Trotsky's Exile on Main Street
This man...
Lev Davidovich Bronshtein aka Leon Trotsky,
was born on November 7, 1879...
in Kherson City, Ukraine.
Trotsky, along with Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin,
was one of the chief architects of the Russian Revolution.
After Lenin's death, there was a power struggle
between those who supported Trotsky...
and those who supported Stalin.
Stalin won.
On January 32, 1928, Trotsky was exiled here...
Alma Ata in Kazakhstan.
In 1929 Trotsky was deported from the Soviet Union
and took refuge here...
Büyükada off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey, where he stayed for the next four years.
In 1933 Trotsky was offered asylum by France.
He accepted.
He was not allowed in Paris, so he stayed here...
at Barbizon.
In 1935 he was expelled from France and moved here...
Hurum, Norway.
Before Christmas of 1936 he and his wife were deported to Mexico...
where he began an affair with Frida Kahlo.
Kahlo's husband, Diego Rivera, was a great admirer of Trotsky
and even put his image in one of his famous murals.
While in Mexico City, Trotsky and his wife lived here.
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On May 24, 1940, Trotsky survived a raid on his home by armed Stalinist assassins.
On August 20, 1940 , his luck ran out.
While in his study...
Trotsky was attacked by Ramon Mercader
wielding this weapon...
a mountaineer's ice axe.
Mortally wounded, Trotsky stopped his guards from killing his attacker.
Mercader (pictured above) was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In 1961, Mercader was declared a Hero of the Soviet Union.
Trotsky lingered on for more than a day...
before dying at the age of 60 on August 21, 1940.
Trotsky was cremated and his ashes were buried here...
In Coyoacán, Mexico - finally ending more than 10 years of exile.
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