This hero would probably never have become the owner of the highest insignia of the USSR if fate had not brought him together with another hero - Lev Davidovich Trotsky. Ramon Mercader killed the sworn enemy of Joseph Stalin and was treated kindly by the Soviet authorities for this. True, only after serving time for murder.
Why was the murder of Trotsky entrusted to Mercader?
During the days of the October Revolution and in the years of the Civil War that followed it, the popularity of Leon Trotsky was extremely high. He was rightfully considered the second person of the young republic. However, after the war, Lev Davidovich's ambitions somewhat surpassed his popularity. Nevertheless, he continued to consider himself the unconditional heir of Vladimir Lenin and was openly preparing to acquire the status of a leader over time. But in his ambitious intentions he was not alone: at least two more members of the Politburo of the Bolshevik Party seriously claimed the same role. One of them was Joseph Stalin.
Atu him, atu
While Vladimir Ilyich was alive, he somehow restrained the ambitions of the applicants and, with his authority, suppressed their undercover struggle. Stalin skillfully concealed his intentions for the time being. Having united at first with Zinoviev and Kamenev, he began to hunt for their common main enemy - Trotsky.
In early January 1924, when Lenin's days were already numbered, taking advantage of Trotsky's stay in treatment, the triumvirate held a meeting of the Politburo, at which it tried to remove him from the post of People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, thereby depriving him of military support. However, only a year later they managed to force Lev Davidovich to submit an application for voluntary resignation from this post.
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After another year and a half, Trotsky was removed from the Politburo. And then he was completely expelled from the party and removed from all posts. This overthrow of the former idol caused a rather violent reaction in the ranks of the party members. Suffice it to say that the prominent revolutionary Adolf Joffe committed suicide in protest against the expulsion of Trotsky (although not only for this reason). This extreme step of the old Bolshevik did not stop the brought ax. The hunt continued.
In early 1928, Trotsky was arrested. First they were exiled to Alma-Ata, and in 1929 they were exiled from the country. After long wanderings, hiding from the NKVD agents, whose methods were well known to him, Trotsky settled in Mexico. He arrived there at the invitation of his admirer, the artist Diego Rivera, who gave the exile his home. After Trotsky created the Fourth International, Rivera entered its governing bodies. But the artist's friendship with the politician was short-lived. Soon their paths parted, and Trotsky moved to the villa he had bought, turned into a well-fortified and guarded fortress.
Here, with seething energy and rare capacity for work, Trotsky developed a stormy activity directed mainly against Stalin. He was the only survivor from the inner circle of the Soviet dictator, perfectly familiar with his difficult biography and insidious disposition. In June 1937, he sent a telegram to the USSR Central Executive Committee: "Stalin's policy leads to the final, both internal and external defeat. The only salvation is the turn towards Soviet democracy." Such a demarche is overwhelming; the cup of Stalin's patience, the NKVD was instructed to pacify the rebel in any way. Ahead of time, in order to cover the radio that was being prepared in the media, the press began to spread rumors about preparations for an attempt on Trotsky's life by leaders of the White Guard emigration.
Operation Duck
By that time, the NKVD already had sufficient experience in matters of this kind. In the late 1920s, a group was created in the OGPU (a punitive body that existed in parallel with the NKVD until 1934) to carry out special operations abroad. Including for the elimination of political opponents of the Stalinist regime. One of its leaders, Pavel Sudoplatov, was assigned to deal with the "Trotsky case".
In the late 1930s, during the Spanish Civil War, he met the communist Ramon Mercader, who was soon to play a major role in the impending atrocity.
Jaime Ramon Mercader del Rio was born in 1913 in Barcelona to a wealthy family of railway tycoon Pau Mercader. His mother was a Cuban woman, Caridad del Rio, recruited at one time by NKVD resident Naum Eitingon. It was under her influence that Ramon found himself in the ranks of the Communist Party and became one of the leaders of the communist youth organization movement in Barcelona. He was convicted for this, spent several months in prison … In the Spanish Civil War he fought on the side of the Republicans, rose to the rank of major.
The direct management of the operation to liquidate Trotsky (codenamed "Duck") was carried out by Eitingon, who created two unrelated groups of performers. One was headed by the famous Mexican artist David Siqueiros II, led by Caridad Mercader, who brought her son Ramon to work. On May 24, 1940, the Duck took off for the first time, but unsuccessfully. The attack on Trotsky's house, led by Siqueiros, ended in failure. Trotsky himself, waking up from the roar, hid under the bed, where he lay down for about 15 minutes, until the shooting stopped. The attackers (and there were about two dozen of them), dressed in police uniforms, made a lot of noise, riddled all the doors and windows of the house, but none of its inhabitants was seriously injured. Siqueiros was captured by the police. Ironically, one artist sheltered Trotsky, the other almost killed him.
Rabbit punch
The next attempt was prepared more carefully. The main role in it was assigned to Ramon Mercader. Previously, he managed to get close to Sylvia Ageloff, one of Trotsky's assistants. In March 1940, thanks to this connection, under the name of Jacques Mornard, he got to Trotsky's villa and managed to make a positive impression on him, skillfully posing as a convinced Trotskyist. Later, he more than once visited Lev Davidovich and talked with him.
On August 20, 1940, Mercader arrived at the villa under the pretext that he wanted to show Trotsky his article, and when he began to read it, he hit him from behind with an ice ax brought under the hollow on the head. With this terrible blow, he hoped to quietly put an end to Trotsky and quietly leave the house. However, he turned out to be a tough nut to crack: with a cry he attacked Ramon. But the guards who rushed to the noise were ordered not to kill the attacker.
After receiving a fatal wound, Leon Trotsky lived for almost another day. After his arrest, Mercader called his act an act of retaliation and refused further testimony. The court sentenced him to the maximum term under Mexican law - 20 years in prison, which he served "from call to call."
Ramon Ivanovich
In 1961, a new employee appeared in the Central Archives of the CPSU - 48-year-old Ramon Ivanovich Lopez, a handsome southerner, slender, calm and benevolent person. He spoke several languages, but spoke Russian with an accent. None of the colleagues, except for the head of the personnel department, knew the past of this humble colleague, who wore the star of the Hero of the Soviet Union on his chest. He was considered a war veteran who preferred not to expand on his exploits. True, colleagues were somewhat surprised when Ramon Ivanovich was provided with a state dacha and a four-room apartment in Moscow not far from the Sokol metro station.
Comrade Lopez worked for 10 years, and then just as suddenly disappeared. Only later did it become clear that he left for Cuba, where he worked as an adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until his death in 1978. The ashes of the deceased were taken to Moscow and buried at the Kuntsevo cemetery. On the grave - a monument with the Star of the Hero and the inscription: “Lopez Ramon Ivanovich. 1913-1978.
Ramona's mother Caridad Mercader belatedly suffered a reproach of conscience. “I turned my Ramon into a killer,” she wrote to her Spanish friend. In 1944, having received permission from the Soviet authorities, she left Moscow for Mexico, from there she moved to Paris, where she died in 1975.
The leaders of the operation, who served the Soviet regime with faith and truth, themselves suffered from it. After the war, Eitingon was arrested twice as an accomplice of Beria, he spent 12 years in the camps. Sudoplatov received 15 years in prison, suffered three heart attacks there, and became almost completely blind. But he survived and still managed to talk about Operation Duck in the pages of his memoirs. In 1992, both were rehabilitated (Eitingon - posthumously).
Magazine: Mysteries of History №20. Author: Anatoly Burovtsev, Konstantin Rishes