5th of September 1940, Assasination of Leon Trotsky, remembrance by 'Shest'
The 5th of September 1940, Moskva train station, 2,8°C, 4pm Moscow time,
After having spent a few days enjoying the Black sea breeze and the view of our new Destroyers in and around Sevastopol, I returned to Vologda, by train, and all trains lead inevitably to or through Moscow.
I had only just set foot on the platform, still dressed as a ranking NKVD official, when a uniformed NKVD officer motioned me to the station's NKVD office, it seems someone high up in the GRU wanted to talk to me, and he was there in person...
'Shest' ' was sitting at the table, he had no trouble moving around as he was known under many different aliases as someone vaguely important within the GRU, or the KGB, or was it the NKVD... The point was that he knew about everything of importance in the intelligence community before anyone else did, so much for compartmentalised information, and anyway, the Committee has a need to know...
Leon Trotsky at his desk in 1938, surely ready to slander Stalin's Communist party some more... He was gone at this point and Stalin ordered increased efforts to assassinate him...
And that about wrapped things up, I just managed to get on the 5:30pm to Vologda, now dressed like a lumberjack who was going home after visiting his family in Moskva.
I should get to the Base in time to send out the next Report on schedule,
Greetings,
'Odin'
I had only just set foot on the platform, still dressed as a ranking NKVD official, when a uniformed NKVD officer motioned me to the station's NKVD office, it seems someone high up in the GRU wanted to talk to me, and he was there in person...
'Shest' ' was sitting at the table, he had no trouble moving around as he was known under many different aliases as someone vaguely important within the GRU, or the KGB, or was it the NKVD... The point was that he knew about everything of importance in the intelligence community before anyone else did, so much for compartmentalised information, and anyway, the Committee has a need to know...
"I have just received news that an NKVD asset in Mexico City has clumsily, but successfully, assassinated Leon Trotsky. It seems he was hit in the head with an ice axe, but only died from his wounds a day later. I'm sure Comrade Stalin will be happy to hear the news. Even though Trotsky was instrumental in the success of the Revolution, he later strayed from the Party line. I have assembled some writings and images, many of them illegal in the Soviet Union to remind us all of who the man was,
Comrade Stalin himself wrote this in his book "The October Revolution" in 1934, this has of course been redacted since :
'Shest' ' was then interrupted by the ringing of the top secret telephone on his desk, surprised by this unexpected call he picked up the telephone, looked a bit distraught, then handed me the telephone. It was of course 'Tri':"All practical work in connection with the organisation of the uprising was done under the immediate direction of Comrade Trotsky, the President of the Petrograd Soviet. It can be stated with certainty that the Party is indebted primarily and principally to Comrade Trotsky for the rapid going over of the garrison to the side of the Soviet and the efficient manner in which the work of the Military Revolutionary Committee was organised."
Leon Trotsky addressing the Red Army in 1917.
In 1930 Trotsky wrote this about attacks on his leadership of the Red Army in 1919:Leon Trotsky addressing the Red Army in 1917.
"It is no wonder that my military work created so many enemies for me. I did not look to the side, I elbowed away those who interfered with military success, or in the haste of the work trod on the toes of the unheeding and was too busy even to apologise. Some people remember such things. The dissatisfied and those whose feelings had been hurt found their way to Stalin or Zinoviev, for these two also nourished hurts."
From this quote from comrade Lenin, we learn some of the reason for his extraordinary military success:
"When Comrade Trotsky informed me recently that the number of officers of the old army employed by our War Department runs into several tens of thousands, I perceived concretely where the secret of using our enemy lay, how to compel those who had opposed communism to build it, how to build communism with the bricks which the capitalists had chosen to hurl against us! We have no other bricks! And so, we must compel the bourgeois experts, under the leadership of the proletariat, to build up our edifice with these bricks. This is what is difficult; but this is the pledge of victory."
Trotsky did try to find reconciliation with the Party, but do I also detect some sarcasm in this speech from the 1924 13th Party Congress:
"None of us desires or is able to dispute the will of the Party. Clearly, the Party is always right... We can only be right with and by the Party, for history has provided no other way of being in the right. The English have a saying, "My country, right or wrong", whether it is in the right or in the wrong, it is my country. We have much better historical justification in saying whether it is right or wrong in certain individual concrete cases, it is my party... And if the Party adopts a decision which one or other of us thinks unjust, he will say, just or unjust, it is my party, and I shall support the consequences of the decision to the end."
Leon Trotsky during a speech in Copenhagen in 1932 called "In Defence of October". He was possibly still redeemable to the Communist cause at this point.
Comrade Lenin wanted to keep him around despite some dissenting views, in July 1922, when hearing about the Central Committee's intentions to throw out Trotsky, he said:Leon Trotsky during a speech in Copenhagen in 1932 called "In Defence of October". He was possibly still redeemable to the Communist cause at this point.
"Throwing Trotsky overboard – surely you are hinting at that, it is impossible to interpret it otherwise – is the height of stupidity. If you do not consider me already hopelessly foolish, how can you think of that????"
As you can see, he was bound to get thrown out, being a free thinker, and not agreeing with Stalin's way of doing things. We considered trying to get him to join the Secret Committee, but he was too far gone to even want to help from the Shadows, a regime that he now..."
"This won't be long... I have good news and bad news... The bad news is that Bulgaria has joined the Axis, it seems their pulling a Munich agreement on Romania pulled them even closer to the Germans... The good news is that we have now border with Bulgaria, and that their navy is probably laughable. And wait, there is more good news, as they just took territory the Romanians consider rightfully theirs, the Romanians are now drifting away from any diplomatic ties to the Axis because of this. Unless we do something stupid now, Romania is more hostile to the Axis than to us, and that's really good news... The only real downside is that Turkey is now very slightly more interested in Joining the Axis, due to it's proximity to Bulgaria. For now this isn't problematic yet though. That's all, tell 'Shest' ' hi, all the best, and that his phone line is not as secret as he would like it to be and he can come to me for suggestions..."
'Shest' ' finished his thought from before the call:
"Despised... A regime that he now despised is what I wanted to say."
"How does he do that? Always know where you are and how to reach you, even I don't know where you are all the time..."
"Don't look at me, I don't know how he does it either." I replied
'Shest' ' showed me a last photograph:"How does he do that? Always know where you are and how to reach you, even I don't know where you are all the time..."
"Don't look at me, I don't know how he does it either." I replied
Leon Trotsky at his desk in 1938, surely ready to slander Stalin's Communist party some more... He was gone at this point and Stalin ordered increased efforts to assassinate him...
I should get to the Base in time to send out the next Report on schedule,
Greetings,
'Odin'