Lev Sedov
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Lev Lvovich Sedov (russian: Лев Львович Седов, also known as Leon Sedov; 24 February 1906 – 16 February 1938) was the first son of the Russian communist leader
Leon 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 ...
and his second wife
Natalia Sedova Natalia Ivanovna Sedova (russian: Ната́лья Ива́новна Седо́ва; 5 April 1882 Romny, Russian Empire – 23 January 1962, Corbeil-Essonnes, Paris, France) is best known as the second wife of Leon Trotsky, the Russian revolutio ...
. He was born when his father was in prison facing
life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
for having participated in the
Revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...
.


Life

He lived separately from his parents after the
October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
in order not to be seen as privileged. He married in 1925 at the age of 19, and had a son, Lev, the following year. Sedov supported his father in the struggle against
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
and became a leader of the
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 ...
movement in his own right.


Exile in Turkey and Germany

He accompanied his parents into exile in 1929, and then in 1931 he moved to Berlin to study.
Alexandra Ramm-Pfemfert Alexandra Ramm-Pfemfert (31 January/12 February 1883, in Starodub – 17 January 1963, in West Berlin) was a German-Russian translator, publisher and gallery owner. She is particularly noted for her work as a translator of Leon Trotsky and her wo ...
and her husband
Franz Pfemfert Franz Pfemfert (20 November 1879, Lötzen, East Prussia (now Giżycko, Poland) – 26 May 1954, Mexico City) was a German journalist, editor of ''Die Aktion'', literary critic, politician and portrait photographer. Pfemfert occasionally wrote u ...
arranged his visa and ensured that he saw an eye-specialist to treat an eye disease from which he was suffering. Carl Sternheim, a friend of the Pfemferts, met him during this period and described him as an extremely nice looking young man with light brown hair and blue eyes but who chain smokes and vividly explains that he goes through fifty of them every day". During this period Sedov spoke little German but was fluent in French.


Trotsky's bloc

In 1932 he helped Trotsky create a
political bloc A political group is a group consisting of political parties or legislators of aligned ideologies. A technical group is similar to a political group, but with members of differing ideologies. International terms Equivalent terms are used differ ...
with the anti-Stalin opposition inside the USSR, and was in contact with some of its members like Ivan Smirnov, through the old bolshevik Goltsmann, which he called in his letters "the informant". Sedov showed he was far more interested in using a direct aggressive policy than Trotsky, stating: “Before everything else we have to drive out the present leadership and get rid of Stalin nothing but their liquidation can bring victory”. The bloc was dissolved in early 1933, according to
Pierre Broué Pierre Broué (8 May 1926 – 27 July 2005) was a French historian and Trotskyist revolutionary militant whose work covers the history of the Bolshevik Party, the Spanish Revolution and biographies of Leon Trotsky. Background Broué was born in ...
.


Exile in Paris

Just before
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
came to power in 1933, Sedov was able to move to Paris where he went to work as a Parisian laborer and became an important activist in the Trotskyist movement. He was frequently followed by agents of the Soviet
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...
. Between 1935 and 1938, while in Paris, Sedov and his partner, Jeanne Martin, also took in and cared for his young nephew,
Vsevolod Volkov Vsevolod or Wsewolod (russian: Все́волод ; uk, Все́волод ) is a Slavic male first name. Its etymology is from Slavic roots 'vse' (all) and 'volodeti' (to rule) and means 'lord-of-everything/everybody', (similar to another princ ...
, called "Sieva" by the family (and who later, in Mexico, took the name Esteban Volkov), the son of Sedov's late half-sister,
Zina ''Zināʾ'' () or ''zinā'' ( or ) is an Islamic legal term referring to unlawful sexual intercourse. According to traditional jurisprudence, ''zina'' can include adultery, fornication, prostitution, rape, sodomy, incest, and bestiality. ...
."To Mark the 75th Anniversary of Trotsky’s Arrival in Mexico: Interview with Esteban Volkov, Trotsky’s grandson"
, SocialistOrganizer.or
website
, posted 23 January 2013 (Accessed 9 February 2013).


Death

After an acute attack of appendicitis in February 1938,
Mark Zborowski Mark Zborowski (27 January 1908 – 30 April 1990) (AKA "Marc" Zborowski or Etienne) was an anthropologist and an NKVD agent ( Venona codenames TULIP and KANT
, an
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...
agent who had posed as Sedov's comrade and friend, arranged to take him to a private clinic instead of a Paris hospital. At the same time, Zborowski notified the NKVD that Sedov had been transported under an assumed name to the Clinique Mirabeau, which was operated by a White Russian with connections to Soviet intelligence,Rob Sewell
"Leon Sedov - 70 Years Since His Murder"
at www.marxist.com, posted 15 February 2008 (Accessed 10 February 2013)
who performed an appendectomy. Complications set in after the operation, but Sedov apparently received no further treatment. He was later taken to a Paris hospital, where he died. Some historians who have analyzed the matter believe Sedov was murdered by agents of Stalin who were in Paris watching him, either while in hospital or by poisoning him, causing his condition. In 1994,
Pavel Sudoplatov Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov (russian: Пáвел Aнатóльевич Cудоплáтов; ua, Павло Анатолійович Судоплатов, translit=Pavlo Anatoliiovych Sudoplatov; July 7, 1907 – September 24, 1996) was a member ...
, a lieutenant general in the NKVD who at that time was in charge of planning assassinations abroad, including the one of Sedov's father, claimed in his memoirs, ''
Special Tasks ''Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness—A Soviet Spymaster'' is the autobiography of Pavel Sudoplatov, who was a member of the intelligence services of the Soviet Union who rose to the rank of lieutenant general. When it was publis ...
'', that Soviet agents played no part in his death. In 1956, Zborowski had testified before a United States Senate subcommittee that he had contacted the NKVD to report that Sedov had entered the clinic, and then to confirm his death."Testimony of Mark Zborowski, Accompanied by Herman A. Greenberg, Esq., his Attorney", ''Scope of Soviet Activity in the United States, Hearing Before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee On the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-Fourth Congress, Second Session, February 29, 1956, Part 4''. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1956,page 92. (Availabl
online
Sedov's grave is in Cimetière de Thiais, south of Paris.


Writings

Lev Sedov's major political work is ''The Red Book on the Moscow Trials'' (1936). At a time when a leftist consensus accepted the verdicts of the
Moscow trials The Moscow trials were a series of show trials held by the Soviet Union between 1936 and 1938 at the instigation of Joseph Stalin. They were nominally directed against "Trotskyists" and members of "Right Opposition" of the Communist Party of th ...
, this book analyzed them with the aim of discrediting them. It was the first thorough-going exposé of the frame-ups upon which the trials were based. Trotsky himself described it as a "priceless gift... the first crushing reply to the Kremlin falsifiers." He claimed he didn't conspire with the opposition and that no bloc was ever formed, claims which his letters proved false.


References


External links


''The Red Book on the Moscow Trial''


by
Victor Serge Victor Serge (; 1890–1947), born Victor Lvovich Kibalchich (russian: Ви́ктор Льво́вич Киба́льчич), was a Russian revolutionary Marxist, novelist, poet and historian. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks fi ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sedov, Leon 1906 births 1938 deaths Politicians from Saint Petersburg Russian communists Russian Jews Jewish socialists Russian Trotskyists Russian exiles Russian expatriates in France Leon Trotsky Soviet Trotskyists