico City handed down a sentence: 20 years in prison (the highest penalty in the country). Ramon Mercader had to spend 19 years, 8 months and 4 days in prison. During this time he suffered several serious illnesses. However, he never once doubted the correctness of his case and did not give any confession.

His stay in prison was brightened by his love for the sister of one of the prisoners, Roquelia Mendoza. She provided him with moral and material assistance, reliably, confidently and courageously fulfilling the role of a liaison. Ramon and Roquelia got married and lived happily until the end of his days.

On May 6, 1960, Ramon was released. Through Cuba he arrived in the USSR, where on June 8 he was awarded the Gold Star. He became the first intelligence officer to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during his lifetime.

Ramon and Roquelia lived in the USSR until 1974, but the northern climate had a hard impact on their health, and they moved to Cuba, where Ramon died in 1978. According to his last will, the urn with his ashes was buried in Moscow.

For a long time it was not known who “Jean Mornard” really was. Only a few years after the trial, the Trotskyists established that the convicted person was the Spaniard Ramon Mercader. He was identified from a photo card by several Spaniards, former members of the international brigades, and they also remembered a wound in his right forearm (this was confirmed during his examination in the prison hospital). The fingerprints of Ramon, who was arrested in 1935 in Barcelona for communist activities, were found in Spanish police archives.

Ramon's mother and Eitingon were in Mexico City on the day of the assassination attempt and were waiting for him in a car near the Coyacane villa. They saw police and ambulances roaring towards Trotsky's house. But Ramon didn't show up.

Around 10 pm, Mexican radio reported details of the assassination attempt. Immediately after this, Eitingon and Caridad Mercader left Mexico. They stayed in Cuba for some time, then went to the USA, and from there to the USSR. After the war, Caridad lived in Paris, where Soviet intelligence officer Zinaida Batraeva met with her and conveyed news from her son. As Batraeva told the author of these lines, “Mother” constantly asked her: “Is it really that Soviet intelligence - so strong - cannot organize the escape of my son?”

Indeed, the issue of Ramon’s escape was repeatedly discussed, and even the residencies in New York and Mexico City were instructed to organize it. However, nothing worked out. In addition, Ramon himself spoke out against these attempts, which, given his dedication to the cause, can be explained by his reluctance to cause damage to Soviet intelligence in case of failure. Attempts to release Ramon early under an amnesty or pardon also failed.

Mercader's ashes rest in the Kuntsevo cemetery under the name of Ramon Ivanovich Lopez, Hero of the Soviet Union.

Paintings by communist David Siqueiros decorate one of the most “capitalist” buildings in New York - Rockefeller Center.

And Trotskyism as a political movement practically ceased to exist after the death of Leon Trotsky.

From the book: “100 Great Intelligence Operations”

Background

With the end of the Civil War, a fierce struggle for power broke out within the CPSU(b). One of the main Bolshevik leaders in 1917-1921, Trotsky L.D. is gradually giving way to his political competitors. The peculiarity of these processes was that they were often accompanied by heated ideological discussions; Since Lenin's final retirement in 1923, the Zinoviev-Kamenev-Stalin troika has widely criticized Trotsky, accusing him of trying to "replace Leninism with Trotskyism," which they call "a petty-bourgeois current hostile to Leninism."

As a result of the “literary discussion” in the fall of 1924, Trotsky was defeated. In January 1925, after a long struggle, he lost the key posts of People's Commissar of Military Affairs and Pre-Revolutionary Military Council. However, having “defeated” Trotsky, the ruling “troika” itself immediately splits. At the XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in December 1925, Stalin managed to win over the majority of delegates to his side; at the beginning of 1926, Zinoviev and Kamenev themselves lost their key posts.

The attempt of former enemies, Trotsky and Zinoviev - Kamenev, to unite ends in failure; in October, Stalin, with the support of Bukharin, removes Trotsky from the Politburo of the Central Committee. The “United Opposition” conducts broad criticism of the doctrine of “building socialism in one country” developed by Stalin in opposition to the “world revolution”, demands “super-industrialization” in the USSR, “turn the fire to the right - against the NEPman, the kulak and the bureaucrat”. In turn, Bukharin accuses the opposition of intending to “rob the village” and of instilling “internal colonialism.” The future leaders of the “right opposition” Bukharin - Rykov - Tomsky in 1926 made even more “bloodthirsty” statements against Trotsky than Stalin; Thus, Tomsky in November 1927 speaks out about the “left opposition” as follows:

The opposition very widely spreads rumors about repressions, about expected prisons, about Solovki, etc. To this we will say to nervous people: If you still don’t calm down when we removed you from the party, then now we say: calm down, we’re just being polite We will ask you to sit down, because it is uncomfortable for you to stand. If you try to go to factories and factories now, we will say “please sit down” ( Stormy applause), because, comrades, in the situation of the dictatorship of the proletariat there can be two or four parties, but only under one condition: one party will be in power, and all the rest will be in prison. ( Applause).

By the fall of 1927, Trotsky was finally defeated in the struggle for power. On November 12, 1927, at the same time as Zinoviev, he was expelled from the party. Their further fates, however, were different. If Zinoviev chose to publicly repent of his “mistakes,” Trotsky flatly refused to repent of anything. On November 14, 1927, Trotsky was evicted from his service apartment in the Kremlin, and stayed with his supporter A. G. Beloborodov.

Delivery to Almaty

Leon Trotsky, his wife Natalya and son Lev in exile in Alma-Ata, 1928

On January 18, 1928, Trotsky was forcibly taken to the Yaroslavl station in Moscow and deported to Alma-Ata, and the GPU employees had to carry Trotsky in their arms, since he refused to go. In addition, according to the recollections of Trotsky’s eldest son Lev Sedov, Trotsky and his family barricaded themselves in one of the rooms, and the GPU had to break down the doors. According to Trotsky’s own recollections, three people carried him out in their arms, “it was hard for them, they puffed incredibly all the time and often stopped to rest.” During Trotsky's delivery to the Yaroslavl station, both of his sons were present; the eldest, Lev, shouted to the railway workers to no avail: “Comrade workers, look how they are carrying Comrade Trotsky,” and the youngest, Sergei, hit the GPU employee Barychkin in the face who was holding his father.

According to the memoirs of Lev Sedov, immediately after the departure of the train, Trotsky appears to the convoy and declares that he “has nothing against them as simple performers,” and “the demonstration was purely political in nature”:

Link

A number of researchers note that Trotsky’s exile to Alma-Ata was an extremely mild measure for Stalin. Stalin’s former secretary Bazhanov B.G. in his memoirs expresses extreme surprise why Stalin only exiled Trotsky to Alma-Ata and then abroad: “Stalin has at his disposal any number of ways to poison Trotsky (well, not directly, that would be signed, but with the help of viruses, microbial cultures, radioactive substances), and then bury him with pomp on Red Square and make speeches. Instead, he sent him abroad." Trotsky himself explains this contradiction as follows:

In 1928...it was impossible to talk not only about execution, but also about arrest: the generation with which I went through the October Revolution and the Civil War was still alive. The Politburo felt under siege from all sides. From Central Asia I was able to maintain continuous contact with the opposition, which was growing. Under these conditions, Stalin, after hesitating for a year, decided to resort to deportation abroad as a lesser evil. His arguments were: isolated from the USSR, deprived of apparatus and material resources, Trotsky would be powerless to do anything... Stalin admitted several times that my deportation abroad was “the greatest mistake.”

Historian Dmitry Volkogonov notes that “Stalin in 1928 could not only shoot Trotsky, but even try him. He was not ready to bring serious charges against him, he was afraid of him. Conditions for 1937-1938 were not yet ripe. While the old party guard remembered well what this unusual exile did for the revolution.”

Other few stubborn supporters of Trotsky were also exiled to remote areas of the USSR. Sosnovsky L.S. was also exiled to Barnaul in 1928, Rakovsky Kh.G. to Kustanai, Muralov N.I. to the city of Tara in the Omsk region. However, the lion's share of the defeated oppositionists (G. E. Zinoviev, L. B. Kamenev, I. T. Smilga, G. I. Safarov, K. B. Radek, A. G. Beloborodov, V. K. Putna, Ya. E. Rudzutak, V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko, S. A. Sarkisov) recognized in 1928-1930. the correctness of the “general line of the party”. Both were repressed in 1936-1941. were shot without exception.

Trotsky continuously “bombs” the GPU, the Central Executive Committee and the Central Control Commission with complaints about the lack of housing, the loss of suitcases along the way, and even that “the GPU prevents people from going hunting.” Already on January 31, 1928, in a telegram to the chairman of the OGPU Menzhinsky and the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Kalinin, he demanded that he be provided with housing.

Trotsky reports that Moscow newspapers were delivered ten days late, and letters could be delayed for up to three months. However, the conditions of exile, compared to what Stalin subsequently introduced in the 1930s, were quite mild; the exile was even able to take out his personal archive, which included a number of documents on the history of the USSR that were most valuable to historians, including documents secret. Trotsky's correspondence was not limited in any way, which allowed him to develop vigorous activity, constantly communicating with his few unrenounced supporters (Preobrazhensky, Rakovsky, Muralov, Sosnovsky, Smirnov, Kasparova, etc.). From his exile, Trotsky even managed to organize the printing and distribution of opposition leaflets of the “Bolshevik-Leninists.” Trotsky's most active assistance in this activity was provided by his eldest son Lev Sedov, whom he called "our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Police and Minister of Communications." In 1928, for illegal communication with Moscow, Mikhail Bodrov was sent from the capital, who secretly, under an assumed name, carried mail for Trotsky to the nearest railway station, 200 versts.

In August 1928, a message appeared about Trotsky’s alleged illness with malaria, his like-minded people organized the release of an illegal leaflet on this occasion, demanding his return to Moscow from “malarial Alma-Ata.”

From his exile, Trotsky observes Stalin’s gradually unfolding defeat of his yesterday’s allies and ardent opponents of Trotsky, the “right deviationists” Bukharin - Rykov - Tomsky in 1928-1929. According to researcher Rogozin V.Z., the sharp turn of the Stalinist majority towards industrialization and collectivization was due to the “grain procurement crisis” of 1927, during which peasants, dissatisfied with what they believed were low purchase prices for bread, massively refused to hand it over to the state ( see also Grain procurement in the USSR). On January 15, 1928, Stalin personally went to Siberia to encourage peasants to donate grain. N. Krotov claims that in an Omsk village one of the peasants told him: “And you, katso, dance the lezginka for us - maybe we’ll give you some bread.” One way or another, Stalin returned from Siberia extremely embittered, and the party took a course towards “super-industrialization” and collectivization, which had previously been condemned by Bukharin as “Trotskyist” with the support of Stalin himself. To justify his turn to the left, Stalin developed the doctrine of “intensifying the class struggle as we move towards socialism.” In Pravda, controlled by Bukharin, an article by the “right” is published, condemning Stalin for trying to “follow the Trotskyist path.” Bukharin is trying to form a bloc with the already defeated Kamenev, and is negotiating with Yagoda and Trilisser.

At the same time, the defeat of the “right” was no longer difficult for Stalin; if the Red Army and even a significant part of the OGPU employees once stood behind Trotsky, and Zinoviev was the chairman of the Comintern and the head of the influential Leningrad party organization, there was actually nothing behind the Bukharinites.

Expulsion from the USSR

Meanwhile, Trotsky’s violent activity, which continued in exile, caused Stalin more and more irritation. As historian Dmitry Volkogonov points out, Trotsky “...received hundreds of letters every month...In Alma-Ata, an entire Trotskyist headquarters was formed around him.” In October 1928, his correspondence with the outside world was completely suspended; on December 16, the representative of the OGPU, Volynsky, presented Trotsky with an “ultimatum” demanding that he stop his political activities. Trotsky responded to such a proposal with a long letter to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Comintern, in which he flatly refused to stop “the struggle for the interests of the international proletariat” and accused Stalin’s supporters of “carrying out indoctrination into class forces hostile to the proletariat.” Judging by the correspondence preserved in Trotsky’s archive with like-minded people, which was conducted from exile in 1928, he assessed the prospects of his own “admitting mistakes to the party” skeptically, judging by what happened with the “disarmed” oppositionists: “Zinoviev is not published,” “centrists “They demand that former oppositionists, according to Trotsky, no longer even support the “general line of the party,” but “keep silent.”

On January 18, 1929, an extrajudicial body - the Special Meeting of the OGPU Collegium - decided to expel Trotsky from the USSR on charges under Art. 58.10 of the Criminal Code “expressed in the organization of an illegal anti-Soviet party, the activities of which have recently been aimed at provoking anti-Soviet protests and preparing an armed struggle against Soviet power.” On a copy of the resolution of the Special Meeting handed to him by Volynsky on January 20, Trotsky writes: “What scoundrels!” At the same time, Trotsky writes to Volynsky a receipt for a copy of the resolution in the following spirit: “The resolution of the OS at the GPU Collegium of January 18, 1929, criminal in essence and lawless in form, was announced to me on January 20, 1929 by L. Trotsky.”

“Trotsky’s popularity in the party and his personal authority until 1929 were such that expulsion from the USSR was the most extreme permissible measure against him,” points out Joseph Berger, S. Zhalmagambetova, 139, p. 17 cm, Almaty Zhazushy: Shapagat Island 1992

Expulsion of Trotsky from the USSR

Meanwhile, it became obvious to Joseph Vissarionovich that Trotsky did not intend to calm down in Alma-Ata either. “From Central Asia, I had the opportunity to maintain continuous contact with the opposition, which was growing,” explained Lev Davidovich himself. - Under these conditions, Stalin, after hesitating for a year, decided to use deportation abroad as a lesser evil. His arguments were: isolated from the USSR, deprived of apparatus and material resources, Trotsky would be powerless to do anything... Stalin admitted several times that my deportation abroad was “the greatest mistake.”

On January 18, 1929, a special meeting of the OGPU board decided to expel Trotsky from the USSR on charges of “organizing an illegal anti-Soviet party, the activities of which have recently been aimed at provoking anti-Soviet protests and preparing an armed struggle against Soviet power.” On January 20, Trotsky received this decree and wrote on it: “What scoundrels!” - adding to this a receipt with the following content: “The resolution of the OS at the GPU Collegium dated January 18, 1929, criminal in essence and lawless in form, was announced to me on January 20, 1929 by L. Trotsky.”

Trotsky was sure that he would not be allowed to take out the archive, but the security officers who came to pick him up had no instructions about the papers and therefore did not interfere.

In the book by Yu. Felshtinsky and G. Chernyavsky “Leon Trotsky. Oppositionist” describes the dramatic departure of Trotsky and his loved ones to emigrate: “At dawn on January 22, Trotsky, his wife and son Lev were seated on an escorted bus, which set off along a well-worn snowy road towards the Kurdai Pass. We managed to get through the pass itself with great difficulty. Snow drifts were raging, a powerful tractor, which took the bus and several passing cars in tow, itself got stuck in the snow. Several accompanying people died from hypothermia. Trotsky's family was loaded onto a sleigh. The distance of 30 kilometers was covered in more than seven hours. Beyond the pass there was a new transfer to a car, which safely transported all three to Frunze, where they were loaded onto a train. In Aktyubinsk, Trotsky received a government telegram (this was the last government telegram that was in his hands), informing him that his destination was the city of Constantinople in Turkey.

Trotsky and his family were not deprived of their citizenship. They were given one and a half thousand dollars for their first expenses in Turkey.

On January 31, 1929, a joint meeting of the Politburo and the Presidium of the Central Control Commission took place, at which N.I. Bukharin, A.I. Rykov and M.P. Tomsky were officially accused of factional activities. In response, they made a statement directed against Stalin. He immediately attacked the factionalists: “This is a group of right-wing deviationists, whose platform calls for slowing the pace of industrialization, curtailing collectivization and freedom of private trade. Members of this group naively believe in the saving role of the fist. Their trouble is that they do not understand the mechanism of the class struggle and do not see that in fact the kulak is the sworn enemy of Soviet power.” Stalin further recalled that even before the revolution, Lenin called Bukharin “devilishly unstable” - and now he justifies this opinion by starting secret negotiations with the Trotskyists.

On July 11, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the use of labor of criminal prisoners,” which ordered that those convicted for a term of three years or more be sent to forced labor camps under the control of the OGPU. The resolution was marked “not subject to publication.”

The same OGPU resolution indicated the need to expand existing camps and create new ones in remote areas of the Soviet Union in order to develop these places and use their natural resources. It was also planned to increase the population of the wild regions by those who were paroled from the camp for settlement, by those who, having served their sentence, did not have the right to live in large cities or voluntarily wished to stay.