DEATH OF TROTSKY

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 282, 23 August 1940, Page 10

DEATH OF TROTSKY

Head Injuries Prove Fatal DYING ACCUSATION AGAINST STALIN

(Bv Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copy right.) (Received August 22, 9.40 p.m.)

MEXICO CITY, August 22.

It is officially announced that M. Leon Trotsky, who received severe head injuries in an assault, died at 7.25 p.m., Mexican time. Elis wife, two personal bodyguards and hospital attendants were at the bedside. A second brain operation was performed on AL Trotsky, after which the surgeon said his condition was very grave. MEXICO CITY, August 21.

After an operation on M. Trotsky, his condition was pronounced to be most serious.

it is believed that the assailant confessed that bis real name was Jacques Mornard Vandeu Dresehd, and that he was born ill Teheran, Persia, of Belgian parents. A leading brain surgeon, Dr. Walter Dandy, from the John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, is leaving tonight by air to attend M. Trotsky. Dr. Dandy will be joined in Mexico by Dr. Harry Fiscler, a Los Angeles surgeon. _ Joseph Cannon, .secretary of the Socialist Workers’ Party, said in New York that M. Trotsky’s last words before losing consciousness were: “I shall not survive this attack. Stalin lias finally accomplished tlie task which he attempted unsuccessfully before.” The former Russian Prime Minister, M. Kerensky, expressed the view that the attempt on M. Trotsky's life was merely an act of revenge, since at present lie has no influence on file Russian masses. LENIN’S COMPLEMENT Genius Of Action Of The Russian Revolution Leon Trotsky, whose real name was Bronstein, was the genius of'action of the Russian Revolution, as Lenin was tlie planner. Trotsky by his military ability, his realization that tlie officers of the old Russian Army could be used to direct Hie Red armies in their war against their attackers, and his executive powers, was tlie necessary complement of Lenin. But be had committed the unpardonable sin; lie had not beena regular member of tlie Communist Party, his origins were suspect. This weakness, plus Trotsky’s lack of ability as a machine politician, led to his downfall. When he ran counter to Stalin on tlie subject of whether Communism could be a success on tbe home front or whether the triumph of the Russian Revolution did not hang on the world revolution Trotsky lost his battle and. with the passing of his prestige, was demoted to minor political posts. In 1928 he was exiled to Turkestan and a year later was banished, though his project for an industrialized Russia' was seized upon and became the germ of the successive Five-Year Plans. Trotsky was born in 1879 in a town in tlie Russian Government of Kherson, near the Black Sea. He became an extreme Socialist, and, being gifted with a forceful literary style, won distinction and prominence among the revolutionary leaders before the end of the nineteenth century. In the revolution of 1905 Trotsky published a book which practically set the sky as the limit for the Russian revolution, then apparently on its way to a favourable issue. He demanded tlie application of tlie full programme of Socialism, not only in Russia, but everywhere, and till this was accomplished revolution must never rest. The collapse of the movement in the following year sent him to Siberia, but after several years lie was released, resumed his revolutionary activity, and was compelled to go abroad.

At the beginning of the last war he was in Berlin, but the radical teachings of his writings there were too much for the Berlin Government, which had no taste for Socialist programmes except in foreign parts. He was compelled to go to Switzerland, but here, too. he found the atmosphere chilly. After a time he. landed in Baris, and edited a newspaper there, but the. French Government refused to allow his doctrines to be spread after Russian troops arrived in France, and be moved ou to Spain. Trotsky, however, could not be suppressed. They’ might expel him and deport him, but wherever he landed he became tr leader in radicalism and a vigorous journalistic propagandist. Spain found him so hard to be rid of, and such a serious menace to her peace and quiet, that it was finally necessary to shanghai him out of the country. He awoke to find himself on board a steamer bound for Cuba. M bile this did not greatly disturb his equanimity he found the field for his talents limited. Cuba was too small a country fpr Trotsky’s energies. He sailed at once from Havana tor New York, where he was welcomed not only by the most radical faction of Russian Socialists, but the German Socialists, too. This was in January, 1917, and the United States did not harbour him long. Returning to Russia alter the February Revolution, he was arrested by the British trad freed at the demand of the Provisional Government acting under compulsion by the Petersburg Soviet. He was then arrested by the Provisional Government, but. gaining his liberty, joined the Bolsheviks and organized and led the October rising. He was chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee and a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party from 1917-1927 and was People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in 1917 and 1918 and for the following seven years, as Commissar for War, he was engaged in creating and organizing the Red Army. From then on his power waned. In, 1927 he was expelled from the Politburo and from the Communist Party for his opposition to the official party policy, and following a period of exile in Alma-Ata was deported in 1929 from the U.S.S.R. Trotsky was refused sanctuary in Western Europe, which did not .relish

the chance of harbouring the advocate of the world revolution, and settled on the island of Prinkipo, Turkey. . There he worked on his books, including his history of the Russian Revolution, and wrote for French, English and American journals. He attempted to obtain permission to enter Spain when the revolution took place there, but without success. Fire destroyed his large library and he had to collect a new one. Tn 1932 he visited France and Denmark, and in 1933 went to Italy. Then last year he was given asylum in France, but his retreat at; Barbizon, hidden behind barbed wire, was discovered and he tied from the country fearing an attempt on his life. He bad been at Barbizon five mouths when he was discovered, lie then asked for domicile in Ireland, was refused it, and attempted to gain permission to enter Britain, also without success. Spain also closed its doors to him and eventually he found refuge in Mexico City, where ho remained till his death. His revolutionary activities continued, however In the trials held in Moscow a few years ago of Hie "antiCommunist bloc of Trotskyists," beaded by Zinoviev and Kamenev, the alleged public confessions of the principals included statements that Trotsky had been organizing with funds from the Nazi Government and other Powers a secret movement; for sabotage, assassinations and eventually a military coup in Moscow.