Confrontation between Trotsky and Stalin
Whoever said anything, the disagreements between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin were not the result of personal relationships, but of different views on world politics. Although personal motives for a serious conflict also took place. In 1918, Trotsky was the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council and actually created the Red Army. Trotsky's "mobile" train traveled along all fronts of the Civil War. In the fall of 1918, he ended up in Tsaritsyn (present-day Volgograd), the defense of which was entrusted to Joseph Stalin and Kliment Voroshilov. Trotsky sharply criticized the organization of Tsaritsyn's defense. He was supported by the Central Committee, but the local communists sided with Stalin, unwilling to obey the orders of the "Jewish upstart." Soon the city was captured by Denikin's troops, and Stalin barely had time to leave for Moscow.
After the end of the Civil War, Trotsky's positions in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) weakened noticeably. In the 1920s, a struggle for power began in the party, in which Trotsky took an active part. As you know, Stalin won this fight. However, Trotsky tried to return for a long time.
In 1929, Trotsky was urged to leave the Soviet Union. He leaves for Turkey. Taking with him his own archive (28 boxes of classified documents), part of which would later be sold to Harvard University. In 1933, Leon Trotsky moved to France. But he was too uncomfortable there. There were too many former White Guards in this country who considered it their duty to take revenge on Trotsky. In 1935, Trotsky moved to Norway, where there are almost no Russian emigrants. But he soon had to leave this country too. In 1936, he moved to Mexico, where, with the favor of the then President of the country, Lazaro Cardenosa, he settled down quite well.
Revolt in Spain and contacts with the imperialists
The actual political contradictions between Trotsky and Stalin were based on different views about the future of Russia. Trotsky viewed the country as a springboard for the subsequent expansion of the revolution around the world, and Stalin believed that it was necessary to build communism in a single country. By the way, later researchers will draw parallels between Trotsky's ideas and the “color” revolutions in the countries of the former USSR. It is very similar (with the theory of "permanent revolution", set forth by Trotsky back in the 30s) events developed in Ukraine and Georgia. Apparently, the developers of the "color" revolutions have carefully studied Trotsky's archive.
Several attempts were made on Trotsky. And Soviet intelligence had nothing to do with most of them. However, Trotsky constantly repeated that it was Moscow that was trying to exterminate him. Which could not please Stalin. But he did not give an order to liquidate Trotsky. And in 1937, at the suggestion of Trotsky, a serious split occurred in the revolutionary troops of Spain, which greatly weakened the republicans.
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In Barcelona, the Workers' Party of Marxist Unity (POUM) came out against former like-minded people. Party members maintained relations with Trotsky and accepted his advice on countering military experts from the USSR. In the very rear of the Republicans, there was a mutiny, which many called the beginning of the end of Republican Spain.
Of course, the success of General Franco in that war was largely due to the support of Hitler's Germany and Italy. But many participants in the war in Spain blamed not only the fascist regimes for the defeat, but also Trotsky. What actually took advantage of the employees of the NKVD. Groups of saboteurs will later be formed from the former "intebrigade" members, who will be entrusted with the elimination of Trotsky.
In 1938 it became known that Trotsky had entered into close relations with the British and American intelligence services. Why did Trotsky need this? Perhaps he considered the USSR his own fiefdom and could not forgive Stalin for taking his place at the head of the country. Maybe that is why Trotsky made contact with the "imperialists"? To take revenge on Stalin. And Trotsky knew most of the staff of the Comintern very well, whose branches were scattered almost all over the world, and Soviet intelligence officers often used the Comintern in their work. Trotsky, by contacting foreign intelligence services, could seriously harm this organization.
In September 1938, Lavrenty Beria and Pavel Sudoplatov, about whom we wrote in the previous issue, were summoned to the Kremlin. Recall that Sudoplatov had already been expelled from the party by that time and was expecting arrest from day to day. But Stalin recalled that it was Sudoplatov who organized the elimination of the leader of the Ukrainian nationalists, Yevhen Konovalets. And he decided to instruct him to organize an operation to eliminate Trotsky.
Groups "Horse" and "Mother"
Sudoplatov assigned the scout and saboteur Naum Eitington to supervise the execution of the operation. He fought in Spain and maintained good relations with his associates. Some of them settled in Mexico. Moreover, he already had experience of operations similar to the removal of Trotsky. We will tell you more about this outstanding scout later.
To carry out Operation Duck (from the first letters of the words "eliminate Trotsky") Eitington decided to create two independent groups. The first, which received the operational name "Horse", was headed by the famous Mexican artist and participant in the war in Spain Alfaro Siqueiros. The second, codenamed "Mother", was headed by the Spanish revolutionary Caridad Mercader.
Siqueiros, together with Soviet intelligence officer Joseph Grigulevich, planned an armed raid on a villa in the suburbs of Mexico City, where Trotsky lived. For this operation, the latest American Thompson assault rifles were purchased and illegally imported into the country. The wooden walls of the villa were not an obstacle to automatic fires. It took some time to get the villa plan. On the night of May 24, 1940, the "Horse" group crept up to the villa and opened a hurricane of fire on Trotsky's bedroom. Bullets freely pierced the wooden walls, but at the very first shots, Trotsky and his wife fell to the floor and covered themselves with a bed. Despite the fact that over 200 bullets were fired at the bedroom, none of them reached the target. Trotsky and his wife were not even wounded.
After this assassination attempt, the security of the villa was strengthened, and the walls of the house were fortified. It was the turn of the second group, which decided to get close to Trotsky from the inside, through someone close to him. Although it should be said that by the time of the assassination attempt, the "Mother" group had already begun work long ago and had even halfway fulfilled its task. At the forefront of her actions was the son of the group leader Ramon Mercader.
The actual preparation for the operation began long before Stalin gave the order for the liquidation. But initially she carried the goal of introducing her agent into Trotsky's inner circle. By a clever combination, the Soviet intelligence officer in the United States, Ruby Weil, in the spring of 1938, became quite close with the sister of one of Trotsky's devoted assistants, Sylvia Agelov. Her sister Ruth was especially cautious and suspicious, but Sylvia was distinguished by some frivolity and frivolity.
In the summer of 1938, Weill "unexpectedly" received an inheritance in France and invited a friend to Paris. Where at that time Ramon was already. He managed to get to know many Trotskyists who revolved around Trotsky's son Lev Sedov. Ramon did not try to get into trust, did not take part in their affairs, he simply played the role of a sympathizer for the ideas of the world revolution.
On July 1, 1938, Ramon met "his old friend" Ruby Weill in a cafe, who introduced him to her friend Sylvia. As expected in Soviet intelligence, a whirlwind romance broke out between the young people. But soon Sylvia had to return to New York. Ramon promised his mistress that soon they would meet again, and did not deceive. Soon he also came to the United States on the passport of the Canadian businessman Frank Jackson. He spent more than a year in the United States, having managed to get to know many prominent Trotskyists. But again he didn’t go into any business and didn’t even try to get information: he had another task.
In October 1939, Ramon was "forced" to travel to Mexico City on urgent business. He told Sylvia that he would stay in Mexico for a long time. The developers of the operation assumed that the passionately in love Sylvia would find an opportunity to follow him. And again they were right. The girl was able to persuade her sister to recommend her to Trotsky and soon she also arrived in Mexico City, where she began to work as Trotsky's secretary.
Again Ramon did not drive the horses. He did not try to enter the villa or meet the "leader of the world revolution." However, he came to the gate almost every day to meet his girlfriend. Gradually the guards got used to him, and in March 1940 he was first invited to the villa. According to the records of the guards, he visited there 12 times in a month, spent more than five hours inside, managed to get to know Trotsky and talk to him several times. Trotsky liked the young man very much. Possibilities opened up for Mercader to obtain useful information. In particular, it was he who obtained a detailed plan of the villa, which he passed on to Eitington. Who was also in Mexico at the time, keeping in touch with both groups. The plan of the villa was passed on to Siqueiros, after which the raid plan itself began to be developed.
The first lifetime hero
As we already mentioned, the first raid ended in failure, and all hope was now only on Ramon Mercader. He was instructed to get as close as possible to Trotsky.
However, after the assassination attempt, he became even more cautious. But Ramon found a way out. At that time, Trotsky was visited by his old friends Margarita and Alfred Rosmeram. It was through them that Ramon managed to get close to his goal again.
In August 1940, once again at the villa, Ramon "accidentally" met Trotsky in the garden and, embarrassed, asked for his opinion on his article, which dealt with Trotskyist organizations in the United States. Trotsky became interested, looked through the article (which was prepared by real experts who knew how to "hook" Trotsky) and asked the young man to come to him on August 20, 1940. Like, in order to express his opinion, he needs to carefully study the article.
On August 20, Ramon Mercader came to the villa armed with a pistol, knife and ice pick. The pistol was, so to speak, just in case of fire, because Trotsky was supposed to be liquidated silently. The guards, accustomed to Ramon's frequent visits to the villa, did not bother to search him. He was escorted to Trotsky's office and left alone with him. This was also part of the plan, since Trotsky could not stand the presence of strangers in his office when he was working.
Trotsky spread the article on the table and began to express his thoughts, underlining with a pencil what, in his opinion, should be changed. Ramon stood behind him to better see, and diligently assented. Seizing the moment, he took out an ice ax from under his jacket, swung it and brought it down on Trotsky's head. But at the very last moment, apparently, he felt something, turned around and screamed heart-rendingly. Security broke into the office and tied Ramon. And according to the plan, Trotsky did not even have to utter a word. Only in this case did Mercader have the opportunity to calmly leave the villa, telling the guards that the leader asked not to disturb him.
Leon Trotsky died the next day without regaining consciousness. Ramon Mercader argued in court that it was an act of a lone fighter and refused to testify. Despite all the attempts of the Mexican authorities to extort evidence from him that Ramon acted in the interests of the USSR, they could not get this evidence from him. Ramon was sentenced in 1944. Ramon was sentenced to the maximum term under Mexican law - 20 years in prison. He served them completely.
After the war, the question of organizing the escape of Ramon Mercader was repeatedly raised in Soviet intelligence. Residents in New York and Mexico City were even given the task of developing options for the operation. However, Ramon himself refused to escape, citing the fact that such an operation, in case of failure, would be too expensive for intelligence networks in Mexico and the United States. He was released on May 6, 1960 and immediately left for Cuba. From where he was secretly taken to the Soviet Union. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 31, 1960, Ramon Mercader (who took Soviet citizenship and received the name of Roman Ivanovich Lopez) was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. He became the first Soviet intelligence officer to receive this title during his lifetime.
Until 1974, Roman Lopez lived in Moscow and taught at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU. But the northern climate was bad for the health of the former intelligence officer. In 1974 he moved to Cuba, where, at the request of Fidel Castro, he worked as an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He died in 1978 from cancer. According to the will of the deceased, his ashes were brought to the USSR and buried at the Kuntsevo cemetery in Moscow.
PS In 1972, Alain Delon played Ramon Mercader in the French-Italian film The Assassination of Trotsky. The film was received negatively in the USSR, but received favorable reviews from critics in the West, mainly for Delon's performance.
Magazine: Forbidden History №13 (30), Yuri Anisyutkin
