The death of Trotsky : the true story of the plot to kill Stalin's greatest enemy / Josh Ireland.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ireland, Josh, 1981- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Revolutionaries--Soviet Union--Biography.

Revolutionaries.

Exiles--Soviet Union--Biography.

Exiles.

Exiles--Mexico--Biography.

Trotsky, Leon, 1879-1940--Assassination.

Trotsky, Leon.

Trotsky, Leon, 1879-1940--Exile.

Mercader, Ramón, 1914-1978.

Mercader, Ramón.

Mexico--Politics and government--1910-1946.

Mexico.

Genre:

Informational works.

Physical Description:

369 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

True story of the plot to kill Stalin's greatest enemy

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Dutton, [2026]

Summary:

"For fans of Ben Macintyre, the gripping story of the assassination of Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky and the deadly game of cat and mouse that preceded it"-- Provided by publisher.

On August 20, 1940, Leon Trotsky invited a man he knew only as Jacques Mornard into his study. Mornard waited for Trotsky to sit, then smashed an ice pick he had hidden in his raincoat into Trotsky's skull. For over a decade, Trotsky's greatest enemy, Joseph Stalin, had been trying to arrange his murder. Stalin's agents had hunted him across Europe and into a lonely, bitter exile in Mexico. He had liquidated Trotsky's family and friends, and yet Trotsky had always escaped his clutches. The man who changed this all was Ramón Mercader, a minor Spanish aristocrat and Soviet agent who had posed as Mornard, a dissolute Belgian playboy, and infiltrated Trotsky's inner circle. In The Death of Trotsky, Josh Ireland traces the separate paths walked by each of these protagonists as they steadily draw closer and closer to that fateful encounter on August 20. Blending intimate historical detail and thrilling historical narrative, swinging from Moscow to Paris to Mexico, and taking in a cast of morally conflicted Russian spies, fanatical Mexican painters, and innocent American idealists, The Death of Trotsky delves into the lives of two fascinating, complex men locked in a life-or-death struggle that would bend the course of history.

Contents:

Prologue

Part One. Death solves all problems

Liar, traitor, scum

Attrition

Kremlin complexion

Part Two. A perfect Communist family

Black work

Super-bandit

The crucible

Part Three. The only honest government in the world

Piochitas

Comrade Pablo

The kid

Polecats

Walking in a graveyard

Our little Lyova

The citadel

Part Four. I like to act

He couldn't be forgiven

Childish games

So funny

Pictures and everything

Part Five. Si, No, Gracias

Muerte a Trotsky

Two hundred bullets

Things are better as they are

Shipping documents

Part Six. Fear

Other methods

I feel really good

Him again

Aftermath

Epilogue: 'One does not choose the time to live, die, or kill'

Acknowledgments

Author's note

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-350) and index.

ISBN:

9780593187104

0593187105

OCLC:

1472584481

Publisher Number:

90104274689