Alexander Buchman (1911–2003) was an American

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

. Buchman was born May 16, 1911, in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. In 1933, he traveled to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

but was deported due to perceived communist ties. Buchman went to China and spent six years in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, where he encountered

Wang Fanxi Wang Fanxi (; March 16, 1907 – December 30, 2002) was a leading Chinese Trotskyist revolutionary. Born near Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, he joined the Communist Party of China, then an illegal organisation, in 1925. In 1927, he went to Mos ...

, a leader of the Chinese Left Opposition. In July 1939 he became publisher of the journal ''Dongxiang''. In 1939, Buchman moved to Mexico. From autumn 1939 to April 1940, Buchman lived in

Coyoacán Coyoacán ( , ) is a borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City. The former village is now the borough's "historic center". The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means "place of coyotes", when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic vil ...

and worked as one of

Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...

's guards. As an amateur photographer, Buchman documented Trotsky's last year of life. Buchman died in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

on January 7, 2003.

References

External links

The Lubitz TrotskyanaNet
provides a biographical sketch and a selective bibliography on Alex Buchman {{DEFAULTSORT:Buchman, Alex 1911 births 2003 deaths American Trotskyists Bodyguards American expatriates in Japan American expatriates in China