Mercader del rio eustacia maria caridad. The main killer of the Soviet Union Ramon Mercader biography

In Moscow, at the Kuntsevo cemetery (site 10).

In the last years of his life.

NS Aime Ramon Mercader del Rio Hernandez (Ramon Ivanovich Lopez) - professional revolutionary, agent of Soviet foreign intelligence.

Born February 7, 1913 in Barcelona (Spain). Catalan. From the family of a wealthy manufacturer.

From his youth he took part in the labor movement, was a member of the youth communist organization (analogous to the Soviet Komsomol), then joined the Communist Party of Spain. Since October 1936 - a participant in the Spanish Civil War, fought in the ranks of the Republican army. He rose from lieutenant to major, became commissar of the 27th Infantry Brigade on the Aragonese Front. He was wounded in battles.

Recruited by the NKVD of the USSR in 1938 with the help of his mother Maria Karidad, who was an agent of Soviet intelligence. Was taken out of Spain and under the leadership of the Soviet Chekist N.I. Eitingona participated in the preparation of an attempt on the life of one of the organizers and leaders of the Great October Socialist Revolution, Trotsky L.D., exiled in 1929 from the USSR, and in 1932 deprived of Soviet citizenship, who in 1938 initiated the creation of the 4th "Internationale". Trotsky was considered the leadership of the CPSU (b) and the Soviet state as the worst enemy of the USSR and Soviet power. In addition, Trotsky and Stalin were personal implacable enemies.

In September 1939, Ramon Mercader was sent to New York (USA) with a passport in the name of a Canadian businessman, and became close to Sylvia Ageloff, who was part of Trotsky's entourage. In October of the same year, Mercader moved to Mexico City, where Trotsky lived with his family, explaining this allegedly by the affairs of the company (in fact, by a cover created for him by Eitingon) and convincing Ageloff to move to him.

In March 1940, under the name of the British citizen Jacques Mornard, with the help of Ageloff, he first entered the villa of L.D. Trotsky. Trotsky liked the young man who skillfully passed himself off as a staunch Trotskyist.

On August 20, 1940, Mercader arrived at the villa under the pretext of showing Trotsky his article. Mercader planned to quietly assassinate Trotsky, get out and drive away. But it didn't work out quietly. The murder weapon - a 7 cm ice ax entered Trotsky's head, but Lev Davidovich did not even lose consciousness, jumped up and began to scream. The guards rushed in and they started beating Mercader, while Trotsky ran around and shouted: "Just don't kill, first you have to interrogate him."

The wound was fatal for Trotsky, who died on the second day after the assassination attempt.

After his arrest, Mercader explained his act as an act of retaliation by a lone fighter, caused by disappointment in Trotskyism and deceived in the use of the financial sums provided to him. "The assailant named himself Jean Morgan Vandendrain, and belongs to the followers and closest people of Trotsky," the newspaper Pravda reported on August 22, 1940.

For a long time, Mercader was held in police prisons, continuously beaten and tortured. Only in March 1941 he was transferred to the city prison, where conditions of detention improved somewhat. The trial took place only in May 1944, Mercader was sentenced to 20 years in prison (the maximum term of imprisonment under Mexican law). Only in 1950 did the Trotskyists manage to establish the real name of Mercader, but even then he did not confess to cooperation with Soviet intelligence, explaining the murder on personal grounds.

Ramon Mercader served his full sentence and was released on May 6, 1960. He was taken from Mexico to Cuba, and then transported by steamer to the USSR.

Z and the fulfillment of a special task and the heroism and courage shown at the same time, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 31, 1960 Ramon Mercader(according to the text of the Decree - Lopez Ramon Ivanovic) awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

He lived in the hero-city of Moscow, was a senior researcher at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU, was engaged in the study of the civil war in Spain. In September 1974 he moved to Cuba for health reasons and at the invitation of the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, worked as an adviser to the Ministry of the Interior. He lived in the Cuban capital - the city of Havana, where he died on October 18, 1978 from sarcoma.

The ashes of Ramon Mercader was transported to the hero city of Moscow and buried at the Kuntsevo cemetery under the name of Lopez Ramon Ivanovich. There is a monument on the grave (site 10).

He was awarded the Order of Lenin (05/31/1960).

Py.sy. I hate Trotsky. But if you think about it (or you don't have to think about it, because it’s understandable), the hero Mercader was given for a terrorist attack.

After the assassination of Trotsky, the fate of R. Mercader, who acted under the pseudonyms Jackson and Jacques Mornard, was rather favorable. His first lawyer was the Cuban Ophelia Dominguez, a famous lawyer who spoke under the legend of a distant relative of the accused. Beria announced to Sudoplatov the decision not to spare any money to protect Mercader. The lawyers had to prove that the murder was committed on the basis of squabbles and intrigues in the Trotskyist movement. In this they were actively helped by Mercader himself, who stubbornly denied his involvement in the NKVD.

According to Luis Mercader, about $ 5 million was spent on Ramon during his stay in prison. These funds were used not only to pay for the best lawyers, but also to facilitate the all possible conditions of imprisonment, as well as to maintain agents in Mexico City, who maintained uninterrupted communication with Mercader. These agents, through intermediaries, were associated with the station in New York. Such a chain of communication operated successfully until the end of 1943, when, after the restoration of diplomatic relations between the USSR and Mexico, residents of the Soviet foreign intelligence began to operate there, to which channels of communication with Mercader were transferred.

After a lengthy and difficult legal procedure in various courts of the country, the court of the Federal District of Mexico in May 1944 delivered the final sentence: 20 years in prison. This was the capital punishment in this country.

Taking advantage of the softness of the Mexican penitentiary system, Mercader received large sums of money, with which he "rented" a luxurious private "room" in the prison with all the amenities, including even the then novelty - a TV.

Since 1941, over the years, with the participation of Mercader himself, various options have been developed for his escape from prison and secretly sending him out of Mexico. For the implementation of such plans, an extremely favorable situation developed at times. So, in the spring of 1945, Mercader, accompanied by his lawyer, went to the city to see a dentist. Not finding a doctor, they spent the whole day in the city. The visit to the doctor was repeated two days later, and this time the "prisoner" freely walked around the city without being accompanied by a lawyer. New, 1946, he was allowed to meet at the house of his friend, a former prisoner, with whom Ramon became friends in prison. Due to the fact that the chances of escape, even in such conditions, were missed, “one agent involved in the case expressed bitter and harsh reproaches to our workers in this regard, accusing them of indecision, excessive reinsurance, senseless waste of a lot of money, etc. NS.".

Efforts to organize the jailbreak of Trotsky's assassins were closely monitored by British and American intelligence. In 1941-1943, the censorship of the United States and Great Britain intercepted about 20 letters circulating on the New York-Mexico communication line and back, and revealed the secret writing and ciphers contained in them. As a result, it was found out that the action aimed at organizing the escape is being prepared by Soviet residencies in Mexico City and New York, and its participants are at least two dozen people of different nationalities, led by experienced intelligence officers working under the cover of the USSR missions in New York. and Mexico. Even the names of these people were found out: the secretary of the USSR Embassy in the USA Vasily Zubilin (V.M. Zarubin), M.A. Shalyapin, G.B. Ovakimyan, Lev Tarasov (L.P. Vasilevsky) and Pavel Klarin (P. . Pastelnyak). The last two were awarded orders for their active participation in Operation Duck in 1941 at the suggestion of Beria.

In 1946, American intelligence leaked information on the case to the press, where reports emerged that "a conspiracy that had been in preparation for several years ... ended in failure thanks to the vigilance of American intelligence agencies." In early 1946, the American magazines New Leader and Time reported that a communist woman from New York was involved in the murderer's escape plan, but the American and Mexican police took the necessary precautions to prevent the plan from being implemented.

The disclosure of the escape plans did not change the comfortable conditions of Mercader's stay in prison. Since 1946, the Indian woman Raquelia Mendoza began to visit him regularly, supplying him with medicines and bringing home meals to his cell every day. Until the release of Mercader, she served as a liaison, and even during his stay in prison, she married him and regularly paid him conjugal visits, which were allowed by Mexican law. Through Raquelia, Mercader sent letters to his relatives in Moscow.

Over the years, the Mexican authorities have made persistent efforts to find the true name of Mercader. Already in the first days of the investigation, the judge turned to the professor of criminology Alfonso Cuaron with a request to conduct a medical and psychological study of the killer's personality. Using various psychological and medical tests, Cuarón provided a lot of valuable information about the personality traits of "Mornar", but was unable to find any evidence of its identity.

The police determined that the killer was neither Belgian, French, nor Canadian. Getting on the "Spanish trail" was hindered by the fact that for a number of years the prisoner stubbornly declared that he did not know Spanish and had never revealed his acquaintance with it.

In 1945, a Mexican lawyer, Eduardo Seniseros, was hired to defend Mornar. Mercader told him his real name and explained the real motives for the murder. As Seniseros told the ICFI (International Committee of the Fourth International) commission in 1975, Mercader explained the reason for the terrorist act by saying "that he believed that in the communist movement" there should not be two leaders: Stalin and Trotsky, since this separates the Marxist forces. " Of course, Seniseros did not tell anyone who his client really was.

The first proof of Mercader's identity came from the former POUM leader Julian Gorkin, who was then living in Mexico. After contacting other Spanish exiles, Gorkin established in 1947 that the murderer's mother was Caridad Mercader, but he could not find anything more specific about the murderer himself.

Several former members of the international brigades identified Mercader from photographs and reported that he received a wound in his forearm in Spain, traces of which were found on the body of the killer. The final clarity was brought by Cuarón, during his trip to Spain in 1950, he obtained from the local police archives the file of Mercader with a photograph and fingerprints taken after his arrest in 1935 in Barcelona. Following this, information was obtained about the members of the Mercader family and their place of stay.

When the police dossier of Mercader was brought to Mexico from Spain, his further denial became pointless. In the face of irrefutable evidence, Mercader acknowledged his real name and his ancestry from a wealthy Spanish family. But until his release, he refused to admit that he had killed Trotsky on orders from Moscow, still emphasizing the personal motives of the murder.

In certain Stalinist circles, Mercader was seen as a hero. The famous Cuban poet Nicholas Guillen joined the campaign to glorify him, who pathetically wrote in his Elegy about Jacques Mornard:

(Translated by me from the English text, which in turn is a translation from the Spanish.- V.R.).

No one was able to document the participation of the NKVD in the murder of Trotsky. This became apparent only after the release of Mercader, who had served his full prison sentence. Shortly before leaving prison, he was presented with a Czechoslovak passport. On May 6, 1960, Mercader was released and flew to Havana on the same day. On May 7, he was already on board a motor ship heading from Havana to Moscow. Two weeks later, he met Rakelia in Moscow. In Moscow, he received Soviet documents in the name of Ramon Ivanovich Lopez.

KGB Chairman Shelepin sent Khrushchev a memo with proposals for rewarding Mercader, granting him Soviet citizenship and resolving issues of his material and financial support. In this note, Mercader's "exploits" were portrayed as follows: , showed courage, steadfastness and high ideology inherent in a real communist, and kept secret his connection with the state security organs of the Soviet Union. "

On the basis of this note, on May 31, a decree was signed by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which said: “For the fulfillment of a special assignment and the heroism and courage shown at the same time to appropriate Comrade. Lopez Ramon Ivanovich the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. This decree, of course, was not published in the press. On June 8, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Brezhnev presented the highest government award of the Soviet Union to Mercader in the Kremlin.

At the personal request of Dolores Ibarruri and by a special decision of the CPSU Central Committee, Mercader was admitted to the post of senior research fellow at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, where he studied the history of the Spanish Civil War. In addition to his official salary, he received a pension from the KGB. He was provided with a four-room apartment in Moscow and a state dacha near Moscow. During Mercader's lifetime, his new name (Lopez) was engraved on an honorary marble slab in the lobby of the KGB building.

Nevertheless, Mercader, treated kindly by the Soviet authorities, at times showed obstinacy. When he arrived in the Soviet Union, the first thing he asked was where Leonid Kotov (Eitingon) was now, and was amazed to learn that his mentor and immediate supervisor was being held in prison. During the 60s, Mercader repeatedly appealed to the Central Committee and the KGB with requests for the release of Eitingon and Sudoplatov. He even managed to reach Suslov, who told him: “We decided for ourselves the fate of these people once and for all. Do not poke your nose into other matters. "

In the early 1970s, Mercader stated that he and his wife had a hard time coping with the local climate. Upon learning of this, "Cuban friends" invited him to their country, inviting him to work as a labor education consultant in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At the end of 1973, Raquelia left for Cuba with her children. A year later, Mercader joined them. He died in this country on November 18, 1978. According to his will, the urn with his ashes was buried in the Moscow cemetery. In 1987, a granite slab appeared on the grave with the inscription "Lopez Ramon Ivanovich, Hero of the Soviet Union" engraved in gold letters on it.

For the Mercader family, pensions were established with payment in foreign currency: Rakelia for life, and for children - until they reach the age of majority. In Moscow, of the relatives of Mercader, only his younger brother Luis remained, who managed to return to Spain only in the 80s. There he became a teacher at the University of Madrid and published a book about his brother.

In an interview with Izvestia's correspondent, L. Mercader said that in Moscow many times he mentally sat down to read this book, but each time he stopped himself. "Why?" - “I answer sincerely: I was afraid, I was afraid of the KGB, its long arms, I was afraid that I would never be released to my homeland - after all, I knew a lot.”

V
Ideological preparation of the assassination attempt

The tireless preparations for Operation Duck were going on simultaneously in several countries. Two terrorist centers were created - in Paris and in New York. Beria ordered Sudoplatov and Eitingon to immediately go to Paris to assess a group of terrorists sent to Mexico. In Paris, they were actively assisted by an "important agent" under the code name Harry - the Englishman Morrison, a member of the so-called special terrorist-sabotage group Serebryansky, who played a key role in the theft of Trotsky's archives in November 1936. Morrison had connections with the Parisian police and obtained genuine police officers forms and seals for forging passports and residence permits, which allowed Soviet agents to settle in France.

At the beginning of the war in Europe, the scheme of communication with agents located in Mexico was rebuilt. France was excluded from the previous plan, and an intermediary point was organized in the United States.

In 1938, Ruby Weill, who had known Sylvia Ageloff since the early 1930s, when they both worked for the American Workers' Party, offered to accompany Sylvia on a trip to Europe, where the latter went to participate in the Founding Congress of the IV International. In June of this year, Weill introduced Sylvia to Mercader. In January 1939, Sylvia Ageloff left Paris and returned to the United States.

In October 1939, Eitingon arrived in New York and founded an import-export firm in Brooklyn, which was used as a communications center and as a "roof" for Mercader. Mercader, who arrived in New York in September 1939 and headed for Mexico three weeks later, could now travel to New York to meet with Eitingon.

Mercader arrived in the United States with a Canadian passport in the name of Frank Jackson. This passport belonged to a Canadian citizen, naturalized Yugoslav Tony Babich, who died in the Spanish war. This method of introducing agents into various countries was widely used by the NKVD since the beginning of the civil war in Spain. Passports were confiscated from all inter-brigade members, which were then handed over to spies who were planted in the respective countries.

In January 1940, Sylvia Ageloff arrived in Mexico City, for two months she worked as Trotsky's secretary. Every day "Jackson" took her to Trotsky's house, and in the evenings he waited for her at the gate of the villa, talking with outside and inside guards. In March 1940, Ageloff returned to New York.

During Sylvia's stay in Mexico City, she asked "Jackson" where the office in which he works was located. Jackson named room 820 in one of the larger office buildings. Sylvia sent Margarita Rosmer there, who did not find this room. Then "Jackson" gave another number of the room in which the boy-courier was, who confirmed that "Jackson" did go there. It was later revealed that this room was also used by Siqueiros.

Since the introduction of "Raymond" (the code name of Mercader in the NKVD) into Trotsky's entourage did not work, then, according to Eitingon, it was decided to organize an armed raid on Trotsky's house. To carry out the raid, the necessary people were picked up through Siqueiros. Eitingon himself did not meet with the participants in the operation and carried out all the work through Siqueiros.

The assassination attempt was preceded by intense ideological preparations, which Trotsky closely followed according to reports from the communist newspaper La Voe de Mexico, the organ of the Mexican Confederation of Labor El Popular and the Lombard magazine Futuro. On July 2, 1940, he announced at the trial that he had expected an assassination attempt with particular certainty from the beginning of 1940. Explaining the reasons for this, he pointed, in particular, to the Congress of the Communist Party of Mexico held in March this year, which proclaimed a course towards the extermination of "Trotskyism." This congress was preceded by a crisis in the leadership of the party, which began in November-December 1939. “It is unknown who developed a special document, the so-called“ Discussion Materials ”, published in La Voye on January 28 and presented an anonymous indictment against the old leadership (Laborde, Campo, etc.), allegedly guilty of a“ conciliatory ”attitude towards Trotskyism ".

In July 1978, Valentina Campo reported on the pages of the French newspaper "L'Humanite" that the official emissary of the Comintern, who had specially arrived in Mexico from Europe, suggested that he organize a terrorist act against Trotsky. After Campo refused to comply with this directive, he was expelled from the party.

Unaware of the specific reason for Campo's expulsion, Trotsky nevertheless wrote: “It is now quite obvious that the coup within the Communist Party was closely connected with the order of the assassination attempt given from Moscow. Most likely, the GPU ran into a certain resistance among the leaders of the Communist Party, who were accustomed to a quiet life and could be afraid of the very unpleasant political and police consequences of the assassination attempt. This is, obviously, the source of the accusation against them of "Trotskyism." Whoever objects to the attempt on Trotsky's life is obviously ... a "Trotskyist."

Trotsky saw the foreshadowing of the impending assassination attempt in the fact that some anonymous commission operating inside the Mexican Communist Party removed from work the entire Central Committee of the Party, elected at the previous congress, and the debate on the issue of "Struggle against Trotskyism and other enemies of the people", as was clear from the report about the congress in "La Voe de Mexico", took place not at open sessions of the congress, as on other issues on the agenda, but at a closed meeting of a special commission. As for the open report to the March congress made by a member of the Central Committee Salgado, he, according to Trotsky, “surpassed all the records of lies set by international Stalinism. Defeating disgust, I will cite several examples: “The Cardenas government allowed Trotsky to enter, contrary to the opinion of the workers' organizations; this gave Trotsky the opportunity to create in our country the leading center of his international espionage organization in the service of all counter-revolutionary forces ... may this serve as an example for us to strengthen our struggle against Trotskyism and to expel the chief of this gang of spies from our country. "

This was followed by a new upsurge of the slanderous campaign, which differed from the previous ones only in that, before the conclusion of Stalin's bloc with Hitler, Trotsky was portrayed in the Stalinist press only with a swastika, and after the invasion of the Red Army into Finland, he was suddenly turned by the same press into an agent of the United States.

On May 1st, a Stalinist-inspired demonstration under the slogan "Get out Trotsky!" Took place in the streets of Mexico City. On the same day, La Voe published the Communist Party's manifesto to the people, which read: "Foreign spies and provocateurs must be expelled from the country, and above all their most malicious and dangerous leader: Leon Trotsky." However, the majority of the country's workers did not follow the communists and lombardists, continuing to maintain sympathy for Trotsky. In this regard, Trotsky wrote: “The original broad plan: to achieve a mass movement for the expulsion of Trotsky from Mexico, has completely collapsed. The GPU had to take the path of a terrorist act. But it was necessary to try to prepare public opinion for this act. Since the GPU was not going to acknowledge its authorship in the murder, it was necessary to link the terrorist act with the internal political struggle in Mexico. "

A favorable environment for this was created by the campaign that had begun for the presidential elections in the republic. The Stalinists and Lombardists began to portray Trotsky as a supporter of the reactionary General Almazan, which did not prevent them later from attributing to the Almazanists the organization of the assassination attempt. “In strict accordance with the entire system of the GPU,” wrote Trotsky, “the concern to direct the investigation on the wrong track was already included in the very plan of the assassination attempt. Tying up the policemen, those who attempted to kill shouted: "Long live Almazan!" ... These people are guided in their activities by the rule that Stalin applied earlier than Hitler formulated it: "the rougher the lie, the sooner they will believe it."

Portraying Trotsky as an "enemy of the Mexican people", "La Voe" on December 24, 1939 accused him of "interfering in the affairs of Latin America on the side of the imperialist states." This campaign reached a particular frenzy in the days immediately preceding the bandit raid on Trotsky's house. Citing relevant excerpts from the May 19, 1940 issue of La Voe, Trotsky remarked: “This is what people write who are going to change their pen to a machine gun tomorrow. The editorial board of La Voe knew about the upcoming assassination attempt and prepared the public opinion of the party and sympathizers for it. "

Based on an analysis of the articles of the Stalinist newspapers, Trotsky wrote: "The GPU was simultaneously preparing - through various channels - a conspiracy conspiracy, political defense, and disinformation of the investigation."

According to Robins, about 10 days before May 24, Trotsky gathered his comrades from the guard and told them that a hysterical campaign to discredit him had reached its climax - in order to justify his impending assassination in the eyes of public opinion.

At the disposal of the Siqueiros gang, the NKVD station handed over a lot of materials that were supposed to ensure a clear orientation of the raiders on the territory of the villa.

After the war, the NKVD cipher V. Petrov, who fled to the West, said that he had the opportunity to familiarize himself with one of the dossiers on Trotsky's assassination. It was a thick folder containing pictures taken inside the garden and villa, depicting fences, security guards, Trotsky with his wife, Trotsky drinking tea with friends, and much more. These pictures were taken by agents of the NKVD, at various times introduced into Trotsky's entourage. The most important such agent, as Petrov noted on the basis of his acquaintance with the dossier, was a woman secretary, recruited during Trotsky's stay in Norway.

This fact was later confirmed by Sudoplatov, who called the name of this woman - Maria de Las Eras. In addition to the villa plan, which she secretly forwarded to Moscow even before her recall from Mexico (because of her ties with Orlov, who, according to the leaders of the operation, could expose her), she gave a characterization of Trotsky's bodyguards and a thorough analysis of the activities of his secretariat. All this important information was sent by Sudoplatov to Eitingon, who in turn passed it on to Siqueiros.

Knowing well about the unsightly actions of Siqueiros during his stay in Spain, Trotsky, according to N.I.Sedova, expected this adventurer to take an active part in the assassination attempt.

At about 4 a.m. on May 24, approximately 20 men in the uniform of Mexican police and military personnel attacked Trotsky's villa. They silently disarmed and tied up the outside security police and called Robert Sheldon Hart, who was on duty at the time, on guard. Hart opened the gate and let the hijackers into the courtyard. They turned off the audible alarms, grabbed and isolated several guards in closed rooms, and cut off other guards from the house with machine-gun fire. A group of attackers rushed to the house, took positions on both sides opposite Trotsky's bedroom and opened crossfire from a light machine gun and small arms. The entire raid lasted 10-15 minutes, during which the attackers fired more than three hundred bullets from automatic weapons. After that, the bandits seized two cars belonging to Trotsky's guards and, while leaving, threw incendiary shells into the house, which caused a fire, which Trotsky and his wife were able to extinguish. In addition, an incendiary bomb filled with 1.5 kilograms of dynamite was left at the door of the bedroom. The explosive device of the bomb did not work due to some technical malfunction. The investigation established that the force of the explosion inherent in it was such that it could demolish the entire house to the ground.

Describing the actions of the attackers, Trotsky drew attention to the exceptionally high technique of the assassination attempt. “The murder failed,” he wrote, “as a result of one of those accidents that are an inevitable element in any war. But the preparation and execution of the assassination attempt are striking in their breadth, deliberation and thoroughness. Terrorists are well aware of the location of the house and its inner life. They take out police uniforms, weapons, an electric saw, sea ladders, etc. They successfully tie up the external police guards, paralyze the internal guards with the correct strategy of fire, enter the victim's premises, shoot with impunity for three to five minutes, throw incendiary bombs and leave arena of attack without a trace. Such an undertaking is beyond the power of a private group. Here you can see the tradition, the school, large funds, a wide selection of performers. This is the work of the GPU. "

Trotsky also saw the hand of the GPU (NKVD) in the fact that the attackers had several incendiary shells, two of which they threw into his grandson's room. “The participants in the attempt thus pursued not only murder, but also arson. Their only purpose could be the destruction of my archives. Only Stalin is interested in this, since the archives are of exceptional value to me in the fight against the Moscow oligarchy ... Incendiary shells are thus something like Stalin's calling card. "

Trotsky and his wife managed to escape only because Natalya Ivanovna dragged her husband to the far corner of the bedroom and forced him to lie down on the floor. Trotsky believed that they “helped the happy occasion by not losing their heads, not rushing about the room, not shouting, not calling for help when it would be hopeless, not shooting when it would be reckless, but lying silently on the floor, pretending to be dead. "

Explaining the failure of the assassination attempt, Sudoplatov emphasized that "the capture group was not professionally prepared for a specific action ... There was no one in Siqueiros's group who had experience in searches and checks of premises or houses." The attackers were not direct agents of the NKVD, they were picked up by Siqueiros only to participate in this operation.

Vii
Role of Robert Sheldon Hart

An hour after the assassination attempt on Trotsky's villa, Colonel Sanchez Salazar, the head of the secret service of the Mexican National Police, arrived and led the investigation into the assassination case.

One of the most puzzling aspects of the raid, complicating the investigation, was the role of Robert Sheldon Hart, a twenty-three-year-old US security guard who had arrived in Coyokan just a month and a half ago. At the time of the attack, Hart was guarding a gate that he was not supposed to open to anyone without the permission of Harold Robins. However, he opened the gate to the attackers, with whom he left the villa after the raid.

Natalya Ivanovna recalled that “soon after arriving to us, Sheldon received a lesson from Lev Davidovich. We carried out repairs, every 15-20 minutes it was necessary to unlock the gate in order to let the worker with the wheelbarrow out into the street and then let him back in. Bob (as they called Hart. - V.R.) was fascinated by the construction of a cage (for birds), so as not to be interrupted from work, he gave the key to the gate to the worker. This did not escape LD's attention. The latter explained to him that this was very imprudent on the part of Bob, and added: "You, the first, may become a victim of your own imprudence!" However, Sedova believed that this incident only testified to the frivolity of the young guard.

Fanny Yanovich, Trotsky's Russian secretary who helped him work on Stalin, said that Hart asked her every day how the work was progressing, that Trotsky wrote a new one about Stalin. According to her, the day before the attack, Hart was extremely nervous. After the raid, one of the police officers reported seeing Hart walking through the gate, protesting but not resisting, supported by the arms of two raiders. Subsequently, one of the participants in the raid said at the investigation that he saw Hart talking "in a nervous but friendly manner" with a "French Jew", whose traces were never found.

The American consulate in Mexico became interested in the fate of Hart. An hour after the raid, by order of US Consul Shaw, consular officer McGregor visited Trotsky and talked to him. The next day, Shaw had a conversation with Trotsky, who expressed his readiness to assist the American authorities in clarifying the fate of Hart.

Shortly after the raid, Hart's father, a successful businessman who was a friend of FBI Director Hoover, arrived in Mexico City. He said that Hart had never felt sympathy for Trotsky, but, on the contrary, was a supporter of Stalin. A large portrait of Stalin was discovered in Sheldon Hart's New York apartment. It was also known that Sheldon was a former member of the official US Communist Party. In his room, Robins found a Spanish-English dictionary signed by Siqueiros.

Salazar was convinced that Hart was in cahoots with the bandits and left with them of his own free will. Trotsky stubbornly refused to believe in Hart's guilt. “If Sheldon were an agent of the GPU,” he said, “he would have the opportunity to kill me at night without any noise and hide, without setting in motion 20 people, who were all at great risk ... Therefore, from the very beginning I declared to myself and to my friends that I will be the last one to believe in Sheldon's involvement in the assassination attempt. "

For a month, the police were looking for Hart. On June 25, his body with a bullet in the back of the head was found in the courtyard of a house rented by the participants in the assassination attempt, relatives and friends of Siqueiros. Following this, two versions emerged again. Salazar insisted that Hart was an agent of the GPU, killed by his accomplices for fear that he might tell too much if he fell into the hands of the police. Trotsky remained convinced that Hart "was not a participant in the assassination attempt, but a victim of it."

During the investigation, the arrested participants in the assassination attempt confirmed Salazar's version and said that Hart had been bribed by a certain "French Jew" who was known to them under the nickname Philip.

Diego Rivera told the Soviet journalist Paporov that this "French Jew" was G. Rabinovich, who was among the raiders along with his subordinate Vittorio Vidali, a well-known Italian communist operating in Spain and Mexico under a Spanish name.

Victor Serge, who was at the time of the assassination attempt in Mexico and carefully studied the materials of the investigation, considered the second most important (after Siqueiros) leader of the assassination attempt of a Jewish foreigner who spoke excellent French, who appeared during the attack in a car to make sure that the operation was successful ...

In the literature on the assassination attempt on Trotsky, the question of Hart's role has been the subject of debate for many years. Even Sudoplatov, in his near-death memories, expounded a version according to which Grigulevich, who had become friends with Hart, knocked on the gate of the villa at dawn on May 24. Recognizing his voice, "Hart made an unforgivable mistake - he opened the gates, and Siqueiros's group burst into Trotsky's residence ... Hart was liquidated because he knew Grigulevich and could betray us."

Recently declassified NKVD documents showed that the truth lay in the middle between the versions of Salazar and Trotsky. Hart was recruited in New York by the NKVD station and was listed in her dossier under the nickname Cupid. When he was sent to Mexico by the American Trotskyists, he received information from Stalin's agents to establish contacts with the NKVD station there. These facts coincide with the confidential message of Grigulevich, who, many years after the events in Coyokan, told Paporov that Grigory Rabinovich had recruited Hart in New York.

However, Hart, who agreed to carry out the espionage and agent assignments of the NKVD, apparently did not assume that the NKVD was planning to assassinate Trotsky. Therefore, opening the gate and seeing the gang of raiders, he did everything he could to prevent her sinister plans from being completed. This follows from Eitingon's statement during his interrogation on March 9, 1954. "During the operation, it was revealed that Sheldon was a traitor," said Eitingon. - Although he opened the door of the gate, there was neither archive nor Trotsky himself in the room where he brought the participants in the raid. When the participants in the raid opened fire, Sheldon told them that if he knew all this, he, as an American, would never agree to participate in this case. This behavior served as the basis for a decision on the spot to liquidate it. He was killed by the Mexicans. "

VIII
Self-assault version

Sedova recalled that Trotsky took an active part in the investigation into the attempted murder. “The sluggish course worried him extremely. Patiently and tirelessly, he followed him, explained the state of affairs to both the court and the press, made supernatural violence against himself in order to refute obvious and hopeless lies or malicious ambiguities, and did all this with his characteristic intense attention, from which not a single trifle escaped. .. And I got tired. I slept badly all with the same thoughts, and woke up with them. I heard how sometimes, alone with himself, from his inner depths, Lev Davidovich said: "tired ... tired."

Trotsky followed with equal attention both the investigative actions of the police and the speeches of the Stalinist press.

Until the end of May, the police were unable to track the criminals. This circumstance forced the Stalinist press to issue cautious statements at first. In the days following the assassination attempt, Toledano's organ, the El Popular newspaper, placed on the first page a headline in large print: "Attempt on Trotsky - Attempt against Mexico." An editorial under the same title demanded the strictest investigation and punishment of criminals, "regardless of their political direction and from the foreign power with which they are associated." The editors sought to create an impression of impartial and patriotic indignation and to separate themselves from the murderers who could in the coming days be in the hands of the police. However, the call to search for criminals, regardless of the power with which they were associated, received a restrictive interpretation in the article, since it indignantly argued that the "enemies of Mexico" would attribute the attempt to Stalin.

When three days had passed since the assassination attempt, the risk of arrest of the main participants in the raid could be considered eliminated, since during this period they managed to get abroad using fake passports prepared in advance. Then the insinuations of the communist and Lombardy press, cautious at first, began to take on an increasingly bold and defiant character. On May 27, El Popular published an editorial, which said: “Every day the assassination attempt arouses more and more doubts and seems more suspicious and less logical ... Trotsky opened the war of the peoples against Mexico. Therefore, an attempt against him is an act of international blackmail. " The article attributed the assassination attempt to the American imperialists seeking to intervene in Mexico and relying in these attempts on their agent, Trotsky. The newspaper National, in which the Stalinists also played a leading role, declared that Trotsky had undergone a "theatrical" (!) Assassination attempt on his home.

On June 1, La Voe de Mexico wrote: "The recent events in Mexico were cleverly orchestrated by the insignificant Trotsky and his gang." This is how the version of "self-assassination" was born, in which Trotsky saw "an undoubted element of a madhouse: impudence and impunity easily reach the brink of insanity. But in this madness there is a system inextricably linked with the name of the GPU. "

The "self-assassination" version was set forth in an official letter from Lombarda Toledano to the Mexican Minister of the Interior, which argued that the assassination attempt on Trotsky was a deceptive game and that Trotsky was guilty of espionage for foreign powers. This version was taken up by the reactionary American newspaper The Nation, which published an article entitled "A Fraudulent Conspiracy in Mexico."

The campaign of the pro-Stalinist press, combined with the even more cynical oral agitation and behind-the-scenes maneuvers carried out by Toledano and his allies, had an adverse effect on the course of the investigation: the police were distracted on the wrong path for several days, during which the leading participants in the assassination attempt were able to leave the country.

On May 28, the investigating authorities had already pointed to the version of "self-assassination", as evidenced by the sharp turn that took place in the orientation of the investigation and in the attitude of the police towards Trotsky's inner circle. On June 30, 4 people were arrested: secretaries and guards Otto Schussler and Charles Coronel, responsible for liaising with the authorities and friends of Trotsky in Mexico City, as well as the Mexican Sendejas and the Czech Bazan, young friends of Trotsky, who visited his house to express their sympathy. The purpose of these arrests was to achieve complete isolation of Trotsky, to cut off his ties with the outside world. The police demanded that the arrested members of the guard admit that Trotsky ordered them to carry out an "auto-assassination", while throwing mocking remarks at Trotsky, his wife and his employees.

After these events, Trotsky wrote, “we were immediately surrounded by an atmosphere of hostility. What's the matter? We were perplexed. This turn could not happen spontaneously. He had to have specific imperative reasons. The investigation did not and could not find any similarity of facts or data that could justify such a turn. I can find no other explanation for the turn, except for the monstrous pressure of the GPU apparatus, which relies on all its "friends." Behind the scenes of the investigation, a genuine coup d "etat. Who guided it?"

A week after the assassination attempt, an outraged Trotsky wrote a letter to Cardenas, which said:

"G. The president!

At the end of 1936, in a moment of extreme danger not only for my life, but also for my political honor, I turned to you from distant Norway, and you showed me generosity and hospitality. Now, at a critical moment, when the Mexican police authorities are committing a clear mistake and obvious injustice to my employees and to me, I have to appeal directly to you again. My house was attacked by the GPU gang. General Nunez (chief of the Mexican police. - V.R.) announced to me on your behalf that the police will do everything possible to solve the crime. Naturally, I could not have expected anything else from the authorities under your leadership. However, I have to state with sadness that the attitude of the police towards the case has changed dramatically over the past three days. The fact that the attackers, in spite of the huge murder machine set in motion by them, did not manage to kill me, is indirectly, as it were, blamed on me ...

Mr. President, this course of action is not new. When a gang of Norwegian fascists attacked my house in 1936 to steal my archives and, if possible, myself, the Norwegian authorities began by arresting the criminals, but then followed the line of least resistance: they declared the fascist attack a "joke" and arrested me and my wife. Several months ago, the authors of the "joke" helped Hitler take over Norway.

The investigation took the wrong path. I am not afraid to make this statement, because each new day will refute the shameful hypothesis of self-assault and compromise its direct and indirect defenders. "

Forced to refute the false and ridiculous version, Trotsky wrote: “even if we admit the impossible, namely that ... I decided to organize an“ auto-assassination ”in the name of an unknown goal, then the question remains: where and how did I get 20 performers? In what ways did he equip them in police uniforms? Armed them? Provided everything you need? And so on and so forth. In other words, how did a person who lives almost completely isolated from the outside world manage to carry out an enterprise that only a powerful apparatus can do? "

Having received Trotsky's letter, Cardenas ordered the immediate release of his friends and collaborators and direct the investigation to develop more plausible versions of the assassination attempt. Soon, Salazar was able to learn that a few weeks ago, someone had asked one of the police investigators to get some sets of police uniforms. The interrogated investigator gave the name of the person who was looking for the police uniform. It turned out to be a member of the ITUC, Luis Martinez. He, in turn, confessed that he was asked to get sets of police uniforms by a member of the Central Committee of the ITUC Serrano Andonega. After that, a series of searches were carried out, which made it possible to identify almost all the participants in the raid. More than 20 people were arrested. They named the leader of the operation, Siqueiros, who handed out police uniforms and weapons and personally led the raid, dressed in the uniform of a police major.

On June 25, the minor participants in the raid were released. Nine people were sentenced to prison. But, as the New York Times reported on June 16, "the police are looking for four people" believed to be the organizers of the assassination attempt. "

However, El Popular published an article claiming that the only real culprit was Sheldon Hart. “For the attempt,” the article said, “a gang of uncontrolled elements and agents provocateurs is responsible. Trotsky's very presence in Mexico constitutes an act of provocation against the Mexican Communist Party and against Mexico itself. "

On June 23, when the names of the main participants in the assassination attempt were found out, the leadership of the Mexican Communist Party issued a statement aiming to completely dissociate itself from the raiders. It said that “many people are directly or indirectly involved, among them David Alfaro Siqueiros, who was pointed out as the leader of the attack ... The Communist Party of Mexico states categorically that none of the participants in the provocation is a member of the party, that all these irresponsible and agents provocateurs ”. At the same time, some party leaders during the investigation tried to revive the version of "self-assassination". For example, a member of the ITUC Politburo, Serrano Andonegi, said that Trotsky gave Siqueiros money either to publish a magazine, or ... to organize an "auto-assassination".

IX
"Comintern and GPU"

Immediately after reports of the failure of the assassination attempt appeared in the world press, Sudoplatov was summoned to Beria's dacha. “Beria was furious,” Sudoplatov recalled this meeting. - Looking at me at close range, he began to ask about the composition of the group approved by me in Paris and about the plan for the destruction of Trotsky. I replied that ... I expect a detailed report from Mexico via radio channels in a day or two. "

After that, Beria and Sudoplatov went to Stalin's nearest dacha. Stalin confirmed his earlier decision, saying: “An action against Trotsky will mean the collapse of the entire Trotskyist movement. And we will not have to spend money to fight them and their attempts to undermine the Comintern and our ties with left circles abroad. Proceed with the alternative plan, despite the failure of Siqueiros, and send a telegram to Eitingon expressing our complete confidence. "

Sudoplatov prepared the text of such a telegram, ending it with the words: "Pavel sends his best wishes." Pavel is Beria's code name.

Two days later, Eitingon's brief report on the failure of the assassination attempt was received. Eitingon announced that he was ready to proceed with the implementation of an alternative plan with the participation of Mercader.

On June 8, Beria sent Stalin and Molotov a copy of Eitingon's more detailed report, which said: “You know in detail about our misfortune from the newspapers ... failure, I am ready to leave at your first request to receive the punishment due for such failure. "

In the conclusion of the "Center" about the Siqueiros raid, it was said: "The Mexican police managed to reveal all the circumstances of the preparation and commission of the assassination attempt, as well as to identify many of the perpetrators."

While the second version of the terrorist plan began to be implemented, the Mexican Stalinist press continued to publish insinuations about Trotsky. Already after the police attacked the trail of the real murderers, on May 29, El Popular published a declaration of the Communist Party, which demanded not the punishment of the terrorists, but the expulsion of Trotsky from the country.

All this prompted Trotsky to take more active steps to expose the liars and provocateurs. On June 1, in front of a group of journalists, he accused Stalin and the NKVD of organizing the assassination attempt and said that "the next attempt on my life is inevitable." On the same day, he published a letter to the President of the Republic in Mexican newspapers, in which he called Toledano a moral accomplice in the assassination attempt and accused the newspapers La Voe de Mexico, El Popular and the Futuro magazine of receiving cash from the Soviet government. Futuro and El Popular immediately filed a libel suit against Trotsky. At the hearing of this case, Trotsky confirmed his assertion that the publications he named were semi-official organs of the NKVD and enjoyed his material support. After that, "La Voe de Mexico" also appealed to the prosecutor's office with a demand to bring Trotsky to legal responsibility for "defamation".

Throughout June and July, Trotsky continued to meet with an employee of the American consulate, McGregor, to whom he told about the evidence he had gathered in the case of the assassination attempt. He told McGregor the names of Stalinist publications in Mexico, as well as the names of political and labor leaders and government officials associated with the Mexican Communist Party. In particular, he stated that one of the leading agents of the Comintern, Carlos Contero * (pseudonym Vittorio Vidali) and Enrique Martinez Riggi, who had direct connections with Moscow and headed the cleansing of the PCR in the spring of 1940, was working in the Central Committee of this party.

Preparing for a new judicial investigation, Trotsky wrote his last major article, "The Comintern and the GPU," which he completed on August 17, that is, three days before the assassination attempt by Mercader.

Publishing this article posthumously, the editorial board of the Bulletin of the Opposition called it "the most dramatic document of political literature of our time: in it a man explains to us why he should be killed, exposes the threads of intrigue that envelop him ever more closely, and exposes the killer's motives."

In this article, Trotsky described the political degeneration of the Comintern, which naturally entailed the corruption of its sections and especially their "leaders". “In the first period of the Soviet regime,” he wrote, “when the revolution went from danger to danger, when all forces went to the civil war with its retinue of hunger and epidemics, different countries the most courageous and disinterested revolutionaries. Of this first revolutionary stratum, which by deeds proved its loyalty to the October Revolution in difficult years, there is literally not a single person left in the Comintern today. Through continuous exclusions, material pressure, direct bribery, purges and executions, the totalitarian clique of the Kremlin has finally turned the Comintern into its obedient instrument. The current ruling stratum of the Comintern, as well as of its individual sections, consists of people who have joined not the October Revolution, but the victorious oligarchy, the source of high political titles and material wealth ... They look with delight and envy at the incursions of the Red Army into Poland and Finland , The Baltic countries, to Bessarabia because such incursions immediately lead to the transfer of power to the local Stalinist candidates for totalitarian domination. "

Citing the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of December 13, 1917 on financial assistance that the Soviet Republic would provide to revolutionary movements in other countries, Trotsky wrote that such assistance "began from the hour when the Bolsheviks took power into their own hands." However, then it was about open assistance to the communist parties, which was by no means conditioned by their submissive submission to the dictates of Moscow. “The parties that received assistance enjoyed full internal democracy, including complete freedom of criticism in relation to the Soviet government. At the congresses of the Comintern there was always a passionate ideological struggle, and it happened more than once that Lenin and I remained in the minority. "

Trotsky dated the beginning of the degeneration of the business of financial aid to foreign communist organizations to the time when Stalin and Bukharin seized the leadership of the Comintern. "The system of bribery and corruption of the leaders of the labor movement in other countries began to be systematically applied, approximately, since 1926 ... Since that time begins an irreconcilable struggle of the opposition (" Trotskyists ") against financial arbitrariness and bribery in the Comintern and on its periphery."

After the victory of the ruling faction over the left opposition and the establishment of the Stalinist regime in the USSR and in the international communist movement, "international solidarity" turned into a humiliating dependence on the Kremlin. "Financial aid has become a form of bribery ... Now this" aid "has begun to be felt even by Moscow's agents as a shameful and humiliating dependence that should not be openly admitted."

Under the influence of the revelations of the opposition, Stalin was forced to publish something like the financial reports of the Comintern. “I must say right away,” Trotsky emphasized, “that these reports, processed in the laboratory of the GPU, are completely unrealistic. The entire budget is understated several times. Secret expenses are not mentioned at all. The source of income is disguised. " With all this, a special article is invariably found in the reports: subventions to party periodicals. As for the secret expenses, they are associated with the intervention of the GPU in the affairs of the Comintern and its sections, the implementation of secret GPU operations abroad with the help of foreign communist parties.

In support of this, Trotsky referred to specific facts set forth in the books of E. Matorras, a former member of the Central Committee of the Spanish Communist Party, “Communism in Spain. His orientation, his organization, his methods ”and one of the founders of the US Communist Party, for 20 years a former member of the ECCI and its presidium B. Gitlov“ I testify ”. The most comprehensive evidence of the Comintern's ties with the GPU and the financial dependence of the Communist parties on the GPU belonged, according to Trotsky, to the former head of the Soviet intelligence network in Western Europe V. Krivitsky, and this information "has the legal weight of a witness testimony", since Krivitsky gave them under oath to the commission US House of Representatives.

Trotsky also cited the testimony of I. Sachs, who for 15 years played a leading role in the communist movement in Latin America, and letters from Krivitsky and Gitlov expressing their readiness to answer under oath to the questions of the Mexican court. Moreover, Gitlov and Krivitsky sent Trotsky special testimony for the Mexican court, and in the statement of Krivitsky, which, according to him, “could be used for any court in Mexico in the case of Leon Trotsky,” it was said: “GUGB (Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD - V.R.) organizes terrorist acts abroad ... The organizers of these terrorist acts are the responsible agents of the GUGB abroad. Murderers are always foreigners serving in the GUGB ... Some of them, for reasons of a conspiratorial nature, do not officially belong to the party. "

Covering the events connected with the assassination attempt on May 24, Trotsky wrote that he never considered the Mexican Communist Party to be the direct organizer of this assassination attempt. "The GPU uses the Communist Party, but does not merge with it at all." “For the crimes of the GPU, the division of labor between secret murderers and legal“ friends ”is extremely characteristic: already during the preparation of the assassination attempt, along with the underground work of conspiracy, an open slanderous campaign is being conducted with the aim of compromising the intended victim. The same division of labor continues after the crime has been committed: the terrorists go into hiding; their lawyers remain on the open stage, trying to direct the attention of the police to the wrong trail. "

X
The killer appears at Trotsky's house

While Trotsky waged a relentless struggle to establish the truth about the Siqueiros gang raid, his future assassin carefully but persistently prepared to infiltrate his house. Through Sylvia Ageloff, he met the Rosmer spouses and willingly supported this acquaintance, inviting them to use his car and providing other minor services. Rosmer often traveled with him, organized joint picnics in the countryside. Since Margarita Rosmer was very friendly with Sedova, the closeness of Mercader with Rosmer could not fail to inspire confidence in him on the part of Sedova and, consequently, Trotsky.

Speaking about the relationship between Rosmer and Mercader, Jean Van Hijenoort wrote: “There is one question that still puzzles me. Why didn't the features of the Mercader language arouse suspicion among the Rosmer? Mercader said he was Belgian, but ... his French was sprinkled with Spanishisms. Belgian French is different from Spanish French. Rosmer, being French, knew his language perfectly ... How could he not notice something wrong in Mercader's speech? "

Upon arrival in Mexico with "Jackson" (R. Mercader), a startling change took place. Before that, he portrayed himself in front of Sylvia Ageloff and her entourage as a completely apolitical person. As Sylvia reported to the Commission on Anti-American Activities in 1950, in Paris, he "seemed completely uninterested in politics of any kind ... He seemed interested only in sports, theater, music and other such things."

Now, in conversations with the guards and Rosmer, "Jackson" not only often spoke about his interest in politics and the Trotskyist movement, about his acquaintance with European Trotskyists, but even mentioned the donations he allegedly made to the French section of the IV International.

Explaining to Sylvia the reasons for his stay in Mexico, "Jackson" said that he was engaged in a profitable business here - the export of bananas and cigars to England. He runs this business at the service of a big US trade boss who pays him handsomely.

On May 28, three days after the attack by the Siqueiros gang, the Rosmer were supposed to leave Mexico and sail to Europe by steamer. "Jackson" offered to take them to the port in his car and in the morning drove up to the villa at the appointed time. Upon learning of this, Trotsky said that it was inconvenient for "Sylvia's husband" to be waiting at the gate, and offered to invite him to a farewell breakfast with the Rosmer. So "Jackson" first appeared at Trotsky's villa and met with him. Since then, the guards have freely let Jackson into the villa. He was never searched, since Trotsky forbade the use of such measures against people who constantly visited the villa, saying that mistrust humiliates human dignity. For the same reasons, Trotsky forbade the guards from being in his office and even outside his door when he met with visitors.

According to the entries in the villa's visitor book, Jackson visited the villa twelve times and stayed there for a total of about four and a half hours. During this time, Trotsky and Sedova talked with him for several minutes in the garden and twice in the house. The investigation established that until the day of the murder, Trotsky was alone with "Jackson" only once - for 10 minutes on 17 August.

In June, Sylvia went to New York. He followed her to New York and Jackson. They returned to Mexico three weeks later. Caridad followed them to Mexico. At the end of July, Eitingon informed the Center in a conditional letter that "everything is in order."

After returning from New York, "Jackson" continued to visit Trotsky's villa from time to time. One day he noticed that the workers were strengthening the outer wall. "Jackson" asked Hansen, "Why are they doing this?" Hansen replied that work is being done to keep the villa safe from the next possible raid. "Jackson" remarked to this: "This will not stop the GPU." Another time, speaking with Sylvia about the May raid, he said: "Next time the GPU will use a different method."

In July, "Jackson" again went to New York, where he stayed for three weeks. After returning from this trip, as Sedova recalled, he looked extremely nervous and emaciated, his face became pale and gray. “His visit to the States completely changed him. A somewhat vulgar bon vivant, who had previously seemed quite satisfied with his easy life, suddenly fell into a terrible nervous state.

For several weeks, when "Jackson" visited the villa, he did not arouse Trotsky's suspicions. This is all the more surprising since, shortly after the attack by the Siqueiros gang, Trotsky told Mexican journalist Eduard Vargas: “I will be killed either by one of those who are here or by one of those who have access to this house. Because Stalin cannot leave me alive. "

The constant expectation of a new assassination attempt did not plunge Trotsky into depression. He more than once reassured his wife, who was preoccupied with the same thoughts about the inevitability of imminent death. “Opening in the morning or closing in the evening the massive iron shutters arranged by our friends in our bedroom ... Lev Davidovich sometimes said:“ Well, now no Siqueiros will get to us, ”NI Sedova recalled. -And waking up, he greeted me and himself: "Here you and I were not killed that night, and you are all unhappy" ... Once, after such a "greeting", he added thoughtfully: "Yes, Natasha, we received a reprieve." ...

After the assassination attempt on May 24, the question of protecting Trotsky was again discussed in the governing bodies of the Trotskyist party in the United States. A delegation of party leaders visited Mexico City, where, at a meeting with Trotsky, it was decided to take new measures to strengthen security. The height of the wall surrounding the villa has been raised from 10 feet to 15 feet. In the United States, several thousand dollars were raised to defend a home. “The hour the fatal blow was struck,” Cannon recalled, “I was returning by train from a special trip to Minneapolis. I went there with the aim of recruiting new, especially qualified comrades for the protection in Koyokan. "

Lev Davidovich was very touched by the gift sent to him by his friends from Los Angeles after the attack by the Siqueiros gang - a metal vest that resembled an ancient chain mail. He insisted that this vest be worn by each of the guards who were at the moment in the most responsible post.

“After the failure that our enemies suffered in the attack on May 24,” NI Sedova recalled, “we knew for sure that Stalin would not stop there, and we were preparing ... We also knew that the GPU would resort to another form of attack ... They did not rule out a blow and the "loner" sent and bought by the GPU. But neither chain mail nor helmet could protect. It was impossible to apply these means of protection from day to day, it was impossible to turn your life into self-defense only - in this case she lost all value».

The danger constantly hanging overhead prompted Trotsky to mobilize all his forces for work covering the widest range of theoretical and political problems. For the last months of his life, perhaps, in particular, the words of James Cannon refer: “He knew that he was doomed, and worked feverishly to leave to us, and through us, to humanity, everything that was possible. In the last eleven years of his exile, he chained himself to his desk and worked with such energy, with such persistence, with such endurance that none of us can work, as soon as geniuses can work. He worked to pour out on paper all the rich content of his mighty mind and keep it in ... writing for us and for those who will come after us. "

In Trotsky's house, an intellectual, creative atmosphere still reigned in which Trotsky drew all the people around him. As one of Trotsky's secretaries recalled, “often in a casual conversation at the dinner table, a question would come up, a discussion would start, and the Old Man would express some new and fresh views. Almost invariably, remarks made in passing in the lunch conversation later appeared either in a book, or in an article or letter. "

Immediately after the assassination attempt on May 24, Trotsky began to deal with the issue of keeping his archives. After November 7, 1936, when the GPU stole 65 kg of his archives in Paris, various scientific institutions in the United States asked him to transfer the most historically valuable part of the archives to their libraries and depositories. Trotsky's lawyer, Albert Goldman, conducted lengthy negotiations on this matter with the library founded by former US President Herbert Hoover, with the Chicago and Harvard Universities. As a result of these negotiations, a contract for the transfer of archives was concluded with Harvard University.

After the assassination attempt on May 24, the director of the Harvard University Library sent Trotsky a letter in which he insisted on the prompt receipt of the archives. Reporting this to the Secretary of the Interior of Mexico, Trotsky clarified that “it is about the archives Soviet period my activities and my correspondence ending in December 1936, that is, before my entry into Mexico. As for the letters, manuscripts and documents during my stay in Mexico, they will completely remain with me as long as I enjoy the hospitality of this country. " Trotsky asked that competent officials of the secretariat of the internal affairs, who know foreign languages, including Russian, together with a representative of the US Embassy, ​​who promised to assist in the transfer of the manuscripts, review the archives to be sent to Harvard University, after which all the manuscripts would be sealed in hermetic boxes to avoid opening them at the border.

In the meantime, the future assassin was doing everything possible to get into the credibility of Trotsky. In August, he showed up at the villa without prior invitation, with a bouquet of flowers and a huge box of chocolates, which he said had been sent by Sylvia. On that day, "Jackson" for the first time spoke with Trotsky's secretaries about the development of the world Trotskyist movement, mentioned some of the names of its leaders in various countries and hinted that he could contribute to the movement financially.

On August 9, Sylvia returned to Mexico City. After her arrival, Jackson made several visits to Coyokan. Apparently, during the first of these visits, he spoke to Trotsky about his desire to provide material support to the Trotskyist movement. According to Hansen, Trotsky said that "Jackson" had already told him about the financial assistance he had provided to the French Trotskyist party.

On August 10, when Trotsky was in the garden, "Jackson", who rarely talked about his "business" even with Sylvia, spoke to Trotsky about his "boss", a "wonderful businessman" whose financial affairs were developing very favorably. To this he added that his employer, knowing about the material difficulties of Trotsky and the Trotskyists, advised him to help them.

This short conversation about financial speculation and the willingness to financially help the Trotskyist movement irritated Trotsky and Sedova. “Who is this fabulously rich boss,” Trotsky told Natalia Ivanovna, “we must find out. Jackson may turn out to be a speculator with fascist manners. It would be better for Sylvia's husband to stop visiting our home. ”

Nevertheless, a few days later, Jackson and Sylvia, who appeared in the garden, were invited into the house for a cup of tea. During the conversation, Sylvia fervently defended the minority point of view of the American Trotskyist party. "Jackson", although not quite intelligibly, objected to her and argued the correctness of Trotsky's position in the discussion.

In later memoirs, Sedova wrote that Trotsky in this

Recruited by the NKVD of the USSR with the help of his mother Maria Karidad, who was an agent of Soviet intelligence. Under the leadership of N.I. Eitingon prepared an attempt on the life of Leon Trotsky, exiled in 1929 from the USSR, and in 1932 deprived of Soviet citizenship, who initiated the creation of the 4th "Internationale" in 1938 and was considered by the leadership of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Soviet state to be the worst enemy of the USSR and Soviet power ...

In September 1939, Ramon Mercader flew to the United States, to the city of New York, with a passport in the name of a Canadian businessman and became close to Sylvia Ageloff, who was part of Trotsky's entourage. In October of the same year, Mercader moved to Mexico City, where Trotsky lived with his family, explaining this allegedly by the affairs of the company (in fact, by the cover created for him by Eitingon), and persuaded Ageloff to move to him.

In March 1940, under the name of Jacques Mornard, and not without the help of Ageloff, he first came to the villa of L. D. Trotsky. Trotsky liked the young man who skillfully passed himself off as a convinced Trotskyist.

On August 20, 1940, Mercader arrives at the villa under the pretext of showing Trotsky his article, and when he began to read it, he wounds Trotsky with a blow to the head with an ice pick, from which Trotsky dies the next day.

After his arrest, Mercader, explaining his act as an act of retaliation by a lone fighter, refused to testify. "The assassin called himself Jean Morgan Vandendrain, and belongs to the followers and closest people of Trotsky," the newspaper Pravda reported on August 22, 1940.

A Mexican court sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

Ramon Mercader fully served his sentence, was released on May 6, 1960 and taken to Cuba, and then secretly transported by steamer to the USSR.

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 31, 1960, Ramon Mercader - Lopez Ramon Ivanovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 11089).

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He was an employee of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU. In the mid-70s of the XX century, he moved to Cuba, where he worked at the invitation of its leader, Fidel Castro, as an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He died in 1978 of sarcoma.

The ashes of Ramon Mercader was transported to Moscow and buried at the Kuntsevo cemetery under the name of Lopez Ramon Ivanovich. There is a monument on the grave.

NS Aime Ramon Mercader del Rio Hernandez (Ramon Ivanovich Lopez) - professional revolutionary, agent of Soviet foreign intelligence.

Born February 7, 1913 in Barcelona (Spain). Catalan. From the family of a wealthy manufacturer.

From his youth he took part in the labor movement, was a member of the youth communist organization (analogous to the Soviet Komsomol), then joined the Communist Party of Spain. Since October 1936 - a participant in the Spanish Civil War, fought in the ranks of the Republican army. He rose from lieutenant to major, became commissar of the 27th Infantry Brigade on the Aragonese Front. He was wounded in battles.

Recruited by the NKVD of the USSR in 1938 with the help of his mother Maria Karidad, who was an agent of Soviet intelligence. Was taken out of Spain and under the leadership of the Soviet Chekist N.I. Eitingon took part in the preparation of an attempt on the life of one of the organizers and leaders of the Great October Socialist Revolution, L.D. Trotsky, who was expelled from the USSR in 1929 and deprived of Soviet citizenship in 1932, who initiated the creation of the 4th International in 1938. Trotsky was considered the leadership of the CPSU (b) and the Soviet state as the worst enemy of the USSR and Soviet power. In addition, Trotsky and Stalin were personal implacable enemies.

In September 1939, Ramon Mercader was sent to New York (USA) with a passport in the name of a Canadian businessman, where he became close to Sylvia Ageloff, who was part of Trotsky's entourage. In October of the same year, Mercader moved to Mexico City, where Trotsky lived with his family, explaining this allegedly by the affairs of the company (in fact, by a cover created for him by Eitingon) and convincing Ageloff to move to him.

In March 1940, under the name of the British citizen Jacques Mornard, with the help of Ageloff, he first entered the villa of L.D. Trotsky. Trotsky liked the young man who skillfully passed himself off as a staunch Trotskyist.

On August 20, 1940, Mercader arrived at the villa under the pretext of showing Trotsky his article. Mercader planned to quietly assassinate Trotsky, get out and drive away. But it didn't work out quietly. The murder weapon - a 7 cm ice ax entered Trotsky's head, but Lev Davidovich did not even lose consciousness, jumped up and began to scream. The guards rushed in, and they began to beat Mercader, and Trotsky ran around and shouted: "Just don't kill, first you have to interrogate him."

The wound was fatal for Trotsky, who died on the second day after the assassination attempt.

After the arrest, Mercader explained his act as an act of retaliation on the part of a lone fighter, disillusioned with Trotskyism and deceived in the use of the financial sums provided to him. "The assailant named himself Jean Morgan Vandendrain, and belongs to the followers and closest people of Trotsky," the Pravda newspaper reported on August 22, 1940.

For a long time, Mercader was held in police prisons, continuously beaten and tortured. Only in March 1941 he was transferred to the city prison, where conditions of detention improved somewhat. The trial took place only in May 1944, Mercader was sentenced to 20 years in prison (the maximum term of imprisonment under Mexican law). Only in 1950 did the Trotskyists manage to establish the real name of Mercader, but even then he did not confess to cooperation with Soviet intelligence, explaining the murder on personal grounds.

Ramon Mercader served his full sentence and was released on May 6, 1960. He was taken from Mexico to Cuba, and then transported by steamer to the USSR.

Z and the fulfillment of a special task and the heroism and courage shown at the same time by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 31, 1960 Ramon Mercader(according to the text of the Decree - Lopez Ramon Ivanovich) awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

He lived in the hero-city of Moscow, was a senior researcher at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU, was engaged in the study of the civil war in Spain. In September 1974 he moved to Cuba for health reasons and at the invitation of the Cuban leader

Jaime Ramon Mercader del Rio Hernández(Spanish. Jaime Ramón Mercader del Río Hernández), also known as Ramon Ivanovich Lopez; (January 25, 1913, Barcelona, ​​Spain - October 18, 1978, Havana, Cuba) -

hero of the Soviet Union, agent of the Soviet state security agencies,

the killer of L. D. Trotsky. Catalan. Member of the Spanish Communist Party.

Place of birth: Barcelona, ​​Spain

Place of death: Havana, Cuba

Mother: Maria Caridad

Awards and prizes:

Biography

Born into a wealthy railroad tycoon family in Barcelona. In the 1930s. lived in Paris. In 1937, he was recruited by the NKVD of the USSR with the help of his mother Maria Karidad, who was an agent of Soviet intelligence. Under the leadership of N.I. ...

In September 1939, Ramon Mercader flew to the United States, to the city of New York with a passport in the name of Canadian businessman Frank Jackson and became close to Sylvia Ageloff, who was part of Trotsky's entourage. In October of the same year, Mercader moved to Mexico City, where Trotsky lived with his family, explaining this allegedly by the affairs of the company (in fact, by a cover created for him by Eitingon), and persuaded Ageloff to move to him.

In March 1940, under the name of Jacques Mornard, and not without the help of Ageloff, he first came to the villa of L. D. Trotsky. Trotsky liked the young man who skillfully passed himself off as a convinced Trotskyist.

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 on the head with an ice pick. The blow was struck from behind and from above. Mercader hoped to silently kill Trotsky and hide unnoticed, but he screamed and attacked the assassin. At the scream, the guards came running and tied Mercader, having previously beaten him. Trotsky's wound reached 7 centimeters in depth, but after the wound he received, he lived for almost another day.

After his arrest, Mercader, explaining his act as an act of retaliation by a lone fighter, refused to testify. "The assassin called himself Jean Morgan Vandendrain and belongs to the followers and closest people of Trotsky," the newspaper Pravda reported on August 22, 1940.

A Mexican court sentenced him to 20 years in prison, the maximum sentence under the law.

Ramon Mercader fully served his sentence, was released on May 6, 1960 and taken to Cuba, and then secretly transported by steamer to the USSR.

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 31, 1960, Ramon Mercader - Lopez Ramon Ivanovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (which was promised to him by Eitingon even before the murder), with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 11089); The award was received personally from the hands of the then head of the KGB. N. Shelepin.

He was an employee of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU. He was given a state dacha in Kratovo, then received a four-room apartment near the Sokol metro station. In the mid-1970s. moved to Cuba, where he worked at the invitation of its leader, Fidel Castro, as an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He died in 1978 of sarcoma.

The ashes of Ramon Mercader was transported to Moscow and buried at the Kuntsevo cemetery under the name of Ramon Ivanovich Lopez. There is a monument on the grave.

In cinematography

• The Assassination of Trotsky is a French-Italian motion picture (1972), played by Alain Delon.
• "Trotsky" - Russian motion picture (1993), Mercader is played by Vyacheslav Razbegaev.
• Frida is an American motion picture (2002), played by Antonio Zavala.

In literature

• Peru Alexander Bushkov in one of the books on the history of the USSR ("Stalin. The Red Monarch") owns a chapter about Ramon Mercader - "A man with an ice ax, but not a climber."