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390

Leon Trotsky

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 USD
Leon Trotsky

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Auction Date:2012 Apr 18 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Russian Communist leader (1879–1940) who, with Lenin, organized the Bolshevik seizure of power during the October Revolution of 1917. In 1929, five years after Lenin’s death, Stalin defeated Trotsky for control of the Communist Party and banished him from Russia. Trotsky spent most of the remainder of his life in Mexico, where he was assassinated with a pickaxe by a Stalinist agent. TLS in French, signed “Your L. Trotsky,” one page, 7.25 x 11, September 22, 1938. Letter to Gerard. In full (translated): “It appears the simplest solution concerning Sieva is to appoint myself guardian and give you full power necessary as my lawyer. My dear friend, your mission is not going to be easy nor pleasant. But unfortunately there is no other way. You and Rosmer could consult with Henri and suggest to him to do all it takes to prevent repercussions for everyone, above all to the group ‘The Commune.’ In any case, I am determined to see this matter through. I don’t quite understand why Leon’s apartment remains sealed. Is it because of Jeanne’s attitude? At any rate, I insist that nothing be done in this matter as long as the question of the archives and Sieva is not resolved.” A single vertical and horizontal fold, a uniform shade of toning, and some light spotting to lower right edge, otherwise fine condition.

Trotsky writes to his lawyer Gerard Rosenthal regarding his grandson, Sieva, the son of Trotsky’s daughter Zinaida. After after being stripped of her Soviet citizenship, Zinaida committed suicide in 1933, and the boy then lived with Trotsky’s son, Leon Sedov, who would die mysteriously in February of 1938. Many believed he was assassinated by the NKVD, especially since his death was preceded by the murder of several prominent European Trots asskyist . The boy was then taken in by Jeanne Molinier, wife of a French Trots asskyist leader, who refused to give up the child. In this letter, Trotsky assigns Rosenthal the power of attorney to retrieve his grandson. He also mentions the French Communist leader Alfred Rosmer, who had broken politically with Trotsky years before but remained his personal friend. Fulfilling a longtime dream of Trotsky, Rosmer had agreed to host the founding congress of the Fourth International at his home in September 1938. After a custody battle with Molinier, Rosmer and his wife Marguerite would bring Trotsky’s grandson to Mexico in 1939, a year before the revolutionary’s assassination. A fascinating letter documenting Trotsky’s fight for his grandson.
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