An Unusual Bucket List is Checked Off – The Leon Trotsky House and Museum in Mexico City
Growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s I have always had a curious fascination with Russia. Primarily driven by Russian music and poetry, I have also been interested in the politics of the country. Not that I liked its politics, it was more that I so very much admired and respected the people and the culture, and observed that the politics of the twentieth century had played such a powerful role in restricting artistic freedom and liberties that we Americans too often simply take for granted. To even attempt to understand the underlying effects of the politics, one has to consider the people driving the politics.
As a tourist, I have traveled there three times – I went to the Soviet Union in 1991 and, after the fall of the Soviet Union in late 1991, to Russia in 1993 and 2008. I visited Lenin’s mausoleum in Red Square in Moscow each time to view personally his mummified corpse. My friends and family will attest that I have a somewhat lugubrious sense of curiosity regarding things such as the deaths of tyrants as well as patriots and others. This has led me to visit countless cemeteries, usually to show respect to composers such as Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. This curiosity led me eventually to Leon Trotsky.
Leon Trotsky was a prominent Marxist revolutionary and a key figure in the Russian Revolution. He initially had many disagreements with Lenin before and after both of the 1917 revolutions. They eventually came to a somewhat strained reconciliation. Lenin subsequently suffered several strokes and, as most historians will acknowledge, was worried that Joseph Stalin would succeed him. Not necessarily that he wanted Trotsky but he was adamantly anti-Stalin. Stalin of course did succeed Lenin upon Lenin’s death in 1924 and he and Trotsky became even greater bitter enemies with Trotsky savagely criticizing Stalin’s becoming a dictator and “destroying the ideals of the revolution.”
Trotsky was forced into exile in 1929 due to his growing opposition to Stalin’s policies and the consolidation of power within the Communist Party. He sought refuge in various countries, including Turkey, France, and Mexico, where he continued to write and organize against Stalinism, advocating for international socialism and the theory of permanent revolution. His exile was marked by a series of close calls, as he faced numerous assassination attempts. Mere months prior to the final attack the house was riddled by over 200 bullets but Trotsky and his wife, Natalia, were not injured. There are still huge bullet holes in the walls of the entire house. His life in exile ended when he was assassinated at his home in Mexico City in 1940 by an agent of the Soviet secret police, the dreaded NKVD, reflecting the lengths to which Stalin would go to eliminate his rivals.
The assassin, Ramón Mercader, was a Spanish communist trained by the NKVD. Mercader was groomed to appear to Trotsky in Mexico to be someone Trotsky could trust. Moving to Mexico City with a cover name of Frank Jacson, he befriended Trotsky, gaining his trust and using his new false identity to gain access to Trotsky’s home. On the day of the attack, Mercader, wielding a mountaineering ice axe, struck Trotsky on the back of his head. I have read individual accounts that state that the blunt end of the axe was used as well as others that the sharp pick end did the deed. At any rate the axe penetrated his skull by two inches. The blow was eventually fatal as Trotsky died the following day, on August 21, 1940. Mercader was subsequently arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison in Mexico. Mercader’s actions were later celebrated by Soviet authorities, who viewed him as a hero for eliminating a prominent critic of Stalin’s regime. Throughout his prison term he was given money and even a girlfriend by the Soviets who eventually became his wife. After serving his sentence, he was granted a hero’s welcome in the USSR by Leonid Brezhnev and lived there until his death in 1978.
Recently I visited the Leon Trotsky House and Museum in Mexico City. It had become a minor bucket list item of mine. My wife, Lisa Powell, and I had visited Mexico City a few years ago but Mexico and I have proven to be not the best of company. I have been sick in numerous coastal resorts and even on our first Mexico City trip being ill yet again precluded my going to the museum. On this recent trip it was the altitude of the capital at 7,700 feet that defeated me on our first day. I did get out and go to the museum the third day and what a wonderful experience.
The place had been heavily fortified, with numerous armed guards posted in watch towers and each room of the inner house was secured with three inch solid steel doors. The compound also had gardens and a large chicken coop. There is a film of Trotsky speaking in English from the house in which you can hear his chickens cackling!
The assassination took place in Trotsky’s study. He would write at least 10 hours daily. On that fatal day, Mercader visited with a pistol, dagger and an ice axe. The Soviets realized that a pistol shot would do the job but Mercader would not be able to escape. The dagger could work but it was not as “reliable” as what was contemplated to be a “silent death” that would allow him to leave quietly. since the earlier failed assassination attempt, the security guards had made security modifications to permit them to remotely control access to Trotsky. Therefore for Mercader to escape it would have to be a silent murder. Mercader stated that he was writing an article on Trotsky. He asked Trotsky to read some of what he had just written. As Trotsky read from his writing desk Mercader struck Trotsky on the back of his head with the ice axe that he had hidden in his coat. The initial blow was certainly mortal but not immediately fatal. After a scuffle with his assailant, the guards came in to kill Mercader but Trotsky ordered them to stop so that Mercader could be interrogated. He also had the wherewithal to tell the guards to remove his grandson who ran in with the guards, “keep the boy away, he shouldn’t see this.” Trotsky was taken to a hospital where he died the next evening from loss of blood, shock and brain injuries. His cremated remains are in a crude mausoleum in the garden.
There is an interesting tale of the infamous ice axe. It had been held by the police in its evidence room for many years until a secret police officer, Alfredo Salas, “removed” it upon his retirement who considered it his “gold retirement watch” in 1965. He later gave it to his daughter, Ana Alicia. She kept it hidden under her bed for 40 years. In 2005 she put it up for sale and it was purchased by Keith Melton who is a serious hunter of important historical items related to espionage. He had been looking for the ice axe all of those years that it was missing and acquired and it now is on display at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. Mercader’s bloody fingerprints remain on the ice axe. I have actually seen it there.
What an interesting place to visit. I highly recommend adding the Trotsky House and Museum to your own bucket list. You will not be disappointed.
