Book Summary and Reviews of The Death of Trotsky by Josh Ireland

Reader Reviews

Write your own review

Janine_S

An examination of the hunt for Trotsky
Propulsive nonfiction book that read like a spy thriller. While all the details of Trotsky’s assassination are known, the details behind it may not be as it was the culmination of a major intelligence operation that took years of planning and spanned the globe to complete.

I listened to this fascinating and well narrated book. It’s not an exploration of motivation - no analysis of Stalin’s craziness - or examination of the power struggle after Lenin’s death. It’s not about Trotsky’s worldview on communism either. Younger flavors of these rather it’s straightforward look into what it took to kill Trotsky and about those who killed him. Most of the background preceding Trotsky’s expulsion from the party and his trial as an enemy of the state details the instant visceral dislike the two men had upon meeting in 1907 in London, Stalin’s eradication of the Trotsky family and others who opposed him - if you think Hitler was bad, think again. Stalin was psycho. At one point in the book, the author notes that Russian NJVD agents knew they would be killed by Stalin but felt there was little they could do to it.

The main part of the story is the ten year period from 1929 when Trotsky left Russia through the years Stalin’s men searched for him and ultimately found him in Mexico City and then to the men and women who played a part in planning and executing the murder in 1940. Ramón Mercader, the assassin, gets heavy focus in explaining his character and motivation in the book. Mercader spent years infiltrating Trotsky’s world. The book painstakingly documents this and other players in Trotsky’s world - pro and cons.

The book is well researched and provides glimpses into Trotsky’s life in exile. For instance it also details Trotsky’s friendship with Freda Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The friendship turned into a revenge love affair. For Trotsky is was an escape from the tension and isolation of his exile. Trotsky cared for rabbits and he was a stickler for rules. Vain and selfish, he was also beloved by many of his followers.

I gave this book five stars for providing a well researched exploration of the assassination of Leon Trotsky, for telling the story of this assassination through the eyes of the people involved, and for being a finely paced read that held my attention throughout .