Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary

by Bertrand M. Patenaude

Overview

A dramatic chronicle of revolutionary, politician, and political theorist Leon Trotsky’s final years in exile in Mexico.

Few political figures of the twentieth century have aroused as much passion, controversy, and curiosity as Leon Trotsky. His role in history—his epic rise and fall, his fiery persona, his violent end in Mexico in August 1940—holds a fascination that transcends the history of the Russian Revolution. Bertrand M. Patenaude masterfully interweaves the story of Trotsky’s final years with flashbacks to pivotal episodes in his career as a young Marxist, revolutionary hero, Red Army chief, Bolshevik leader, outcast from Stalin’s USSR, and ultimately heretic of the Kremlin, targeted for assassination by its secret police. Gripping, tragic, and based on extensive firsthand research, Trotsky brilliantly illuminates the fateful and dramatic life of one of history’s most captivating and important figures.

Praise for Trotsky

“Excellent, exciting. . . . Trotsky charts with novelistic flair and in archival detail, the progress of the plot that culminated in Trotsky being killed with an ice axe in 1940.” —Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Sunday Times Telegraph (London)

“This book deepens and enhances the sense of tragedy that always attends contemplation of “the Old Man” and his last struggle.” —Christopher Hitchens

“Betrand Patenaude tells a masterly story of a brilliant, cornered man and, along the way, of a misguided century.” —The Wall Street Journal

“A captivating account. . . . Patenaude paints a vivid portrait of Trotsky, a flamboyant, Westernized intellectual. . . . This is a dramatic, event-filled portrait of a turbulent, half-forgotten era.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061938436
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/21/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	388
Sales rank:	71,273
File size:	954 KB

About the Author

Bertrand M. Patenaude is a lecturer at Stanford University, where he is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives. He is the author of The Big Show in Bololand, which won the Marshall Shulman Book Prize. He lives in Menlo Park, California.

Table of Contents

Prologue: A Miraculous Escape 1

1 Armored Train 13

2 Mastermind 32

3 Man of October 55

4 Day of the Dead 73

5 The Trouble with Father 96

6 Prisoners and Provocateurs 120

7 Fellow Travelers 147

8 The Great Dictator 174

9 To the Finland Station 201

10 Lucky Strike 230

11 Deadline 262

Epilogue: Shipwreck 293

Acknowledgements 307

Sources and Notes 309

Index 353

What People are Saying About This

Robert Service

“Well researched and vividly told.”

Ian Thomson

“An absorbing reconstruction of Trotsky’s last years in Mexico. . . . Patenaude’s hyrbrid history and detective story grips from start to finish. With rare narrative verve, he chronicles the last years of a revolutionary’s life, with its sexual jealousies, paranoia, and finally murder.”

Richard Overy

“A haunting and dramatic reconstruction of Trotsky’s life and death in exile. The detail is fascinating, almost voyeuristic.”

Ken Kalfus

“Bertrand Patenaude’s Trotsky is an epic character: fiery, vain, contentious, exacting, intellectually lively, ideologically blinded, seductive, even sexually aggressive—and a man keenly aware that the inherent tragedy behind human existence overshadows the petty mishaps of politics, assassination included.”

Simon Sebag Montefiore

“Excellent, exciting. . . . Trotsky charts, with novelistic flair and in archival detail, the progress of the plot that culminated in Trotsky being killed with an ice axe in 1940.”

Christopher Hitchens

“This book deepens and enhances the sense of tragedy that always attends contemplation of ‘the Old Man’ and his last struggle.”

Misha Glenny

“This is an extraordinary, gripping piece of history that gets closer to Trotsky’s essential character than any of the vast tomes devoted to him in the past. Perhaps most extraordinary is the page-turning narrative drive which keeps the reader enthralled despite knowing how the story ends. Don’t miss it.”

Editorial Reviews

A captivating account of the final years of Leon Trotsky, Lenin's former right-hand man, who was outmaneuvered by Stalin and driven into exile in 1929. Historian Patenaude (The Big Show in Bololand), a lecturer at Stanford, concentrates on the period from 1937, when Trotsky arrived in Mexico, to 1940, when a Soviet agent plunged an ice pick into his skull. The year 1937 marked the height of Stalin's purge trials during which a parade of great revolutionary figures confessed to being fascist saboteurs working for Trotsky. All were executed along with their families, friends and thousands of other innocent citizens. Some Western leftists were disgusted, but many couldn't believe the nation they admired could tolerate such injustice. Trotsky set to work, pouring out writing and speeches and testifying at international hearings, which concluded that the trials were a sham. Patenaude paints a vivid portrait of Trotsky, a flamboyant, Westernized intellectual; his stormy relations with his equally flamboyant Mexican champion (and later enemy), artist Diego Rivera; his dealings with his own largely American supporters; and the relentless efforts of Stalin's GPU to kill him. This is a dramatic, event-filled portrait of a turbulent, half-forgotten era. 14 b&w illus. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Patenaude (research fellow, Hoover Inst., Stanford Univ.) applies his expert knowledge of early Soviet history in narrating the story of Leon Trotsky's final years in exile in Mexico. This, then, is the story not of the dashing hero of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Russian civil war but rather of "the Great Exile" and "the Old Man" of the Dewey Commission hearings and later events, an individual hounded by the Kremlin and its supporters in the West and suffering from an array of physical ailments. The book draws extensively on archival collections and published primary sources, in addition to important (mostly English-language) secondary work. VERDICT It's not evident how the author is reassessing this fascinating period in Trotsky's life, and nowhere does he make his case. Nonetheless, his Trotsky is a reliable and masterfully written account that captures, in the words of John Dewey, "the bare overpowering interest of the man and what he has to say." It should be read by anyone interested in Trotsky and the ways in which his life intersected with events in the Soviet Union, Europe, the United States, and Mexico in the 1930s.—Sean Pollock, Wright State Univ., Dayton, OH

Library Journal

Bertrand Patenaude tells a masterly story, of a brilliant, cornered man and, along the way, of a misguided century.” — The Wall Street Journal

“Excellent, exciting. . . . Trotsky charts, with novelistic flair and in archival detail, the progress of the plot that culminated in Trotsky being killed with an ice axe in 1940.” — Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Sunday Telegraph

“This book deepens and enhances the sense of tragedy that always attends contemplation of ‘the Old Man’ and his last struggle.” — Christopher Hitchens

“An absorbing reconstruction of Trotsky’s last years in Mexico. . . . Patenaude’s hyrbrid history and detective story grips from start to finish. With rare narrative verve, he chronicles the last years of a revolutionary’s life, with its sexual jealousies, paranoia, and finally murder.” — Ian Thomson, The Sunday Times

“Well researched and vividly told.” — Robert Service, The Guardian

“A captivating account. . . . Patenaude paints a vivid portrait of Trotsky, a flamboyant, Westernized intellectual. . . . This is a dramatic, event-filled portrait of a turbulent, half– forgotten era.” — —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Fascinating. . . . A masterly account. . . . Patenaude applies his expert knowledge of early Soviet history in narrating the story of Leon Trotsky’s final years in exile in Mexico.” — Library Journal

“This is an extraordinary, gripping piece of history that gets closer to Trotsky’s essential character than any of the vast tomes devoted to him in the past. Perhaps most extraordinary is the page-turning narrative drive which keeps the reader enthralled despite knowing how the story ends. Don’t miss it.” — —Misha Glenny

“Bertrand Patenaude’s Trotsky is an epic character: fiery, vain, contentious, exacting, intellectually lively, ideologically blinded, seductive, even sexually aggressive—and a man keenly aware that the inherent tragedy behind human existence overshadows the petty mishaps of politics, assassination included.” — —Ken Kalfus

“A haunting and dramatic reconstruction of Trotsky’s life and death in exile. The detail is fascinating, almost voyeuristic.” — Richard Overy, Literary Review

“Gripping. . . . Patenaude has created both a compelling biography of the revolutionary leader and a thrilling account of the violent world of international socialist politics in the 1930s.” — The Financial Times

“It is a tribute to Bertrand Patenaude’s narrative skill that although we always know how his book is going to end, it is none the less readable and utterly gripping. . . . The pace and tension are worthy of a Hollywood thriller.” — Dominic Sandbrook, The Daily Telegraph

From the Publisher

Bertrand Patenaude tells a masterly story, of a brilliant, cornered man and, along the way, of a misguided century.

The Wall Street Journal

An absorbing reconstruction of Trotsky’s last years in Mexico. . . . Patenaude’s hyrbrid history and detective story grips from start to finish. With rare narrative verve, he chronicles the last years of a revolutionary’s life, with its sexual jealousies, paranoia, and finally murder.

Ian Thomson

Bertrand Patenaude’s Trotsky is an epic character: fiery, vain, contentious, exacting, intellectually lively, ideologically blinded, seductive, even sexually aggressive—and a man keenly aware that the inherent tragedy behind human existence overshadows the petty mishaps of politics, assassination included.

Ken Kalfus

This book deepens and enhances the sense of tragedy that always attends contemplation of ‘the Old Man’ and his last struggle.

Christopher Hitchens

This is an extraordinary, gripping piece of history that gets closer to Trotsky’s essential character than any of the vast tomes devoted to him in the past. Perhaps most extraordinary is the page-turning narrative drive which keeps the reader enthralled despite knowing how the story ends. Don’t miss it.

Misha Glenny

Well researched and vividly told.

Robert Service

A haunting and dramatic reconstruction of Trotsky’s life and death in exile. The detail is fascinating, almost voyeuristic.

Richard Overy

Excellent, exciting. . . . Trotsky charts, with novelistic flair and in archival detail, the progress of the plot that culminated in Trotsky being killed with an ice axe in 1940.

Simon Sebag Montefiore

Gripping. . . . Patenaude has created both a compelling biography of the revolutionary leader and a thrilling account of the violent world of international socialist politics in the 1930s.

The Financial Times

It is a tribute to Bertrand Patenaude’s narrative skill that although we always know how his book is going to end, it is none the less readable and utterly gripping. . . . The pace and tension are worthy of a Hollywood thriller.

Dominic Sandbrook

A captivating account. . . . Patenaude paints a vivid portrait of Trotsky, a flamboyant, Westernized intellectual. . . . This is a dramatic, event-filled portrait of a turbulent, half- forgotten era.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)