Leon Trotsky Assassination

The definition of assassination is “to kill someone, such as a famous or important person, usually for political reasons” (Merriam-Webster). Numerous assassinations have occurred throughout history. One such assassination was of Communist theorist Leon Trotsky, a man from Ukraine, who was the successor to Vladimir Lenin, however this led to his assassination while he was in exile.
Leon Trotsky was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein in Yanovka, Ukraine, which was a part of the Russia at that time (World Book Advanced). His parents were David and Anna Bronstein, who were wealthy Jewish farmers (Leon Trotsky Biography). Trotsky began his schooling at age 8, and he was very intelligent. Many years later, while in Nikolayev, he became fascinated with
Eventually, because of Stalin’s paranoia and his regret for sparing Trotsky, Stalin sent his secret police, the GPU, to kill Trotsky (Stalin Seeks My Death). While in exile in Mexico City, Mexico, an attempt was made on Trotsky’s life. On May 24, 1940, twenty-five armed Stalinist agents stormed into Trotsky’s home in the borough of Coyoacan (Hansen, Joseph). The men were armed with machine guns and bombs. Trotsky and his wife escaped the machine gun fire by lying flat on the floor. However, the second assassination attempt was much more successful. On August 20, 1940, Trotsky was in Mexico City when he was stabbed with an ice-pick in the head by a man named Ramon Mercader. The blow did not kill Trotsky instantly, and he was taken to the Cruz Verde Hospital, where doctors endeavored to save his life (The Death of Leon Trotsky). The doctors’ efforts proved to be in vain, and Leon Trotsky died the next day on August 21, 1940. Trotsky’s assassin, Ramon Mercader, who was a member of the Communist Party of Catalonia, had used the assumed name Frank Jacson when he gained the trust of the Trotsky household (El Asesino De Trotsky). Trotsky’s wife, Natalia Sedova, recalled in her writings how nervous Mercader had looked on the day of the assassination and how he had been wearing a coat even though the weather that day was warm (Leon Trotsky). Mercader had hidden the ice-pick underneath his coat. After the murder, Ramon Mercader was put on