Trotsky (49 page)

he was introduced to Dorothy Schultz: Dorothy Schultz undated statement, TC 24:7 [hereafter: DS].

question him about his name, which did not seem French: HS.

came by the apartment at least a dozen times…he was close to the Trotskyist circle in Paris: DS, HS.

One of the casualties was Mark Zborowski: Sara Weber to Trotsky, July 16, 1940, TEP 5916.

Jacsons bragging tales…Jacson was introduced to Cannon and Dobbs…Jacson bought Natalia a gift of sour cream…dinner at the Hotel Geneva…difficult to pin him down: DS, HS.

that relatively harmless creature: Mosley, 79.

Jacson’s conversations with Dorothy: DS.

his Buick, which he arranged to leave at the house: HS; Hansen, “With Trotsky to the End,” in
Leon Trotsky,
24; Levine, 101–2.

Mercader-Jacson went to New York: FBI, 1:109, 2:46; telegrams sent between Sylvia and Jac, November 1939 to July 1940, TC 24:5.

surprised to with Hilda and Ruth Ageloff,” August 24, 1940, TC 24:2.

he phoned Evelyn…a diamond-cutting syndicate: DS.

he came by the house at 2:40: Levine 104.

She grew impatient, and then desperate: Sylvia to Jac, July 29, 1940, in FBI, 5:42.

very ill in a small town near Puebla: “Memorandum of talk with Hilda and Ruth Ageloff,” August 24, 1940, TC 24:2.

an expensive box of chocolates: Hansen, With Trotsky to the End, in
Leon Trotsky,
24.

“Everything is in order”:
Ocherki,
102.

he had not dropped in on the headquarters of the Socialist Workers Party: Hansen, “With Trotsky to the End,” in
Leon Trotsky,
23.

a separate Workers Party: Cannon and Dobbs to Trotsky, April 13, 1940, TEP 801.

Burnham’s astonishingly candid resignation letter: May 21, 1940, TEP 13826.

a petty-bourgeois fraud: Hansen to Reba Hansen, July 21, 1940, Hansen papers, 19:4.

an event arranged by Professor Hubert Herring: Herring to Trotsky, July 15, 1940, TEP 1977.

Charles Orr: Charles A. Orr, “Trotsky comme je l’ai vu à Mexico,”
Cahiers Léon Trotsky,
No. 51, October 1993.

“The OM ripped into the democracies”: Hansen to Reba Hansen, July 21, 1940, Hansen papers, 19:4.

a formal debate with the guards: Hansen to Reba Hansen, July 24, 1940, Hansen papers, 19:4.

Sylvia Ageloff, who flew in from New York: FBI, 1:114, 117–18.

the discussion centered on the Majority and Minority views: Levine, 112.

he barely said a word: Natalia, 265.

he certainly didnt act like his old dynamic self: Hansen to Dobbs, August 11, 1940, TC 24:13; Hansen to Reba Hansen, August 9, 1940, Hansen papers, 19:4; Hansen, “With Trotsky to the End,” in
Leon Trotsky,
17.

an hourlong siesta after lunch…“It bores him stiff”: Hansen to Reba Hansen, June 24, 1940, Hansen papers, 19:4.

“I will do everything to observe this new ‘deadline’”: Trotsky to Malamuth, March 19, 1940, TEP 8984.

Trotsky accused the monthly
Futuro
…mobilizing Goldman in New York: Hansen to Goldman, June 28, 1940, TC 24:11; Trotsky to Goldman, July 3, 1940, TC 10:70;
Writings,
12:305–15; Trotsky, “The Comintern and the GPU.”

the preliminary hearing on July 2: Robins to Rose Karsner, July 2, 1940, TC 24:10.

“working like a steam engine”: Hansen to Reba Hansen, June 11, 1940, Hansen papers, 19:4.

“It is imperative not to lose a single hour”: Trotsky to Goldman, July 3, 1940, TC, 10:70.

His blood pressure was running extremely high. His lower back was giving him trouble: Hansen to Dobbs, July 31, 1940, TC 24:12.

a deposition asserting that Siqueiros was a Trotskyist: Trotsky, “The Comintern and the GPU” Trotsky to Curtiss, August 2, 1940, TEP 7639.

On August 6 Trotsky held a press conference: Hansen to Dobbs, August 6, 1940, TC 24:13
Writins
12:330.

Another head of the Stalinist hydra: Mosley, 124.

“Indignation, anger, revulsion?”: Trotsky to Angelica Balabanoff, Deutscher III, 295

“We await the new intrigue calmly”: Trotsky, “The Comintern and the GPU.”

The picnic on August 9: Hansen to Reba Hansen, August 9, 1940, Hansen papers, 19:4.

he liked to joke to Natalia: Nataia, How It Happene, in
Leon Trotsy,
35.

“My death…may lighten Seryozha’s situation”…her husband grieving in his study: Natalia to Sara Weber, September 25, 1941, TC 26:32.

a private moment between father and Son, in Leon
Trotsky,
40.

he slid down low in the seat…“we must have two of the best drivers in the car”: Hansen, “With Trotsky to the End,” in
Leon Trotsky,
23.

The guard now numbered seven: Robins to Comrade [Dobbs], July 12, 1940, TC 24:12.

Natalia…was now pushing for a threefold guard: Hansen to Dobbs, July 31, 1940, TC 24:12.

a Sioux Indian known as the Rainman: Dobbs,
Teamster Rebellion,
120, 155;
Teamster Power,
125;
Teamster Politics,
141–43.

“sufficient experience, prestige, and authority”: Dobbs to Hansen, July 26, 1940, TC 24:12; Schultz to Dobbs, July 30, 1940, TC 24:12.

Trotsky doubted the value of the Rainman coming down: Hansen to Dobbs, July 31, 1940, TC 24:12.

Trotsky’s reaction annoyed the comrades: Dobbs to Rainbolt, August 9, 1940, TC 24:13; Dobbs to Hansen, August 13, 1940, TC 24:13.

Trotsky was not always the most cooperative subject to guard…the indignity of a personal search: Hansen, “With Trotsky to the End,” in
Leon Trotsky,
20.

Robins proposed that Trotsky always be accompanied: Robins memoir, TC 30:1.

a bulletproof vest and a siren: Trotsky to Charles Curtiss, August 16, 1940, TEP 7640.

room 113 of the Hotel Montejo: FBI, 1:114; Levine, 115–16.

Sylvia was troubled by the changes she observed in Ramón’s health: Sylvia to Hilda Ageloff, August 16, 1940, TC 24:12.

Jacson’s haggard appearance and nervous twitching: Hansen, “With Trotsky to the End,” in
Leon Trotsky,
20.

Van sent a telegram: Feferman, 195.

his accent was not quite French…infatuated with Jacson: Van, 146–47; Feferman, 192–93; Walta Karsner statement, August 21, 1940, TC 24:4; statement of the secretary of the Belgian Legation, in
Excelsior,
August 28, 1940, copy in TC 24:1.

“It would be really too cruel”: Trotsky to Van, August 2, 1940, TEP 10706.

On August 17 at 4:35 p.m.: Levine, 114–15.

his broad shoulders slightly stooped: Levine, 161.

“his clothes flop on him like a scarecrow”: Sylvia to Hilda Ageloff, August 16, 1940, TC 24:2.

six feet in his shoes: Robins memoir, TC 30:1.

souvenir slugs from the Siqueiros raid: Dugrand, 50; Hansen to Dave Hansen, July 21, 1940, Hansen papers, 17:9; Levine, 124.

The entire visit took only eleven minutes: Levine 114.

“I don’t like him”: Natalia, “How It Happened,” in
Leon Trotsky,
38.

dark clouds gathered in clusters: Levine, 115; Hansen, “With Trotsky to the End,” in
Leon Trotsky,
24.

He told Natalia he felt well: Natalia, “How It Happened,” in
Leon Trotsky,
38.

a telegram from Al Goldman in New York: TEP 1581.

“Disloyalty is always bad”: Trotsky to Goldman, August 17, 1940, TEP 8340.

“a difference in comfort between various cars in a railway train”:
Writings,
12:221.

“civil liberties and other good things in America”: Trotsky to Friends, August 13, 1940, TEP 7570.

an American brand of militarism: Hansen to Dobbs, August 6, 1940, TC 24:13.

“very pretentious, very muddled, and stupid”:
Writings,
12:341, 410–18.

Trotsky’s Mexican attorney: Natalia, “How It Happened,” in
Leon Trotsky,
38.

punctuating the end of each sentence:
“Tochka!”
: Hansen, “With Trotsky to the End,” in
Leon Trotsky,
24.

two congratulatory letters to comrades in Minneapolis: TEP 10971, 10529.

The last letter of the day: Trotsky to Schultz, August 20, 1940, TC 12:9.

Hansen was on the roof near the blockhouse: account of the murder drawn from Hansen, “With Trotsky to the End,” in
Leon Trotsky,
16–26; Natalia, “How It Happened,” in
Leon Trotsky,
35–39; Natalia, 266–70; for French-language original of Natalia’s account: Victor Serge,
Vie et Mort de Trotsky
(Amiot Dumont, 1951); Levine, 111–32; Salazar, 140–42; Hansen, “On the 23rd Anniversary of the Russian Revolution,” undated manuscript, Hansen papers, 40:26.

wet grass made their bellies swell: Salazar, 135.

Caridad Mercader and Leonid Eitingon: Sudoplatov, 78; Levine, 120, 131.

Look, we found a barber: Natalia to Sara Weber, January 8, 1952, IC 26:31.

The doctors trepanned an area of the right parietal bone: Salazar, 103.

The direction of the pickax: Salazar, 135.

The first medical bulletin: medical reports and press releases are in TC 23:13.

the patient’s chances were one in ten:
The New York Times,
August 21, 1940.

She sat beside him, dressed in a white hospital gown:
The New York Times,
August 21, 1940.

She was waiting for him to wake up: Natalia to Sara Weber, September 25, 1941, TC 26:32.

Colonel Salazar arrived to question Mercader: Salazar, 125–37.

the police found a dagger: Salazar, 105.

letter of confession: TC 24:5; Salazar, 128–31.

“It was a veritable maze”: Salazar, 142.

Mercader’s account of the details of his crime:
Excelsior,
August 26, 1940, copy in TC 24:5.

she rushed over to the house: “Declaration of Sylvia Ageloff,”
Excelsior,
August 27, 1940, copy in TC 24:2; Salazar, 143–44.

“Kill him! Kill him!”: Levine, 130–31.

“the flickering life of our Old Man”: TC 24:14.

Van was out taking a walk: Van, 147.

Trotsky’s breathing had become more rapid: Natalia, “How It Happened,” in
Leon Trotsky,
39.

“Gentlemen! Trotsky is dead!”: Salazar, 108.

pressed her face against the soles of her husband’s feet…“Everything is finished”: Natalia to Sara Weber, September 25, 1941, TC 26:32.

Epilogue: Shipwreck

Natalia was increasingly skeptical…the Korean War: Natalia to the Executive Committee of the Fourth International, May 9, 1951, TC 26:13;
The New York Times,
June 8, 1951.

“neo-Trotskyist deviation”:
Time,
April 10, 1964.

Natalia addressed a letter to the Soviet government: TC 26:30.

Soviet intelligence hatched an escape plan for Mercader: Salazar, 216–29; Sudoplatov,
Raznye dni tainoi voiny i diplomatii, 1941 god
(Olma-Press, 2001), 141–42; Kolpakidi, 170–85;
Venona,
279;
Ocherki,
106.

Caridad seems to have lost her bearings: Levine, 215–22.

private Kremlin ceremony on June 17, 1941: Sudoplatov,
Raznye dni,
141–42; Nikandrov, 134.

Ramón’s recognition would have to wait: Sudoplatov,
Raznye dni,
141.

his true identity was discovered in 1950: Salazar, 231–35; Levine, 187–214.

Ramón never forgave her: Nikandrov, 133.

Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin, and the Gold Star medal: Kolpakidi, 12.

Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo became ardent supporters of Stalin’s USSR: Herrera, 249, 341–42.

a small bust of Stalin: Van, 160.

Frida’s funeral: Herrera, 436.

Colonel Salazar finally caught up with the fugitive painter: Salazar, 184–201.

At the trial, Siqueiros spoke passionately…moving to Chile: Stein, 121–30.

massive interior mural: Rochfort, 199, 207–11.

National Art Prize…hero’s burial:
The New York Times,
January 7, 1974.

a team of FBI agents and U.S. marshals: Dobbs,
Teamster Bureaucracy,
137, 145, 169–283; Myers,
The Prophet’s Army,
177–88.

Slvia Caldwell:
Venona
Secrets, 359–61.

the law also caught up with Mark Zborowski: Poretsky, 271–74;
Venona,
257–58;
Venona Secrets,
368–74.

Alexander Orlov…surfaced in New York:
Deadly Illusions,
339–48.

The FBI assumed…“Trotskyist invention”:
Deadly Illusions,
290.

Krivitsky…was found dead: Kern,
A Death in Washington.

U.S. Senate’s Internal Security Subcommittee:
Legacy,
15–31.

Zborowski skillfully ducked and weaved:
Scope of Soviet Activity in the United States: Hearing before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, Eighty-Fourth Congress, Second Session
(United States Government Printing Office, 1956), 77–101, 103–35.

Zborowski appeared in court to testify…Zborowski was convicted:
The New York Times,
November 6, 1956; April 22 and 26, 1958; December 14, 1962.

Van had been out of the Trotskyist movement: Feferman, 215–18.

Max Eastman and Sidney Hook: Wald, 271–74, 290–94.

Max Shachtman: Peter Drucker,
Max Shachtman and His Left: A Socialist’s Odyssey Through the “American Century”
(Humanities Press, 1994), 218–311.

James Burnham…
The Managerial Revolution:
Kelly, 97.

Burnham fell out with Cold War liberals…
National Review:
Kelly, 183–237.

President Reagan famously declared…Presidential Medal of Freedom: http:// www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches; Kelly, 365.

Trotskyist sects endured: Wald, 295–310.

Columbia University…Yulia Akselrod…Seryozha was shot: Yulia Akselrod, “Why My Grandfather Leon Trotsky Must Be Turning in His Grave,”
Commentary,
April 1989.