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Leon Trotsky's Death
- Leon Trotsky
- Politics
- November 7, 1879
- August 21, 1940
- Assassination, beaten and stabbed
The life and death of Leon Trotsky:
He was a Marxist Revolutionary and first leader of the Soviet's Red Army. But he lost a power struggle with Joseph Stalin…
…was exiled, and ended up dead when a Stalin henchman assassinated him in Mexico.
He was born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein in Yanovka, Russia, the fifth child of eight children born to a family of wealthy Jewish farmers. He became involved in revolutionary activities in 1896, a dedicated Marxist and he married a fellow Marxist, Aleksandra Sokolovskaya in a Jewish ceremony. They later divorced.
Around the turn of the century, Lev remarried and changed his name to Leon Trotsky.
He became one of the first members of the Soviet Politburo in 1919 but in the 1920's led the opposition to Stalin, which was risky business indeed.
In the 1930's his opposition to Stalin grew and he spoke out against Stalin's non-aggression treaty with Adolph Hitler.
Exiled, he was living in Mexico in 1940 when he was attacked by a Stalin henchman, hit in the head with a pick axe.
It didn't kill him immediately, but Trotsky didn't last long, dying a few days later.
His last reported words were:"I will not survive this attack. Stalin has finally accomplished the task he attempted unsuccessfully before.
Leon Trotsky was cremated and his ashes are buried in Coyoacan, Mexico City.
