Trotsky (43 page)

“face to face with real art”:
My Life,
147.

“He never forgave me”: Van, 113.

“Old age is the most unexpected”:
Diary,
106.

“A distance had been established”…“the hands of the G.P.U.”: Van, 114.

blow hot and cold: Herrera, 468–69; Hansen, “With Trotsky in Coyoacan,” xx–xxi.

self-portrait: Herrera, 213–14.

more prolific…best thing that had ever happened: Herrera, 215.

Trotsky’s plan of escape: Van, 118–19.

Chapter Four: Day of the Dead

the scene of a fiesta: description of the November 7 fiesta draws on Hansen, “With Trotsky in Coyoacan,” xiv-xv; Hansen to James Cannon, November 7, 1937, TC 23:3; Hansen to Pearl Kluger, November 9, 1937, TEP 11828.

“whirl of mass meetings”:
My Life,
294.

“speaking simultaneously”: Nikolai Sukhanov, quoted in Volkogonov, 84.

“hidden reserve of nervous energy”:
My Life,
294–95.

“bare, gloomy amphitheatre”: John Reed,
Ten Days That Shook the World
(Boni & Liveright, 1919), 21.

a human tinderbox…“nipples of the revolution”…“like a sleepwalker”:
My Life,
295–96.

revolutionary oath: Volkogonov, 88.

“willingly die fighting”: R. H. Bruce Lockhart,
Memoirs of a British Agent
(Putnam, 1932), 26–27.

“float on countless arms”:
My Life,
296.

Trotsky managed to find his voice: Hansen, “With Trotsky in Coyoacan,” xv.

“great and swelling stream”: Hansen to Pearl Kluger, November 9, 1937, TEP 11828.

Seryozha…was executed: Volkogonov, 354–55.

October’s “greatest interpreter”…“breadth and profundity”: Trotsky letter to
Partisan Review,
June 17, 1938, published as “Art and Politics in Our Epoch,”
Partisan Review,
August-September 1938.

tumultuous revolutionary decade: Rochfort, 11–21.

Rivera…settled in Paris: Wolfe, 64–75.

Mexican Renaissance…Three major figures: Rochfort, 24–33; Wolfe, 118, 141–49, 154–57, 159–61.

Ministry of Education building: Rochfort, 51–67; Wolfe, 167–81; Brenner, 277–87.

“frog-faced man”…“frog or a housefly”: Wolfe, 179.

“Frog-toad”: Herrera, 109.

“so-called easel art”: Herrera, 82–83; Rochfort, 38–39; Brenner, 244–59.

party of radical painters: Wolfe, 151, 384.

“passionate dilettante”…“commonplace slogans”: Wolfe, 384–85, 419.

tenth-anniversary celebrations: Wolfe, 214–24.

anniversary demonstrations: Deutscher II, 312–18; Volkogonov, 300–1.

Sergei Eisenstein: Wolfe, 215.

“Look at your icon painters”: Wolfe, 221.

Moscow’s Red Army Club: Wolfe, 217–20.

“millionaire artist for the establishment”: Rochfort, 123; Wolfe, 259; Herrera, 201–2.

unmask the “Right Danger”: Bertram D. Wolfe,
A Life in Two Centuries: An Autobiography
(Stein and Day, 1981), 305.

Rivera fit the description: Wolfe, 230–36.

popular one-man show: Wolfe, 300–2.

San Francisco…Detroit Institute of Arts: Rochfort, 121–30; Wolfe, 280–96, 302–16.

Battle of Rockefeller Center: Wolfe, 317–41; Rochfort, 130–37.

Trotsky expressed his admiration: Trotsky to Rivera, June 7, 1933, TEP 9790.

“Rockefeller exploiters”…two minor fresco panels: Wolfe, 333–38; Diego Rivera,
Portrait of America
(Covici, Friede, 1934), 31, 178–79, 228–29.

“lifeless faces”…“rhythmic dance”: Wolfe, 425.

attacks on Rivera became an onslaught: Wolfe, 238.

“Do you wish to see with your own eyes the hidden springs…?”: Trotsky, “Art and Politics in Our Epoch,”
Partisan Review,
August-September 1938.

“a bit of an anarchist”…Trotsky reproached him: Van, 134.

Ilya Ehrenburg: Wolfe, 65.

“Rivera was the one”: Van, 134.

risqué jokes: Curtiss memoir, in Buchman papers, box 3, folder “Mexico 1987.”

telling of tall tales: Wolfe, 6.

not exotic enough…“white, red, and black”: Wolfe, 13–14.

Frida used hand signals: Herrera, 362.

“stupid or banal”: Wolfe, 398.

bathed irregularly: Wolfe, 26.

“enemy of clocks and calendars”: Wolfe, 226, 255.

“the considerable subtlety”: [Unidentified] to University of Chicago, August 31, 1938, TEP 17402.

“spontaneity was kept in check”: Farrell, “A Memoir on Leon Trotsky.”

“haughty and arrogant”…Karl Radek: Natalia, 120–21.

“gift of personal friendship”: Eastman,
Heroes,
247–49.

“servants to an aim”: Farrell, “A Memoir on Leon Trotsky.”

“anniversary smoker”: Eastman,
Heroes
, 247.

“I can’t stand it”: Natalia, 120–21.

“we drove in the Dodge”: Hansen to Sara Weber, November 3, 1937, TEP 12491.

“few days relaxing”: Hansen to James Cannon, November 22, 1937, TEP 11049.

“The Old Man enjoyed…mud holes”: Hansen to Pearl Kluger, July 21, 1938, TEP 11857.

tiny scratch pad…“funeral was in process”: Hansen to Reba Hansen, November 1, 1937, Hansen papers, 18:5.

“LD lost patience”
: “Joe’s notes on Trotsky,” Hansen papers, 40:7.

retrieve a Thompson submachine gun: Dugrand, 18.

Restaurant Acapulco: Wolfe, 360–61.

perpetual disorder…had not made him rich: Wolfe, 202, 354; Max Shachtman to Felix Morrow, January 5, 1937, TC 23:2; Van to Jan Frankel, February 16, 1938, and March 3, 1938, TC 23:4.

man arrived at the door: Van to Jan Frankel, February 4, 1938, TC 23:4; Trotsky to James Cannon, February 15, 1938, TC 9:54; Hansen to James Cannon, February 3, 1938, TC 23:4.

Trotsky was irate…“criminal lightmindedness”: Van to Jan Frankel, February 4, 1938, TC 23:4.

comings and goings: Van, 118–19.

Diego mortgaged his home: Van to Jan Frankel, January 16, 1938, TC 23:4.

slid into the backseat…arranged pillows: Van, 119.

“house is in an uproar”: Hansen to Reba Hansen, February 14, 1938, Hansen papers, 18:8.

angry clashes: Van to Jan Frankel, February 16, 1938, TC 23:4.

“the blackest day”:
Writings,
10:177.

thunderstruck…“Does Natalia know?”: Van, 119–20.

“Lyova is ill”: Natalia, 228.

Chapter Five: The Trouble with Father

“Goodbye, Leon”…moving tribute: “Leon Sedov—Son, Friend, Fighter,”
Writings,
10:166–79.

stormy scene erupted…“gravedigger”…“I have smelled gunpowder”: Deutscher II, 247–49;
Diary,
69; Natalia, 149.

“children and grandchildren”:
Diary,
69.

Whether Lyova died a natural death: Broué,
Léon Sedov,
219–64.

Lyova’s appendicitis became acute…the patient died: Volkogonov, 357–61; Deutscher 111, 320–23; Gérard Rosenthal,
Avocat de Trotsky
(Éditions Robert Laf-font, 1975), 229–35.

no sign of poisoning: the documentation in Trotsky’s archives of the investigation and speculations surrounding Lyova’s death is substantial; among the key documents are Henri Molinier to Trotsky, February 22 and 25, 1938, TEP 3188, 3190; Gérard Rosenthal to Trotsky, February 23, 1938, TEP 4336; Pierre Naville to Trotsky, February 22, 1938, TEP 3522; reports of Elsa Reiss (February 23, 1938), Lelia Estrin (February 24, 1938), and Mark Zborowski (February 25, 1938), TEP 17131, 15949, 17388; report of Dr. Marcel Thalheimer, February 18, 1938, TEP 15532; Trotsky to Monsieur le Juge d’Instruction, March 14, 1938, TEP 2995; Trotsky to Examining Magistrate of the Lower Court, Department of the Seine, July 19 and August 24, 1938,
Writings,
10:386–91, 421–25.

“terrible cry”: “Joe’s notes on Trotsky,” Hansen papers, 40:7.

mere sight of them: Hansen to Pearl Kluger, February 26, 1938, TEP 11843; Hansen to Rose Karsner, February 17, 1938, TEP 11760; Van, 120.

“my best friend”:
Writings,
10:163.

idolized his father: Volkogonov, 357; Deutscher II, 311; Deutscher, III, 115–17.

“politics in his blood”:
Diary,
69–70.

On the evening of January 16, 1928:
My Life,
539–42; Natalia, 155–57.

“He will remind Seryozha”:
Diary
, 62–63.

“We called him our minister of foreign affairs”:
Writings,
10:168.

Lyova became homesick: Volkogonov, 324–25; Van, 26–27.

Relations between Trotsky and Lyova: Deutscher III, 116; Van, 102.

Lyova’s involvement with a woman: Van, 24, 85.

gone to live in Berlin: Deutscher III, 117.

Stalin said with a sneer: Volkogonov, 325.

“singsong Moscow accent”:
Diary,
58–59.

“Lev Davidovich!”: Glotzer, 50.

Zina was already mentally unstable…worshipped her father: Deutscher III, 117–21; Volkogonov, 348–53.

“I am a good-for-nothing”…“You are an astonishing person”: Deutscher III, 120–21, 142.

Soviet government deprived Trotsky: Volkogonov, 350–51; Deutscher III, 142.

“Zina is terribly oppressed”: Volkogonov, 350.

“Mama is tied down”…“gentle, quiet little boy”: Van, 35.

“usual little cruelties”: Glotzer, 50.

“I expect a letter from you”: Van, 37.

turned on the gas taps: Deutscher III, 157–58; Volkogonov, 350–51.

left instructions: Zina’s note, TEP 17339.

“Poor, poor, poor child”: TEP 17340.

something terrible had happened…“Two deep wrinkles”: Van, 35.

open letter: Van, 35.

“I will go mad myself”: Alexandra Sokolovskaya to Trotsky, January 31, 1933, TEP 12608.

radical young activist…lovers had married: Deutscher I, 35–36, 47; Volkogonov, 8–16; Trotsky to Gérard Rosenthal, April 10, 1939, TEP 9828.

Trotsky’s response: Van, 40; published in part for the first time in
Istoricheskii arkhiv
, No. 1, 1992, 36.

“The two furrows”: Van, 41.

“they should be shot”: Van, 42.

Alexandra was arrested…They disappeared without a trace: fate of Trotsky’s family members: Volkogonov, 352–54, 366–67; Deutscher III, 228;
Diary,
70, 160–61; on Trotsky’s brother,
The New York Herald Tribune,
February 26, 1938; “Genealogy of Trotsky’s Family,” Lubitz Trotskyana Net, http://www.trotskyana.net/Leon_Trotsky/Genealogy/genealogy.htm.

tremendous load: Deutscher III, 144–45.

despairing letters: Deutscher III, 145.

volatile and often contentious: Deutscher III, 145; Poretsky, 261.

“all Papa’s deficiencies”: quoted in Feferman, 310.

“trouble with father”: Deutscher III, 146.

Lyova remembered these Old Bolsheviks: Deutscher III, 281–83, 319–20.

he became hysterical:
Legacy,
21–22.

“I became completely engrossed”:
Writings,
10:174.

“a labyrinth of sheer madness”: Deutscher III, 319.

statement in a Paris newspaper:
Writings,
10:387–88.

reproaches of his son for delays: Deutscher III, 116, 144–45, 295–96.

“I am a beast of burden”: Deutscher III, 310–11.

“a ridiculously transparent pose”: Van, 92.

Mark Zborowski: Volkogonov, 334–36; Deutscher III, 283–84; Broué,
Léon Sedov,
126 et
passim;
Poretsky, 261–62.

“sullen, frowning face”: Van, 99–100.

waves lasting five or six days:
Legacy,
22.

“Étienne can be trusted absolutely”: Volkogonov, 336.

“I never had any special suspicions”: Van, 99.

Zborowski kept Moscow thoroughly acquainted: Volkogonov papers, reel 4; Broué,
Léon Sedov,
210–11.

“Stalin must be killed”: Zborowski reports, February 8, 1937, and February 11, 1938, Volkogonov papers, reel 2;
Deadly Illusions,
282–84.

defection of Ignace Reiss: see his widow’s memoir, Poretsky,
Our Own People.

upper reaches of the GPU:
Deadly Illusions,
293–302.

“Long live Trotsky!”: Deutscher III, 315.

bullet-ridden body: Deutscher III, 315–16; Rosenthal,
Avocat de Trotsky,
205–20; Broué,
Léon Sedov,
184–93; Sneevliet to Trotsky, September 25 and 30, 1937, TEP 5204, 5206; Elsa Reiss [Poretsky] to Trotsky, September 30, 1937, TEP 4242.

“He is able, brave, and energetic”: Deutscher III, 318; Broué,
Léon Sedov,
211.

“le dernier refuge”…“Ton Vieux”:
Trotsky to Lyova, November 18, 1937, TEP 10237; Trotsky to Chers amis [Lelia Estrin and Mark Zborowski], November 18, 1937, TEP 7710.

alcoholic and depressed…“lost all faith”: Zborowski report, July 23, 1937, Volkogonov papers, reel 2.

he and his colleagues were stumped: Sudoplatov, 82–83.

“Both of them have aged terribly”: Hansen to Rose Karsner, February 17, 1938, TEP 11760.

small automatic pistol: Hansen, “With Trotsky in Coyoacan,” xxxiii.

“Slovenliness bordering on treachery”…“excuses and promises”: Trotsky to Lyova, February 15, 1937, TEP 10198.

“money to buy postage stamps”: Deutscher III, 297.

“outright crime”: Trotsky to Lyova, January 21, 1938, TEP 10244.

Lyova’s last letter: Deutscher III, 320.

brick, plaster, lime, and sand: Hansen to Reba Hansen, February 14 and 17, 1938, Hansen papers, 18:8.

The OM was seated at a small table: Hansen, “With Trotsky in Coyoacan,” xxxiii.

his affecting tribute:
Writings,
10:166–79.

rejoined the rest of the household: Hansen to Reba Hansen, May 23, 1938, Hansen papers, 18:11.

“our beloved daughter”: Trotsky to Jeanne Martin, March 10, 1938,
Writings,
10:257–58.

testament he produced in great haste: Camille [Rudolf Klement] to Trotsky, February 18, 1938, TEP 2035; Alfred Rosmer to Trotsky, February 16, 1938, TEP 4487.

Jeanne abducted Seva: Broué, 876–77; Deutscher III, 326–28.

“his banging window shattering glass”: “Joe’s notes on Trotsky,” Hansen papers, 40:7.

“You are with my enemies”: Van, 120–21.